ISO TC 154 U

US TAG (TC 154) N244

Date Sent: 1998-10-19

ISO TC 154 U.S. TAG Meeting Minutes - October 7, 1998 Hyatt Regency Miami, Miami, Florida

1. Call to Order and Introductions

Ms. Mary Kay Blantz, ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. A quorum was called for and confirmed.

2. Approval of Agenda

The agenda for the meeting was approved as augmented with the addition of two items under New Business:

JTC 1 U.S. TAG liaison
JTC1/SC27 (Security) Business Plan

3. Approval of Minutes

Minutes of the June 3, 1998 U.S. TAG meeting in Columbus, Ohio, were unanimously approved as presented.

4. Candidates for Membership

Ms. Gaile Spadin, TAG Administrator, announced the names of those candidates who have applied for membership in the U.S. TAG after having attended two consecutive meetings as an observer. Approved applicants will become voting members for this meeting.

4.1 A motion was made and seconded to approve the application for membership for Ralph Berwanger. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.2 A motion was made and seconded to reject the application for membership for Gary Lilly. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3 A motion was made and seconded to approve the application for membership for Melanie McCarthy. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.4 A motion was made and seconded to reject the application for membership for Jim Muenz. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.5 A motion was made and seconded to reject the application for membership for Sandra Paul. The motion was unanimously approved.

The applications of those candidates not present at this meeting were rejected. Mr. Klaus-Dieter Naujok commented that presence at the TAG meetings is important, and at the third meeting those candidates attend they can be voted in.

5. New Business

5.1 Review TC 154 Plenary Agenda
It was determined there will be no US delegation to the 15^th TC 154 Plenary meeting scheduled for October 22/23, 1998 in Paris.

ACTION: The TAG Administrator will write a letter to the TC 154 Secretariat that the U.S. TAG would consider hosting a plenary meeting in conjunction with the U.S. TAG meeting held during the trimester X12 meeting in June 1999.

ACTION: The TAG Administrator will forward the U.S. TAG's comments on the TC 154 Plenary agenda items to the TC 154 Plenary. (Note: The comments as transmitted are included as Appendix A.)

5.2 SC27 Business Plan

The X12 Liaison Task Group (LTG) had requested the U.S. TAG to provide feedback on their interest in participating in the work outlined in the JTC1/SC27 (Security) Business Plan. The Business Plan, JTC 1 N 5326, was circulated to the TAG via email on September 24.

ACTION: On behalf of the U.S. TAG, the TAG Administrator will request to receive as soon as possible electronic copies of those standards listed in document JTC 1 N 5326 under Section 2.2 Achievements.

5.3 Liaison with JTC1 U.S. TAG

Ms. Regina Girouard reported that a discussion was held during the June 1998 meeting of the ISO/IEC JTC 1 US TAG relative to JTC 1 concerns raised about activities within the EDI standards community and with the progression of ISO 9735 in particular. A more formal liaison relationship between the U.S. TAGs of TC 154 and JTC1 could be beneficial. Increased communication at the proper committee levels will reduce JTC1 concerns and enhance the cooperative efforts of both groups.

A motion was made and seconded to appoint Ralph Berwanger as the TC154 U.S. TAG liaison to JTC 1 U.S. TAG. The motion was unanimously approved.

ACTION: The TAG Administrator will transmit copies of the TC 154 U.S. TAG minutes to the JTC U.S. TAG.

6.0 Old Business

6.1 Liaison Reports

6.1.1 Liaison to CEFACT

Mr. Naujok announced that in September he formally became the Standards Rapporteur under CEFACT and is in charge of the UN/CEFACT team under the MoU Management group. Under the new CEFACT empowerment, the groups will provide physical reports to Mr. Naujok who will coordinate them and after review, determine where liaisons will be needed.

6.1.2 Liaison to JTC 1/SC32/WG1

Mr. Paul Levine submitted to the TAG a written report on the meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC32/WG1 in Ottawa, Canada, on September 21-25, 1998. Of significance is that WG1 accepted Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a formal descriptive technique, subject to broader approval by the WG 1 delegations. The acceptance of UML accomplishes the X12 SITG goal of gaining acceptance of parallel contributions to UN/CEFACT TMWG and SC 32/WG 1 and opens the door for collaborative work between TMWG and SC 32/WG 1.

Ms. Sandra K. Paul chairs a SC32 ad hoc group that will draft a SC 32 response to JTC 1on the report of the Business Team on Electronic Commerce. WG1's position to Ms. Paul's group made an effort to relate the recommendations of the BT-EC report to standardization work in Open-edi. The BT had not formerly taken into consideration the work of Open-edi. (Note: The full report is included as Annex B.)

6.1.3 Liaison to X12C

Mr. Berwanger's report was covered by discussion on the security issues on the TC 154 Plenary agenda. He recommended to support the current position going forward to the TC 154 Plenary, that the TAG rescind their negative vote on Part 5 made under Item 4.3.3 of the June 1998 minutes.

A motion was made and seconded that the U.S. TAG recommends approval of ISO 9735, Part 5 – Security for Batch EDI, removing its previous negative vote. US/TC154 has further examined the capability of UN/EDIFACT to support X.509 certificates and accepts that ISO 9735 accommodates the requirement to forward ASN.1 encoded. The motion was approved with one abstention.

ACTION: The TAG Administrator will provide a copy of the US comments relative to 9735 to the JTC 1 U.S. TAG.

7. Determination of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 1999, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Dallas, Texas, in conjunction with the X12 Trimester Meeting.

There being no further business before the group, Ms. Blantz adjourned the meeting at 8:01 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Gaile L. Spadin
ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG Administrator

Participants:

Mary K. Blantz, Vice Chair (AISI/LTV Steel)
William H. Gaskins (AIAG.)
Klaus-Dieter Naujok (Harbinger Corporation)
Melanie McCarthy (General Motors Corp.)
Ralph Berwanger (XEN Corporation)
Gaile Spadin (DISA), TAG Administrator

Observers:
Mark Nobles (XEN Corporation)
Dale Gibbs (Sterling Commerce, Inc.)
George Harley (Systems Research & Applications Corp.)
Suzanne Harned (Systems Research & Applications Corp.)
R. T. Crowley (Research Triangle Consultants, Inc.)
Joe Slater (Research Triangle Consultants, Inc.)
William J. Kammerer (Foresight Corporation)
Kepa Zubeldia (Envoy Corporation)
Regina Girouard (DISA)

APPENDIX A

US TAG (TC 154) N243

Date Sent: 1998-10-09

Relative to the 15^th plenary meeting of ISO/TC154 on 1998-10-22-/23
The US delegation conveys their regrets that they cannot attend the plenary meeting on 1998-10-22-/23. The following comments are forwarded for consideration by the TC 154 Plenary:

Agenda Item 5, N285 Reallocation of the Secretariat.

The US supports every effort by TC 154 to investigate national body offers to hold the Secretariat, but the US would not support a reallocation into JTC1.

Item 5.1, N261 Resolution 140, Chair of JSWG no longer available

The US supports the withdrawal of Resolution 140.

Item 5.2, N286 Infoterm's request for International Liaison A status

The US recommends to disapprove. The US would welcome Infoterm to participate, especially in the BSR activity, but the US recognizes there are other liaison statuses that are more appropriate.

Item 7.1, N273, Progress of ISO 9735, Version 4 (Status 1998-07-13)

Relative to existing security standards

The US, after having reviewed the facts, does not feel that JTC1 has any valid concerns in that version 4 of ISO 9735 and particular the security parts are in conflict with the existing SC27 security standards. If anything, the opposite is true, that the appropriate SC27 security standards are incorporated into ISO 9735. Further ISO 9735 is capable of utilizing other major security standards which are currently used in the banking industry and other EDI/EC areas. It should be noted that the original Work Request for the security in UN/EDIFACT was requested by the banking industry which already is using SC27 and other security standards.

Relative to Part 5

The US TAG for ISO/TC 154 (US/TC154) has reviewed and recommends US approval of ISO 9735, Part 5 – Security for Batch EDI, removing the US's previous
negative vote. US/TC154 has further examined the capability of UN/EDIFACT to support X.509 certificates and accepts that ISO 9735 accommodates the requirement to forward ASN.1 encoded certificates. Furthermore, US/TC154 accepts that the "EDIFACT certificate" structure defined is required to support legacy systems and is of the opinion that the X.509 certificate will be the dominant structure with the EDIFACT certificate eventually being no longer used.

US/TC154 supports the suggestion to develop a map between the two certificate alternatives; however, the mapping activity is only required in one direction—EDIFACT certificate to X.509. It is unreasonable to attempt a mapping from X.509 to EDIFACT.

Relative to Key Management

US/TC154 believes that ISO 9735 provides a mechanism for communicating cryptographic materials; it does not define key management. US/TC154 agrees that an implementation guide should be produced for the KEYMAN message.

Authentication

US/TC154 agrees that to the maximum extent possible, common vocabulary should be used in ISO 9735.

Integrity and Non-repudiation

US/TC154 believes that ISO 9735 already provides the harmonization suggested by JTC1. The proposed standard does use SC27 algorithms code values. Addition-ally, ISO 9735 supports algorithms widely used in banking and other industries. US/TC154 submits that EDIFACT must support the business case. If the standard fails to address these methods, business users will select non-standard solutions. Item 7.1.5, N261, N274 Resolution 98/9, TC 154 resolution 139

The US supports the ISO MoU CC 98/9 resolution in regard to TC154 resolution 139.

Item 7.2.1, N289, Year 2000 Problem

The US/TC154 is aware of the fact that JSWG rejected this request and the US is in full support of not maintaining Version 3 since now version 4 is in publication.

Item 7.4.1, N290 ISO 7372: 1993 (TDED)

The US recommends that if any action to be taken, since this is a joint effort between UN and ISO, that the UN is asked to participate. This position is supported by the fact that it is the understanding of the US/TC154 that the MoU MG is undertaking this as an action item as well, to ensure that ISO 7372 is being updated.

Item 7.5.1, N292 Public Risk Database Project (PRDP)

The US recommends that if TC154 wants to adopt the PRDP as a project, TC 154 should ensure that other national activities are being solicited as well to ensure the best possible results.

Item 7.5.2, UN/ECE Recommendation 20 Codes

The US supports the adoption of UN/ECE Recommendation No. 20 as a New Work Item.

Item 8.1, MoU CC report

The US/TC154 have reviewed the revision of the MoU resulting from the last meeting and feel that the Council resolution 21/1998 concerns have been addressed with the September 1998 revision and therefore the US is in support of the signing of the MoU by ISO.

Item 9, Single committee request by TC 154

The US recommends that since the MoU has been approved in principle by all three agencies and is in its final stages of formally being signed, it is appropriate to pass this request to that group for resolution.

APPENDIX B

SC 32/WG 1 Activity Report

SC 32 WG 1 met in Ottawa Canada September 21-25, 1998 with delegations from the US, Canada, Norway, Finland and Japan. The US was represented by one delegate, Paul Levine, on September 24, 25 only.

The significant resolutions passed are summarized as follows:

Resolution WG1 98/11 – WG 1 scope was approved and submitted to SC 32.

Resolution WG1 98/12 – Base document deliverable for Topic 14, "Identification and analysis of classes of business requirements in relation to Open-edi scenarios, and Topic 15, "Requirements on Formal Description Techniques (FDTs) and registration procedures," will be updated by October 31 to include contributions to the Ottawa meeting and will be distributed to WG1 experts for review and comment. Most significantly, independent efforts and contributions based on Unified Modeling Language (UML) techniques (including the UN CEFACT/TMWG Reference Guide supported by the US) resulted in convergence of WG 1 on UML as the accepted technique, subject to further development of rationale based on FDT requirements and broader approval by WG 1 delegations. (This resolution accomplished the SITG goal of introducing and gaining acceptance of parallel contributions to TMWG and SC 32/WG 1. It also opens the door for collaborative work between TMWG and SC 32/WG 1. It is this delegate’s opinion that ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 acceptance of standards for the "Next Generation of UN/EDIFACT" is essential, recognizing ISO/IEC’s role in the Memorandum of Understanding between the ISO/IEC and the UN/ECE.)

Resolution WG1 98/13 – The edited base document for Topics 14 and 15 will be forwarded for publication as a SC 32 document, requesting review and contributions.

Resolution WG1 98/16 – As requested by JTC 1 and SC 32, SC 32/WG 1 prepared a response to the Business Team on Electronic Commerce report (ISO/IEC JTC 1 N5296), to be forwarded to the SC 32 ad hoc group, chaired by Ms. Sandra K. Paul, that will draft the SC 32 response to JTC 1. An effort was made to relate the recommendations of the BT-EC report to standardization work in Open-edi. (While this delegate approved the WG 1 response, it was noted that the US TAG to SC 32/WG 1 was dismayed that the BT-EC didn't take into consideration the work on Open-edi and IS 14662. One reason for US non-participation in the BT-EC was its failure to recognize and accept the work already completed when it was calling for participation.)

Resolution WG1 98/18 – As a result of BT-EC recommendation C.3, WG 1 proposed to draft a new project proposal on classes of business requirements, to be forwarded to SC 32 for ballot approval. (This is parallel to the need identified by TMWG to define and describe business problem domains to be considered for EDI standardization.)

Resolution WG1 98/19 – WG 1 will solicit the interest of national bodies and experts on the proposed activation of Work Item 3, "edi Support Services," referred to as FSV-related standards. If there is sufficient interest, Work Item 3 will be activated within WG 1 and progressed by experts that will be forthcoming. If there is insufficient interest to activate Work Item 3, FSV-related issues will be retained by WG 1 as a placeholder, but will not be progressed.

Resolution WG1 98/18 – WG 1 will meet on May 25-27 1999 in Japan in conjunction with SC 32 that will meet on May 24 and 28.

Useful input was received on the TMWG Reference Guide for consideration in preparing the TMWG compendium document.

Respectfully submitted,
Paul Levine
US delegate to SC 32/WG 1