Since the mid-90's, the circumstances surrounding the Dictionary have changed. In the late-90's, the extensive volunteer support structure largely disappeared. Continued active work to expand the Dictionary content was limited largely to one group, the REGS (U.S. Regulatory) group. The number of new entries in this time frame was a few hundred in contrast to the earlier rate of adding about one thousand entries per year. Well before '00, the Dictionary became de facto frozen at 7207 entries.
Beginning in early '01, a renewed interest started to appear in the PIDX Standards Subcommittee and from POSC. In the PIDX re-organization early in '02, a Dictionary Work Group was re-established and Alan Doniger of POSC was appointed as its Chair. During this period, Dictionary activities included reviving interest, adding functionality for mappings and versioning, and reconnecting with groups that could use and contribute.
The overarching change in context was the growing interest in using Internet and XML technology to develop industry standard mechanisms for data transfer in both eCommerce and petrotechnical areas of industry activity. Work was done to attract interest in reviving the Dictionary with XML groups as well as traditional EDI and data base modeling groups.
Dictionary Scope
Some important observations have been made regarding the appropriate scope of content for the Dictionary to rectify and align the written intentions, the actual content, and industry needs.
According to the original Dictionary guidelines, this is a data Dictionary intended to record entries of definitions and terms for data elements and data classes (strangely called glossary entries). [It can be surmised that the name glossary entry referred to the fact that data class entries weren't really data (element) definitions that can express values for instances of associated objects (or data entities in the entity-relationship modeling formalism. Rather, glossary entries names classes corresponding to said objects.] In addition, there were references to the recording of code value enumerations in the Dictionary, although there was no explicit provision for this in the guidelines.
By observation, the actual content of the Dictionary contains definitions for elements implicitly associated with classes, classes, code values implicitly from enumerations as well as for material items, equipment items, business processes, technical activities, etc. This raises for consideration the question of the proper boundaries for the Dictionary. External interests expressed recently support a wider scope of types of definitions. This includes interest from the equipment and material classification work in the PIDX Classification Work Group and elsewhere, as well as interest from the REGS group and others for code value enumerations.
Mapping Usage
It is believed strongly that the Dictionary must record and publish links between definitions and terms and their use in formats and schemas. It is conjectured that one of the reasons for the cessation of Dictionary activity was the lack of the affirmation provided by such links. In fact, some groups used creative means to stamp their name or even the name of a format (EDI transaction set) or model (data base design) in the Dictionary's content base (then available as a populated relational data base). At best, these links were partial and incomplete.
The policy of mapping usage found its way into the renewed dialogue about the Dictionary and into a new Web enabled tool for accessing Dictionary content. Usage mappings were seeded with the partial links embedded in the old Dictionary data base. Gradually, new usage mapping work is beginning and more is anticipated from various groups.
Internet and XML Technology
The renewed interest in the Dictionary was conveyed to the ComProServ project team during their development work in the fall and winter of '01, but the use of the Dictionary was limited and no usage mapping was defined. By the adoption of what became RP 3901, the core eCommerce standards for PIDX, there was a list of nearly one thousand elements from this work ready for mapping and, where necessary, the development of revised or new Dictionary entries. Unfortunately, there was no ongoing group of resources to take up this work. As of this writing in fall of '03, a renewed effort to identify resources to perform the usage mapping is underway.
Resources
One by one, Dictionary coordinators are being solicited and identified for various groups that manage and develop specifications for data models and data transfers. This group of coordinators will promote and oversee the renewed Dictionary activities.
Guidelines
The following sections fulfill the need to re-visit and re-vitalize the guidelines for the use of the Dictionary. On the one hand, the former guidelines require modifications and expansion. On the other hand, though, the current Dictionary content falls short of meeting the former guidelines. Therefore, special remedial guidelines are needed to correct these deficiencies over time. It is not possible to make a concerted effort to upgrade the entire Dictionary content. This will have to be done on an as-needed basis.
Process
The original Dictionary process for submissions, review, integration, and approvals is largely still relevant. Refinements to the process will be made, especially to establish a workable versioning and release schedule.