Re: The HTMLWG and WHATWG

On Wed, 4 Apr 2007, Doug Schepers wrote:
> > 
> > There are members of the WHATWG who do not _want_ to contribute via the HTML
> > WG, just like there are members of the HTML WG who do not want to contribute
> > via the WHATWG [...]
> 
> [...] But I'm not sure why we have to cater to people who are willing to 
> contribute to WHATWG and not to the HTML WG.

Personally I don't care where feedback comes from, if it's good feedback, 
I want it. Obviously it's entirely up to the members of this group where 
they want to consider feedback from, I was just saying that as far as my 
own involvement goes, I intend to continue tracking feedback from as many 
people as possible, irrespective of their provenance.


> Do you have any insight into why these people (how many of them are 
> there?) would take the time to contribute to an unofficial, experimental 
> standards body, and not the official one?

WHATWG has about 700 subscribers, HTMLWG about 250. Some of them have told 
me their opinion of the W3C is such that they really don't want to be 
involved in a W3C effort; others have told me they would participate but 
are waiting to see how the HTML working group work goes before committing 
any time to it. I haven't spoken to most of the people who haven't joined 
the HTML working group list, though, so I can't give you a full answer.

Note that there is also a small group of people who are currently blocked 
from joining the HTML working group, because the W3C won't let employees 
of member companies join the group as invited experts, and not all 
companies are willing to have their companies join the group. I'm aware of 
at least two (very big) companies that this is affecting right now. So 
it's not entirely a self-selecting group, though this isn't the people I 
was referring to in my previous e-mail.

Cheers,
-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 4 April 2007 19:44:25 UTC