Meeting Time: 10 March 2004, 11:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Location: FT Interactive Data, 100 Williams Street, New York City

As the result of discussions amongst members regarding the versioning of MDDL and its release cycle, the MDDL Steering Committee has agreed that the versioning and release strategy for MDDL be revised.

Previously, confusion in versioning has arisen because it is possible to have multiple releases in "beta" form. The rationale for this was based on specific members needs doing implementation such that a implementor could lock in on a particular version and develop their system based on that release. Only after the implementation was solidified would the release be upgraded to "draft" so that the vocabulary review process could begin. Similarly, only after the vocabulary review was complete would a release be upgraded to "final".

The new scheme, crafted with implementation and release cycles in mind, is based more on a fixed objective for each release within a fixed timeframe. Thus, implementors know when the deadlines for modifications to a release are and they can predict when a release will be promoted to "final" for production systems. The guidelines are thus:

• Only one release of MDDL will be in "beta" form at any given time. Enhancements and corrections to the current beta will be agressively pursued, documented, and posted as available.
• A "beta" release will be promoted to "draft" form when the target content is achieved (currently after approximately 3 months aligned with the calendar quarter).
• A "draft" release will only be modified if the structure or content is unclear or is not precise in representing the targeted content.
• A "draft" release will be promoted to "final" after approximately 3 months.
• Only "final" releases should be used in production.