DISA:TC154 TAG June 98 Minutes

ISO TC 154 U.S. TAG Meeting Minutes - June 3, 1998 Hyatt Regency Columbus, Columbus, Ohio

1. Call to Order and Introductions

Mr. Dan Codman, ISO/TC 154 US TAG Chair, called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 1.1 A quorum was called for and confirmed. 1.2 Mr. Codman announced that those individuals who have attended two consecutive meetings as an observer could apply for membership in the US TAG for ISO/TC 154. Any written correspondence to the TAG administrator will suffice. The correspondence must state your name, organization, and intention. Any applicants will become voting members for the October meeting.

2. Approval of Agenda

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

4.3 ISO 9735, Parts 5, 6 and 9

7. New Work Items proposed on the "Basic Semantic Register (BSR)"

3. Approval of Minutes

Minutes of the February 4, 1998 U.S. TAG meeting in Anaheim, California, were unanimously approved as presented.

4. New Business

4.1 ISO 9735-1:1997/FDAM 1

Mr. Codman noted for the record that the TAG voted by mail ballot on the corrigenda to ISO 9735-1, which is the equivalent of loop start and loop end. The US position was to vote to approve. CEFACT, because of the joint effort, has also officially voted via the UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG) to approve the corrigenda.

4.2 ISO 9735 Parts 4 and 7

Mr. Codman reported Part 4, CONTRL, was Ms. Gail Jackson's project for many years. He and Ms. Jackson, subsequent to the February meeting, had discussed Part 4, Section 5.3, page 8, relative to use of the CONTRL message more than once. Ms. Jackson's interpretation is that the text does not preclude using CONTRL twice and recommended approving Part 4 with comment.

Mr. Naujok reported the SDG discussed this in committee and at no time did SDG make that an issue. As it was supported in committee, he would hesitate to vote against it. Many places act as third parties and pass messages internally, but would want to know immediately when the interchange came. CONTRL is the acknowledgement of the interchange. A second occurrence would indicate a problem with the processing of the message. Two occurrences would not happen automatically but would be covered under a trading partner agreement. The SDG agreed it was not a smooth solution but nevertheless a business requirement by some users.

4.2.1 A motion was made and seconded that ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG vote to approve ISO 9735 Parts 4 and 7. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3 ISO 9735 Parts 5, 6 and 9

The TAG discussed that these Parts support the use of the X.509 certificates as part of the security structure, but only when carried in the UNO/UNP. The UN/EDIFACT certificate in 9735 does not support the extension, although there is work in progress to support X.509 extensions. Mr. Berwanger reported that the solution is being worked on to present to the JSWG in November, a solution to create two new data elements (one carrying a code representing the specific X.509 extension meaning and the second to be an alphanumeric value representing the actual X.509 extension value). When JSWG met many countries had indicated that X.509 certificates were not being supported and the JSWG was challenged to create a solution. JSWG editors cannot put in modifications unless they are pointed out within the ballot process. JSWG is prepared to convene an editing group to make the fix. The issue affects Part 5 directly, and Parts 6, 7 and 9 insofar as they reference Part 5.

4.3.1 MOTION was made and seconded to withdraw the approval of ISO 9735-4 and 7. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3.2 MOTION was made and seconded to approve ISO/DIS 9735-4. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3.3 MOTION was made and seconded to disapprove ISO/FDIS 9735-5 for the technical reasons stated below:

Acceptance of specified technical modifications will change our vote to approval.

The certificate structure defined in the USC segment does not support the exchange of important information carried inside the X.509 certificate. In particular, the USC does not accommodate the extensions defined in version 3 of the X.509 certificates. A possible solution to this deficiency is the creation of an additional segment (US_) that carries the extensions. A repeating composite data element structure would be defined for this new segment. The composite data element would contain two simple data elements: one data element communicating an identifier for the extension and one data element communicating the value for the extension. The X.509 extension identifier data element should point to an external code list containing the individual extensions. This code list is contained in X.509--an ISO approved standard.

The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3.4 MOTION was made and seconded to vote to approve ISO/FDIS 9735-6 AND ISO/FDIS 9735-9. The motion was unanimously approved.

4.3.5 MOTION was made and seconded to vote to approve ISO/DIS 9735-7 with comment.

The comment to be included is as follows:

"Please note the technical changes requested by the US on Part 5."

The motion was unanimously approved.

5. ISO Periodical Review of International Standards

5.1 International Standards coming up to five yeas of age since publication have to be reviewed by the committees responsible for them, per ISO/IEC Directives. The standards scheduled for review by TC154 are ISO 7372:1993 and ISO 11180:1993 (postal addressing).

5.2 The TAG agreed that the US responses to be returned to the ISO Central Secretariat were that the ISO standards 7372 and 11180 were not implemented as national standards but are used per se by our national industry; and that the standards are implemented without change.

6. Review of Resolutions taken by the 154 Plenary 1998-03-12/13

6.1 Discussion ensued relative to Resolution 145 to set up a single ISO technical committee covering meta standards and the implementation level standards in support of EDI/EC and grouping TC 154, SC14 and SC30. Mr. Codman reported that the MoU Coordinating Committee requested the MoU Management Group, slated to be formed under the expanded MoU, to raise the issue.

6.2 Ms. Kendra Martin, X12 Chair, wrote a letter to ANSI (ASC X12X/98-163) supporting the change of title and scope of TC 154.

6.3 Mr. Naujok reported a discussion with the Chair of TC 154 regarding the security standard. TRADE/WP.4/R.1026 was published as a pilot in 1994 to be used only for 2 years, and now has no official standing. Out of it came one work item, CIPHER, which became a nightmare of X12C. It was believed that implementation of CIPHER had been halted, but several organizations in Europe have implemented it. Some organizations using Version 3 of the syntax employ CIPHER for security, rather than move to Version.4. The UN never officially adopted it.

Mr. Berwanger reported EAN have implemented CIPHER since there is no Version 3 of the security standard. They need security but the functionality does not exist in Version 3 and the resources required to move to Version 4 are too great. Mr. Jim Muenz will council the EAN, but would not support the resolution.

6.4 A motion was made and seconded and unanimously approved that ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG resolve the following:

The US TAG to TC 154 RESOLVES to inform the chair of TC154 that it is the understanding of the TAG that in Europe three large organizations are using CIPHER (a preliminary work item used as input to ISO 9735-7). Since this is an item that was never approved either by ISO or a UN working group, it is a preliminary solution. We feel that any use of this discarded work is inappropriate and would like TC154 to address any possible actions since it is in use by companies within national bodies that are P-members to TC 154.

6.5 The TAG administrator was requested to contact the ISO Secretariat to find out when the next TC 154 plenary is scheduled.

7. New Work Items proposed on the "Basic Semantic Register (BSR)"

7.1 ISO/TC 154 N263 "Rules, Guidelines and Methodology" and ISO/TC 154 N264 "Content (semantic components, semantic constructs and bridges" were discussed at length. Mr. Naujok provided background on the BSR project. Mr. Naujok and Mr. Michael Conroy originally developed the concept, whereby the basic semantic units (BSUs) were to be developed, not to be tied to any directory, but entered with relationships from a user perspective. Once done, users could cross reference BSR entries to existing EDI directories and existing standards. The concept was reengineered by ISO and now ISO wants to use the BSR to QC the TDED (UN/EDIFACT's data element directory and also ISO 7372).

7.2 Ms. Sandy Paul, as liaison to JTC 1/SC32/WG1, reported the WG1 US TAG recommends a "No" vote and will provide assistance in gaining support of other TC 154 member countries to vote no also. The EPA was offered an opportunity to house the BSR and refused. The SC30 US TAG had put forth resolutions recommending the discontinuation of the BSR project. However, since the U.S. placed the only vote against the project and it was approved to continue, the SC30 TAG subsequently supported transferring the BSR out of the ISO CC and into TC 154 because it is a traditional ISO technical committee where country input and voting can take place.

7.3 Mr. Codman observed that within the XML project he was asked to look at metadata efforts and registries. One effort was UDEF, which could be complimentary to the BSR, but is only used in Lockheed Martin. EPA has invested a lot of money in their registry, which is endorsed by NCITS (the TAG to SC32/WG2), and have turned down an offer to be the platform for the BSR. There are other efforts in the works that appear to be in line with long-term what a repository should be. The source of funding for the BSR is unclear. It is a larger X12 issue in the future if X12 wants to align with a metadata effort.

7.4 The TAG will investigate the list of P-member countries to contact to elicit support in the "No" vote against the work items.

7.5 MOTION was made and seconded to vote to disapprove work items N 263 and N264. The motion was unanimously approved.

8. Relationship of JTC1 and TC 154

JTC1 raised concerns, lead by the Canadian delegation, about the scope of TC 154 relative to the syntax and the fast tracking of Part 10. With the TMB resolution 59/1998 modifying the title and scope of TC 154, this is now a dead issue. Additionally, JTC 1 resolution 45 (1998:06-02/05) notes that Part 10 has been withdrawn from the fast track process. Mr. Codman had provided input to SC32/WG1 comments to the JTC1 US TAG and Ms. Martin addressed the issue in a letter to ANSI on May 20, 1998 (ASC X12X/98-165A).

9. Ralph Berwanger TC154/X12C Liaison

Mr. Berwanger's report was covered by discussion on the security issues. No other issues arose in X12C.

10. Determination of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the ISO/TC 154 U.S. TAG is scheduled for Wednesday, October 7, 1998, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Miami, Florida in conjunction with the X12 Trimester Meeting.

There being no further business before the group, Mr. Codman adjourned the meeting at 7:16 p.m.

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

Participants:

Mr. Daniel Codman, Chair (The APL Group, Inc.)
Ms. Mary K. Blantz, Vice Chair (AISI/LTV Steel)
Mr. William H. Gaskins (I.M.)
Mr. Klaus-Dieter Naujok (Harbinger Corporation)
Ms. Sandra K. Paul, SC32/WG1 Liaison (Book Study Industry Group)

Observers:

Melanie McCarthy (General Motors Corp.)
Gary L. Lilley (Pinnacle Technology Resources, Inc.)
James Muenz (UCC, Inc.)
Louis Wagner (Unisys Corporation)
Ralph Berwanger (XEN Corporation)
Mark Nobles (XEN Corporation)
Dale Gibbs (Sterling Commerce, Inc.)