xmlhack: OASIS President apologizes, says deadline won't be met

Bill Smith of Sun Microsystems, President of OASIS, has posted to XML-DEV apologizing for the difficulties with the mailing list, and explaining the steps OASIS is taking to rectify the situation.

Smith said that OASIS had a full-time employee, Karl Best, starting 21st April whose responsibilities will involve the maintenance of mailing lists. He added that Norm Walsh, now at Sun, will also assist with the configuration and maintenance of the lists.

However, Smith said that OASIS were unlikely to be able to meet their self-imposed deadline of 23rd April, held by Peter Murray-Rust as the date after which XML-DEV would take "formal action". He explained:

Given the nature of the problems reported to me, I doubt that it will be possible to correct all of them by 23 April. It is my intention to resolve them as quickly as possible, but proper resolution will require investigation, analysis of options, and execution of a plan of action

Smith ended with an assurance that XML-DEV was a priority for OASIS, and asked list members to give Best and Walsh support, and to "allow them the time to analyze and correct these problems in a professional manner".

Given the respect with which Norm Walsh is held in the community it is likely that this support will be given. However, it seems that XML-DEV may well go its own way with regard to a "home page" and project pages, rather than waiting for OASIS-hosted facilities.