[ OVERVIEW ]          [ STRUCTURE/PARTICIPANTS ]          [ MDDL DOCUMENTS ]          [ LINKS ]
[ DISCUSSION ]             [ JOIN MAILING LIST ]             [ MEETING SCHEDULE ]          [ NEWS ]
 

MDDL Steering Committee Meeting Report, Reuters Information, New York City

June 21, 2001


The MDDL Steering Committee met to authorize the release of the version (0.9) of the MDDL specification. The release of the draft specification was authorized. The Beta version 1.0 is targeted to be released on August 15. The Steering Committee is viewing this process as similar to a full-scale product launch and instructed FISD staff to manage it as such. Outlined below are the action points, decisions and open issues that emerged from the MDDL Steering Committee meeting.

NOTE: This report is a combination of the MDDL Steering Committee meeting on June 21 and the MDDL working meeting on June 22.

MDDL Schema/DTD

The MDDL working group met its targeted 6-month deadline for releasing version 0.9 of the standard covering global equities, collective investment vehicles and indices. The Steering Committee offered its acknowledgement and official commendation to:

  • James Hartley (Bridge) and Tony Coates (Reuters) - as the principal designers of the MDDL architecture
  • Richard Robinson (Bank of New York) and Kevin Roche (Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal) - for the creation of the MDDL domain and descriptor structure

Version 0.9 of the MDDL standard includes a number of files - all of which have been posted to the FISD/MDDL web site as soon as possible. The five primary files are:

1. MDDL XML Schema (mddl-0.9-beta.xsd)
2. MDDL XML DTD (mddl-0.9-beta.dtd)
3. MDDL References XML Schema (mddlref-0.9-beta.xsd)
4. MDDL Glossary/data dictionary (mddl-0.9-beta.saf)
5. Sample stylesheet for the glossary (mddl-0.9-beta-saf.xsl)

In addition, there are a number of diagrams illustrating the structure of the MDDL schema/DTD - for time series, snap quote, MDDL properties, and main MDDL structure. There are also four examples of what MDDL is designed to produce - (1) basic quote information including multiple classes, countries, exchanges and times; (2) detailed quote information for a single US equity; (3) quote information for constituents of a single US index; and (4) quote information for a single US mutual fund.

MDDL Technical Structure

Prior to release of the standard, the MDDL working group must be able to explain and justify the technical structure of the MDDL standard including the following critical components:

  • The concept of reference (internal and external)
  • The concept of inheritance (including assumed/implied references)
  • The hierarchical/element structure of MDDL (including the fact that an element has either "content" or "text" but not both and the concept that the lowest level of the hierarchy carries a "value")
  • The notion that MDDL 0.9 is a data format only (not a message structure)

Open Issues

1. Change Management: The change management process for MDDL has not been finalized. An "easy" method of updating the data in the Glossary needs to be created. The approach will include a process for requesting, approving, and implementing changes. This will initially be provided via an XSL to convert the Glossary to a comma separated file compatible with Excel and a corresponding VBScript to create the Glossary.

2. Product Model/Hierarchy: The hierarchy of the "data model" is not yet fully reflected in the schema. The Vocabulary and Technical Committees need to get together to create the MDDL hierarchy - the model for every product and the elements that can/must be included with the product. The Vocabulary Committee is meeting on July 9 at the Bank of New York to address this issue. The Vocabulary Committee is scheduled to meet with the Technical Committee at the office of Bridge Information Systems on the translation of the data relationships on July 31.

3. Glossary Definitions: Each word in the glossary needs a formal, unique, and globally agreed upon definition. The MDDL working groups must also resolve word ambiguity and identify any missing data elements. Further, each definition will need a "small", "medium" and "long" version. Finally, the working groups must recreate the logical business structure (groupings) of the glossary. This process is an important opportunity to create a standard market data glossary. FISD will reference existing ISO standards (i.e. ISO 18773/18774) as part of this process.

4. URL/URI: FISD must find out whether the website can support the URL we are suggesting as the namespace URI? That is, can the MDDL release contents be placed at "http://www.mddl.org/mddl/2001/0.9-beta"? In addition, there are some concerns about server capacity that need to be examined.

5. References: The "references" link on this documentation needs to be filled out.

Liaison Committee

The Steering Committee approved the creation of the MDDL Liaison Committee to manage MDDL relationships with other XML initiatives and standards bodies. The Liaison Committee reports to the Steering Committee. FISD will be recruiting nominees - subject to approval by the Steering Committee - to serve on the Liaison Committee.

  • James Hartley (Bridge) agreed to act as the primary contact point for the newly formed Liaison Committee. The function of the Committee is to manage the FISD/MDDL relationship with other XML initiatives.
  • John Bottega (Merrill) agreed to act as the primary contact point for managing the FISD/MDDL relationship with ISO and other official standards bodies.

Publicity

FISD was asked to create a basic public relations plan for the release and promotion of MDDL. The Steering Committee suggests that the PR plan does not need to be overly complex or expensive. FISD will coordinate with internal SIIA resources. The likely components of the PR plan are:

  • Press Releases as appropriate
  • Use of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS)
  • MDDL presence on industry events and conferences
  • Articles for industry trade magazines
  • A well structured and maintained web site
  • Limited promotional items - mainly tied into the official launch at the World Financial Information Conference
  • Official signage to identify organizations as MDDL participants for display at trade shows

MDDL Membership Requirements

The Steering Committee reinforced the core position that MDDL is an open standard and available for use without charge or SIIA/FISD membership requirements. In the future, participation on MDDL working groups and the ability to have influence on the development of the standard will be available only to SIIA/FISD members.

The Steering Committee further recommends the creation of an Associate membership category for companies that are only interested in MDDL. FISD was instructed to pursue the creation of the Associate membership category with SIIA with the caveat that a significant percentage of Associate membership dues be directed to the FISD budget to help fund MDDL-related activities.

MDDL Publishing

The Steering Committee recommended a migration away from Yahoo groups as the publishing vehicle for MDDL. Too many people are de-listing from the group and there is too much confusion on the status of documents/files. The new approach will be to publish all MDDL documents on the FISD web site (under the authorization of the existing editors) with dates and version control numbers incorporated into the documents. FISD was asked to create a bulletin board function on the web site to facilitate interactive discussion among MDDL participants.



Copyright ©2001, The Software & Information Industry Association.
SIIA's Privacy Policy and Use Agreement.
All rights reserved.