NEF denotes the Nmr Exchange Format. The purpose of the NEF consortium is to establish, maintain, and distribute the NEF format for NMR data exchange together with related specifications and utilities. The consortium is committed to provide the NEF format in a free and open form, and to support program- specific extensions.
The NEF consortium relies on consensus between the participants as the only possible basis for a successful project. The charter therefore has only minimal provision for dealing with disputes.
In order to be accepted by all participants, it is important that the NEF does not appear to be the 'property' of any single organisation. For this reason the charter allows for the division of tasks between multiple organisations.
The organs of the consortium are the Assembly of members, the Executive Committee and Chairperson, the Secretariat, and the Specifications Repository.
The NEF project is governed by the Assembly of members, which is open to anybody that is engaged in software or services in a relevant scientific area, and that commit themselves to supporting the NEF format.
The Assembly meets at least once a year, possibly by audio or video conference, or in the form of a publicly accessible on-line discussion forum. The meeting accepts the report of the Executive Committee, and selects the membership of the Executive Committee, the Secretariat, and the Specifications Repository. All appointments are for one year periods, renewable indefinitely by subsequent assembly meetings. Assembly meetings must be called at least two weeks in advance and made known to all registered members of the Assembly. The agenda and decisions of Assembly meetings are public.
Changes to the Consortium charter or to the membership are the sole prerogative of the Assembly and cannot be delegated to the Executive Committee
All decisions of the Assembly, including on the invitation or exclusion of members, are taken by consensus. Where consensus cannot be obtained, decisions can be taken by a simple majority.
Between meetings, the authority of the NEF is delegated to an Executive Committee that acts on behalf of the NEF consortium, consulting as necessary. It is the task of the Executive Committee to guard, develop and promote the NEF standard. The agenda and decisions of Executive Committee meetings are public.
Decisions of the Executive Committee can be overruled by a general Assembly meeting, or by an extraordinary assembly meeting called for the purpose. Any member of the Executive Committee can call an extraordinary Assembly meeting.
The executive Committee selects its own Chairperson from among its members. He/She chairs the Executive Committee and is responsible for calling Committee meetings, and for reporting to the Assembly.
The Secretariat is responsible for maintaining the NEF web site and documentation, for keeping the Assembly membership list, for registering format change proposals, for maintaining the uniqueness of the tag prefixes and for implementing the decisions of the Executive Committee.
The Specifications Repository is responsible for maintaining the formal format specification, and for maintaining reference parsers and format validators.
Changes and enhancements to the NEF can be proposed by all members of the assembly. Changes and enhancements will be put forward in a structured fashion, comprised of a time period for public discussion regarding the merit of the proposed change/enhancement, a process of formal adoption/rejection, and an agreed time period for implementation. Proper versioning of the NEF will discriminate backward compatible minor changes from major, potentially incompatible changes.
To ensure that every developer can adopt the NEF standard, prefixes to the tags define unique namespaces. Prefixes are directly associated with a program, program suite or the accepted NEF standard and can be used as seen fit, provided it adheres to the NEF syntax. The secretariat assures the uniqueness of the prefixes. Every developer can register a prefix with the secretariat without the need for prior approval, provided the prefix is unique. The Executive Committee can revoke an allocated prefix in case it is deemed offensive, its usage inappropriate, creates confusion, or for other reasons that present a detrimental effect to the integrity or implementation of the standard.