Re: WG comments, Working Drafts, and Last Call -- clarification please?

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Dan Connolly<connolly@w3.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-08-06 at 12:27 -0500, Shelley Powers wrote:
>> I followed the teleconference in IRC archives. A lot of stuff.
>
> Take it with a grain of salt; the IRC log misses a lot.
>
> I think this is in response to a comment I made; I'll leave
> the other question to others.
>
>> Is it true that the Working Group can't comment during Last Call? That
>> we have to raise issues before then?
>
> Last call is a decision that the WG is done with all the issues
> it knows about. So it's out of order for a WG member to
> be party to a decision that we've addressed all our issues
> and then turn around and send last call comments.
>
>

That makes sense. It does ensure that people express concerns in a
timely manner.

> There's an exception: if a WG member genuinely discovers new
> information after last call, it's in order to comment
> on that.
>

Again, that makes sense, too.

> Note that being party to a decision doesn't necessarily mean
> supporting it; even those who disagree or abstain or
> formally object to a decision are party to it, given
> buy-in to W3C process which gives the chair
> responsibility see that people get to make
> their case and to decide when the search for consensus has
> reached diminishing returns and bring an issue to a close
> despite outstanding dissent.
>
> http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/policies.html#Consensus
>

Does the issue go to a vote, then? If there is no possibility of consensus?

>> If this is true, is Last Call still on schedule for October? Do we
>> know when in October?
>
> We can only go to last call in October if we close issues
> a lot faster than we have been.
>

If it would help, I could *quit the group.

> --
> Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/
> gpg D3C2 887B 0F92 6005 C541  0875 0F91 96DE 6E52 C29E
>
>

Thanks for clarification, Dan.

Shelley


*Yes, that was a joke.

Received on Thursday, 6 August 2009 19:16:39 UTC