[Bug 10556] New: Document tells people to register canvas context types at WhatWG

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10556

           Summary: Document tells people to register canvas context types
                    at WhatWG
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: Mac System 9.x
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P3
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: shelleyp@burningbird.net
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html@w3.org


The Canvas section in the document has a link to the WhatWG wiki in order to
"register" new context types. 

The problem with this is that the WhatWG web site is a personal web site
maintained by one person (Ian Hickson), owned by one person (Ian Hickson), with
no formal structure, or guarantee of reliability. In fact, reliability of the
web site has been a problem in the past, as it is based in Dreamhost, a host
notorious for interruptions of service.

Secondly, there is no mechanism in place to ensure the security of the data,
nor to deal with conflicts if any arise. A wiki is no place on which to build a
standard. Only a neophyte would consider a wiki a good place to order to
register _anything_ so that all application builders can rely on what's
registered. 

Lastly, the W3C document should not contain any link to WhatWG documents,
because the WhatWG is not a formal organization, with legal structure, or
patent policy in place. Without a formal organization backing the site, there
is no guarantee that any links will continue point to any one document in the
future -- for all we know, the WhatWG web site could be bought by spammers
someday and the linked document then becomes a page of ads for herbal
supplements. 

Even if the WhatWG domain remains, there is no guarantee that the sole owner of
the web site won't change the contents of documents in such a way as to cause
confusion or even disruption.

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Received on Monday, 6 September 2010 13:54:59 UTC