SGML Forum of New York

Meeting held Thursday 2004-04-01 (“Reconstitution Meeting”) at offices of Standard & Poor’s, 55 Water Street, New York.

Meeting Notes

The meeting started at approximately 4:15 p.m. and the following people were present:

Laurel Bernstein

Joseph Davidson

Chet Ensign

Mark Gross

Charles Hurley

Chris Kaefer

Alan Karben

Lance Larsen

Elizabeth Murphy

Eli Willner

1.      Mission Statement

The meeting started with a discussion of the group’s potential mission.

Joe Davidson averred that we focus on XML, SGML and related technologies as it pertains to publishing in the broadest sense.  This would specifically exclude the application of XML to transaction processing, messaging, web services, and the like.

Chet said that he thought we should include technologies related to creating, managing, and exploiting content.

Lance opined that the group should be a forum for discussing and investigating the mark up of content.

Mark said that, for him, publishing and dissemination of information was what’s important.

Eli emphasized networking as the key benefit of the forum.  He mentioned finding out what’s happening in the industry and with the technology, learning and networking as critical.

Alan said that he would want to include syndication and the standards/technologies supporting it as part of the group’s mission.

Conclusion:

There was a general consensus that we should target our efforts towards the users of XML and related technologies who are using (or thinking of using) XML for the creation, management, dissemination of content.

2.      Draft mission statement for discussion:

Chet suggested using the existing SGML Forum mission statement as the starting point.

Note:

I don’t believe the Forum ever adopted a mission statement per se.  The nearest thing we seem to have is the statement of objectives from the Constitution and Bylaws dated November 1992.  Here is the text from Section II:

The objectives of the Group shall be:

a.       to promote an understanding of the scope and benefits of SGML;

b.       to further the practical application of SGML within specific industries;

c.       to function as a source of information about SGML and its potential users; and

d.       to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information pertaining to ISO-8879 and its application, both among users and also between users and vendors.

A slightly different version appears in later brochures…

a.       to promote an understanding of the scope and benefits of SGML;

b.       advocate SGML as a solution to information interchange and the multiple uses of corporate information in an open systems environment

c.       further the practical application of SGML within a variety of industries;

d.       sponsor educational events to advance the understanding of SGML and its application.

(Perhaps Howard or someone else has another version.)

3.      We discussed the level of effort involved in re-starting and running the Forum.

Laurel generously offered the use of S&P’s wonderful conference room facilities for Forum meetings.  We discussed building security and logistics, and Laurel said she was confident that there would not be a problem with access to the building.

Mark generously offered to arrange for speakers for monthly events.

We discussed access security and logistics at S&P and 55 Water St. (the need to have a list of attendees, access control shifting to building security after S&P staff go off duty, etc.).  Laurel said she was confident that all of these issues could be satisfactorily address and would not present a problem in practice.

We agreed to plan on monthly meetings held (in general) on the second Tuesday of each month excepting July and August.  Initially, we planned on meeting: May 11^th, June 8^th, and Sept. 14^th.

Eli offered to provide refreshments for the meeting.

He also said that Bill Byler had indicated to him that he would be will to maintain the web site (www.sgmlny.org) currently hosted at DCL.

Chet proposed that the first meeting include a discussion of our mission statement starting from the existing mission statement.

Alan offered to present a case study at a future meeting.

Someone (Laurel?) suggested that we need a PR role or outreach person.  It was proposed that vendors should offer door prizes.

Mark suggested that we find someone who could give an overview of the state-of-the-art in the industry.

Chet said that we should work with the XML SIG (Walter Perry, Leader NY Object Developers Group) whose group is focused on messaging, transaction-oriented XML and not content standards.  He thought that this collaboration would be productive for both groups.

Laurel suggested that we prepare a list of available portfolios and jobs (within the Forum needing volunteers) for the first meeting.

4.      Forum Name

Mark proposed that in the interests of continuity, we adopt the name “XML/SGML Forum of New York.”  Charles concurred and said that we could drop the “SGML” at a later date.

Others suggested that keeping the “SGML” would only deter those who are interested in the XML.

There was considerable discussion on this issue but it was decided to bring it up at the first meeting and, in the meantime, the leave the name unchanged.

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W. J. Davidson (2004-05-02)