RE: [waf] Draft of merged Web Apps WG charter available

I'm Bcc:ing the AC List because I believe that other AC members may be
interested in my comments, but I don't want WG members to accidentally
cc the AC list.

My comments are mainly that the charter is too broad in scope and too
undefined in deliverables.  The broadness of scope of the current WAF
charter has precluded our organization from significantly participating
in the Working Group, and this rechartering exacerbates the problem
going forward.  In our case, Hal Lockhart is a supremely qualified
person to work on Access Control but has spent little time on that area
of work because the current WAF is so broad in scope.  In another
example, we have other people who are qualified and interested in the
Widgets work but are unable to participate for the same reasons.  

The usual solution for the problem of a very broad scope in charter is
to refactor into more WGs with smaller charters.  I prefer that but I'm
also open to other solutions that increase the participation in
deliverying items under the W3C Process.  I'm very uncomfortable with
the current charter scope and single WG process.  

As an example of the problems of broad and open scope, I am disappointed
by the way that Access Control was added to the Working Groups
deliverables without AC review and the usual deliverables of
requirements and use cases.  It seems that almost immediately after WAF
was chartered [1] in November 2005, it immediately took over editing the
"Authorizing Read Access to XML Content Using the <?access-control?>
Processing Instruction 1.0" document, as roughly described in [2].  I
realize that the charter says "Given that the rich Web client area is in
a phase of rapid development, the Working Group may become aware of the
urgent need for standardization of a technology not explicitly listed in
this charter, but still in the scope of the Working Group", but I fail
to see why such urgency that an AC review and normal process can be
ignored.  In the Access Control case, it was added almost immediately
after chartering in December 2005 and has been worked on sporadically
since then and we are now at January 2008.  I see considerable evidence
that the specification has "flown low on the radar" and there are still
many differences of opinion about fundamental requirements.  AC review
and publication of Requirements and Use Cases are good triggers for
early review and consensus building, and we did not see those.  This
lack of process on Access Control has meant that we have not tracked the
work nearly as closely as we would have liked, though we are now trying
to rectify that.

I would like the AC consulted whenever a deliverable is added.  I'd like
to see a more rigorous process that includes early publication of
requirements and use cases for each deliverable.  

Cheers,
Dave

[1] http://www.w3.org/2006/appformats/admin/charter.html
[2]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-appformats/2005Dec/0004.html 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: member-appformats-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:member-appformats-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Arthur Barstow
> Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 5:40 AM
> To: member-appformats WG
> Subject: [waf] Draft of merged Web Apps WG charter available
> 
> 
> A draft of the merged Web Apps charter is available for comments:
> 
>   <http://www.w3.org/2007/12/WebApps-Charter/WebApp-Charter-2007-
> proposed.html>
> 
> If you have any comments please send them to the 
> public-appformats mail list (preferably) or the 
> member-appformats mail list if you prefer.
> 
> Our 19 December Voice Conf (8:00am Boston time) will have a 
> agenda item for the Charter so you will also have an 
> opportunity to voice comments then.
> 
> Regards, AB
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> > Resent-From: w3c-ac-members@w3.org
> > From: "ext Ian B. Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>
> > Date: December 14, 2007 5:40:02 PM EST
> > To: w3c-ac-members@w3.org
> > Subject: Work in Progress on charters in Rich Web Clients Activity  
> > (Advance 	Notice); charter extensions
> > Reply-To: w3c-ac-forum@w3.org
> > Archived-At: <http://www.w3.org/mid/
> > 1197672002.4355.37.camel@localhost>
> >
> > Dear Advisory Committee Representative,
> >
> > This email provides:
> >
> >  * Advance notice of work on a charter for a Web 
> Applications Working
> >    Group, combining WebAPI and Web Application Formats (WAF).
> >
> >  * Advance notice of work on a new charter for the CDF Working Group
> >
> >  * Extensions to the current WebAPI, Web Application Formats (WAF),
> >    and Compound Document Formats (CDF) Working Group charters until
> >    31 January 2008.
> >
> > Please see below for more background and explanation.
> >
> > The extensions follow section 6.2.5 of the W3C Process Document:
> >   
> http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/groups#charter-extension
> >
> > and the advance notice section section 5.1:
> >
> > http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/
> > activities#ActivityDevelopment
> >
> > For Tim Berners-Lee, Director,
> > Chris Lilley, Interaction Domain Lead, Ian Jacobs, W3C 
> Communications 
> > Team
> >
> > --------------------------
> > The Rich Web Clients Activity
> > --------------------------
> >
> > The Rich Web Clients Activity [1] comprises three Working Groups:
> > WebAPI, Web Application Formats (WAF), and Compound 
> Document Formats 
> > (CDF). The W3C Team has been working with members of the relevant 
> > Working Groups on new charters. The existing charters recently 
> > expired, as the rechartering discussions have taken longer than 
> > envisaged; to allow time for further comments to be included and to 
> > allow the groups to continue work. Revised charters and an Activity 
> > proposal are expected to be available for AC review in 
> early January 
> > 2008.
> >
> > We welcome your general expressions of interest and support for the 
> > draft charters on <w3c-ac-forum@w3.org>. You may also send 
> substantive 
> > comments to any of the mailing lists associated with the existing 
> > groups, all of which have public archives:
> >
> >  For CDF [2]:      <public-cdf@w3.org>
> >  For Web API [3]:  <public-webapi@w3.org>
> >  For WAF [4]:      <public-appformats@w3.org>
> >
> > [1] http://www.w3.org/2006/rwc/Activity
> > [2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-cdf/
> > [3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapi/
> > [4] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-appformats/
> >
> > ------------------------------------------
> > Web Applications to combine WebAPI and WAF
> > ------------------------------------------
> >
> > Following discussions at the TPAC and with the agreement of the two 
> > current chairs, the plan is to merge WebAPI and WAF into one group, 
> > tentatively called Web Applications.
> >
> > Following a review of editing resources, timescales and document 
> > editors have also been updated. The possibility of moving some 
> > reusable components from the HTML WG (such as the canvas 
> API) to the 
> > new group, or to a task force composed of WebAPI, SVG and HTML, is 
> > also under consideration.
> >
> > Proposed draft charter:
> >  http://www.w3.org/2007/12/WebApps-Charter/WebApp-Charter-2007-
> > proposed
> >
> > ---------------------------------------
> > Compound Document Formats Working Group
> > ---------------------------------------
> >
> > The CDF Working Group, having brought its work package one 
> (Compound 
> > Documents by Reference) deliverables to Candidate 
> Recommendation and 
> > produced a test suite, would move onto work package two (Compound 
> > Documents by Inclusion) in the new charter period. This group would 
> > also move to conducting most technical work in public.
> >
> > Proposed draft charter:
> >  http://www.w3.org/2007/11/CDF_rechartering/CDF-proposed
> > -- 
> > Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
> > Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447
> 
> 
>

Received on Saturday, 12 January 2008 01:00:46 UTC