Alistair MacDonald Stepping Down as Co-Chair

Hi, folks-

Last week, Alistair MacDonald let Olivier, Thierry, and me know that he 
was stepping down as Co-Chair, to focus more on his business, which we 
can all related to.

Alistair was critical in the foundation of the Audio WG. He was at the 
Processing.js workshop where I first learned of the project that 
eventually became Mozilla's original Audio Data API; he and I 
brainstormed about how to start a standardization activity around it, 
and he stepped up to chair the Audio Incubator Group, where we gathered 
support for a Working Group to create a Web audio API. He built an 
enormous number of cool demos, and collected together many more from the 
community, and very much promoted and fostered the technology.  He 
communicated with many stakeholders to help ensure that the Audio WG 
would start off on good footing.

He also warmly welcomed Olivier as Co-Chair to the Audio WG, and they 
complemented each other well.

Without Al, this WG would not be in nearly as good a position as we are 
today, and it may not have been viable at all.  We formed this group at 
just the right time, when there were early steps in the browsers, but 
before real fragmentation had yet set in, and just as developers were 
recognizing the need for advanced audio capability beyond the HTML5 
<audio> element.

I want to thank Al for his service, his positive attitude, his technical 
insight, and his friendship.

I'm pleased to say that Al will still be participating in the Audio WG 
as an Invited Expert, though with reduced presence for a while.  I wish 
him good fortune in everything he does, and I have included him 
explicitly in this email, so we could all acknowledge his service.

Olivier Thereaux (BBC) remains in his role as chair, and I think we all 
agree that the Working Group is in good shape under his direction. He 
would still prefer to have a co-chair, so if any members of the WG are 
interested in talking about taking on that role, please contact Olivier, 
Thierry, and me on the administrative list, <team-audio@w3.org>.

Best Regards-
-Doug

Received on Monday, 9 July 2012 17:44:22 UTC