[Cesg-all] RE: [Sois-tcoa] Re: Status of SOIS?

Wed Jun 15 11:55:17 EDT 2005

Dear Adrian,

Thanks for your reply to my email and the answers to my questions.

Tom - would you please send me the latest templates for white, green and red
books - thanks.

Patrick/Chris - would you please arrange a joint SIS/SOIS meeting during the
next CCSDS meeting. The aim of this meeting will be for SOIS TCONS/OBL to
present their work and for SIS to comment on how this fits in with their
view of the onboard network.

Adrian - I assume that you agree that this is the right audience for the
SOIS TCONS/OBL discussion.

Adrian - to address your concern about lack of material coming out of
TCONS/OBL, I can assure you that before the next CCSDS meeting this
situation will have changed. I will only go public with documents once they
are in a meaningful shape with agreement from the experts contributing
directly to TCONS. There is no conspiracy about this only the concern that
we do not waste peoples' time reading through documents that are we do not
believe in and which may change significantly. We will have the first white
paper available in a couple of weeks time and are working on a second one
together with two red books which will be ready before the next CCSDS
meeting. I will take a look at the CCSDS procedures manual and make sure
that I understand the process.

Regards

Steve

------------------------------------------

Steve Parkes

Space Technology Centre

Applied Computing, University of Dundee

Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK

Tel: +44 1382 345194

Fax: +44 1382 348838

Mobile: +44 784 138 3779

  _____  

From: Adrian J. Hooke [mailto:adrian.j.hooke at jpl.nasa.gov] 
Sent: 15 June 2005 16:28
To: Steve Parkes
Cc: sois-tcons at mailman.ccsds.org; sois-tcoa at mailman.ccsds.org; CCSDS
Engineering Steering Group - All; Tom Gannett
Subject: Re: [Cesg-all] RE: [Sois-tcoa] Re: Status of SOIS?

At 03:33 AM 6/15/2005, Steve Parkes wrote:

 We have at last a consistent architecture that meets, we believe, the
broader needs of SIS and the needs of spacecraft software and hardware
engineers. Currently we are in the process of writing this up in the form of
a white paper for broader review. As I am sure you can understand we want to
make sure that the TCONS/OBL working group agree on this document before we
send it out for any further review. 

Steve: the TCONS mailing list (which is where that particular white paper is
being discussed) only contains 15 people, most of them the "usual suspects".
Is that the entire world gene pool of interest in TCONS? 

The OBL mailing list has had a total of three messages on it since November
2003. 

I don't understand the need for such secrecy or lack of communication. Th
OBL, TCONS and TCOA work should be visible to the world.

We will then welcome comments and take into consideration any necessary
modification of the TCONS/OBL architecture. At the same time we are working
on the Service Interface Specification Red Books and expect to have drafts
for internal review soon. 

How can you possibly be working on Red Books without having mature White
Books out on the public website for community comment? If you go to your CWE
site at http://public.ccsds.org/sites/cwe/sois-tcons/Documents.aspx
<http://public.ccsds.org/sites/cwe/sois-tcons/Documents.aspx>  there is
absolutely nothing loaded in the public area. Nothing.

If you then log-in to the TCONS CWE at that page (which people from the
outside can't do) there is a 3-page White Paper from Max and a 2-slide
viewgraph from Jane. I don't see anything even vaguely resembling a mature
White Book (let alone a draft Red Book) under development within your group.
Where is it?

 Could you please let me know the formal review procedures for CCSDS
documents. We want to have them reviewed by SIS and possibly other groups
that you recommend before sending them out for interagency review. Is this
normal? If not how would you suggest that we proceed? I would very much
welcome an idiot's guide to CCSDS review procedures as everyone that I have
asked seems to have a different perspective. 

See section 6 of the
<http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/A00x0y9.pdf> CCSDS A00.0-Y-9
(Procedures Manual for the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems.
Yellow Book. Issue 9. November 2003: this document is currently being
updated to add a graphical roadmap to the various review loops).  If you
have any questions about process, your Area Director should be able to
answer them.

1.	The CCSDS logos etc have changed and we have had some problems with
the template documents that we have been using in the past. Is there a new
CCSDS white, green and red book template available? If so could you please
let me know where I can get them from? 

You should be working with the CCSDS Document Editor (Tom Gannett) on all
documentation issues, right from the start of White Book development. Tom
will give you all of the logos and templates.

1.	Could you please arrange a joint SOIS / SIS meeting for the next
CCSDS meeting so that we can present our architecture and the work done. I
would be happy to present this to a wider CCSDS audience I you felt that it
would be useful.

Work this with Patrick or Chris, who can then arrange the agenda with Bob
Durst.

I can assure you that the TCONS and OBL teams are fully committed to
completing their SOIS work as soon as possible. Most importantly we are
committed to making sure that the recommendations that we produce are worthy
of CCSDS and will be used by future space missions.

As I said in my original message to Patrick and Chris, I am not attacking
the work of TCONS and OBL, I am simply voicing my very strong concern that
virtually ALL of the SOIS work is completely hidden from anyone except a
"secret decoder ring club" of SOIS inner-circle people. It is constantly
embarrassing to have people from industry or other agencies express strong
interest in the work of SOIS, and yet when they ask for documents to look at
there is absolutely NOTHING to point them to. Open international standards
development is not a stealth activity; if in doubt, err on the side of full
public visibility.

Best regards
Adrian

Adrian J. Hooke
Chairman, CCSDS Engineering Steering Group (CESG)

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