RE: Chairing Announcement + A Request

Echidna is a W3C tool for automatically publishing new versions of the
specifications and notes using github actions (e.g., when we merge pull
requests in github). During the development of epub 3.3, we switched to this
process to avoid the time and energy involved in manually re-publishing the
documents (e.g., deciding when to republish, get a call for consensus,
manually exporting a snapshot, publishing the snapshot to TR).

 

Since then, we've turned off the automatic publishing of the specifications
as it doesn't work well for republishing recommendations. For those, we're
going the manual route of letting changes build up for a while before
publishing a revised standard. But we're still using echidna for notes, as
there's no need to manually re-publish them when we've already approved the
pull requests.

 

The issue is that W3C process requires us to approve this automated workflow
for all our specifications and notes and we don't have that resolution. So,
for example, we can't use an echnida workflow right now with the recently
published exemption property note until we get this process approved
generally for all our work.

 

Echidna doesn't change the way that specifications and notes are formatted.
That is controlled by respec - a javascript program that runs in/on the
documents and is called by echidna as part of generating the static
documents.

 

If you're really interested, the yml configuration files that are read by
echnida are stored here:
https://github.com/w3c/epub-specs/tree/main/.github/workflows

 

You can also view the result of echidna runs in the Actions tab by clicking
on the various "CI" workflows: https://github.com/w3c/epub-specs/actions

 

(I'm sure Ivan will correct me if I've got anything wrong here. :)

 

Matt

 

From: Dale Rogers <dalerrogers@gmail.com> 
Sent: Monday, October 9, 2023 1:19 PM
To: Laurent Le Meur <laurent@edrlab.org>; public-pm-wg@w3.org
Subject: Re: Chairing Announcement + A Request

 

I agree with Laurent. The information on Echidna is sparse. I also Googled.
What I gathered from my initial reading:

 

TR (Technical Report) documents need to be in a specific format. Echidna is
an open GITHUB JavaScript-based project that is designed to pull resources
from a GITHUB account and put those documents in the proper format for TR
documents. Since I do not work with TR documents, I am assuming this project
is being designed by folks that need this functionality. I defer to them. If
it wasn't needed, the project would not exist.

 

As an aspiring fixed-format author (I'm working on my first book now), I
know that it would be better to create once, publish easily across multiple
platforms (Amazon/Comixology, Ingram, Kobo, etc). Since Amazon/Comixology is
a popular platform for comic, graphic novel delivery, can I assume that they
are engaging with us to make the publishing process more cross-platform? Is
there a resource that explains the history and background of this need, what
currently exists, the challenges we are facing, and what is being asked for?
Basically, I'd love to be brought up to speed to I can be a better WG
member.

 

 

Best Regards, 

 

Dale

 

Dale R Rogers, M.Ed, CIW
Digital Creative Entrepreneur
Author, eLearning Developer

Personal: dale@dalerogers.me <mailto:dale@dalerogers.me> 
Web: dalerogers.me <https://dalerogers.me/> 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Laurent Le Meur <laurent@edrlab.org <mailto:laurent@edrlab.org> >
Date: Friday, October 6, 2023 at 2:47 AM
To: public-pm-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-pm-wg@w3.org>  <public-pm-wg@w3.org
<mailto:public-pm-wg@w3.org> >
Subject: Re: Chairing Announcement + A Request

"Dave Cramer has decided to step down as one of the co-chairs of this
working group due to work obligations."

 

It was always interesting to discuss with you Dave, even if we had
divergence on the topic of Web Publications. The restructuring of the EPUB 3
spec was a great & difficult job, bravo to the team who supported that. 

 

"we're still working on getting more information on topics like Webtoons for
discussion"

 

It will be mandatory to be in touch with the Amazon team, as it seems they
are triggering this discussion. 

 

"Proposed: PMWG will use the echidna publishing system for all documents
whenever it is appropriate per the W3C Process."

 

+1 , tooling is useful. A demo of echidna would be useful; I don't have a
clue about how it works (I Googled it but the info seems scattered).  

 

With regards

 

Laurent

 

From: Reid, Wendy <wendy.reid@rakuten.com <mailto:wendy.reid@rakuten.com> > 
Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2023 8:47 PM
To: public-pm-wg@w3.org <mailto:public-pm-wg@w3.org> 

Subject: Chairing Announcement + A Request

 Hi everyone,  I hope you are all doing well.  I wanted to share this news
first before it went out to the W3C mailing lists. Dave Cramer has decided
to step down as one of the co-chairs of this working group due to work
obligations. Shinya, Tzviya, and myself will be staying on as your
co-chairs.  Dave has been essential to the success of EPUB over the years,
and it must be said that without him, we wouldn't be where we are today. He
was integral to publishing EPUB 3.2 and leading the group that brought EPUB
to W3C, the EPUB CG. He then kindly joined us to publish EPUB 3.3, and we
could not have done it without him. Please join me in thanking him for his
service to us over the years as both Editor and Chair.  Just as a reminder,
we have cancelled tomorrow's meeting as we're still working on getting more
information on topics like Webtoons for discussion.  Lastly, one small
operational request. We need a formal resolution on the books for publishing
with Echidna. We use this system to make publishing the documents
automatically much easier, so please reply to this email with a +1, 0, or -1
for this proposal:  Proposed: PMWG will use the echidna publishing system
for all documents whenever it is appropriate per the W3C Process.
 Cheers,
Wendy