The following is a preview of what some of our workgroups and subgroups will be discussing during the conference.
Broker Advisory: The group has been seeking a way for MLSs to see which other MLSs, brokerages and software vendors have worked together, including an account of their experiences and processes involved, dubbed the “Experience Record.” This case has been passed to the R&D Workgroup. The group also discussed the creation of a resource for tracking the details of obtaining data feeds from MLSs and other data providers, including feed types available (IDX, VOW, etc.), business rules, compliance processes and statuses offered. This has also been passed to the R&D Workgroup. Lastly, there has been support for entering social media profiles in the MLS in a standardized way to create less duplication of effort and better quality downstream for other websites and listing portals.
Data Dictionary: Elements voted into Data Dictionary 2.1 will be released with 2.0 instead. Singular/plural naming conventions for resources, fields and lookups have been reviewed, and singular will be the standard going forward. Relationships between lookup fields may be standardized (e.g., only certain PropertySubtypes allowed under each PropertyType); the Fast Track Subgroup is working on relationship recommendations. The ArchitecturalStyle field is currently open with no enumerations; the lookups can likely be standardized and the field changed to open with enumerations.
Internet Tracking: The group has continued discussion on name changes for some of the Summary Fields of the Tracking Fields 2.0.10 Spreadsheet, centering on the word, “total” and its connotation as a “final” number as opposed to a running count, with “count” proposed to replace “total.” Pluralization, word tense and PascalCase have also been discussed. Although there will not be a workgroup meeting during the conference, there will be a session about Internet Tracking in the real world that centers on the Internet Tracking Pixel Project.
Interoperability: The group has been creating business cases and pushing them to relevant workgroups, including the following topics: Pushing Event Data and Types, Webhooks, Authentication, Business Rules, Consumer and Agent Notifications, Local Field Definitions, Offer Management to Offer Management/Transaction Management, Industry Role and Process Mapping, and Transaction Management to Transaction Management. In addition, the group is updating a workflow with links to standards and specifications for a new showing provider wanting to integrate their product into a market, creating new workflows for other vendors managing pieces of the transaction, and adding new offer management metadata to a working spreadsheet and crafting a standard for that.
Research & Development: Current topics include… Suggested Payloads – determining which subject matter experts, subgroups and other resources may help with tagging fields for payloads for Showings, CRM, Offer Management, Rental and Appraisal. Business Linkage Resource (Experience Record) – a resource containing information about the relationships and experience between data providers and MLSs. MLS Data Process Resource – a centralized resource to house information about the process to obtain data from each organization that provides it. Display Rules Resource – a resource to contain information such as required font sizes, disclaimers, logos, etc., for public display of MLS data; similar to the Data Process Resource, many MLS organizations have specific display requirements, but locating them may not be straightforward.
Transport: Current topics include… Single Feeds – allows for a single data feed from a single data source where currently exists multiple feeds with different usage restrictions. RESO Common Format – establishes a normative JSON data format that corresponds with the RESO Data Dictionary and is compatible with existing Web API implementations for retrieving or creating data. Deprecated Data Elements – extends the Data Dictionary Field and Lookup resources to convey information about new and deprecated fields and lookups. OAuth2 Refresh Tokens – add refresh tokens as a third, machine-friendly auth option in cases like the RESO Web API and Webhooks, as well as APIs that support RESO Common Format. Add/Edit with Media – defines how to Create, Update and Delete data in the RESO Web API relative to media.
Universal Property Identifier (UPI): The group is actively addressing a duplication issue and a format change that includes a transition to RESO’s Uniform Resource Name (URN) namespace. Multiple MLS vendors have shared their metadata to show where issues may be lurking in the U.S. and Canada. Although the percentage of duplicates is quite low, there are ways to readily make the duplicate rate even lower to the point of negligible. Having a complete list of county-level metadata has also been prioritized.
Subgroups: Activity has been particularly strong for Commercial Real Estate (CRE), Rental, Certification Analytics and Fast Track. The CRE group is in pursuit of a new CRE Class in the Data Dictionary. Rental recently recommended a new field called LeaseTermOptions and has been working on Move-in Costs (i.e., pet deposit, security deposit amounts, etc.). Fast Track discussed the mapping suggestion process and sheet format. Suggested mappings for PropertyType and PropertySubtype were reviewed, and the group voted to lock and standardize Country and StateOrProvince around the ISO standard, which Certification Analytics will review. Six organizations have added their recommendations for a new Building Resource in the Building Subgroup, which have been tallied for each potential field.
Catch up on recent workgroup meeting happenings before the conference. | RESO WORKGROUP COLLABORATION SYSTEM
