Re: W3C officially launches Web Payments initiative

On 19 October 2014 20:45, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:

> On 10/15/2014 11:36 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> > Congrats Manu, and all.  Lots of very hard work paying off!
> >
> > Are you not going to chair this group?
>
> No, I'm not and that's a good thing for a number of reasons:
>
> 1. The chairs for official W3C work need to come from large industry
> players to signal to other large industry players that we have the right
> organizations at the table. Dave Ezell is from the retail space,
> specifically the National Association of Convenience Stores (if you buy
> gasoline, you use their services). Erik Anderson is from Bloomberg,
> which is a big player and trusted name in the finance world.
>
> 2. It lets me focus on representing the use cases and specs that have
> been developed in this community without raising concerns about the
> chairs having a conflict of interest.
>
> I have been asked to chair some of the technical work, and I've pushed
> back a bit because I don't want a perceived (or real) conflict of
> interest to be used against the work that we're doing here.
>
> For example, an organization that doesn't want the W3C to succeed in
> this endeavor could accuse the technical working group of playing
> favorites by appointing a person that has a technical horse in the race
> to a position of leadership. In reality, the argument is spurious, but
> it would waste precious time convincing people that the W3C formal
> objection and voting process is there to prevent such a thing from
> happening. I've never heard of a rogue chair in W3C ignoring consensus,
> but if such a thing were to happen, they'd quickly find themselves removed.
>
> So, I may chair some future technical work if I'm asked to do so, but
> only if we can't find someone better and the perceived conflict of
> interest is low to non-existent. I think W3C has chosen very wisely for
> the Web Payments IG chairs. I know both of them and trust that they will
> do a splendid job once the IG finds its footing.
>
> So, while I don't think I will be chairing anything any time soon,
> Digital Bazaar (for profit), the Open Payments Foundation (non-profit),
> and the Web Payments CG (R&D / tech / civil society) will be deeply
> involved and represented in the official W3C work that will happen over
> the next several years.
>

Thanks for explaining.  You are a great chair, and even better on the
technical side.  It's going to be good that some of your time is
(potentially) freed up.


>
> -- manu
>
> --
> Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
> Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
> blog: The Marathonic Dawn of Web Payments
> http://manu.sporny.org/2014/dawn-of-web-payments/
>