At the ATA Meeting in Springfield, MA, a number of vendors and users of CGM technology got together on the evening of 23 September 1997, to discuss the possibility of beginning a "CGM Open" vendors group.

At CALS Expo in Long Beach CA last December, A "CGM Summit Meeting" was attended by the representatives from the following companies:

• Autotrol
• HSI
• InterCAP
• ITEDO Software
• MINCOM

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss CGM interoperability issues and the use of CGM as a vector graphics format for the WWW. After a frank, lively, and open discussion during which many issues were raised but few were resolved, participants concluded the meeting by "agreeing to agree" on a profile or family of profiles which would allow authoring and viewing (browsing) applications based on CGM to interoperate satisfactorily. For example, hyperlinks (hotspots) authored in one application should be able to be executed in another.

Over the course of several subsequent trade shows and ATA meetings several of participants had additional informal discussions on moving the CGM interoperability agenda forward so that CGM becomes the standard all would like it to become.

In August 1997, InterCAP Graphics proposed that interested parties move these discussions to the next stage and put into motion the process for the formation of an official CGM vendors group which was tentatively termed "CGM Open".

A 'kick-off' meeting was held in conjunction with the fall ATA - TICC meeting in Springfield, MA, during the week beginning 21st September 1997.

The preliminary purpose of this meeting was identified as:

• Agree on the concept of a CGM vendor group
• Define a set of initial objectives
• Identify points of contact for interested vendors
• Identify first actions and assign responsibilities.

The meeting was attended by 15, representing CGM vendors and CGM users alike. The attendance list is attached.

It was quickly and generally agreed that CGM, a niche industry, is poised for potentially rapid growth, and that a CGM trade group could be a valuable facilitator for the future growth of the industry. The focus would be on promotion, information dissemination, and addressing interoperability issues that might be retarding CGM growth.

Membership criteria and fee structures were discussed but the issue was deferred until the mission and program goals are finalized.

Possible goals for CGM Open were discussed:

1. Promotion. CGM is not currently a mainstream technology and is (rightly or wrongly) perceived by many as difficult and complicated. Education and promotion (via success stories, among other things) were agreed to be primary tasks for CGM Open.

2. Web site. It was agreed that a Web site and newsgroup should be established. Scope of contents:

• what is CGM
• news
• success stories
• Links to other CGM-related content (such as NIST)

3. Open profile. A CGM Open profile for Web-based graphics should be written. It should be simple (e.g., perhaps at about the level of SVF), so that it is easy and reliable to implement.

4. Free viewer. There was discussion about the possibility of providing a free viewer for the simple cgm profile. Inconclusive outcome here.

5. Encodings. In order to better harmonize CGM with other emerging standards such as XML, it might be possible to develop a new encoding for CGM which could easily be parsed by (for example, an XML parser).

6. Certification. There was discussion about promoting NIST certification where offered (interpreters), and possibly working on other certification issues where lacking -- generator? Metafile analysis? "seal of approval"? More discussion and decisions are required here.

7. Liaison. CGM Open should actively pursue liaison relationships with SGML Open, as well as other key trade groups: POSC (Petrotechnical Open Software Corporation); J2008 (Automotive); RIF (Railroad Industry Forum). W3C and CALS were also mentioned as possibilities.

8. Meetings. Twice yearly in conjunction with ATA TICC week was concluded to be the best timing for key vendors and users.

9. Membership. The principal CGM vendors in attendance all agreed to join as "Charter Members". After some discussion, it was not clear to

anyone just what "Charter Member" means. Membership for industry users was also discussed. Some were enthusiastic, some were cautious about committing their corporate name because of company policies. The nature of "user membership" or "affiliate" was discussed some (inconclusively). SGML Open will provide a useful model here again.

10. Proactive Publicity. It was agreed that complete openness of the proceedings, and proactive publicity of all meetings, are necessary in order to avoid difficulty with anti-competitive rules and regulations.

The following action items were assigned and accepted:

a. Minutes -- Lofton Henderson, John Gebhardt.

b. Newsgroup/Web page -- to be investigated by Brad Powell, Dieter Weidenbrück.

c. Charter & Bylaws -- A draft Charter and Bylaws based on SGML Open, the VRML Consortium, POSC and other documents will be drafted and circulated by John Gebhardt; POSC inputs will be forwarded by Brad Powell.

d. Publicity -- a brief public announcement of this meeting will be drafted by Brad Powell, circulated by email for comment/approval, then posted on participants' web sites (this should be a one-time procedure -- in the future all documents will be centrally posted and participants may point to them).

e. Press Release -- (not needed probably until charter is adopted).

It was agreed that meeting at the SGML/XML '97 conference, December, Washington, DC would be valuable. The immediate goal is to have a draft charter, and to be able to discuss the SGML Open model and issues with that group's members. Gebhardt, Henderson, and Weidenbrück will likely be able to attend, at a minimum.

Others not at the meeting, but interested in CGM Open, were added to the list:

Thanks to InterCAP Graphics Systems, Inc. for providing the meeting room.