Standards Adoption Process

Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics and Humanoid Animation (H-Anim) include a coordinated set of steadily evolving ISO standards. The Web3D Consortium carefully improves and evolves our standards while maintaining long-term archival stability. These standards are developed, tested, maintained and updated by Web3D Consortium members. Following public comment and approval by the Web3D Consortium, they are submitted to International Standards Organization (ISO) for a series of annual reviews.

Web3D Working Groups proceed at the best speed supported by member and public contributions. Stable progress is paramount: we only advance standards when they are ready.  Draft specification documents are maintained in version control at Web3D Consortium github with member-only access.

The Standards Adoption Process Guidelines are listed below:

  1. Identify Standard or Extension to existing standards
    1. Study Market Trends/Requirements
    2. Identify Consortium Members' Interest
    3. Identify if this requirement falls under an existing working group charter
    4. Form a new working group if this does not fall under an existing working group charter
  2. Form a Working Group
    1. Identify Working Group Leadership
    2. Identify Working Group Members (open to all Web3D Consortium members)
    3. Create Working Group Charter, Goals and Milestones
    4. Plan Meeting frequency and schedules
    5. Allow Invited Experts if needed
    6. Check adherence to policies and templates
  3. Identify Previous Work 
    1. Identify any related Member activities'
    2. Identify output from related SIG (Special Interest Group)
    3. Identify Open Source contributions available for adoption and submission (submission-policy)
    4. Intellectual property rights (IPR) commitment
  4. Identify Requirements
    1. Create Use Cases
    2. Create specification requirements from these use cases
    3. Create Proof of Concept/Interoperability experiments
    4. Explore partnership with other organizations as needed
  5. Create Standard or Extension
    1. Follow Consortium's IP Policy
    2. Ensure Open and Consensus based solution
    3. Identify at least two independent and interoperable implementations (at least one should be open source)
    4. X3D prototypes are often helpful for defining interfaces or providing an example implementation
    5. Create conformance testing suites
    6. Announce member/public review of 30 days
    7. Review comments and incorporate or discard with cause.
    8. Complete standard or extension for submission
  6. Submit Standard or Extension for Board approval and Member vote
    1. Web3D Consortium Board of Directors review
    2. Board determines if a Web3D Members vote is necessary
    3. Tabulate Member vote results
    4. Start ISO certification process after final Board approval 
  7. ISO Certification - Follows ISO policy for all standards

ISSUES

  • ISSUES AND IMPROVEMENTS page needs review - elaboration or removal
  • Flow-chart diagram illustrating this page
  • Diagrams from Web3D 2016 Conference workshops

Naming Conventions

International Standards Organization (ISO) Standards and Revisions

Acronym Description Meaning
CD Committee Draft First vote with technical comments on proposed standard or revision.
DIS (was FCD) Draft International Standard (was Final Committee Draft) Last vote with technical comments on proposed standard or revision.
FDIS Final Draft International Standard Last ISO vote on proposed standard or revision. This is a Yes/No vote only.
IS International Standard Approved and published standard or revision.

 

International Standards Organization (ISO) Amendments

Acronym Description Meaning
PDAM Preliminary DRAFT Amendment First vote with technical comments on an amendment.
FPDAM Final Proposed Draft Amendment Last ISO vote with technical comments on an amendment.
FDAM Final Draft Amendment Last ISO vote on amendment. This is a Yes/No vote only.
AM Amendment Approved and published amendment to a standard.