DAP Charter Extension proposal

The current DAP charter [1] expires 31 July 2013.

I propose that the charter be extended [2] through 31 December 2014.

A charter extension is different than re-chartering.  A charter extension extends the time frame for completing the work but does not  have any substantive changes such as changing the scope of the chartered work [2] or the deliverables.

In my opinion, the alternative of rechartering and expanding the scope of the charter is not appropriate, since our goal is to complete currently chartered work as well as to avoid any potential new IPR concerns among existing WG members. Areas such as sensors and Web Intents remain in scope, as well as the deliverables that are currently under active development.

I also believe there is no need to change the charter to reduce the scope.  The WG has decided to shelve some items with the understanding that if it makes sense we might pick them up again, so we should retain that option.

As recorded on our roadmap [3] we have a number of deliverables that we expect to progress to Recommendation, two of which are in CR (Battery Status API and HTML Media Capture) , one of which is in a short Last Call following changes in CR (Vibration API) and three that we expect to progress to Last Call in the near term (Ambient Light, Proximity and Network Discovery). We are also working on the Network Information API and may revisit the Web Intents work (Web Intents is in the Web Intents TF, joint with WebApps WG). The work in the Media Capture TF (joint TF of DAP and WebRTC) also continues [4].

There is progress with test cases for the deliverables that are on the Recommendation track, as noted on the roadmap [2], but more work remains to be done to complete the test cases and to perform interop testing.  A very rough  estimate is that it will take until the end of the year to complete interop testing for most of these, with some work into early next year; the process of reaching Recommendation thus could realistically require until mid next year. Thus I suggest the charter extension be until the end of the year to allow for any possible issues, maintenance and work on less clear items (like Web Intents if that is picked up).

This would be an 18 month extension.

Please comment on the list, indicating whether you agree or have suggestions or concerns. If we have consensus I assume the W3C team will work on extending the charter through December 2014.

(I've cc'd the chairs of the WGs that are participating in joint task forces with DAP - Media Capture TF, and Web Intents TF).

regards, Frederick

Frederick Hirsch, Nokia
Chair, W3C DAP Working Group

[1] http://www.w3.org/2011/07/DeviceAPICharter

[2] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/groups.html#charter-extension

[3] http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/#roadmap

[4] http://www.w3.org/2009/dap/#mediacapture

Received on Thursday, 30 May 2013 13:43:31 UTC