[Psidev-ms-dev] Proposed PSI Process for Review

[Randy J. <rkj...@in...>]

During the 2005 PSI Fall Meeting in Geneva, it was widely suggested that 
the PSI mission would benefit from better documenting its processes and 
clarifying roles and responsibilities.

Given that we now have multiple standards which are being adopted by the 
proteomics community, the PSI leadership recognizes the need for more 
structure in creating, maintaining, and changing specifications.  At the 
same time, the group desires to remain approachable, inclusive and 
transparent while the size of the group and the complexity of the tasks 
both increase.

During the Geneva meeting, Prof. Norman Paton (Univ. Manchester) 
suggested that we look at the process used by the Global Grid Forum 
(GGF) to create and maintain recommendations.  These processes have been 
demonstrated to be both reasonable and productive having been used to 
create stable and useful specifications in modest time frames.

During the last few months a small team undertook editing several 
documents provided by the GGF founders to adapt them to the smaller size 
and narrower scope of the PSI.  The result is a proposed process 
described in three documents (structure, management and documents), and 
summarized in an overview paper.

In an nutshell, it is proposed that PSI formalize the current 'working 
groups', asking each one to create a charter, a set of deliverables and 
a time-line.  Working groups would generate documents which are either 
community practice descriptions, or recommendations.  A Steering Group 
will be created from the Working group chairs as well as other PSI 
members who will help with coordination between groups, organizing 
meetings and management of the PSI.  A formal PSI-Editor role will be 
created and an approval and review process for new recommendations is 
proposed.

Below are links to these documents for public review by the community:

Overview: 
http://psidev.sourceforge.net/docstore/download.php?sess=0&parent=16&expand=1&order=name&sortname=ASC&binary=1&id=57

Structure: 
http://psidev.sourceforge.net/docstore/download.php?sess=0&parent=16&expand=1&order=name&sortname=ASC&binary=1&id=58

Management: 
http://psidev.sourceforge.net/docstore/download.php?sess=0&parent=16&expand=1&order=name&sortname=ASC&binary=1&id=56

Document Process: 
http://psidev.sourceforge.net/docstore/download.php?sess=0&parent=16&expand=1&order=name&sortname=ASC&binary=1&id=55

We would like to collect comments on the processes outlined in these 
documents (and editorial comments on the documents themselves) by April 
14, 2006 (the week before the Spring PSI meeting April 21, 2006), with 
the goal of approving a final process during the Spring meeting.

Please send comments to either Randy Julian (rkj...@in...) or 
Henning Hermjakob (hh...@eb...).

Thanks,
Randy Julian