Welcome!

Hi everyone,

A very belated warm welcome to the paid content community group!  I have
been chatting to people 1:1 over the last few months to try and gauge
interest in the group and what we might achieve for the benefit of
publishers, the web, and users (in no particular order!).

Some of the kinds of issues that have surfaced include:

*Exploring technical issues with potential network or web platform
solutions:*

- "first click free" alternatives
- concurrent logins (password sharing)
- authentication mechanisms, and interaction with caching/CDNs
- security (rollout of TLS)
- payments/paywalls (including control of subscription/cancellation flows)
- content distribution (eg AMP)

*Promoting understanding and adoption of existing standards / efforts*, for
example:

- Provenance metadata standard
<https://www.w3.org/TR/2013/REC-prov-dm-20130430/> (combating fake news) [1]
- Digital offers <https://www.w3.org/community/digitaloffers/> [2]
- Permissions and obligations <https://www.w3.org/2016/poe/wiki/Main_Page>
[3]

*Setting out use cases to act as inputs to other groups*, such as working
groups that produce new web platform features, or the TAG as overall
stewards of the web architecture, to help those outside the industry to
understand our users.  Things like:

- Engagement journeys
- Notification / re-engagement
- Subscription on-boarding

In terms of working process, I don't have specific preferences personally,
but many community groups operate successfully using a combination of a
mailing list and regular teleconferences.

I would like to ask everyone to please respond very briefly to answer some
questions to help us shape the direction of the group:

1. Which of the topics above most interest you?
2. Do you have anything to add to the lists above?
3. For the issues that interest you, what would progress look like?
4. Who else should be here?

Finally, I will be leaving the FT in April
<https://trib.tv/2016/12/09/leaving-ft/> [4], but will remain a member of
the TAG <https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/> [5] and can continue involvement
with this group but am looking to share chairing responsibilities with
someone else. If you are interested in helping with this, please let me
know!

Many thanks,

Andrew

[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/2013/REC-prov-dm-20130430/
[2] https://www.w3.org/community/digitaloffers/
[3] https://www.w3.org/2016/poe/wiki/Main_Page
[4] https://trib.tv/2016/12/09/leaving-ft/
[5] https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/