Re: Next steps

Hi Matthew (et al) -

Just wanted to voice my thanks for your superlative work in bringing the
output of this workshop together into a manageable and (I believe)
achievable charter. When putting together such a working group charter, it
is often tempting to broaden the scope and deliverables. But my experience
is that groups with simple, succinct charters and a limited set of
deliverables are most effective at delivering output in a timely and
impactful manner. I think you¹ve done an admirable job of crafting the
charter and it has my full support as co-chair of the workshop that spawned
it and as Advisory Committee representative for Vodafone.

Dan

On 17/08/2010 20:44, "Matt Womer" <mdw@w3.org> wrote:

> 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/
> 
>