Norm, what a way to start the day. I feel like the earth just shook. When I look at the list of specifications that have really changed the world, DocBook is one of those rarified few. Folks today take data portability for granted. They never knew a time when documents were locked up inside file formats and when many of us turned to ascii as our only interoperable choice. I believe DocBook helped to change that, by offering the world a way to encode content independent of software or hardware. And at least in the early days, it was by no means a given that the effort would succeed. I believe your leadership and personal investment in DocBook is a big part of why it did. Today, there is more than a Technical Committee. There is a global community built around the standard. Obviously there is a big group now helping to support and grow the value of DocBook. You must be very proud of what you have accomplished. And personally, I have enjoyed working with you since I came to work at OASIS. A lot. Technically of course, to the TC as a whole, you will need to elect a new chair as your next order of business, and Bob, if you decide to step up I will be delighted to continue working with you. You all have a 5.1 OASIS Standard to get approved. This is no time to slow down! Norm, thank you for everything you have done both for DocBook and OASIS. I'll miss seeing your snapshot and signature on these emails. All the best, /chet On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 9:10 AM, Norman Walsh <
ndw@nwalsh.com > wrote: Chet, I’m not sure to whom the chair addresses his resignation. Regardless, with deep regret, I find that I must tender my resignation from the DocBook Technical Committee. My own, ongoing inability to participate as fully as I think this group deserves, combined with changing priorities with my employer have finally taken their toll. I have been working on DocBook for more than 20 years and I believe I have been chair of the DocBook TC for more than 15. It’s in my blood. I will continue to offer all of the support that I can in terms of tools, hosting, etc. as those are not official TC activities. If the TC wishes to solicit my input in the future, I will be more than delighted to offer any advice that I can. At the meeting next week, you‘ll have to nominate a new chair. I humbly suggest that you should attempt to persuade Bob to accept the title. He’s been doing more of the heavy lifting recently than I have anyway. :-) I’ll still be around at the same email addresses and the same conferences. I still care deeply about DocBook and XML markup, so if there’s anything I can do personally to help out, please don’t hesitate to ask. Be seeing you, norm -- Norman Walsh <
ndw@nwalsh.com > Men are more like the times they
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ live in than they are like their fathers.--Ali Ibn-abi-talib -- /chet ---------------- Chet Ensign Director of Standards Development and TC Administration OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
http://www.oasis-open.org Primary: +1 973-996-2298 Mobile: +1 201-341-1393