SUO: RE: ISO TC184/SC4 SUO meeting

[WBurkett@pdit.com]

If I may add another spin on Matthew's report:

(1) This ad hoc meeting was very informal and could almost be construed as
"cocktail hour conversation" of those interested and knowledgeable in a
particular subject (i.e., the SUO).  We particularly enjoyed talking about
Jon Awbrey's contributions.  ;-)  (We all were entertained, informed, and
appreciative of them, Jon!)

(2) My impression of the purpose of our meeting was to discuss whether or
not there was anything we could collectively do to contribute to the SUO
effort, since we have the luxury(?) of seeing each other regularly at ISO
TC184/SC4 meetings.  We all felt that the work we've been doing for the past
15 years (yes, it has really been 15 years) was very relevant to the
objectives of the SUO.

(3) I'll second Matthew's concern about the magnitude of the task and the
likelihood/ease of standardization.  The first data models (schemas) that
reached International Standard status in TC184/SC4 took nine years to
develop (1985-1994) and involved dedicated labor (nearly full time in many
cases) from companies and consortiums (formed for this very purpose).  Even
with everyone working together on the same product (the schemas) the biggest
obstacle ALWAYS was obtaining consensual agreement that the "schema meets my
needs and I am satisfied with it".)  There is a wide and diverse collection
of contributors here in the SUO (that DON'T have the luxury of meeting
together regularly) and I expect concensus will be no easier obtain here.

Bill



> -----Original Message-----
> From: West, Matthew MR SSI-GREA-UK 
> [mailto:Matthew.R.West@is.shell.com]
> Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 12:43 AM
> To: Standard-Upper-Ontology (E-mail)
> Subject: SUO: ISO TC184/SC4 SUO meeting
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> I thought I should report briefly on an ad hoc meeting that some
> participants of ISO TC184/SC4 - Industrial Data who also 
> participate on this
> list had during the recent meeting in Charleston.
> 
> First there was an ad hoc meeting. Those present included 
> (from memory -
> sorry if I forget anyone)
> 
> Myself
> Michael Gruninger
> Ewan Wallace
> Tim King
> Bill Burkett
> 
> Others from that community and also on this list I have 
> talked to include
> Julian Fowler and Chris Angus.
> 
> We spent a little time looking at KIF and EXIST to try to 
> understand the
> relationship, but didn't really have enough time to make substantive
> progress.
> 
> We also discussed our feelings about how SUO was going.
> 
> We are all quite excited, but also appalled at the magnitude 
> of the task (we
> have some 200 people (on average) who have been trying to do 
> this sort of
> thing for 10-15 years, with both success and failure along the way).
> 
> We are most concerned about the apparent lack of 
> understanding that all but
> a few seem to have of what it takes to make a standard, e.g. 
> even what the
> elements are that are necessary for a standard to be 
> meaningful (not to be
> absurd).
> 
> We know that learning this the hard way is expensive and 
> costs years. Most
> of us have the scars.
> 
> Regards  
>       Matthew
> ============================================
> Matthew West
> Operations & Asset Management
> Shell Services International
> H3229, Shell Centre, London, SE1 7NA, UK.
> Tel: +44 207 934 4490 Fax: 7929 
> Mobile: +44 7796 336538
> E-mail: Matthew.R.West@is.shell.com
> http://www.shellservices.com/
> ============================================
>