WPWG Vendor Neutrality (was Re: Update on Web Payments Working Group)

On 04/04/2016 06:49 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> My first question, is what wasnt Manu the chair of the group?  He is 
> eminently qualified.  I would have had much more confidence in 
> getting a world class spec to REC with him at the helm.

Thank you for the vote of confidence, Melvin. Here's why I'm not a Chair
nor should be one:

Chairs are supposed to be completely neutral. If I were a chair, I (nor
my company) could push the Web Payments Community Group views via
proposed specs and change requests without coming across as partisan.
That is, it would be very hard for me to represent the consensus
position of this CG or to have any opinions of my company or my own.

We went into the Web Payments Working Group with several specs based on
what we thought the consensus position of the Web Payments Community
Group was. We did our best to merge those specs with the browser vendors
proposals and failed. That does not mean that we should give up now and
look elsewhere. Let's go through a few more options, which we have,
before suggesting that this work needs to be done elsewhere.

> Recent conversations indicate to me that, familiarity with W3C 
> technologies such Linked Data, are not as strong I would like to see
>  from a individuals guiding specifications.  This I would have
> thought would be a pre requisite, especially for guiding
> specification level decisions.

Yes, but we can't force people to do their homework. :(

> Is there some strange politics going on here?  The W3C is supposed
> to be vendor neutral.  That's like the "prime directive".

W3C is vendor neutral when the vendors have roughly equivalent captured
market size. So, it's vendor neutral between the largest browser
vendors. It is not vendor neutral between a large browser vendor and a
community group.

We should be under no presumption that we're on a level playing field.
We are not. The thing that helps at W3C is that almost everything is
done in public. So, if you don't like what you see, you have a voice:

https://github.com/w3c/browser-payment-api/issues

Log some issues, or pick an issue to comment on and track... remember
that in order to be effective, you have to keep it focused,
constructive, and suggest specific changes to specification text.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: The Web Browser API Incubation Anti-Pattern
http://manu.sporny.org/2016/browser-api-incubation-antipattern/

Received on Tuesday, 5 April 2016 20:45:09 UTC