Call for Review: OLAC process document

[Gary Simons]

Dear community,

Since our workshop last December, we have been making steady progress
toward developing the infrastructure of the Open Language Archives
Community (OLAC).  Most recently, Steven and I have completed the drafting
of a process document that defines OLAC structure and governance, with
primary focus given to the document process since it is through documents
that OLAC will speak as a community. We have reviewed this with the OLAC
Advisory Board and feel that it is now ready to be presented to the
community as a proposed standard.  The URL is:

   http://www.language-archives.org/OLAC/process.html

In terms of the process defined in the document, this announcement amounts
to the call for review at the opening of the proposal phase.  However, we
do not yet have the infrastructure in place to support the voting process
described in the document.  Thus, this is only an informal review in which
we are soliciting your feedback; in response to that feedback we would plan
to revise the document.  As we move toward the fall launch date that was
targeted by the December workshop, we will call for the formal review that
would eventually promote the document to candidate status.  We will be
ready for the launch when all the documents that define the basic
infrastructure reach candidate status.  The plan, as agreed to in the
workshop, will then be to hold the documents unchanged during a one-year
testing phase.  At the end of that phase, the final revisions and formal
voting for adoption would take place.

OLAC-General is a moderated list.  You may reply to the list with your
feedback.  We will then post your replies to the list individually or
collect them into digests as seems appropriate based on size and timing.

Your feedback is essential to the process of building the kind of community
that we all envisioned  in the workshop last December. We look forward to
hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Gary (& Steven)

________
Steven Bird, University of Pennsylvania (sb at ldc.upenn.edu)
Gary Simons, SIL International (gary_simons at sil.org)
OLAC Coordinators (www.language-archives.org)