As OSLC continues to mature, is it time to step up to the next level?

Earlier this year, led by many of the organizations that had made significant contributions to OSLC, the OSLC community adopted a new governance model, which included the creation of a Steering Committee. As many outside the OSLC community said at the time, and was said in the presentation of the new governance model too (see slide 6), this was a good and important step in the maturation of OSLC, but not the end of the road.

In the six months since its first meeting, face-to-face in Orlando, the Steering Committee has looked at a variety of issues, approved new workgroups and specifications, and come to a number of agreements and consensuses. In the last few meetings a number of topics have been held “OSLC Steering Committee private” as they involved discussions on strategy for which the needs and implications were not yet understood. At the December 11 OSLC Steering Committee meeting, however, an agreement was reached to further pursue one of these strategies, and it is now time to share some details of that with the rest of the OSLC community.

The agreement? Pursue a proposal to do OSLC specification development at OASIS.

The potential benefits of shifting specification development to a recognized standards development organization (SDO) include:

• Increased acceptance of final specifications (eventually standards) by both product developers and users
• Recognized IP terms and governance
• Enhance opportunity, and assistance from the SDO, for recruiting to specification development activities 

Amongst the various SDOs, OASIS is a particularly good fit as its Member Section construct allows us to bring most of our structure, cohesiveness, and ways of working that we’re used to at open-services.net with us to OASIS. Also, early discussions with OASIS staff, initiated after the OSLC Steering Committee meeting in October, revealed an interest on their part as well.

The Steering Committee’s initial target for starting an OASIS Member Section for OSLC is mid-2013. Between now and February, the Steering Committee intends to engage community members, industry leaders, and key players at OASIS to understand what would be the likely outcome of a migration in that time frame. At the end of February the Steering Committee will then provide an update to the OSLC community on its findings and plans to move forward (or not).

It is important to note that should OSLC specification development transition to OASIS, to continue their participation in specification developing workgroups, or on the Steering Committee, the employers current OSLC members will need to have an OASIS membership.

As members of the OSLC community, your input on this topic is more than welcome. Please make use of this forum thread for public comment and discussion. If you wish to provide input privately, please contact me through my forum profile. (To post on the forum thread or to view my profile, you must have registered and be logged in.)