Re: Obsoleting, round N!

Latest roll-up, including some clarifications suggested by a diligent colleague, and outlining both the (A) ‘wide review in parallel with AC review’ and (B) ‘wide review before AC formal review’ and options, as suggested by Steve.

* * * *

6.9 Obsoleting or Rescinding a W3C Recommendation

W3C may rescind a Recommendation, for example if the Recommendation contains many errors that conflict with a later version or if W3C discovers burdensome patent claims that affect implementers and cannot be resolved; see the W3C Patent Policy [PUB33] and in particular section 5 (bullet 10) and section 7.5. 

W3C may obsolete a Recommendation, for example if the W3C Community decides that the Recommendation no longer represents best practices, or is not adopted and is unlikely to be adopted.

In this clause, the word 'retire' is used to refer to either obsoleting or rescinding a Recommendation. W3C only retires entire Recommendations. To retire some part of a Recommendation, W3C follows the process for modifying a Recommendation in section <<xref 6.7>>.

The process to retire a specification may be initiated:
a) By anyone on request to the Working Group that owns it (if it exists) or the TAG, and that group agrees;
b) By the Director;
c) On the request of anyone if their request to the WG or TAG is not acted on within 90 days of the date of their request;
d) By 5% of the Advisory Committee.

— then either A:
[[A The Director must announce the proposal to retire a W3C Recommendation to other W3C groups using at least the mailing list for all chairs, the public, and by starting an Advisory Committee review. The announcement:
* must indicate that this is a Proposal to Rescind, or a proposal to Obsolete, a Recommendation;
* must identify the Recommendation (by stable URL);
* must include the rationale for retiring the Recommendation;
* should document known implementation;
* must identify known dependencies and solicit review from all dependent Working Groups;
* must solicit public review;
* must specify the deadline for review comments, which must be at least four weeks after the Director's announcement.
/A]]

— or B:
[[B
The initiator (WG, TAG, Director, the portion of the AC, or the individual) must announce the proposal to retire a W3C Recommendation to other W3C groups using at least the mailing list for all chairs, and the public, such that it has wide review. The announcement:
* must indicate that this is a Proposal to Rescind, or a proposal to Obsolete, a Recommendation;
* must identify the Recommendation (by stable URL);
* must include the rationale for retiring the Recommendation;
* should document known implementation;
* must identify known dependencies and solicit review from all dependent Working Groups;
* must solicit public review;
* must specify the deadline for review comments, which must be at least four weeks after the Director's announcement.
If the initiator decides to proceed after this wide review, the Director starts an Advisory Committee review. That review must include consideration of the results of the wide review above.
/B]]

After the AC review, the Director decides whether to proceed.

If there is any dissent in the Advisory Committee review, the Director must publish the substantive content of the dissent to W3C and the public, and must formally address the comment at least 14 days before any publication as a Retired Recommendation. The Advisory Committee may appeal the Director's decision.

A retired Recommendation must be published with up to date status. The status 'Rescinded' or 'Obsoleted' should link to a page explaining the meaning of the term.

In the case of a Rescinded Recommendation, the updated version may remove the rescinded content (i.e. the main body of the document).

Once W3C has published a Rescinded Recommendation, future W3C technical reports must not include normative references to it.

Note: the original Recommendation document will continue to be available at its version-specific URL.



David Singer
Manager, Software Standards, Apple Inc.