Proposed Draft
An open-source specification proposed for the NTCIP Joint Committee
- Website for most recent version
- PDF of most recent version
- Previously released versions
- Discussion forum
- Report an issue
- Report a security issue
- Requirements for making contributions
- Code of Conduct
- License, which references the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 License.
This is a documentation-only project. The current version of the document is available as a website or as a pdf file that can be downloaded. Contributors will need to fork and clone the repository and establish the development environment on their local machine so that they can ensure that their edits are rendered as expected.
This project uses the following tools:
- Git
- GitHub
- MkDocs
- Materials for MkDocs
The proess to install the local environment is defined in the documentation conventions of the ITS Open-Source Process with no exceptions or extensions.
The project is currently a proposal and has not been reviewed by the broader NTCIP community. As such it is hosted on the proposer's GitHub account.
The ITS Openb-Source Process defines the process to be used to maintain open-source resources of the NTCIP Joint Committee. This specification itself is proposed to be an open-source resource, which is maintained by the process defined by the specification. Anyone who wishes to contribute to or maintain an NTCIP open-source resource project should start by familiarizing themselves with this process.
This specification is adapted from the OpenSauced Introduction and tailored to meet the needs of the ITS community. While a product of NTCIP, it is envisioned to be used in open-source efforts beyond the NTCIP community and it can be further tailored to meet the needs of each ITS open-source resource project.
At their May 2024 meeting, the NTCIP Joint Committee identified a need to develop an alternative development path that could be followed to speed standards development with the recognition that this development path might result in a less mature standard. Ken Vaughn was tasked with leading the effort defining how this could be done. The proposal is contained in two parts:
- the ITS Open-Source Process (this document), which is designed to allow documents to be defined in an open-source environment; and
- a revised NTCIP Standardization Process (NTCIP 8001) to reflect an approval process that is faster than the traditional NTCIP ballot process (e.g., an experimental specification)
In general, it is envisioned that the open-source process lends itself to the faster experimental specification; however, the open-source process could be used to develop a document that was then approved through the traditional approval process. Likewise, the traditional standards development process could be used to create an experimental specification that is approved through a simplified approval process. As a result, the single request from the Joint Committee for a streamlined process resulted in these two parts.
At this time, this proposal is a proposal from an individual. The next steps envisioned for this project are as follows:
The first version of the document needs to define the responsibilities for commentors, contributors, maintainers, and WGs. It should also provide a set of documentation and coding conventions along with a sample template for a new GitHub project with all necessary files for basic operations.
The document can be developed in any order but is expected to be developed in the order of the items mentioned in the features list.
- 2024-Nov: Submit to the NTCIP Joint Committee to be recognized as an experimental specification project with assignment to a WG
- 2024-Nov: Migrate the current project to the ITE-org GitHub account and tag as release 0.0.0
- 2025-Jan: Meeting of WG to identify and prioritize issues that need to be addressed
- 2025-Jan: Develop project plan to complete work
- 2025-Jun: First release of experimental specification
This project is sponsored by the Base Standards and Profiles 2 Working Group (BSP2 WG) of the National Transportation Communications Interface Protocols (NTCIP) Joint Committee (JC), a joint standardization committee of the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA). It has benefited from funding from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT).
Within traditional standards development processes, stakeholder concerns are reported as comments, primarily during defined stages of the project. Within an open-source environment, concerns are documented as issues and can be submitted at any time.
All updates to the project are initiated by a stakeholder first reporting an issue. Issues can be as minor as reporting a typo or as major as suggesting a new section or complete rewrite of the document. If you have identified an issue, please submit it on our Issues page.
When submitting an issue, the commenter is required to identify the type of issue and then provide specific information for that issue. Issue types that are applicable to this project include:
- Bug report: used to report an issue or inaccuracy in the documentation
- Documentation enhancement: used to suggest improvements to the project documentation
- New requirement request: used to propose a new requirement to be added to the documentation
- Requirement modification request: used to suggest a modification to an existing requirement
If you identify a security issue, please report it using our security process.
As with comments in the traditional standards process, issues are reviewed and prioritized prior to being addressed. In the traditional process, the initial review is performed by the editor; within the open-source process, the review is performed by the maintainer. Depending on the impact of the issue, the maintainer can either prioritize the issue directly or might seek guidance from the working group.
Once an issue has been prioritized, it is made available for anyone in the open-source community to make a contribution to address the issue.