Having lost their supporting organization GCA/IDEAlliance, TopicMaps.Org might split their development between ISO for specifications and OASIS for XTM applications.

Eric Freese posted on xtm-wg a motion to convert TopicMaps.Org into an OASIS member section.

His proposal is to nevertheless to bring the specification work back to ISO:

The current specification work undertaken by TopicMaps.org would revert back to ISO.  As mentioned in a previous note, the XTM DTD will be added to 13250 as a normative annex.  The XTM specification would probably become a technical report published by the OASIS member section with the copyright being owned by OASIS (a legal entity).  New specification work (processing model, constraint language, conceptual model, etc.) will be done under the auspices of ISO.

The borderlines appears to be still subject to discussion, "the XTM spec itself would remain with TopicMaps.Org" says Eric Freese while Steve Newcomb answers that "there should not be two base standards for topic maps, there should be exactly one.", but there seems to be a consensus on the principle. Newcomb adds:

It makes sense to divide the work of applying and popularizing topic maps between different organizations, based on their differing strengths, abilities, and intentions.

The vote on this motion (for TopicMaps.Org members) will be closed on June 15th and, if it passes, the election of the charter of the new OASIS member section should take place during the eXtreme Markup conference in August.

Other stories:

• XTM in quest for a new home
• New Topic Maps site from Biezunski and Newcomb