In our Members Councils meetings we invite members from all Forums and Working Groups
of The Open Group to share issues and concerns that are common across the Forums and
Working Groups.
The agenda in this meeting covered:
Working Groups Update
The Councils are the home for four Working Groups, each of which operates independently under
Forum rules. Each Working Group leader will present an update on progress over the past
three months and
expected developments in the next three months:
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) WG
Semantic Interoperability WG
Homeland Security WG
Election for Member Representatives on the Governing Board
The two-year term for the current Member Representatives ends in July 2006, so this will be
our heads-up for the upcoming election of member-governors
Members Issues and Discussion
We expect 15-20 minutes will be available for this item. One issue that will be raised is a
call for customer-member feedback on the TOGAF requirements process, and on
TOGAF tool support.
Summary
All the presentations given in this meeting are available here.
Working Groups Update
The following four working groups are currently operating under the umbrella of the
Customer Council, pending their respective evolution into Forums in their own right, or in
other directions. The Customer Council carries no direct managerial responsibility for
these Working Groups but does follow their progress with a view to advising on their
evolution.
Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) WG
Chris Harding gave a summary of the progress in this WG. His slides explained they have
strong participation - currently 81 members - and the group is consolidating its work
areas, including addressing Case Studies, Technical Reference Models and SOA Maturity
Models, and SOA and Enterprise Architecture (jointly with the Architecture Forum). A separate
meeting report is available here.
Semantic Interoperability WG
Chris Harding gave a summary of the progress in this WG. His slides explained
that this WG has
attracted a small core of committed activists and they are seeking wider participation.
They have an all-day meeting on Thursday of this conference, followed by a tutorial on
Friday morning.
Homeland Security WG
On behalf of the HSWG leader Ian Dobson, Chris Greenslade presented Ian's summary report,
covering a reminder of the objectives and strategy for achieving these, the target initial
membership, a summary problem statement, and progress from inception of the HSWG in
October 2005 through to the present. A Seminar hosted by IBM in Sydney in early June 2006
is expected to provide a valuable launch pad towards generating the committed wider
participation through all the states in Australia as well as its Central Government, that
we aim to achieve.
Intelligent Agents
This fourth WG has not been active since the start of 2006, so no report was offered.
Election for Member Representatives on the Governing Board
The two-year term for the current Member Representatives ends in July 2006, so this
presentation gave a heads-up for the upcoming election of member-governors. There
are positions on the Governing Board for one Supplier-member representative and
three Customer-member representatives. Chris Greenslade pointed out the leaflet that is
available on the role of member-governors (a downloadable document linked from
here), and summarized the required commitment, eligibility criteria, and planned election
timetable. He noted that as part of this same election activity, the Customer Council and
Supplier Council steering committees also aim to arrange election of Chairs and
Vice-Chairs for these two Councils, and we encourage Forums to elect representatives
to these two Councils, which are part of the governance structure of The Open Group.
Members Issues and Discussion
Thomas Obitz (Infosys) gave a presentation on interest within some of the Architecture
Forum membership to get customer-member feedback on their requirements for TOGAF9, and on
the value of membership in the Architecture Forum - as viewed by Customer-members and also
Supplier-members. Thomas plans to take actions to invite members' feedback on these issues.
Outputs
Information on the status of the four Customer Council Working Groups, on the plans and
schedule for election of member-representatives to the Governing Board, and on the
Architecture Forum's desire for member-feedback on requirements and priorities in
developing TOGAF9.
Next Steps
Announcement of election and call for nominations for member-governors. Also
nominations for election of Chairs for the Customer Council and the Supplier Council.
