RE: Chair transition: Tobie to Jo

Welcome again to Mobile Web world.

I will look forward to another of your chairing that I was so impressed with.

Best Regards,

--- Jonathan Jeon

From: Jo Rabin [mailto:jo@linguafranca.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 7:11 AM
To: Robin Berjon
Cc: public-coremob@w3.org Mobile
Subject: Re: Chair transition: Tobie to Jo

Thank you Robin for a very kind intro - and thank you also Tobie for kindling (sic) and carrying the candle thus far. I hope very much to live up to what Robin indirectly promises of me :-)

I won't take the group's time by making any self-intros - LinkedIn has some stuff about me if you're curious http://www.linkedin.com/in/jorabin and I'm very happy to provide any further intro if anyone would like me to.

Looking forward to working with everyone.

Thanks
Jo

On 6 Jun 2012, at 21:56, Robin Berjon wrote:


Dear all,

it is with mixed feelings that I have to announce to the group that Tobie Langel, who has been the driving force in setting this group up and co-chair up to now, has decided to step down for personal reasons. I for one will miss Tobie's keen insights and contagious energy, and I'm sure that I speak for the group when I say we will be missing him and that we are very thankful for his involvement to date.

The silver lining is that Facebook - Tobie's employer - has offered to sponsor Jo Rabin to take Tobie's place. Jo has deep and extensive knowledge of both the mobile ecosystem and standards groups. He comes to us with several years' experience chairing a project very similar to ours - the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group - where he has demonstrated unfailing even-handedness and an ability to cut through many a gordian knot.

In regular W3C groups, the W3C Team handles chair transitions and picking the new chairs. In CGs there is no Team and we have no specific process to pick new chairs beyond the fact that existing chairs are granted the right to nominate new ones. Given that there is no change in the company supporting the co-chair position, and given Jo's excellent track record, I personally feel that there is no practical issue with this transition and fully support it. That being said, in the spirit of ensuring that the chairs benefit from the heartfelt support of the group's participants I would like to encourage anyone who has concerns with or objections to this transition to voice them now.

Thank you very much Tobie for your work; thank you very much Jo for stepping up!

--
Robin Berjon - http://berjon.com/ - @robinberjon