Next steps

Hi everyone,

We've had a lot of good discussion here, I think it's time we start moving
forward on the work at hand. Here's what I propose:

We've got clear support and momentum from the Workshop [1] for a WG that
develops a POI data format Recommendation and Note(s) about AR and Web
standards. These two items were deemed sufficient to warrant a WG, they
have a clear and obvious benefit to both AR and the Web, and they have
attracted people to the effort.

In the charter there are three deliverables: the POI data format as a
Recommendation, a WG Note detailing extensions for AR, and an "Augmented
Reality and Web Standards" Note. I believe these are reasonable starting
points, because:

The POI data format deliverables are concrete and well known. They are "low
hanging fruit", which isn't to say they are easy: they are quite
significant in fact. (Dan Brickley nicely demonstrated just how complex
they could be [2].) I put some stakes in the ground for common
properties of POIs [3] and suggested some limits to keep the specification
tractable (e.g. limits on shape complexity, notions of proximity, etc).

The AR and Web standards note is more open and rather vague -- it's a bit
of a catch all, which makes me nervous, but it's concrete enough to get
started. With proper scoping at the outset, it should also be doable,
useful and lead us to a better understanding of how AR and the Web may come
together.

I am hesitant to broaden the focus of the WG much beyond those items as
they are concrete, useful, tractable, and yet significant in size and
scope. While on the other hand, it's not clear to me that the other topics
discussed share these characteristics just yet. Remember: one purpose of a
charter is to establish the scope so that members can be confident in their
intellectual property commitments. These commitments help to keep the Web
open and free. The Working Group will have plenty to do, but also plenty of
opportunities to discuss future work items. We can always add new items when 
the charter expires, or if necessary through early rechartering.

That being said, I'd like to move ahead with getting the charter [4] before
the W3C membership. I will be editing it to remove the placeholder and TBDs
and put dates in place. The W3C Process [5] has W3C management, Member and
Director reviews which total eight weeks. This means we could have our
first teleconference in the first week of October, be formed in time for
ISMAR [6], and aligns nicely to have our first face-to-face meeting at the
yearly member meeting in November [7]. We have selected Andrew Braun of
Sony Ericsson to be Chair, and I'll be the staff contact. Based on
conversations I've had with members, I'm confident that this work will have
support, though the review process could result in modifications.

I'm excited about this work -- it will form a solid foundation on which to
build the future of Augmented Reality and the Web.

Thanks!

-Matt Womer


[1] http://www.w3.org/2010/06/w3car/report
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-poiwg/2010Aug/0031
[3] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-poiwg/2010Jul/0042
[4] http://www.w3.org/2010/POI/wiki/Draft_Charter
[5] http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/groups.html#GAGeneral
[6] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-poiwg/2010Aug/0039
[7] http://www.w3.org/2010/11/TPAC/

Received on Tuesday, 17 August 2010 19:44:34 UTC