Re: Minutes of Math on the Web Community Group teleconference of 27 April 2016

FYI, the note has been cleaned up a bit. Do let me know if you spot any
lingering errors or omissions.

Best regards,
Peter.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2016 at 8:44 PM, Peter Krautzberger <
peter.krautzberger@mathjax.org> wrote:

> Thanks, Jeanne for an amazing job as scribe.
>
> I've sent a cleaned up version to Ivan to make it easier to catch up for
> folks who couldn't join the call.
>
> Thanks everyone for a great first step! I'll be following up with a doodle
> and some conversation starters soon.
>
> Best regards,
> Peter.
> On Apr 27, 2016 7:10 PM, "Jeanne Spellman" <
> jspellman@spellmanconsulting.com> wrote:
>
>> Link to minutes in HTML:
>>
>> https://www.w3.org/2016/04/27-mathonwebpages-minutes.html
>>
>>
>> Minutes in text format:
>>
>>    [1]W3C
>>
>>       [1] http://www.w3.org/
>>
>>                                - DRAFT -
>>
>>                            Math on the Web CG
>>
>> 27 Apr 2016
>>
>>    See also: [2]IRC log
>>
>>       [2] http://www.w3.org/2016/04/27-mathonwebpages-irc
>>
>> Attendees
>>
>>    Present
>>           Peter, Krautzberger, jeanne_spellman, Ivan,
>>           Eli_Weger__Pearson, Collin, Emily, Markus, Han,
>>           jpedersen
>>
>>    Regrets
>>    Chair
>>           Peter Krautzberger
>>
>>    Scribe
>>           jeanne
>>
>>
>>      __________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>    Peter: Welcome. We will start with introductions. Daniel is the
>>    Co-Chair. This can be changed.
>>    ... This is the first get-together.
>>
>>    The idea behind the group that is focused on the tools to put
>>    mathematics on the web.
>>
>>    scribe: from such a group, we could build from the bottom up to
>>    help build the tools to make it easier.
>>    ... people who are building the tools need to step up to make
>>    the tools
>>    ... it needs standards and developing the web forward
>>    ... it will be a learning experience for making standards for
>>    most of the group.
>>
>>    Intros
>>
>>    scribe: who are you
>>    ... what are you working on, or what is your interest in this
>>    group?
>>    ... what do you want to contribute to the group?
>>
>>    <physikerwelt> +1
>>
>>    <laughinghan> +1
>>
>>    Peter: Consultant, work with MathJax
>>    ... interested in exposing more data, and put out more
>>    information, accessibility
>>
>>    <laughinghan> pkra: we could go in order of IRC
>>
>>    <laughinghan> where we all see the same order
>>
>>    <pkra> jeanne: I'm on the a11y side.
>>
>>    <pkra> ... web a11y engineer
>>
>>    <pkra> ... worked on WCAG task forces
>>
>>    <pkra> ... web content a11y guidelines,
>>
>>    <pkra> ... often heard about problems of ppl with disabilities
>>    having problems with math on the web
>>
>>    <pkra> ... no specific interest but interested in finding out.
>>
>>    Collin: I am undergrad at UVa, studying math and computer
>>    science. Not familiar with standardization, but hope to help
>>    any way I can.
>>    ... interest and background in vulnerability side. Experience
>>    with development, but not with mathematics.
>>
>>    Daniel: I work in @@, with a product called @@ Editor. I am the
>>    CEO. I am interested in putting mathematics in the web using an
>>    editing tool. I am interested in the interopability with Math
>>    on the Web and MathML. Interested in level of semantics.
>>    ... we should consider the level of semantics we want to
>>    provide.
>>    ... bottom up, I want a list of examples of how mathematics
>>    should be put on the web and create use cases.
>>    ... then address other fields, such as chemistry.
>>
>>    Eli: I work for Pearson in Accessible Assessments group. I am
>>    looking for solution for braille input online. This is my first
>>    working group.
>>
>>    <laughinghan> I believe @@ = WIRIS
>>
>>    <laughinghan> [8]http://www.wiris.com/en/editor
>>
>>       [8] http://www.wiris.com/en/editor
>>
>>    Eli: accessible equation editor is our current focus.
>>
>>    Emily: Kahm Academy doing Math rendering. I am one of the
>>    people who wrote @@@ and the CSS hacks to get things working
>>    reasonably on the web. I want to make the CSS hacks less hacky.
>>    I am new to the standards process.
>>
>>    Han: I work on MathQuill which is a free open source math
>>    editor. I am interested in CSS techniques that others use,
>>    reducing the hacks in CSS.
>>
>>    <xymostech> jeanne: @@@ = KaTeX
>>
>>    <laughinghan> Volker = KaTeX
>>
>>    Ivan: I am at W3C, I am the Digital Publishing Activity lead.
>>    Digital Publishing is crying out for an efficient solution for
>>    mathematics in digital publishing. I have no experience with
>>    publishing mathematics on the web, but will work to help Peter.
>>
>>    Jason: I lead engineering for a graphing calculator. We are a
>>    large user of MathQuill. We want to get better font information
>>    from the browsers.
>>    ... we are working with MathQuill so it will work better with
>>    speech to text and braille output.
>>    ... want to work with others on getting information from DESMOS
>>    to other applications.
>>
>>    Jean: Independent Freeland Digital publishing expert. I worked
>>    with MathML and MathJax. I am interested in making math
>>    accessible on the web, but first we have to get math on the
>>    web. Scholarly, higher ed, professional. It is across all
>>    digital publishing.
>>
>>    Jos: Web Developer, new to W3C groups. I work on a math
>>    library, called MathJS. We tried to group it up with Majex
>>    editing. It is difficult to get them to interoperate and get
>>    maths interchangable, like JSON.
>>    ... I am strong in making things simpler and clearer.
>>
>>    <jos> Majex -> MathJax
>>
>>    <jos> [9]http://mathjs.org/
>>
>>       [9] http://mathjs.org/
>>
>>    Markus: I work with DAISY Consortium. I work with IDPF on ePub
>>    digital publishing standards. There is a crying out for
>>    solutions in digital publishing.
>>    ... the publishers require typographical fidelity as on a print
>>    page of math, but it needs to be accessible to people with
>>    print disabiltiies and there are no answers. It is a tragedy
>>    for humanity that we do not have math on the web.
>>
>>    +1 tragedy for humanity
>>
>>    @@: I am a researcher. My interested in math rendering for
>>    wikipedia. I have been working on a math extention for
>>    wikipedia. We suffer that MathML is not working on any browser.
>>    MathML therefore, doesn't work in practice.
>>
>>    scribe: we need better math rendering for websites. Now we can
>>    only print images which is unacceptable. It should be part of
>>    the text.
>>    ... it needs to be transportable to other software. I am
>>    working on projects with students. One project with MathJax.
>>    Another is moving to Mathematica.
>>
>>    <laughinghan> Moritz=Moritz
>>
>>    Fergus: Reader at university in the UK with STEM accessibility
>>    mainly Chemistry. I have been working with MathJax creating an
>>    accessibility extension. I'm interested in Open Science, with
>>    getting data onto the web that is interoperable.
>>    ... I was on the SVG accessibility task force, but had to drop
>>    off when I didn't have time.
>>
>>    <gjtorikian> bummed I can't be there and have to read these in
>>    chat ;_; many thanks jeanne for the scribing
>>
>>    John: I work for Wiley for information modeling. We publish
>>    digitally and in print. Large commercial publisher. Our models
>>    have always incorporated MathML. I have the same problems that
>>    others have mentioned in getting math digitally and in print
>>    from a single source. I have experience in the past as a math
>>    professor.
>>    ... have a colleague, Tzviya, who would also agree with these
>>    comments.
>>
>>    Peter: This is a diverse group, and I am very happy.
>>    ... Ivan, can you give an overview of Community Groups and how
>>    they fit into W3C structure?
>>
>>    Ivan: Community Groups do what they want when they want it.
>>    They are satellite groups around W3C. Good that they have the
>>    flexibility to do what they want, Bad because their work is not
>>    considered and official W3C Standard.
>>
>>    <pkra> 244 CGs
>>
>>    Ivan: what I have seen that worked, is Community Group that
>>    follows a process that produces a Community Group Report. If
>>    the quality is good enough, then that work becomes the basis of
>>    W3C standard work. That may not be a goal of this group
>>    ... The Web Annotations Community Group produced a report that
>>    became the basis of the Web Annotations Working Group.
>>    ... this is a group that suffers the most from the status of
>>    MathML.
>>    ... it would be a huge success if this group could be the group
>>    that produces work that could help solve this problem.
>>    ... accessibility is still a problem, and it would be good if
>>    this group could help with that.
>>    ... Community Groups are autonomous, and the group can do what
>>    it wants.
>>    ... Working Groups are the only groups that can produce W3C
>>    standards, aka W3C REcommendations. Interest Groups do not
>>    produce W3C Recommendations.
>>    ... the Digital Publishing Interest Group worked with other W3C
>>    groups to improve the standards as needed by Digital
>>    Publishing.
>>    ... for this group, the differentiation between Interest Groups
>>    and Community Groups is not significant.
>>
>>    Peter: I didn't realize that Community Groups are replacing
>>    Interest Groups.
>>
>>    Ivan: Many of the Community Groups don't go anywhere. That is
>>    the way of it.
>>
>>    Peter: Many of the people on this call have been thinking about
>>    Math since MathML working group was active. The MathML group is
>>    now closed.
>>    ... this group is not taking over from MathML.
>>
>>    Ivan: I would expect the work done here to be oblivious to the
>>    syntax of math on the web. Millions of equations are described
>>    in MathML. Some people expect their work done in LaTex. We
>>    should have a way to build tools that take advantage of the
>>    work that browsers have used to optimize display in HTML and
>>    CSS.
>>    ... if some of the features of CSS are insufficient, and this
>>    group comes up with featueres that HTML, CSS or others should
>>    add to their specifications, then that is appropriate for this
>>    group to contribute ideas to those groups.
>>    ... there is a project in CSS -- Houdini -- that may be of
>>    interest to those who were interested in the font issue.
>>
>>    Peter: Use q+ to join the queue if you wish to speak. Use q? to
>>    get a list of who is on the queue.
>>    ... I wouldn't expect this group to be oblivious to syntax, but
>>    I would expect this group to follow its interests.
>>    ... there are no limitations if you want to talk about MathML
>>    if you want, and LaTex syntax or asciimath syntax.
>>    ... I see an interest in layout, CSS layout in particular.
>>    There may be interest in SVG.
>>    ... There is interest in Houdini Task Force (the sexiest task
>>    force) between CSS and TAG (the highrollers of the standards
>>    world). They are looking for use cases from the mathematics
>>    world.
>>    ... there is a recent article in Smashing Magazine where they
>>    describe Houdini project.
>>    ... we may want to get tangible information to these groups.
>>
>>    <jos>
>>    [10]https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/houdini-maybe-the-
>>    most-exciting-development-in-css-youve-never-heard-of/
>>
>>      [10] https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/03/houdini-maybe-the-most-exciting-development-in-css-youve-never-heard-of/
>>
>>    Peter: there is also interest in accessibility. There has been
>>    work on a digital publishing ARIA extension, with digital
>>    publishing use cases. Some discussion of ARIA use cases to make
>>    mathmatics more accessible.
>>    ... This is another area where this group could provide input
>>    and get traction.
>>    ... a third area is interoperability. No one will help the math
>>    community who isn't part of the math community.
>>    ... last week someone posted to the MathJax mailing list
>>    looking for a JSON-type for interoperability. Many tools
>>    produce very different data results based on the input.
>>    [example] Teacher who writes an equation, the markup changes to
>>    make it render properly. We could look for low-hanging fruit.
>>    ... Next meeting. I would like to have a next meeting, and
>>    quickly.
>>
>>    <Eli_Weger__Pearson> MONTHLY?
>>
>>    <mgylling> +1
>>
>>    Peter: how frequently should we meet? I would like monthly
>>    personally.
>>
>>    <Eli_Weger__Pearson> Sorry for the caps
>>
>>    <ivan> monthly is fine
>>
>>    <Jason_Merrill> monthly sounds good
>>
>>    <laughinghan> do we need to meet regularly yet?
>>
>>    monthly sounds good.
>>
>>    @@: To start, every two weeks, then monthly.
>>
>>    @Dani: Otherwise, we will not get anything off the ground.
>>
>>    <laughinghan> I personally vastly prefer IRC > meetings >
>>    mailing lists
>>
>>    Ivan: We should try to use the email list or Githib to work
>>    asyncronously. I don't think we should rely on telcos.
>>
>>    Peter: Put ideas and work on the mailing list. If there is
>>    anything else, please follow up by email.
>>
>>    <laughinghan> what is TPAC?
>>
>>    <Eli_Weger__Pearson> I've got to jump off and join another
>>    meeting. Bye everyone!
>>
>>    Ivan: We signed up for a short face to face meeting at TPAC,
>>    but we haven't heard any status.
>>
>>    <pkra> Thanks, Eli.
>>
>>    Ivan: TPAC is a week long meeting where working groups meet
>>    face to face. It is also a place to have neutral coordinated
>>    interaction with other groups. It is an intellectually
>>    stimulating, but exhausting week. This year, the TPAC is 3rd
>>    week in September in Lisbon.
>>    ... we may get a spot.
>>
>>    <laughinghan> bye, thanks!
>>
>>    <Jason_Merrill> thanks all
>>
>>
>>    [End of minutes]
>>      __________________________________________________________
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

Received on Thursday, 28 April 2016 08:17:03 UTC