The 2004 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop (SIW) will include the fourth Standards Plenary presentation, which is now part of the main Plenary on Monday afternoon. This presentation will include the status of all SISO Product Development Groups (PDGs) and Study Groups (SGs), with a selection of these groups presenting an update on their progress. SISO through the various workshops provides a forum for simulation developers and key experts in the field of distributed simulation to meet and exchange ideas and to continue the development of the standards products.
The Standards Activity Committee (SAC) facilitates and supports the development of standards by the SISO membership, through the efforts of the PDGs and SGs. By the time the 2004 Fall SIW begins, SISO will have eight PDGs and thirteen SGs, with new PDGs on the horizon. This is a new record number of SGs and PDGs. The new efforts include manufacturing and HLA interfaces for COTS process modeling tools. SISO standards continue to have an impact in the distributed simulation community. It seems like only yesterday that we were balloting the IEEE 1516 HLA standards, but the first three standards in this series are open for revision and being managed by the HLA Evolved PDG. The Base Object Model Volume I, v0.9 has been posted for trial use until December 1st as a result of the dedicated efforts of the BOM PDG. Your participation is key to the development of quality Standards.
As part of SISO's continuing effort to make the SIW more useful to the community, the SISO Conference Committee (CC) split the week with Tuesday and Wednesday focusing on Forums and Thursday and Friday focusing on PDGs and SGs. This approach should reduce conflicts in participants' time.
The question the SAC gets asked most often is how does a group get started. The first decision for a group of interested individuals is whether to start a SG or PDG. If the need for the standard is not well defined, a SG may be the best way to start. The SG allows the interested group of volunteers to create a plan for the standard. SGs by definition have a limited life. If the need for a standards product is well understood, the volunteers can create the PDG directly. The Balloted Products Development Process (BPDP) is a good place to start when creating a PDG. A SAC member is assigned to help a group create a Terms of Reference (TOR) for a SG or a Product Nomination (PN) for a PDG.
I want to thank all the volunteers who are participating in these efforts; the activities would not be possible without you. For those of you who have not participated, this is your opportunity to get involved. Your expertise and participation will create better standards. Your organizations and customers will benefit from your participation in standards activities. These benefits include additional insight and understanding of the standards, exposure to new approaches and technologies, and increased interaction with peers in the community. Your participation will also ensure that your needs are meet by the standards. We hope you will attend the Standards Plenary to learn about all the SISO PDGs and SGs and that you will take an active role in them. If you have any questions please ask me or any member of the SAC.
Chris Rouget
Chair, SISO Standards Activity Committee