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OGF misses a chance with Pharma & EDA

GGF18 included a series of sessions that were intended to capture requirements from the Pharmaceutical and Electronic Design Automation industries, with the intended output of guiding and prioritising the standards work in OGF. These started well. A session on EDA produced a small set of priotised requirements. Then the Pharma folks had their turn and produced a similar set, with some overlaps.

Unfortunately things went wrong after that. These requirements were added to a veritable soup of other requirements, some of which were reasonable and some of which were high-level and vague. Then people made an attempt to order all these, which ran out of steam because the list was too long. The original focus from the industry speakers was lost.

The goal of these sessions was highly desirable but this time it wasn't achieved. Afterwards I heard industry representatives bemoaning the outcome. They received the impression that the OGF is rather an academic organisation that is not focussed on the needs of industry. I know that isn't the case but this is the image that was generated.

I wouldn't want the OGF to give up on this. The dedicated sessions worked well; the OGF just needs a more direct mechanism for acknowledging and addressing the issues raised.

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