[wbs] response to 'Call for Review: Second Screen Working Group Charter'

The following answers have been successfully submitted to 'Call for Review:
Second Screen Working Group Charter' (Advisory Committee) for Mozilla
Foundation by David Baron.


The reviewer's organization suggests changes to this Charter, and only
supports the proposal if the changes are adopted [Formal Objection].

Additional comments about the proposal:
   The current situation with the API developed by this Working Group
is that it is a API for a web page to interact with a connection
between the web browser and a separate screen that exists entirely
in a closed ecosystem.  For example, a browser made by Google might
connect to displays that support the proprietary Chromecast
protocol, whereas one made by Apple might connect to displays that
support the proprietary AirPlay protocol.

We know that parts of an Open Screen Protocol are in an early stage
of development at https://github.com/webscreens/openscreenprotocol
(as linked from the charter), and the goal of this work is to
improve on this situation.  We hope it will allow for interoperable
discovery of, identification of, and communication with presentation
displays.

However, we're deeply concerned about chartering a second iteration
of the work that continues building the Presentation API on top of a
closed ecosystem, when the work to make the ecosystem more open
appears to have a lower priority.  While we understand that the work
on building an open ecosystem still requires incubation, we believe
it should have the highest priority in this space.

To resolve our objection, we would ask that:

 * the charter be clearer that modifications to the current CR-level
   specs that are needed to achieve interoperability are expected
   (rather than saying "This Working Group does not anticipate
   further changes to this specification."),

 * the charter be clearer that building an open system that allows
   multiple browsers to interact with multiple displays is a
   requirement for the specifications advancing to Proposed
   Recommendation and to Recommendation, and

 * work on a second level of the presentation API remain in
   incubation (and not yet be added to this charter) until after the
   work to build an open protocol moves from incubation into
   standardization,

although we are open to other paths toward fixing this situation.


The reviewer's organization intends to participate in these groups:
   - Second Screen Working Group

The reviewer's organization:
   - intends to review drafts as they are published and send comments.
   - intends to develop experimental implementations and send experience
reports.

Answers to this questionnaire can be set and changed at
https://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/33280/sswg-charter-2018/ until 2018-01-12.

 Regards,

 The Automatic WBS Mailer

Received on Tuesday, 9 January 2018 17:04:18 UTC