FDsys – Topic Maps – Concrete Example
Have you ever wanted a quick, concrete example to give someone of the need for a topic map?
Today I saw: Liberating America’s secret, for-pay laws which is a great read on how pay-for standards are cited by federal regulations, but you have to pay for the standards to know what the rules say.
That’s a rip-off isn’t it? You not only have to follow the rules, on pain of enforcement, but you have to pay to know what the rules are.
Being a member of the OASIS Technical Advisory Board and general advocate of open standards, I see an opportunity for OASIS to claim some PR here.
So I go to the FDsys site, choose advanced search, limited to the Code of Federal Regulations and enter “OASIS.”
I get 298 “hits” for “collection:CFR and content:OASIS.”
Really?
Well, the first one is: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title18-vol1/pdf/CFR-2011-title18-vol1-sec37-6.pdf. Title 18?
In the event that an OASIS user makes an error in a query, the Responsible Party can block the affected query and notify the user of the nature of the error. The OASIS user must correct the error before making any additional queries. If there is a dispute over whether an error has occurred, the procedures in paragraph (d) of this section apply.
FYI, Title 18 is Federal Energy Regulatory Commission so this doesn’t sound right.
To cut to the chase, I find:
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2009-title47-vol1/pdf/CFR-2009-title47-vol1-sec10-10.pdf
as one of the relevant examples.
Two questions:
- How to direct OASIS members to citations in U.S. and foreign laws/regs to promote OASIS?
- How to make U.S. and foreign regulators aware of relevant OASIS materials?
Hint: The answer is not:
- Waiting for them to discover OASIS and its fine work.
- Advertising the fine work of OASIS to its own membership and staff.