Re: Collecting ideas from the broader community

Hi Dave

Note: I will discuss in depth the technical issues you mentioned separately and focus here on the issue of outsider participation.
But I think the group should recognise that the stakes are very high here. Too often, I have seen participants counsel that failure is a very likely outcome, but IMO failure would be a disaster with potentially dangerous repercussions. 

This project is not of marginal impact like, for example, CSS variables - it has universal significance.
Given this and the past problems outlined by Mr Hellman, I suggest that outsiders should be given a formal role and that the project should be scaled to pursue multiple tracks.

*******
> Speaking for myself, yes, I’ve been ignoring you, and that does make me uneasy.

And as you are a self-appointed leader, this behaviour sets the standard and perhaps the expectation that others should follow suit. Perhaps you haven’t realised that you justified ignoring me because I am an outsider and for no other reason.
And the goal was obvious - to strongly discourage me (and other outsiders) from participating and to denigrate outsider contributions without bothering to actually critique them. 

> "I have better things to do, especially if in certain circles my arguments/suggestions are dismissed arbitrarily.”

Just a few days ago this is what a well-respected EPUB technologist wrote to me in response to my urging him to participate.

> "I support your efforts, but i have no desire to waste my time on that bureaucratic s!!!.”
Another person’s comment...

> I don’t think the filesystem is the answer.

This your opinion and I recognise you are not alone. But it is also far from unanimous.
I would like to point out that the ex-co-chair of the group - way back when -  made positive comments about my 5DOC ideas. http://www.w3.org/2016/05/25-dpub-minutes.html#item03

> mgylling: what about the 5doc guy?
> mgylling: you could do this with one doc and scripting

And several others have mentioned 5DOC here and in other platforms. In fact, when Mr Hellman mentioned 5DOC in a post several months ago, I made him aware of this mailing list and after his recent article, I directed him to the GiHub issues where he just made a contribution.

*******
And you are definitely not alone in spreading FUD on security:
>  I had no idea what the security implications were, but downloading something full of JavaScript into my local filesystem made me wary.


I just wrote a brief post about this yesterday - https://medium.com/@Mac2net/why-is-the-w3c-spreading-fud-about-the-file-url-63617153593a#.53qy1w768

*******
So the bottom line is as the lone outsider I have actually been doing quite a bit to get others involved but with mixed results. 

I think Dave’s efforts to honestly explain his POV is a great start and I hope he and others see my response not as personal criticism but as a sincere effort to build on that and I hope others are encouraged to add their opinions. 

Cheers
Mike


> On 19 Oct 2016, at 10:01, Cramer, Dave <Dave.Cramer@hbgusa.com> wrote:
> 
> On 10/18/16, 3:37 AM, "Mike Perlman" <perlmanm@me.com> wrote:
> 
>> I would be happy to answer those questions later on.
>> But IMO, the discussion should start with the group.
>> 
>> I am *officially* an outsider as I am unaffiliated and neither a member of the IDPF or the W3C.
>> 
>> And in the interest of openness, I have approached the leadership of both organisations to get some kind of sponsorship for my contributions, but I was either turned down or ignored.
>> 
>> Just last week I made a proposal to build a combined 5DOC and Service Worker system with WordPress as the backend.
>> I suggested using Mozilla’s Service Worker plugins for WordPress, which I have already tested.
>> Both ideas (5DOC and SW) have similar techniques for adding offline CSS and JS.
>> I was ignored.
>> https://github.com/w3c/dpub-pwp-ucr/issues/110#issuecomment-253641014
>> 
>> Except I was heard, as a couple of official participants of DIGIPUB-IG just agreed yesterday to do some prototyping of SW (5DOC is apparently idea non grata). 
> 
> 
> Hi Mike,
> 
> Speaking for myself, yes, I’ve been ignoring you, and that does make me
> uneasy. I remember when I first looked at a 5DOC. I found a giant HTML
> document with an inlined copy of JQuery, base64-encoded images, and my own
> IP address. It was highly dependent on WordPress. It required a separate
> app to work on iOS, and didn’t appear to work on Android at all. I had no
> idea what the security implications were, but downloading something full
> of JavaScript into my local filesystem made me wary. I don’t think the
> filesystem is the answer.
> 
> But that’s not my biggest concern. This group is a community of people
> trying to work together for a better future for publications on the web.
> We’re very much exploring, experimenting, trying to learn from everything
> that has happened before, from XML to EPUB to the modern web. We value
> collaboration, sharing, respect. We value dialog over monologue. When
> someone repeatedly claims to have the answer, we grow skeptical. When
> someone routinely dismisses work done by large numbers people of obvious
> goodwill and intelligence, we grow wary. When someone doesn’t seem open to
> change or conversation, we tune out.
> 
> Yes, we want ideas from the broader community. But we also have a
> responsibility to evaluate those ideas, and decide if continuing to engage
> with them will serve our larger goals.
> 
> And yes, as a group, we should have been clearer about our response. For
> that I’m sorry.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Dave Cramer
> 
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Received on Thursday, 20 October 2016 07:26:13 UTC