T10 Document Access

INCITS Policy on Document Access

INCITS has established policies regarding document access for its technical committees. Please see the INCITS Organization, Policies and Procedures for the complete policy. T10 has adopted the public-access model allowed by this policy. This model allows the public to access the vast majority of T10 documents.

The significant exception is that once a standard is approved, the working drafts for that standard becomer available only to T10 members. T10 members may need access to these old working drafts while developing new standards. If you need an approved standard, please support the standards development process by buying the official standard; they are not expensive.

A requirement for adopting the public-access model, was that the site "shall ensure that a notification is accepted by the person seeking access (the 'user') before access is granted". The notification says the user:

• Agrees that he or she has read the INCITS Patent Policy and the INCITS Antitrust Guidelines in the INCITS Organization, Policies and Procedures
• Acknowledges that the activities of the committee are governed by the INCITS policies and procedures as specified in the INCITS Antitrust Guidelines in the INCITS Organization, Policies and Procedures
• Acknowledges that draft documents may change at any time, without notice.

T10.org implementation of the public-access model

T10.org implements the public-access model by using a File Access Monitor GCI script. This script attempts to keep track of users by sending a 'persistent' cookie to the user's web browser. A cookie is basically a short text string that is stored in the browser's cookie file. A part of the cookie says how long the cookie should be saved. T10.org asks your browser to save the cookie one year and the only information in the cookie is an unique code that the CGI script can use on subsequent access attempts to look up the information you typed into the File Access Monitor form. When everything works, the user is remembered and they do not have to fill out the File Access Monitor form again (unless they go more than a year without accessing t10.org).

Things can go wrong, however. When the user's web browser receives a persistent cookie it may keep the cookie until its expiration time. The key word here is 'may'. Some organizations set up their web browsers to only allow per-session cookies as the default behavior; these per-session cookies are discarded when the browser is closed. When the t10.org CGI script starts up, it asks your web browser for any cookies available for t10.org. (For security reasons, the script cannot ask for any other cookies.) If there are no t10.org cookies, then the script assumes the user is new. It asks the 'new' user to fill out the File Access Monitor form (again) and attempts to set a new persistent cookie.

Enabling Persistent Cookies

Enabling persistent cookies for t10.org will make your experience on this site much smoother as you will not have to keep filling out the File Access Monitor form. Please note that you do not have to enable persistent cookies for all web sites. Most web browsers allow you to control which web sites can set persistent cookies:

• On MS Internet Explorer, go to Tools - Internet Options - Privacy - Sites. Enter t10.org in the address box and click the Allow button.
• On Firefox, go to Tools - Options - Security (or Privacy) - Cookies - Exceptions. Enter t10.org in the address box and click the Allow button.
• On Chrome, click on the wrench, then Options - Under the Hood - Privacy - Content settings - Cookies - Manage exceptions. Enter t10.org in the Hostname Pattern and click the Allow button.
• On other browsers, please consult your documentation.

T10 Member vs. Guest Access

The File Access Monitor form has two sections. The first section is for guests and it asks for some contact information. This information is used to manage the t10.org site and is not shared with other organizations. The second section allows T10 members to identify themselves by using their T10 password.

Full Document Access for People who work for T10 Member Organizations

If you work for a T10 member organization, but are not a T10 principal or alternate member, you can still get full T10 document access. When you fill out the guest portion of the File Access Monitor form, be sure to use your company email address. The File Access Monitor CGI script will recognize your company's domain name in your email address and will send you an email that includes a link to enable your full access rights. (Unfortunately, this email takes a few seconds to get to you, so the first file you attempted to access will be denied if it needs more than guest privileges. If this happens, please try again once you have clicked on the email link.)

Also, make sure that the company email address you provide is one that can receive email from outside your company; t10.org is outside your company. For example, a lot of companies will not accept an email to jsmith@xyz.com, but will accept an email to john.smith@xyz.com.

(This page was last updated 2020/12/11)