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Friday Plenary Feedback SessionItinerary:
The slides are available here. IntroductionThe Plenary Feedback Session was introduced by Mike Lambert, the Chief Technical Officer of The Open Group. Mike reported a good attendance at the meeting - a total of 150 in all. The graph of attendances at recent conferences showed a dip following last September, but although attendance in the US remained higher than in Europe it was clear that overall numbers are increasing, and attendance at this conference had exceeded that in Amsterdam, both among members and non-members. The week had been very productive with some excellent group meetings. There had been an excellent plenary meeting on Monday and Tuesday, and the ratings in the questionnaire had been good-to-excellent in all respects. Singled out for particular praise had been the knowledge of the speakers, the relevance to the business of members, and the logistical support for the meeting. The Open Group Board had at its meeting this week appointed Carl Cargill of Sun Microsystems, Inc as its new Chairman, with Michele Drgon of Motorola, Inc as the deputy Chairman. Mike began the reports on the individual meetings by introducing Elaine Babcock. The Customer CouncilThe work of the Customer Council was introduced by its Chairman, Elaine Babcock of DISA. The Council is the keeper of Customer Requirements in The Open Group, doing much of its work by conference call. Increasingly however the Council sees itself as the progressor of requirements, and hopes to develop a closer relationship with the Forums. The Council had received an excellent briefing from Terry Blevins, the Open Group CIO, on The Open Group's Integrated Information Infrastructure (In3) strategy. There were two valuable presentations from Customers: Nick Mansfield had presented the global perspective and the good things about the In3 approach had worked in Shell; this had been followed by a presentation from Elliot Solomon on Information Integration from the perspective of Wall Street. Bill Estrem had also led 2 discussion sessions, one on Open Source and the other on Web Services. Both of these are important issues relating to the future strategy of The Open Group. Web Services is the plenary theme for the next conference in Boston in July 2002. These sessions provided useful opportunities to raise the key issues involved. Ian Dobson, the Open Group's director of the Council, had updated members on the contents of the Requirements Journal, and Elaine asked each member to examine them, to consider the extent to which they were a customer of those requirements, and to build momentum towards finding a conclusion. Active Loss PreventionIan Lloyd, the Director of the Active Loss Prevention Initiative, reported on the progress that had been made at this, the first working meeting of the initiative with a formal membership. On Wednesday the group had begun with a very good session working with the Architecture Forum at which they had worked to get business scenario concepts established and had subsequently agreed some scenarios on which they wanted to work. This approach had been welcomed by all the participants. The members went on to discuss risk issues with the Security group, and members had found this particularly valuable. On Thursday the group had begun their project work, defining scopes for the risk vocabulary project and the trust services work. A series of important initiatives had been agreed: in particular setting up 2 half-day workshops on risk vocabulary (on April 29 and May 22). The group had also established a program of bi-weekly teleconferences to refine scenario requirements, and briefing workshops on May 29 (in the UK) and June 10 in the US. Particularly gratifying had been the high level of energy and enthusiasm from participants, and the many suggestions of new people to participate. In response to a question about the nature of Trust Services, Ian explained that they were the digital equivalent of a current trust service such as a notary. As scenarios were developed, the group would test trust services against the scenario to see if they are of value. Mobile Management ForumMike Lambert informed the meeting that Gregory Gorman, the forum's first Director, had moved on to follow other interests, in particular related to the market development of the 802.11 standard. He welcomed, as the co-Directors of the Forum, Peter George and Stef Coetzee from Wheatstone Consulting. Achievements:Peter George reported that the Forum's attendance had been the best for 12 months, and that the meeting had been very busy and productive. Even though there had been a good turnout, many were not able to attend, and there is a need to work with them to ensure that they are fully involved. He introduced his presentation by explaining that 'as new guys' he and Stef Coetzee had taken the opportunity to work with the members of the Forum to reexamine its objectives and to work to reenergize its activities. They had concluded that a key role of the MMF is to act as the integration point for mobility standards, working with the other forums in TOG and with other industry groups, and had begun this process by looking at first steps in co-working on mobility with the DMTF. The Integrated Information Infrastructure initiative had been enthusiastically received, and the Forum reviewed it as a foundation for its work. The members took the opportunity to review the findings of a survey of members which had been conducted in March, and welcomed a presentation from an enterprise who had had to go through the entire application integration process in the last 12 months; this had set the context for the discussion in the rest of the day. There had been a joint meeting (with the Directory Interoperability Forum) of the Mobile and Directory Forum. The group had agreed milestones for finalizing a business scenario, and had agreed on the need to focus directories on identity management. The group took the opportunity create a good working program for the next 12 months. They had reviewed work to date, looked at other activities in the industry, and new standards. Plans:Stef Coetzee then reviewed the plans that had been made for the coming quarter:
The priorities for these activities are to be reviewed and validated by end-April with members unable to attend this meeting. Architecture ForumAchievements:Chris Greenslade, the Chairman of the Architecture Forum, presented the achievements of the group so far, bearing in mind that the meeting was continuing later in the day. The meeting had started out with a joint session with the Active Loss Prevention Initiative. This had been very interesting, and had enabled the Architecture Forum to learn about the ALP activities. It also provided the opportunity to review the work that had already been done with Architecture and gave a view of where there was a need in TOGAF to to enhance the architectural concepts, in particularly involving legal and insurance people. The Architecture Forum itself had looked hard at the developments that are planned for version 8 of TOGAF (The Open Group Architectural Framework) at the end of the year, and the important enhancements to be made - in particular moving out of the IT area into the total enterprise. The group had also looked at the question of requirements management associated with the architecture. So far the approach has been simply that the architecture has to be based on business requirements, with the business scenario providing input to those requirements; now there is an intention to add management of change. The Forum also looked at the possibilities of Architecture Description Languages, looking how can they can be used to exchange information between tools, people and systems. The Forum had considered an excellent presentation on the progress of an ongoing study into how TOGAF relates to other architecture frameworks and approaches, and had reviewed the plans for the future progression of this activity. Members had considered further the possibility of introducing a program for architect certification, especially in terms of determining the extent of the requirement. There had been very good presentations:
Plans:The provisional (subject to approval and development later in the day) plan for the next quarter is to:
Chris looked forward to being able to report in Boston on the progress that had been achieved in these activities. Directory Interoperability ForumChris Harding, the Directory Interoperability Forum Director, reported on a busy and exciting week. Achievements:The week had started with a joint open session with the MMF to look at the work of the Mobile and Directory project; they explored business scenario, which is nearly complete, and reviewing the plan for its completion. The group is also thinking hard about issuing a challenge to vendors and users to bring forward directory systems to support mobility, with the hope that this will result in a demonstration either in Cannes or at the January conference. Chris reported on the Directory Access Control Summit and acknowledged contribution made to meeting by the members of the EMA Forum. The intention had been to see why the standardization of a Directory Access Control Framework has been blocked, and what would be done to achieve progress. It was found that among the potential vendors, one would have severe problems converting their products, and no customer interest had been found in development of such a framework. The conclusion from this consideration was that the Forum should move on to examine access control for web services, which might be directory based. There had been an intention to hold an LDAP developers' conference, which had not been possible. However, the group did present two sessions on the state of directory and directory applications development. There had been a very stimulating session on the future. Like all the Forums, the DIF had considered In3 and how directory relates to it, and the role of the Forum in helping In3 to happen. The group then looked at development of an open brand for LDAP 2000, and a large number of ideas on how the brand could be improved to meet needs of customers and vendors even better. There had been a review of the Forum's Working Groups, and it had been decided to consider appointing area directors who would oversee the whole work of the Forum in a particular area. The group had also looked at how it would structure itself to work on various projects. The Forum had considered reports on work in IETF on X.500, DSML and others, and a report on secure messaging challenge. Finally the meeting viewed a video on Identity Management from Anaheim. Plans:Future Activities include:
Enterprise Management ForumMartin Kirk, the Open Group's Director of the EMF, reported on its work during the week. Achievements:The program of work had begin with a joint session with Quality of Service Task Force and the Real Time Forum. The groups are continuing their process to explore common interests in the area of Service and Application Management. There was an ongoing meeting of the Joint Open Group / DMTF Application Management Working Group, which is continuing its Application Management Modeling task; this increasingly important activity contributes to the broader work of the Open Group and the DMTF. Another major activity was a report on the XSLM (Software Licence Management) project. They will be bringing forward version 2 of their specification - planned for July - which will represent the folding in of all the implementation experience that they have had - much of it coming from the fact that the specification has been implemented as IBM's License Manager; BMC Software is also going to adopt it as basis for their Licence Management Software. The project also outlined where they intend to go in the future; in particular they are looking to bring XML into the future work program, and also to bring the licence management aspect of applications into the application modeling work. The Forum also received an update on the Application Response Measurement activity, which is planning to get re-energized on the next version of the specification. They also want to progress to the next version of the specification, moving their Java specification into the C world. OpenPegasus News (OpenPegasus.org, .com, .net and .info)Martin reported excellent progress on this project. It was expected to achieve a code freeze of version 2.0 at the end of the month, this representing the point at which functionality would be frozen. The intention then is to spend 6 weeks in testing, debugging and resolving performance issues. People working on it have passed their first indication - this was one of the major functions being added. The Forum had received a presentation from IBM Germany, who have been working with Pegasus on IBM Mainframes. They gave feedback on requirements and also presented the results of add-on code that they had written, which is going to be integrated into the product, and adds performance measurement and other functionality; it will be very valuable over the coming weeks. The EMF has also taken on the organizing of the Fusion Event to be held at the DMTF's conference at San Jose in June. The Open Group will carry out the coordination of getting participants talking to each other ahead of time, will be listed as sponsor of the event. Messaging ForumDean Richardson, the chair of the Messaging Forum (formerly the EMA), provided a valuable insight into the work that had been carried out during the week. Achievements:There had been a week of meetings, during which the members of the Forum had presented the Secure Messaging Challenge to the Directory Interoperability Forum and the Security Forum, and both forums agreed to help on their project. The Messaging Forum also participated with the GDF Directory Access Control Summit. Plans:Forthcoming activities include:
Quality of Service TaskforceSally Long, the Director of the Quality of Service Taskforce, presented the achievements of the week. Achievements:The first major activity had been a joint session with the Mobile Management Forum, which had resulted in a lot of enthusiasm for cooperation between the two groups. Specific issues that required common activities were
In passing, Sally commented that she believed Peter George and Stef Coetzee were 'going to do a great job' in the MMF. There had been a great presentation from Boeing on their requirements for Voice Over IP and other mobility requirements, and from Motorola and Krasner Consulting looking at what the customer QoS requirements are. The Task Force had held its first Official Meeting with the TeleManagement Forum. The QoS Taskforce has signed a liaison agreement with the TMF; this joint initiative is working on the TMFs SLA handbook - a widely read handbook advising on best practices from the Telco and the service provider community. The handbook already defines SLA parameters in services domain, and they are looking for The Open Group to define SLA requirements in the enterprise domain. This is very exciting because it demonstrates that the industry is recognizing the contribution that The Open Group can make in representing operational customer perspective from the enterprise. In recent week the members of the Task Force crafted a draft survey of SLA requirements, which was distributed during the week, and there was valuable feedback from the other forums. The plan is to have the final version on the web in 2 weeks. There had been a joint session on Real Time and QoS, where the discussion focused on prioritizing applications, which is a key area for QoS in the enterprise. Significant differences had emerged between real time and other applications. The Taskforce has been working with Boeing on an SLA Business Scenario, and there had been a presentation and discussion on its evolution, centered around whether to go into more depth with Boeing, or to broaden the scope by considering other mission critical activities like finance. The group had done a lot of planning for deliverables and working towards the Boston Conference Plans:Turning to the future, Sally covered QoS plans in the coming months:
Real-time and Embedded Systems ForumJoe Bergmann, the Forum Director, presented its work. Achievements:He began by expressing the commitment of the Forum to In3. The Testing and Certification Group did not meet, but expected to have its first profile ready for certification by July. There had been a mini-meeting with the IEEE PASC System Services Working Group on a set of Real Time APIs for Trace, and the IEEE Group plans to collocate at the Boston Conference. Hard Real-Time Java. Boeing and Rockwell Collins had made a proposal for work which the group will be working between now and Boston. There is a proposal is to create an expert group within The Open Group to develop specifications, then to develop a certification program. Security for Real-Time embedded systems. This discussion centered around a hour teleconference, and a decision had been made to hold additional teleconferences to accelerate work prior to July meeting. It appears that only The Open Group is working on complete end-to-end security, working through the operating system, middleware and applications. Joe reported that a 'challenge' had been issued by Richard Clarke to whole community, which presented The Open Group with an opportunity to apply for funding for work on active loss protection. Safety Critical - the White Paper is in its 3rd iteration, led by Dave Emery of Mitre, and is to have its final review at the July meeting. Plans:Finally, Joe presented some agenda items for consideration by other Forums:
Joe finally presented a slide that showed the part that many industries had to play in the Real-Time world, and in which military activities were only a small part. Security ForumSteve Jenkins, the Chair of the Security Forum, gave a presentation on the work of this group. Achievements:The group had reviewed potential activities in support of In3, in particular how the group could contribute to progress. Steve reported that the Forum had been working on a series of Business Guides for business managers in Small and Medium Enterprises who don't have vast IT staffs to advise. The first of these, a Managers Guide to Information Security, has been well received, and provides a unique insight. The next guide, on Data Privacy, is well advanced and promises also to be a unique contribution. There was an excellent joint meeting with Active Loss Prevention on which Ian Lloyd had reported. A book on Security Design Patterns is being written: a specialization of the notion of design patterns to security. There has been substantial progress since last meeting, and this too is going to be an important publication. The 1st draft is now out for peer review, and there has been much interest from the design patterns community. Plans:Future activities include:
ConclusionMike Lambert thanked the contributors to this session. He commented on the frequency with which words such as 'Joint' and 'Cooperate' have been used - reflecting on a very healthy attitude, and the breaking down of boundaries between forums and with other industry groupings. This inter-working is one of the real values of The Open Group. He also was pleased to keep hearing the word 'scenario' because it reflects a business driven approach. He confirmed the program for future conferences: July 22-26, in Boston, on the theme of 'Web Services'. We need to understand where they're going to be successful, and also to understand where work is needed going to be done. October 14-18 (changed date) in Cannes, France on the theme of 'Open Source' (to be confirmed). Mike concluded with thanks to everyone for all their work in making the conference such a success, and to all the Open Group staff who had provided support for the conference and ensured that it worked very smoothly. |
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