BIC membership gives easy access to our technical experts and like-minded people from other BIC member organisations across the book industry supply chain. One of the many ways in which you can very easily connect online is via our Technical Implementation Clinics. We host two technical clinics exclusively for our members: one for the book trade and one for the library community:
Having these clinics online means we’re able to provide an agile real-time way of managing technical issues or queries raised by our members. Representatives from all BIC member organisations are invited to discuss and share, queries and issues they may be experiencing against number of areas for which the Technical Implementation Clinic is responsible: Technical issues/queries may include (but won’t be limited to) questions relating to:
- EDI (Tradacoms/EDIFACT)
- Invoicing standards/requirements
- BIC Realtime (for Trade)
- BIC Realtime for Libraries
- ONIX implementation and related issues
- Industry Returns Initiative (IRI)
- SANs
- Libraries Communication Framework (LCF)
- RFID in Libraries and
- any other technical implementation issues pertaining to standards or best practices falling within BIC’s remit, but usually concerned primarily with transactional data/systems.
Both clinics are managed predominantly online via the combined use of Slack, GitHub, and Google Drive/docs. Each “clinic” will have one summary face to face meeting per annum if deemed necessary/desirable. Small, issue specific, ad-hoc online meetings may be called throughout the year (if required), depending on the nature of the issue in question.
How does it work?
Slack
Slack will be the central place where any BIC member organisation can start the conversation about an issue before BIC progresses the issue to GitHub. Any BIC member can be given access to Slack on request. Revised/amended, or newly created BIC best practice, or standards documents that may result from the issue can also be shared in Slack.
GitHub
Github – designed primarily as a collaborative tool for software source code development – will then provide:
- Ability for BIC to develop one or more repositories for managing queries/issues relating to the topic(s).
- Issue tracking and document maintenance/revision.
- Strong version management.
- Issues and associated discussion can be viewed by anyone.
- Documentation that can be viewed by anyone.
- Issues/tasks can be assigned to individuals or groups.
- Open issues can move through various project stages from initial “Triage” to “Completed”.
- The ability to categorise queries / issue reports according in various ways:
- General message format queries / requests for clarification
- Code list queries / requests for clarification
- Documentation error reports
- New feature requests
- The ability to produce periodic analysis of performance overall and by individual/group
Google Drive/docs
Google Drive/docs is used by BIC and its technical editors to collaboratively work on/manage/share any BIC documentation creation, updates/revisions etc.
Escalation of issues to the relevant BIC committee(s)
Should an issue require substantial and/or costly support, or the need for a wider BIC project is identified, the issue will be escalated to the appropriate committee by BIC’s Executive Director and/or technical consultant for further consideration.
Get involved
If you are from a BIC Member organization and would like to have access to our community on Slack for the purposes of discussing/resolving technical issues associated with the book industry supply chain, please contact us in the first instance.