Re: W3C Director's Blog on EME

Regarding "engaging in dialog":

It seems to me that any reading of Tim's post tells us what he plans on
deciding, but I'll take your word that he's still got an open mind.

==

Regarding confidentiality:

I understood that member-confidentiality was a duty of all W3C
participants, not just members.

Is the process that W3C staff are free to disclose member-confidential
material when they feel it is warranted, without consulting the affected
members, but members are not?

Are there any guidelines on which circumstances warrant unilateral
waiver of member confidentiality, or is it a purely ad hoc process?

Is this documented anywhere?

I ask because I've been repeatedly warned -- even when no breach
occurred -- that member confidentiality is paramount to the
organization, and having reviewed the process guidance at the firm and
urgent suggestion of both the W3C CEO and communications director, I
didn't see anything about this.

Can members petition the W3C to make other member-confidential material
public, or is this a purely internal matter? I would certainly make such
petitions if I knew they were part of the process, and I'd love to know
more about that process.

Thank you,

Cory

On 03/09/2017 06:44 AM, Philippe Le Hégaret wrote:
> On 3/9/2017 9:13 AM, Cory Doctorow wrote:
>> Thanks, Philippe, but that doesn't really answer the question.
>>
>> There's a poll pending on the publication of EME. There is significant
>> controversy over this -- and it's mounting. There is an absolute
>> certainty that the poll will not have anything like consensus, meaning
>> that Tim will have the final say.
> 
> Correct.
> 
>> Tim just published an op-ed that appears to prefigure the outcome of
>> that poll, which has not taken place (and which is long overdue at this
>> point).
>>
>> What should the members make of this situation? Is Tim still willing to
>> listen to his members, or should we assume that regardless of the poll's
>> outcome, he's already made up his mind? Because it's very hard to read
>> it otherwise.
> 
> He is still willing to listen to his members at this time. I do not
> believe that we have the full picture of the state of the membership. As
> you pointed out, we will not have consensus. Again, I do not believe
> anyone would want the Director to stop engaging in the dialog.
> 
>> I'm disappointed that it took 11 days to come up with this very cursory
>> statement from the W3C.
> 
> Sorry, but there are several pending questions around the EME
> specification and we're trying to go through them. I'm sure that several
> of our Members are eager to us to move the specification forward, ie
> start the poll. We published the security disclosure best practices last
> week and we're checking some facts around state of implementations this
> week.
> 
>> Also, can you clarify the confidential status of poll outcomes? I know
>> that some of the 23 members who opposed charter renewal waived their
>> right to confidentiality to me, and I published a list of those members,
>> but some did not, and I was careful not to disclose totals because I had
>> been previously warned that even oblique mentions of poll outcomes were
>> covered by member confidentiality and could not be mentioned on public
>> lists like this one (in that case, I merely disclosed an approximate
>> *proportion* of votes in the poll, and was censured for breaching
>> confidentiality).
>>
>> Are poll numbers disclosable now?
> 
> The state hasn't changed. I chose to disclose the numbers of objections
> to make it clear of the importance of the Director to engage in the
> dialog. As you pointed out, that number probably changed in the recent
> months anyway.
> 
> Philippe
> 
> 
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