Re: Vote of no confidence in the Chairs of the HTML Working Group

On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 7:54 AM, Fred Andrews <fredandw@live.com> wrote:

>
> I believe the Chairs of the HTML Working Group have willfully misinformed
> the working group in the matter of the EME specification and have no
> confidence in them.  They have refused my requests to show some dignity in
> this matter and now is the time to boot them out, and I call a public vote
> of no confidence, and add my personal vote of no confidence.  This vote
> will remain open a long as I deem necessary.
>
> cheers
> Fred Andrews
>

Fred,

It should be obvious, but as merely a public mail list member, you are (1)
not a member of the HTML WG, (2) do not represent a W3C member, (3) not
designated as an Invited Expert, and thus have no authority to call for a
vote of any kind (other than rhetorically).

As for your status, my understanding is that you are a "non-member
participant" whose participation is governed by the following language in
the WG charter [1]:

"This may take the form of questions and comments on the mailing list or
IRC channel, for which there is no formal requirement, or technical
submissions for consideration, for which the participant must agree to
Royalty-Free licensing under the W3C Patent Policy."

If you were a representative of a W3C Member, then you might have recourse
to the following appeal language in the W3C Policy [2]:

"When group participants believe that their concerns are not being duly
considered by the group, they may ask the
Director<http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/process.html#def-Director>
(for
representatives of a Member organization, via their Advisory Committee
representative) to confirm or deny the decision. The participants should also
make their requests known to the Team
Contact<http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/process.html#TeamContact>.
The Team Contact must inform the Director when a group participant has
raised concerns about due process."

But since you are not a WG member nor a representative of a W3C member,
there doesn't seem to be any formal appeal process you have, formally
speaking. Informally, of course you can ask the Director to take action,
but it doesn't serve much purpose to post a demand or even a request for a
vote of no confidence to the WG, which has no obligation to respond.

I would suggest you take this matter up with the W3C Team directly, and not
send further demands to the WG's MLs.

[1] http://www.w3.org/2007/03/HTML-WG-charter.html#participation