[pwg] What are we trying to accomplish?

Hi All,

We've had a few discussions on calls and on this list recently that make it clear that it's time to review the goals of the group.

We have a charter [1] that makes our goals explicit. "The WG will specify Web Publications and identify what they need the underlying Web platform to provide. It will build upon existing platform technologies specified by other groups, where available, seeking to fill gaps by assuring that the unique requirements of Web Publications are addressed by features (including optional features) or extension points in those specifications." (emphasis added)

So, we are defining:

  1.  Web Publications (not EPUB, which is a different aspect of our charter, and there are likely overlaps)
  2.  What Web Publications need from the Web Platform

We have a lot of information in our current draft of Web Publications [2]. We have reached consensus about many major issues, such as some minimum metadata. We all agree that the WP needs to include a list of objects it contains, which for lack of a better term we have been calling a manifest.

In the "Address" [3] section of our current draft, we also state that the WP has an entry point that links to this manifest. Most of the discussion we have been having recently has been about Manifest. For some, the details of whether we should or should not use and/or extend Web App Manifest [4] may be a little confusing, but that is not relevant to the conversation that has led us to what seems to be a total impasse.

The question is this: When a User Agent (no matter what kind) encounters this manifest, what happens? In other words, what does WP need the Web Platform to provide?

If you have suggestions, from a technical or business perspective, please respond. If you have built an implementation that answers this question, please tell us about it or post some links to it.

Please do not tell us that others are wrong. Please do not tell us why the charter is flawed. Please do not tell us that we are in pursuit of an errant dream. If you have these opinions, they are important to share, but please do not mix discussions of chartering and scope of the group and charter with technical issues. It leads to endless back and forth and prevents us from getting anything accomplished.

To those who have been sharing implementations and positive discussion, thank you, and keep up the good work.

I look forward to a productive call on Monday.

Tzviya

[1] https://www.w3.org/2017/04/publ-wg-charter/
[2] https://w3c.github.io/wpub/
[3] https://w3c.github.io/wpub/#wp-address
[4] https://w3c.github.io/manifest/

Tzviya Siegman
Information Standards Lead
Wiley
201-748-6884
tsiegman@wiley.com<mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com>