Question 10/I - General service framework for document communication
(new Question)

Considering

(a) that the T.400-Series of Recommendations have been defined for
Document Architecture, Transfer, and Manipulation, and that these
Recommendations will be further developed;

(b) that several types of documents are already specifically defined in
the T.500-Series, e.g. Mixed Mode, Processable Mode No. 1;

(c) that these Recommendations provide for the ability to define and to
transfer processable, formatted, and formatted processable
documents containing any one or a combination of character-raster
graphics, and geometric graphics content, and other types of contents;

(d) that these Recommendations now form the basis for the further
development of Telematic services such as Telefax 4, Teletex, etc.;

(e) that Recommendations are now available that define the
Interpersonal Messaging Service as one of the Telematic services;

(f) that a broad variety of information processing equipment is
available
and able to handle highly structured text composed of combination of
characters, raster graphics and geometric graphics content as well as
business graphic or table layouts of data files, and that it is
desirable
for this equipment to interchange these documents in an editable form
on a common basis;

(g) that new document and communication application profiles based on
the T.500 and T.560-Series of Recommendations respectively, could
allow for the transmission of these documents;

(h) that various national and international organizations are already
involved in the definition of document application profiles,

it is proposed

that the CCITT should study a general service framework for document
communication, and specifically:

1. the definition of additional types of documents that take advantage
of the processable and mixed mode capabilities;

2. the definition of new processable modes:

based on a hierarchy of document application profiles of the T.500-
Series of Recommendations, and taking into account information
processing equipment which can handle highly structured text
composed of a combination of characters, raster graphics and
geometric graphics content, as well as business graphics or table
layouts of data files;

3. the coordination of the CCITT defined document application profiles
and those which are (or will be) defined by other international
organizations;

4. the operational rules for interchange of documents based on
different document application profiles enabling this interchange to be
achieved efficiently with a minimum loss of information;

5. the use of these documents in the intercommunication between
Telematic services;

6. the document communication interfaces that need to be defined
from user requirements, such as for example the ability to merge
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) data into documents.