E. E. Burr 23 MAR 1988 A Few Common Questions About X3T9 and Their Answers Q: What is X3T9? A: X3T9 is a Technical Committee (TC) of Accredited Standards Committee X3. X3's title is Information Processing. It and the IEEE Computer society are the primary organizations doing computer related standards in the United States today. The title of X3T9 is I/O Interfaces and its entire program of work is devoted to developing standards to get bulk data in and out of central computers. It defines standards for interfaces between computers and mass storage peripherals or other computers. X3T9 does not do standards for lower bandwith terminal oriented telecommunications interfaces or networks, but concentrates on the high bandwidth interfaces and networks needed for direct computer to computer and computer to storage peripheral connections. Q: What has X3T9 done? A: Although X3T9 has been in existance for about two decades, its first standard was not published until 1981, but since that time X3T9 has developed about 10 approved ANSI interface standards, including the Flexible Disk Interface (X3.80-1981), The SMD Interface (X3.91-1987), The SCSI (X3.131-1986), several IPI Standards (X3.129-1986, X3.130-1986, X3.132-1987, and X3.147-1987) and FDDI (X3.147-1987) as well as several others. Q: What is X3T9 doing now? A: X3T9 has an extensive program of work and is continuing to further develop the SCSI and IPI standards. It is completing the FDDI effort (only one of 4 planned FDDI standards are yet published) and has begun a further development of FDDI, FDDI-II, which will intgrate both packet and corcuit switched services in one network. X3T9 has also begun a single mode Physical Layer for FDDI. It is also working on the ESDI standard, and is considering a proposed High Speed Channel project. Q: What are the elements of X3T9? A: X3T9 has four subordinate Task groups (TGs). X3T9.2 has the title Lower Level Interfaces and is responsible for the SCSI, ESDI and Flexible Disk Interfaces. X3T9.3 has the title Device Level Interfaces and is responsible for the IPI, SMD and High Speed Channel Interfaces. X3T9.5 has the title Future Interfaces and is responsible for the FDDI and LDDI standards. X3T9.6 has the title Tape Devcie Level Interfaces and is responsible for the Streaming Cartridge Tape Device standard. X3T9.6 is currently in caretaker status and meets only once per year. Q: Who may attend meetings of X3T9 or its Task Groups? A: Anyone may attend. All meetings are open and prior permission is not required. Foreign nationals may also attend. Q: What are the categories of membership in X3T9? A: There are four categories of membership in X3T9 and its TGs: Principal (P), Alternate (A), Observer (O), and Liaison(L). Only Principals (or, in the absence of the Principal, his Alternate) ordinarily may vote or make or second motions. Some Task Groups may permit Observers to act as Alternates in the absence of the P and A members from the same organization. Observers may purchase mailings. Liaison members are generally officers of other standards committees who get mailings for liaison purposes. P, A and O members all must purchase mailings separately, if they desire them. Q: Who may obtain membership? A: Membership rules are detailed in the SD-2, a document published by X3, which contains the rules and organization of X3 and its subgroups. In general, any individual with expertise and interest in the subject of I/O Interfaces may be a member. Membership is, in a sense, both individual and corporate. Members may be classified as either individual or organizational as they request. However they are classified, only one Principal member is allowed who is employed by one organization, whether that member is categorized as individual or organizational. Each organization is allowed one Principal and as many Alternate members as it wishes on X3T9 or any of its TGs (some chairs discourage multiple Alternate members or make mailings to only one of the Alternates). Only one of these, however, may vote on any issue. Employees of organizations not domiciled in the US may be members and may vote on all issues except those affecting the US position on international issues. X3T9 Task Groups currently have several overseas members. Q: What is the difference between individual and organizational members? A: As a practical matter there is not much difference, except how the member sees his participation. If he purports to represent his best technical judgement rather than his company position, then he is an individual member. An organization may have only one Principal member, be he individual or organizational. In some cases members feel that they would be required to expend great effort determining the company position on every issue if they were organizational members. Some members also feel that they are free to dress informally as individual members, while they would have to wear a coat and tie if they were officially representing their organization (see the question below on appropriate dress). Q: What are the requirements for membership? A: A prospective member must first attend one meeting of X3T9 or the TG. At the second meeting he or she attends, he or she is eligible to request membership in writing. Individuals requesting membership should furnish the Chair with a letter outlining their interest and qualifications and requesting membership. He or she then becomes a member at that meeting. That letter may also name an alternate member. Q: What are the requirements to maintain membership? A: There are basically three requirements to maintain P membership. They are: Payment of X3 Service Fees: The X3 Secretariat levies a service fee against the members of all its subgroups, including X3T9 and its TGs. These fees do not cover the direct operating costs of X3T9, rather they help to pay the Secretariat's operating costs. Billing is direct from the Secretariat and payment is made to the Secretariat. Attendance at Meetings: If both the Principal and the Alternate(s) miss two of any three consecutive plenary meetings the Chair is supposed to write them warning them that if they fail to attend the fourth meeting in this sequence, they will be terminated. The SD-2 does not define the meaning of terminated, but it is ordinarily interpreted to mean changed to Observer status. Note that this means that if a Principal or his Alternate attend only every other meeting, they might receive warnings after every other meeting, but will retain their membership. Letter Ballots: X3T9 from time to time conducts letter ballots. A member who fails to vote on two consecutive letter ballots will be warned as with attendance, and should he fail to return a third consecutive letter ballot he will be terminated. Q: What are these Secretariat Service Fees? A: They are annual fees, generally billed in October for the following year. The fee for 1988-1989 will be: - Each Principal (plus one Alternate): $200 per annum - Observers and 2nd, 3rd,... Alternates: $150 per annum. - Liaison: no fee There is no additional fee for a member of X3T9 to join any of its TGs, however members of two TGs who are not members of X3T9 have to pay twice. Q: What do the Secretariat Service Fees Cover? A: These Secretariat service fees do not pay the direct operating costs of X3T9, including the mailing costs, which are considerable. They do, in effect, pay the costs of processing standards developed by X3T9 after they are forwarded to X3. Note also that the fees are billed from and paid to the X3 Secretariat. Q: Is there a charge for mailings? A: In the past mailings of committee working documents were free to members. Chairs and volunteers bore the cost of these mailings. The size of the current X3T9 membership has forced a change to a fee system. It is simply impossible to find volunteers for these very large mailings. X3T9 is using a commercial mailing service for document distribution in 1988. This will mean an extra charge for the mailings which previously were paid for by Chairs or volunteers. Mailings will be available only to P, A and O members who have paid their Secretariat Service Fees. A copy of the order form for the mailings of the working documents of X3T9 and its subgroups is attached to the back of this document. There will be six mailings a year, one following each plenary meeting. Q: Is there any charge to attend meetings? A: Not ordinarily. In some cases, particularly for informal ad hoc, sometimes called working group, meetings (which occur quite frequently) there may be a small charge for the meeting room and coffee. In general, plenary meetings of X3T9 and its TGs have a host organization, who makes the arrangements and picks up any charges. Note that this typically involves a guarantee with a hotel of a certain room occupancy. A rate is usually negotiated which covers the cost of meeting rooms and coffee. Since X3T9 is a big group, the rates are frequently lower than the normal commercial rate for the hotel. If members fail to stay in the meeting hotel, or do not properly identify their affiliation with X3T9, this may cause an extra charge for the host. In the past, there have been cases where the failure of those registering in the hotel to identify their affiliation with X3T9 has caused the hotel to cancel meeting room reservations, even though the actual number of attendees staying in the hotel met the guarantee. Q: Must I stay in the meeting hotel? A: No. Sometimes it is not possible for everyone to get reservations in the meeting hotel. People from the local area may attend (meeting sites, in fact are chosen, in part, to be near centers of computer industry activity to facilitate this). Sometimes it is hard for Federal employees to get a sufficient per diem to cover the meeting hotel. But you should stay at the meeting hotel if you can, because it is more productive, since you will be there to talk to other members after the meeting and it is more convenient. In addition, if you don't, you are to some extent taking advantage of those who do, since the costs of meeting rooms are included in the hotel bill. Q: When do X3T9 and its TGs meet? A: X3T9 and its TGs meet for one week every two months, generally the third week of February, April, June, August, and October and the first or second week of December. X3T9.2 and X3T9.3 meet on Monday and Tuesday. X3T9.5 meets on Wednesday and Thursday and frequently has working group meetings on particular subjects on Monday or Tuesday. X3T9 itself meets on Friday. All meetings ordinarily start at 9:00 a. m., except for X3T9 which starts at 8:00 a. m. It is sometimes hard to get a good seat at X3T9.2 and X3T9.5 meetings, so don't be late to these. The meeting schedule for 1988 is: - 22-28 FEB 1988, Phoenix, AZ - 25-29 APR 1988, St. Petersburg, FL - 20-24 JUN 1988, San Jose, CA - 15-19 AUG 1988, Denver, CO - 10-14 OCT 1988, Boston, MA - 5-9 DEC 1988, San Diego, CA Schedules do sometimes change. We try to distribute sheets on meeting arrangements for meeting n +2 and n +1 in the mailing following meeting n. That is, the mailing following the April meeting would include sheets on the June and August meetings. Q: What is appropriate dress for meetings? A: Whatever you feel comfortable wearing. These are professional meetings and many folks, perhaps a majority in some of the committees, wear suits and ties. We also have lots of grubby engineers and programmers who would sooner die than wear a tie. Shorts, sandals and a T-shirt would make you stand out, but are occasionally worn. As a rough general rule the attire at working meetings tends to be less formal than regular meetings, and the old hands and officers dress less formally than many new participants.