future of the NFC WG

We've been trying to attract more participants and implementers to make 
the NFC WG viable.  We haven't been successful and we think the WG 
should be closed.  However, we do think there would be interest in 
continuing he work in a W3C Community Group.  So, we'd start the 
following CfC soon -- so this isn't the CfC now -- this is to solicit 
comments on where we are.

Comments?

[[
Proposed CfC for closing the NFC WG and relicensing (copyright) the 2 
alternative versions of the spec to move to Community Groups

The NFC WG charter [3] expired 1 November 2014.  Work on the spec under 
the previous charter was from Intel and Don Coleman[4].  The WG had only 
a single implementation so no chance to complete a W3C spec (which would 
require 2 independent implementations).  Given that state, it seemed 
unlikely that re-chartering could, or should, be approved.

The WG approach was changed with a proposed new draft [2] and a proposed 
new WG charter[1].  That was an attempt to attract broader 
participation, to enable an API that would work in Web Browsers and to 
attract a second independent implementer.  That has been successful in 
gaining new interest, but not in participating in the WG.   It appears 
that moving the Web NFC API editor's draft to a Community Group may be 
more successful. The goal of a Community Group would be to continue to 
work on the Web API draft version, get participation from Browser 
vendors and make it clear there is enough implementation interest, and 
then move it back to a W3C WG, preferably a large W3C WG rather than a 
single purpose WG like the current one.

If this CfC is approved, the WG would ask the Director to close the NFC 
WG.  The Director would be asked to license a WG Note containing the 
current TR [4] under a copyright license that allowed it to be taken up 
by a Community Group or elsewhere (that is legacy, dropped by the WG 
already, but some are interested in continuing it for a low level API).  
The newer Editor's draft [2] for a Web API is recent and was written by 
Intel.  In order to have both old and new approaches relicensed by 
W3C[[6], it seems likely the new draft would need publication as a FPWD 
which doesn't make much sense with the WG closing.  However, Intel could 
contribute the Intel contents of it (almost everything) to a CG and the 
(few) other recent contributors could be asked to repeat their 
contribution in the CG.  If that proves not to be possible, this CfC 
also asking the Director to relicense the new draft so that it could be 
moved to a CG as well.  The Community Group planned to take up that 
draft would use the CG template for its charter[6] and would be based on 
the charter the WG has been developing[1].

If you have any comments or concerns about this CfC, please reply to 
this e-mail by 3 March 2015 at the latest. Positive response is 
preferred and encouraged, and silence will be considered as agreement 
with the proposal.

[1] http://w3c.github.io/nfc/charter/index.html
[2] http://w3c.github.io/nfc/
[3] http://www.w3.org/2012/09/nfc-wg-charter.html
[4] http://www.w3.org/TR/nfc/
[5] https://www.w3.org/community/council/wiki/Templates/CG_Charter
[6] http://www.w3.org/2014/12/relicense.html

]]


<http://www.w3.org/2014/12/relicense.html>