Metadata Working Group

Working Group Projects

ISO/IEC JTC 1 / SC 32 / WG 02

	NEW WORK ITEM PROPOSAL (WG2 BNE 021)
	Proposer Daniel W. Gillman	Date of proposal 16-June-98
	TC/SC JTC1/SC32	Secretariat
	Date of circulation	Closing date for voting

A proposal for a new work item within the scope of an existing technical committee or subcommittee shall be submitted to the Central Office. The proposal will be circulated to the P-members of the technical committee or subcommittee for voting, and to the O-members for information. The proposer may be a National Committee of the IEC, the secretariat itself, another technical committee or subcommittee, an organization in liaison, the Committee of Action or one of the advisory committees, or the General Secretary. Guidelines for proposing and justifying a new work item are given in ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, Annex Q (see extract overleaf). This form is not to be used for amendments or revisions to existing publications.

The proposal (to be completed by the proposer)

Title of proposal Information Technology, Specification of Complex Data
Standard		Technical Report
Scope (as defined in ISO/IEC Directives, Part 3, 6.2.1) The technical report will examine the information technology characteristics of data that are derived, aggregated, composed, or grouped from other data or that have complex structure.
Purpose and justification, including the market relevance and relationship to Safety (Guide 104), EMC (Guide 107), Environmental aspects (Guide 109) and Quality assurance (Guide 102) . (attach a separate page as annex, if necessary) Current standards for data elements (ISO/IEC 11179) address the structure and attributes of data elements at the fundamental level, and the standard proposes a data element registry to store this information. A data element registry is designed to enable managing, understanding, and sharing of data over the lifetime of that data. However, much data is generated from others by means of calculation, aggregation, composition, grouping, or other derivation methods. In addition, new complex data types in multimedia and advanced scientific applications are increasingly used. The current standard does not address these complexities. As an incremental step toward a complete description of the data a registry describes, the specification of complex data will enable a deeper understanding for users of data. This deeper understanding will benefit private industry, governments, the public, and all other sectors that need to manage, understand, and share data. (See attached Annex A: Technical Report Purpose and Justification, for further details.)
Target date		for first CD: December 1999	for IS: TBD
Estimated number of meetings: 12		Frequency of meetings: 4 per year	Date and place of first meeting: TBD
Proposed working methods		E-mail	ftp
Relevant documents to be considered ISO/IEC 11179, ANSI X3.285
Relationship of project to activities of other international bodies None
Liaison organizations None		Need for coordination within ISO or IEC None
Preparatory work Check one of the two following boxes
A draft is attached for vote comment		An outline is attached
We nominate a project leader as follows in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1, 2.3.4 (name, address, fax and e-mail): Daniel W. Gillman Bureau of the Census SRD Rm 3000-4 Washington, DC 20233 USA Phone 301-457-3690 FAX 301-457-2299 Email gillman@cesnsus.gov
Concerns known patented items (see ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2)		Name and signature of the proposer
yes	no	Daniel W. Gillman
If yes, provide full information as an annex

Comments and recommendations from the TC/SC officers

Comments with respect to the proposal in general, and recommendations thereon
1) Work allocation
Project team	New working group	Existing working group no:
2) Draft suitable for direct submission as
CD	CDV
3) General quality of the draft (conformance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 3)
Little redrafting needed	Substantial redrafting needed	no draft (outline only)
4) Relationship with other activities
In IEC In other organizations
Other remarks

Elements to be clarified when proposing a new work item

Title

Indicate the subject matter of the proposed new standard.

Indicate whether it is intended to prepare a standard, a technical report or an amendment to an existing standard.

Scope

Give a clear indication of the coverage of the proposed new work item and, if necessary for clarity, exclusions.

Indicate whether the subject proposed relates to one or more of the fields of safety, EMC, the environment or quality assurance.

Purpose and justification

Give details based on a critical study of the following elements wherever practicable.

1. The specific aims and reason for the standardization activity, with particular emphasis on the aspects of standardization to be covered, the problems it is expected to solve or the difficulties it is intended to overcome.
2. The main interests that might benefit from or be affected by the activity, such as industry, consumers, trade, governments, distributors.
3. Feasibility of the activity: Are there factors that could hinder the successful establishment or general application of the standard?
4. Timeliness of the standard to be produced: Is the technology reasonably stabilized? If not, how much time is likely to be available before advances in technology may render the proposed standard outdated? Is the proposed standard required as a basis for the future development of the technology in question?
5. Urgency of the activity, considering the needs of the market (industry, consumers, trade, governments etc.) as well as other fields or organizations. Indicate target date and, when a series of standards is proposed, suggest priorities.
6. The benefits to be gained by the implementation of the proposed standard; alternatively, the loss or disadvantage(s) if no standard is established within a reasonable time. Data such as product volume of value of trade should be included and quantified.
7. If the standardization activity is, or is likely to be, the subject of regulations or to require the harmonization of existing regulations, this should be indicated.

If a series of new work items is proposed, the purpose and justification of which is common, a common proposal may be drafted including all elements to be clarified and enumerating the titles and scopes of each individual item.

Relevant documents

List any known relevant documents (such as standards and regulations), regardless of their source. When the proposer considers that an existing well-established document may be acceptable as a standard (with or without amendments), indicate this with appropriate justification and attach a copy to the proposal.

Cooperation and liaison

List relevant organizations or bodies with which cooperation and liaison should exist.

Preparatory work

Indicate the name of the project leader nominated by the proposer.