|
Name
OASIS Open Office XML Format TC.
Statement of Purpose
The purpose of this TC is to create
an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications.
The resulting file format must meet
the following requirements:
it
must be suitable for office documents containing text, spreadsheets,
charts, and graphical documents,
it
must be compatible with the W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML)
v1.0 and W3C Namespaces in XML v1.0 specifications,
it
must retain high-level information suitable for editing the
document,
it
must be friendly to transformations using XSLT or similar XML-based
languages or tools,
it
should keep the document's content and layout information separate
such that they can be processed independently of each other, and
it should 'borrow' from similar,
existing standards wherever possible and permitted.
Scope
Since the OpenOffice.org XML format
specification was developed to meet these criteria and has proven its
value in real life, this TC will use it as the basis for its work.
Sun Microsystems intends to
contribute the OpenOffice.org XML Format to this TC at the first
meeting of the TC, under reciprocal Royalty Free terms.
A standard for office document
processing and interchange will be of great utility to many users and
software companies developing applications, and should be made
available as soon as possible.
Thus, the work of this TC will be
done in two phases:
In
the first phase, this TC will use proven and established constructs
so that the resulting standard can satisfy the immediate needs of
many users, as well as serve as a base for future, less restricted
development. The work of this TC in the first phase will concentrate
on the following areas:
establishing
a mechanism and policy for extensions, preferably relying on XML
namespaces,
establishing
a set of 'core' elements and attributes to be supported by all
implementations,
incorporating
feedback from early adopters of the base specification and fixing
technical problems that may have been uncovered,
ensuring
that the resulting specification and documentation are consistent
and of high quality.
The TC
aims to complete the first phase within six months of the TC's
formation.
In
the second phase, this TC will maintain
the specification delivered in phase one and will extend it
to encompass additional areas of applications or users. The work of
this TC in the second phase will additionally allow for the
following areas:
enabling
additional areas of application,
exploring
new or experimental ideas for office document representation, and
extending the expressiveness of
the format.
List of Deliverables
Each of the TC's phases will result
in a Committee Specification that includes:
a set
of XML DTDs/schemas setting the vocabulary, constraints and
semantics of the file format in question, and
a set of written specifications
that describe the elements and attributes of the DTDs/schemas in
plain English.
The
TC will deliver one or more Committee Drafts throughout the second
phase.
At the appropriate time the TC shall
submit its Committee Specifications for balloting by OASIS membership
for OASIS standard status.
Standing Rules
Under no circumstances shall the TC
accept, during any phase, contributions that are not granted to all
under perpetual, royalty free, non-discriminatory terms.
This TC shall not finalize or approve
a specification if it believes that the use, distribution, or
implementation of such specification would necessarily require the
unauthorized infringement of any party's rights known to the
technical committee, and such party has not agreed to provide
necessary license rights on perpetual, royalty-free,
non-discriminatory terms.
Anticipated
Audience
The
anticipated audience for this work includes, but is not restricted
to:
makers
of office applications;
makers
of XML or office document processing or editing solutions;
document
managers or archivers using office document formats;
representatives
of other office document use cases;
other
specification writers that need office document content or parts of
it.
Language
The
TC shall conduct its proceedings in English.
|