DRDA Spec, update

[Rick Hillegas <Ri...@Sun.COM>]

I wanted to keep the community informed about my involvement with the 
DRDA spec. As you know, several companies are interested in helping 
evolve DRDA. However, no-one is keen on renting an official seat on the 
DBIOP Consortium, the group which owns the spec. Those seats cost $25K 
per year. The Consortium has worked out the following arrangement:

1) IBM does rent an official seat.
2) Other companies can serve in an advisory role, reviewing the 
Consortium's work.
3) The IBM representative will present proposals volunteered by these 
advisers.

I will serve as Sun's adviser to the DBIOP Consortium. The Consortium 
has confirmed that, in this role, I can share proposals with the larger 
Derby community. That is, I can continue to work in public.

I have some misgivings about this arrangement as a long-term solution 
for an open source community. However, in the short term, this process 
lets us make progress. I don't get the impression that standards bodies 
have good models for how to deal with open source efforts. If anyone can 
recommend a good resource on this topic, please let us all know.

Regards,
-Rick

Re: DRDA Spec, update

[Kathey Marsden <km...@sbcglobal.net>]

Rick Hillegas wrote:

> I don't get the impression that standards bodies have good models for 
> how to deal with open source efforts. If anyone can recommend a good 
> resource on this topic, please let us all know.
>
Thanks Rick for your continued effort in this.

To me the interesting thing from a practical perspective is that if  the 
Derby community were to provide useful extensions  even without a 
corporate connection and make them publicly available and free of all 
strings, wouldn't those standard bodies be foolish not to pick them up 
and take advantage of them?  It seems to me that your current opengroup 
setup sounds like a good start to open up receptivity and communication. 
Hopefully at some point it won't be necessary to have a corporate 
connection, while that is still required, your  multi company setup 
sounds healthier than having just a single corporate entry point.

I am sorry I don't know of any good resource on this and a Google search 
did not glean much for me.  I seem to recall Dan mentioning an article 
in passing one day but may have imagined it. 

Kathey