Overview of the upcoming HSDS 3.1

Technical
1

Howdy folks,

I’d like to share the “HSDS 3.1 Overview” document with you. It’s a Google Doc, but it’s open so that everyone with the link can at least view it.

The document is currently a living document and I am editing it regularly to update the status of what’s going on while we prep for HSDS 3.1. Inside the doc you will find:

  • A list of proposals with links, for MINOR changes to HSDS. These are what we, in collaboration with others, are proposing to the committee for inclusion in 3.1.
  • A list of PATCH updates with links to the Github PR. These are within scope to follow the PATCH process as part of the governance model, but we are rolling them into 3.1 as this means we don’t need to issue a bunch of different PATCH versions only to then do the MINOR 3.1 upgrade soon afterwards.

The process now is:

  1. Iterate on the proposals where necessary, including writing two that have not been started
  2. Submit them to the Technical Committee for approval
  3. We will stage the changes for the approved proposals in their own branches with PRs and then merge them into the new 3.1-dev branch on Github when they’re ready
  4. Check that everything works on the 3.1-dev branch e.g. docs builds, profiles, Frictionless Datapackage format, etc.
  5. Release HSDS 3.1 when we’re happy

Proposals for MINOR upgrades

Most of the proposals for MINOR upgrades are in their first draft, and if you are passionate about any of the issues/changes they cover there is still plenty of scope to get involved. Please reach out to me either here or via my email address to get added as a co-author on one or more proposals, and we’ll arrange a chat to discuss your thoughts and how we’d like to work together:

The proposals in their first draft are linked in the Version 3.1 overview document but I’ll repeat them here for convenience:

Hopefully, the changes proposed in the drafts are not very controversial or surprising. Community members had already discussed a lot their needs and proposed solutions across various forum threads and Github issues, and I massaged them into shape with a standards development hat on. This said; people’s thinking may have moved on so I am very keen to hear your reckons or iterations on the models and changes in the proposal before we move to submitting them to the committee.

There are two proposals which need collaboration to move forward:

  • Modelling Events in HSDS
  • Modelling Capacity to take referrals in HSDS

We had a good chat about each of these at the standing technical meeting yesterday and it looks like community members are already gearing up to get involved which is amazing. I highlight these here in case there’s anyone on the forums or the wider community who wouldn’t want to miss the chance to have their say in these proposals. As before, please just ping me here or via my email address and we’ll get chatting.

PATCH Upgrades

We are also working on a few issues which don’t require formal proposals. These constitute things like adding license pages to the documentation, adding text to signpost various resources, and making non-semantic changes to some field descriptions to make them easier to understand.

These are, broadly, PATCH level changes which are subject to the PATCH upgrade process:

The governance model says that we may implement these changes and then give notice of an impending PATCH upgrade via the Forum as well as email the Core Team via email. If we do not receive any objections within a week, we may merge the changes and issue a PATCH release.

Rather than issue a PATCH release only to then issue a MINOR release soon after, we’re instead aiming to merge the changes as part of the 3.1 release. We’re giving notice to the community on the forum now via this post, and we will be working with the Core Team for 3.1 and will be highlighting these PATCH level changes to them as part of this process.

If you’re curious about the PATCH level changes and wish to raise any objections or concerns, please use the links to the Github Pull Requests below. The best place to comment on them or suggest changes is on the Pull Request comment thread.

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