Austin Group Status Update                              Austin-92 Page 1 of 1
Submitted by Andrew Josey, The Open Group.              June 1st, 2001


The eighth meeting of the joint technical working group
informally known as the Austin Group was held at The
Open Group facility in Reading, UK on May 29 - June 1 2001. The meeting
had 12 attendees (three of which via teleconference).

It was reported that draft six had passed its IEEE ballot achieving
90% approval. At the ISO level, draft six has been submitted as
a second FCD ballot. The Open Group having achieved consensus,
plans to synchronize the final approval with that of the IEEE
Standards Board (targeted for September 12th, see below).

The objective of this meeting was to review the draft six
specifications. A three and a half day plenary session was held.
Over 350 change requests were processed.

The most complex issue was resolving the wording to allow profiling of
this standard. This was tackled via several teleconferences with
interested parties during the meeting. The other main issue that was
raised was the omission of the sockatmark() function, which is
referenced in section 2.10.12 of XSH (Socket Out of Band data), but not
included in the draft. The review group decided to canvass the opinion of the
balloters to see if the inclusion of sockatmark() would decrease
consensus. If not then it is proposed to include the sockatmark()
function in draft 7, as per the consistency caveat in the
project scope. The minutes and documents Austin/SD1, Austin/SD2 should be
read for further details.

The final draft (Draft 7) will be made available around June 15th and
include the changes identified by the review of draft 6.  Due to the
workings of the IEEE ballot process, this draft may be recirculated
twice more for 10 day review (to allow any new objections to be
recirculated to the IEEE ballot group). The  purpose of the draft 7
review is to ensure that all changes identified have been applied
correctly.

The draft seven review is scheduled for the second half of June 2001
(exact date to be determined), and will be available for a 10 day
review period, with a  concurrent 10 day recirculation IEEE ballot .
There will be strict narrowing down rules enforced for the comments
on draft seven.  Discussions on draft seven will occur via teleconference.  The 
final document will be submitted to the IEEE on July 29th for consideration at
the September 12th IEEE Standards Board meeting , and the September 12th
meeting of The Open Group Platform Board.