<div dir="ltr">Hi Joel,<div><br></div><div>That's fine, but it its absence, what rules SHOULD we follow? Go lawless? Divest? I'm trying to play nice here and upset everyone as equally as possible. :-)</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 12:58 PM, joel sachs <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jsachs@csee.umbc.edu" target="_blank">jsachs@csee.umbc.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi John,<br>
<br>
The document entitled "TDWG Standards Documentation Specification" was never ratified. I can see why it might have been treated as an "interim spec" in the year or two immediately following its drafting; it makes sense to adhere to a likely-to-be-ratified standard. But 147 is now a highly-unlikely-to-be-ratified draft standard. Is an executive override required for us to disobey it?<br>
<br>
Regardless ...<br>
<br>
The report of the VoMaG group recommended that "The TDWG Executive should kill the stalled TDWG Standards Documentation Specification as a proposal on the standards track" [1]. I encourage the Executive to act on this recommendation, as that would clear up confusion as to the applicability of <a href="http://www.tdwg.org/standards/147/" target="_blank">http://www.tdwg.org/standards/<u></u>147/</a><br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Joel.<br>
<br>
1. <a href="http://www.gbif.org/resource/80862" target="_blank">http://www.gbif.org/resource/<u></u>80862</a> - recommendation 2.12<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Tue, 31 Mar 2015, John Wieczorek wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Dear all,<br>
<br>
There has been consistent agreement (though I would hesitate to say<br>
consensus prematurely) about some aspects of the proposal to redefine which<br>
documents comprise the Darwin Core standard. The discussion has been<br>
fruitful and appreciated. Yet, I believe we are at an impasse in terms of<br>
implementing the proposed changes because a) I have not followed the<br>
correct process so far, and b) the interim TDWG Standards Process that are<br>
supposed to govern the process is not amenable to the changes that were<br>
proposed. I'll try to explain briefly.<br>
<br>
The proposal was to redefine which documents comprise the Darwin Core<br>
standard, not to make additions or changes to the Darwin Core terms, The<br>
latter would fall under Darwin Core's "internal" namespace policy[1].<br>
Instead, this proposal is a change to the structure as well as documentary<br>
content of the standard as a whole, which falls under the interim TDWG<br>
Standards Documentation Specification[2], as Steve Baskauf pointed out[3].<br>
To fulfill those requirements is an onerous task (my heartfelt pity for<br>
those who have had to go through it) - too onerous, I believe, for what we<br>
are trying to accomplish here, which is to change an existing standard<br>
(indeed, make it easier to manage) rather than create a new one. We are not<br>
allowed to do that according to the interim TDWG Standards Documentation<br>
Specification, which states, "Once a standard has been ratified it cannot<br>
be changed in any substantive way; it must be superseded by a standard with<br>
a different name." All question of versioning aside, we would have to<br>
follow the process of creating a new standard.<br>
<br>
Unless there is a way to get an Executive override of the interim process<br>
standard in order to allow us to make the proposed changes and liberate<br>
Darwin Core to evolve more effectively, I think we have to wait for the<br>
overhaul of the Standards Documentation Specification. The Task Group<br>
Charter to do that work has been submitted, but the results are not slated<br>
to be fully realized until 1 Jan 2016.<br>
<br>
This is unfortunate, as it leaves a huge body of work to refactor Darwin<br>
Core and its management [4] unrealizable in an official capacity. Ideas<br>
welcome.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
John<br>
<br>
[1] Darwin Core Namespace Policy.<br>
<a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/namespace/index.htm" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/<u></u>namespace/index.htm</a><br>
[2] TDWG Standards Documentation Specification.<br>
<a href="http://www.tdwg.org/standards/147/" target="_blank">http://www.tdwg.org/standards/<u></u>147/</a><br>
[3] tdwg-content email from Steve Baskauf.<br>
<a href="http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2015-January/003429.html" target="_blank">http://lists.tdwg.org/<u></u>pipermail/tdwg-content/2015-<u></u>January/003429.html</a><br>
[4] Github branch of Darwin Core repository for streamlined management.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>