Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform

Wed Sep 4 16:30:30 CEST 2013

Francis,  

To me, that does seem a major problem with OBP.  I always tell people to check    http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html    first.  That clearly remains important.

ISO/IEC 29500-4:2012 is not in the OBP system yet.  But the ISO catalogue entry at http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=61798 does direct people to the list of Publicly Available Standards.     I had been naively assuming that OBP would have a similar message, but hadn't yet found a standard to check with.

The catalogue entry for ISO/IEC 10746-2   http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=55723 has no such message.  Perhaps it is a feature only available by special request.  Or maybe there is a data problem here.

But ISO/IEC 19757-3:2006  https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:19757:-3:ed-1:v1:en  and http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=40833
is an example that has the link to the Publicly Available Standards in the catalogue, but no such indication in the OBP interface.

I certainly agree with Dennis that substantive detail is not accessible through OBP and that it is frustrating to get messages and links encouraging purchase so often.  But in the past I have had the Library of Congress buy a standards document only to discover that it was unintelligible without one or more additional documents (normative references).  OBP might have prevented that.

I wonder if there is a channel via which SC34 can recommend adding a link to http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html to OBP for the standards listed on that page.

      Caroline

Caroline Arms
Library of Congress Contractor
Co-compiler of Sustainability of Digital Formats resource
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/

** Views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of the institution **
________________________________________
From: Francis Cave [francis at franciscave.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2013 6:53 AM
To: dennis.hamilton at acm.org; 'SC 34 WG4'
Subject: RE: Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform

Interestingly, even standards that are freely-available appear in the same form on OBP. See, for example, ISO/IEC 10746-2, (https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:10746:-2:ed-2:v1:en) which can be freely downloaded in PDF format from the ITTF websit (http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html).

Francis

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dennis E. Hamilton [mailto:dennis.hamilton at acm.org]
> Sent: 04 September 2013 05:31
> To: 'Arms, Caroline'; 'SC 34 WG4'
> Subject: RE: Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform
>
> Caroline, when I visit the sample, anywhere there might be substantive detail
> I instead see this message:
>
>      "This part of the standard is not accessible to you.
>       To view the full content, you will need to purchase
>       the standard by clicking on the "Buy" button."
>
>  - Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Arms, Caroline [mailto:caar at loc.gov]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 13:15
> To: dennis.hamilton at acm.org; 'SC 34 WG4'
> Subject: RE: Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform
>
> Dennis,
>
> Just a clarification.  The new ISO Online Browsing Platform (OBP) is not
> behind a paywall.  Hence my interest in how ISO 29500 parts look in it because
> it may provide the only view of some standards that is available without
> paying.  Of course, both ISO 29500 (OOXML) and ISO 26300 (ODF) are freely
> accessible anyway.  But the Library of Congress and other cultural heritage
> institutions have interest in many format standards that are not, such as the
> JPEG 2000 and MPEG families.  OBP only gives a preview of a standard, omitting
> the main body entirely, but that is a lot better than a current ISO Catalogue
> entry.  My guess is that it is a resource that will get some use from the
> digital preservation community.  I will certainly be more inclined to point
> people in that direction than to the ISO Catalogue.  And maybe the ISO
> Catalogue will end up being merged with the OBP.
>
> I am assuming that ISO will continue to distribute entire standards as PDF --
> based on the same argument as you make.
>
>      Caroline
>
> Caroline Arms
> Library of Congress Contractor
> Co-compiler of Sustainability of Digital Formats resource
> http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/
>
> ** Views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of the institution
> ** ________________________________________
> From: Dennis E. Hamilton [dennis.hamilton at acm.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2013 3:12 PM
> To: Arms, Caroline; 'SC 34 WG4'
> Subject: RE: Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform
>
> OFF-TOPIC Concerns
>
> The notion of having on-line, browser-rendered standards behind a paywall does
> not sound like something many will want to pay for, considering the reference
> nature of standards specifications and the potential ephemeral nature of this
> initiative.  I think I'd prefer an EPUB to whatever the contortions are for
> this.
>
> In the meantime, PDFs are probably the most durable, consistently-usable form
> available.  Considering the size of the IS 29500 specifications, browser
> rendering will be toxic for many, and the supplemental machine-readable
> materials such as schemas still need to be dealt with.  (I find the OASIS
> linking to the HTML versions of ODF documents to be particularly jarring,
> ignoring the fact that the HTML conversion is imperfect.)  Thinking about
> accessing any of the substantial document-format and programming-language
> standards on my smart phone seems particularly creepy.
>
> Once a specification is available at a client, PDF browsing, search, and
> navigation are far more effective.  I suspect reliance on translation software
> and handling of accessibility requirements will also be more effective.
>
> I do think consideration of translation and especially accessibility is
> something worth discussion at the SC level, though.
>
> On the question of applicability of MCE separate from OOXML, I would hope that
> is clear in the scope and in any abstract produced for Part 3.
>
>  - Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Arms, Caroline [mailto:caar at loc.gov]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 06:11
> To: SC 34 WG4
> Subject: Part 3 in ISO Online Browsing Platform
>
> It just struck me that it will be worth considering how a revised Part 3 will
> look on the ISO Online Browsing Platform.
>
>    Exmple display at   https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#iso:std:iso-iec:14496:-
> 21:ed-1:v1:en
>
> "Users can now preview the content of standards (including the foreword, table
> of contents, introduction, scope and bibliographical references), run full-
> text searches, and use advanced filtering options." is what I find at
> http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1631
>
> I know that we just agreed to shorten scope substantially.  I think it could
> be useful to review that decision based on what a user of OBP would see.  Will
> it be clear enough that the MCE mechanism is applicable beyond OOXML?
>
> I also find  "More standards will be added to the Online Browsing Platform and
> become available for preview as they are converted into XML format. The goal
> is to have 30 % of the ISO collection of standards converted by the end of
> 2012, with the entire portfolio converted by the end of 2013."
>
> Does anyone know what XML schema they are using?  And whether they will
> achieve the goal of 100% conversion by the end of this year?
>
>     Thanks.
>
>     Caroline
>
>
> Caroline Arms
> Library of Congress Contractor
> Co-compiler of Sustainability of Digital Formats resource
> http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/
>
> ** Views expressed are personal and not necessarily those of the institution
> ** ________________________________________