[DDI-CDG] DDI Developments

[Mary Vardigan]

Dear Expert Committee members,

I hope you are all doing well as we near the end of February. This feels 
like such a long winter here in Michigan!

There is a great deal of DDI activity to report:

(1) Authoritative version of the DDI DTD.

Mark Diggory has set up a Sourceforge site for the DDI project. The 
authoritative version of the specification will reside on the Sourceforge 
site, although the DDI Alliance site (www.ddialliance.org) will continue to 
serve as the distribution site. The Sourceforge site has excellent CVS 
(Concurrent Versions System) and issue tracking capabilities permitting 
tracking of revisions.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ddi-alliance

(2) Process for handling minor changes.

The Steering Committee is authorized through the Alliance Bylaws to set up 
an expedited process for handling minor changes to the specification. We 
have designed such a process and also have created a form to facilitate the 
submission of all requests for changes to the DDI specification. The form 
(a Word template), which contains an explanation of the expedited process, 
is available at:

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/DDI/users/dtd/index.html

(3) DDI Licensing.

The consensus in the Steering and Expert Committees is that this is an 
important issue to address. Mark Diggory continues to pursue this and has 
identified some organizations to contact for legal advice.

(4) IASSIST 2004 DDI sessions.

Several sessions and workshops at the upcoming IASSIST meeting (May 25-28) 
in Madison, WI, will be devoted to the DDI. There will be two companion 
workshops on Tuesday, May 25, intended to provide both introductory 
instruction in understanding and using the DDI (morning) and more advanced 
training (afternoon). The morning workshop needs volunteers to act as 
roaming experts to help participants in hands-on markup exercises. If you 
are interested in helping, please contact Bill Block (block at hist.umn.edu).

Also, Wendy Thomas and the Structural Reform Group are organizing a session 
about the Alliance and its activities. This session will feature speakers 
from the Structural Reform, Substantive Content, and Usability Working 
Groups. Wendy's description of the session can be viewed under the 
Structural Reform Group's forum on ezboard. IASSIST 2004 will also feature 
some sessions planned by individuals not on the Expert Committee.

(5) SRG Workplan and timeline.

The Structural Reform Group has worked extremely hard to prepare a detailed 
workplan with an associated timeline. The workplan and related notes are 
now available on ezboard under the Structural Reform Group's forum. Please 
post comments on ezboard or send them to ddi-srg at icpsr.umich.edu. The 
workplan will be condensed and posted on the DDI site in coming weeks.

(6) Upcoming DDI meeting.

The Expert Committee is scheduled to meet after IASSIST on Saturday, May 
29, in Madison. This is Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., which may make 
attendance difficult for some, but we do encourage everyone to try to 
attend. More details about the agenda will be available in the spring.

I will send another DDI Digest message soon to update everyone on specific 
projects of the various Working Groups.

Regards,
Mary

Mary Vardigan
Director, Collection Delivery
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
University of Michigan
P.O. Box 1248, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248
Phone: 734-615-7908
Fax: 734-647-8200
www.icpsr.umich.edu