Re: Sustainability Community Group Launched

Hi Judy,

tl;dr: Community Groups (CGs) are not about "joining efforts" but rather
creating spaces for focus, thus it made sense to create the Sustainability
CG with its description.

In that regard, no existing CG specifically included horizontal review of
*new* technologies thus it made the most sense to create a new CG with that
focus and where perhaps other nascent efforts could be incubated.

Everyone involved in any environmental / sustainability related group or
having an interest specifically in horizontal review of new technologies is
invited to join efforts in the Sustainability CG.

Longer:


On Sat, Apr 23, 2022 at 2:53 PM Judy Brewer <jbrewer@w3.org> wrote:

> Hi Tantek and All,
>
> Good to see growing interest in this topic.
>
> I want to make sure that you are aware of an existing Sustainable Web
> Design Community Group:
>
>      https://www.w3.org/community/sustyweb/


Yes, the discussion around forming the Sustainability CG uncovered that
group and others.

From the Slack:

Note past/existing CGs which this proposed group is not intending to
replace (thanks @Nick Doty <https://w3ccommunity.slack.com/team/U023GRZPBBK>
 for digging through CGs)

   - https://www.w3.org/community/bde-food/
   - https://www.w3.org/community/sustyweb/
   - https://www.w3.org/community/webeco/
   - https://www.w3.org/community/wwca/




> While it's been relatively quiet in the past, there has been some
> renewed interest recently.


Indeed, "sustyweb"  has also been around since 2013 and has 55 existing
members last I checked. It has a very different focus. specifically about
creating websites (presumably today, with today's technologies). Given the
history, existing members and their expectations of the scope & description
when they joined, it made sense to respect the sustyweb's specific focus.



> I'm hoping that there might be more interest
> following the Advisory Committee discussion on sustainability this week.
>

I'm hoping so too, in particular for more public discussion, as there was
interest after the TPAC 2021 session on Sustainability which spawned both
the #sustainability IRC & Slack channels where public discussion has
continued.



> I'm guessing that there may be multiple areas of sustainability work
> relevant to W3C.
>

That seems to be the case, given the number of existing groups we found.


Perhaps you'd want to consider joining efforts, at the Community Group
> level?
>

Everyone should evaluate which aspects of sustainability matter the most to
them, match their expertise & interest levels, and they have time to
participate in, and then join those efforts as they wish! This is more
likely to be productive than trying to squeeze all conversations into a
single group.

Again from Slack, slightly reworded:

The Sustainability CG in particular is focused on the sustainability of
specific technologies (rather than a specific use like a website), present
& future (proposals etc.), and evaluating them from a horizontal review
perspective.

I'd suggest that if anyone wishes to discuss the different CGs, their
descriptions/scopes, that we continue to do so in the #sustainability
channel rather than private email.

Thanks,

Tantek



> Best,
>
> - Judy
>
> On 4/23/2022 10:24 AM, public-council@w3.org wrote:
> > With your support, the Sustainability Community Group has been launched:
> >    http://www.w3.org/community/sustainability/
> >
> > This group was originally proposed on 2022-04-23
> > by Tantek Çelik. The following people supported its
> > creation:
> >        Tantek Çelik
> >        Nick Doty
> >        Mehmet Oguz Derin
> >        Chris Needham
> >        Pablo COCA
> >        Christoph Becker
> >
> > To join the group, please use:
> >   http://www.w3.org/community/sustainability/join
> >
> > Please note that supporting a group is different from joining
> > a group. Supporters must also enroll if they wish to participate.
> >
> > --------------------
> > The Sustainability CG is a group for discussing all aspects of
> > sustainability (s12y) with respect to web technologies present &amp;
> > future, including developing horizontal reviews of sustainability (e.g.
> > energy use or device obsolescence impacts of technologies).
> > --------------------
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > W3C Community Development Team
> >
> --
> Judy Brewer
> CSAIL PI, PRS:
> https://www.csail.mit.edu/person/judy-brewer
> and Director, Web Accessibility Initiative
> at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
> 105 Broadway, Room 7-128, MIT/CSAIL
> Cambridge MA 02142 USA
> www.w3.org/WAI/
>
>