Establish criteria/workflow for "standardization"

[pipian]

I hate to nitpick on such basic process issues which may have already been resolved, but it seems to me that the effort to establish a GEDCOM X standard is lacking clear criteria for determining when the standard is stable. Furthermore, it appears to lack a clearly-defined workflow through which stakeholders can ensure that their concerns are handled. Will there be a more formal standardization process for GEDCOM X (whether collaborative like the W3C or with a final arbiter like WHATWG) where the issues with the standard are easily visible (perhaps by including the "stability status" of particular sections or inserting "issue" blocks marking issues that are actively being discussed about parts of the standard)?

If so, what form will this take? How can stakeholders (like the GRAMPS team and commercial genealogy software companies) be brought in to ensure that the standard is taken up by everyone? (Should they?)

[PrestonEstep]

Several people/organizations within the genealogy community are asking the same questions among themselves, but I'm not sure it has actually been asked on the GEDCOM X site itself.

[nealmcb]

I don't know the process details, but the github "milestones" seem relevant: https://github.com/FamilySearch/gedcomx/issues/milestones

[stoicflame]

See my comment at #171. Copied here for convenience of those participating in the thread.

A milestone 1 release is pending within the next week or two. The milestone release includes the declaration that the conceptual model, serialization formats, and file format (i.e. the "core specification set") are "stable", meaning any changes to those specifications must be backwards-compatible. Having a stable specification set finally allows us to concentrate on providing meaningful and much-needed substance to the documentation and other "non-normative" elements of the project. (It's hard to document a moving target.)

So, in summary, we are leaving this (and other similar) issues open to be addressed with the new post-milestone 1 efforts. We know there is still much to be done.