WZDx v3 Specification Update Subgroup Meeting Notes, 2020 03 26

Virtual Attendees

• Arizona DOT - Adam Carreon
• Booz Allen Hamilton - Eric Ricciardi
• Booz Allen Hamilton - Mahsa Ettefagh
• Castle Rock - Kristin Virshbo
• City of Austin - Luke Urie
• Esri - Jon Nystrom
• Gannett Fleming - Mike Davidson
• General Motors - David Craig
• HERE - Weimin Huang
• Hill and Smith - Todd Hartnett
• ICF - Polly Okunieff
• ICF - Rachel Ostroff
• iCone - Ross Sheckler
• Iowa DOT - Dan Sprengeler
• Iowa DOT - Willy Sorenson
• Iowa State University - Skylar Knickerbocker
• ITE - Siva Narla
• IBI Group - Jacob Brady
• IBI Group - Michelle Boucher
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority - Kali Fogle
• Maryland DOT - Carole Delion
• Minnesota DOT - Rashmi Brewer
• Missouri DOT - Alex Wassman
• Missouri DOT - Dan Oesch
• Nexar - Preston Read
• Noblis - Kellen Shain
• Panasonic - Lauren Cordova
• Seattle DOT - Craig Moore
• SharedStreets - Kevin Webb
• Shuman Consulting Group, LLC - Valerie Shuman
• SWRI - Lynne Randolph
• Texas DOT - Jianming Ma
• TomTom - Robert Hoyler
• Trillium Transit - Aaron Antrim
• Trillium Transit - Heidi Guenin
• Uber ATG - Sammy Ghorbanian
• USDOT BTS - Derald Dudley
• USDOT FHWA - Deborah Curtis
• USDOT ITS JPO - Ariel Gold*
• USDOT OCIO - Amy Nelson
• Utah DOT - Chuck Felice
• Ver-mac - Stephane Lapierre
• Virginia DOT - David Rush
• Volpe - Mark Mockett
• Volpe - Nate Deshmukh Towery
• Volpe - Wes Alford
• Washington State DOT - Tom Stidham
• Woolpert - Michael Hanowsky
• Woolpert - Qassim Abdullah
• Wyoming DOT - Charlie Bauer

Presentation Slides can be accessed here

Purpose and Intended Outcomes:

• Formalize the launch of the WZDx v3 Specification Update Subgroup and introduce Co-Chairs
• Discuss the v3 Subgroup charter, activities, and meeting cadence
• Clarify member roles and responsibilities
• Outline next steps and action items

Agenda

• Sign-in and Welcome
• Co-Chairs Introduction
• WZDx v3 Specification Update Subgroup Charter Review
• Using GitHub: Proposing Changes to the WZDx Specification
• Backlog Grooming and Prioritization Criteria of Issues/Pull Requests
• Action Items and Next Steps

Discussion Summary

The v3 Specification Update Subgroup was introduced to the Co-chairs and presented with slides discussing the following topics:

• Co-Chairs

  • Skylar Knickerbocker – Research Engineer, Iowa State University, Institute for Transportation
  • Craig Moore – Street Use Data and GIS Manager, Seattle DOT
  • David Craig – Chief of Maps, General Motors Vehicle Engineering Center
  • Jacob Brady – Software Developer, Intelligent Systems Development, IBI Group

• Subgroup Purpose and Scope – The purpose of the WZDx Specification Update Subgroup was declared to be:

  • Formed under the broader WZDWG, the WZDx v3 Specification Update Subgroup will manage future developments and publications of the specification.
  • Review version 2 of the WZDx Specification
  • Identify how the specification may be expanded/narrowed to better meet stakeholder needs
  • Recommend specification changes to the broader WZDWG
  • Groom the backlog for potential future changes to the specification

• Subgroup Objectives – The objectives of the subgroup were specified to be:

1. Provide opportunities for WZDWG members to propose improvements to the specification.
2. Review the current WZDx Specification and comments related to it on GitHub or received via email from data producers/users.
3. Recommend incremental changes to the current WZDx Specification that help to better meet the current and future needs of data producers/users of work zone activity data.
4. Groom the backlog for potential future changes and sources of technical input to aid development.
5. Refine the process for updating, testing, and publishing future versions of the WZDx Specification.
6. Support open scalable standards that accommodate diverse mission needs for the creation, consumption, mapping, publication, and analysis of work zone event information.

• Subgroup Activities & Milestones – The major milestones and upcoming activities were discussed. We anticipate holding a meeting every three weeks. The tentative target dates and milestones are as follows:

  • April 30, 2020: Check-in with co-chairs to conduct a review of outstanding and new issues/PRs; Gather co-chairs’ initial feedback on open PRs and their prioritization criteria
  • May 30, 2020: Review final PRs and associated new business rules; Shortlist new elements and interdependencies for v3; clarify ownership for drafting updates; Update the example feed based on the proposed specification changes
  • **June 30, 2020:**Finalize all technical and editorial changes to v3 spec. – conduct comprehensive QA/QC of changes including review/comparison to relative standards and Work Zone Data Dictionary; Coordinate the July WZDWG presentation with other WZDx Subgroups and manage any interdependencies in timelines
  • July 27, 2020: Present proposed WZDx v3 Specification changes to the WZDWG and begin the voting process (10-business day timeline for voting)
  • August 30, 2020: Update GitHub references, perform a final QA/QC of v3 Specification, create specification release notes, groom backlog of issues and pull requests, collate other documentation

• General Notes –

  • Recurring events’ is a pain point topic we discussed in WZDx v2 - We have to work in a lot of compatibility to break recurring events into individual events, to account for this
  • Some lane enumerations might not make sense since they refer to multiple lanes - Issue #72 – contribute to that discussion to help with this; Craig – we left it like this to not break backward compatibility for those using those values, and so they can port it over. We can reevaluate going forward.
  • There was a question on where to find all the different state feeds involved in using WZDx: https://github.com/usdot-jpo-ode/jpo-wzdx/blob/master/README.md#who-is-involved-in-developing-wzdx; https://datahub.transportation.gov/Roadways-and-Bridges/Work-Zone-Data-Exchange-WZDx-Feed-Registry/69qe-yiui
  • Reinforce that v3 will not break backwards compatibility with v2
  • Charter is posted on Wiki, as well as attached to the meeting invite
  • Lynne Randolph: Can you add TxDOT's feed to the page? Are they the only v2 one so far? TA Subgroup will be supporting these efforts; It’ll take a little while to get this set up, though; Can we enlist support to help TxDOT validate? Yes – we’ll add as action item, but we want more sustainable support rather than one-off help going forward.

Action Items and Next Steps

• Review existing issues and pull requests on GitHub related to the WZDx Specification and add new, suggested updates
• List out potential new WZDx v3 data elements/features
• Recommend additional technical resources