Re: Publishing BG becoming a CG?

The publishers paying full membership participate in more than just the BG, I believe all of them are active members of PMWG, which includes attending meetings and participating in issues and feedback. I believe some of them also participate in other working groups or W3C activities. In short, they are making good use of their membership dollars.

If anything, this might push the publishers that are living “in-between” in the BG to make a decision one way or another. If a publisher wants to commit financially to W3C work, they should get something in return, and being a full member is the way to do that. If they don’t want to do that, or cannot, we still have a means for them to actively participate but at a lower barrier to entry.

I’d add that membership doesn’t need to be just the regional publisher. Harper Collins inherits its membership from NewsCorp, for example. If other publishers are part of multi-national or larger orgs, it might be worth exploring full membership as a larger organization. Or supporting the membership of regional representative orgs like BISG, BIC, etc.

-Wendy

From: Ralph Swick <swick@w3.org>
Date: Monday, September 9, 2024 at 4:27 PM
To: McCloy-Kelley, Liisa (she/her) <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>, W3C Publishing Steering Committee <public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Publishing BG becoming a CG?

[EXTERNAL] This message comes from an external organization.
I raised this in the July meeting and solicited feedback:

  https://www.w3.org/2024/07/12-pbgsc-minutes.html


We certainly want to hear the thoughts of those W3C Members who feel that a Business Group serves them better than a “Publishing Business Community Group”.  I can list pros and cons but I would not care to speculate on what those W3C Members feel.

Regards,
-Ralph


On Sep 9, 2024, at 3:37 PM, McCloy-Kelley, Liisa (she/her) <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> wrote:

Ivan and SC-

So this email is indicative of perhaps a bigger problem that the SC should address.

I don’t know what meeting Ivan is referring to. From my notes (and our minutes) I don’t think the SC as a group ever discussed this beyond a passing mention perhaps in our Aug meeting. We definitely as a group did not decide anything or have a conversation directly with the PBG Co-Chairs about the pros/cons of moving from a BG to a CG. So when this email went out, the PBG co-chairs were all a bit taken aback.

The PBG co-chairs have concerns about what this means for our business group folks who have full memberships, particularly our Japanese members, and whether that has been considered—it is not just a matter of losing a few business group memberships, but a large contingent of full memberships that folks may not want to renew. And though we want more participation, we don’t necessarily think that participation from just anyone is the answer. It warrants further discussion.

But the real thing that this points to is that there are several places where our communication across our work here is not adequate.  In our July meeting, we talked about Rick and Graham being asked to co-chair the SC, but it was never confirmed. Graham sent out an agenda for August, so I could infer that perhaps he had accepted. But Ivan’s note makes it clear that even he isn’t sure who is running this group now. This is not the first time something has been referred to and assumptions made that we are all on the same page without being in the same conversations.

If there has been a discussion about the BG, could someone please tell us where? When? What the proposal and reasoning is? And where are we with finding new leadership for the technical work within the CG?

And can we add improving communication to our agenda for Friday?

Thanks.

Liisa McCloy-Kelley on behalf of the PBG co-chairs


From: Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org<mailto:ivan@w3.org>>
Date: Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 5:44 AM
To: W3C Publishing Steering Committee <public-publishing-sc@w3.org<mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org>>
Subject: Publishing BG becoming a CG?
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of Penguin Random House. Please be extra cautious when opening file attachments or clicking on links.

Dear all,

at one of our recent meetings we discussed (and decided on?) the possibility to convert the current Publishing Business Group into a Community Group. The argument was that by declaring it, officially, as a Community Group, the membership fee obstacle would disappear, making it easier for anyone to join the group. The only downside is that W3C might lose some modest income, which was deemed to be acceptable. It would be good to put this issue on the agenda of the Steering Committee meeting of the 13th of September and make a final decision. (I am not sure who controls the agenda these days.)

The mechanics of converting the BG into the CG is something the W3C staff members will have to do. Hopefully, the change will be such that member of the current BG will be automatically be the member of the new CG (although that may not be possible, something Ralph and I will have to clarify).

However, there are some questions that we would have to discuss first, such as:

- Are we considering a merge of the current BG and CG into a new "Publishing CG", or do we keep the two groups separate with two distinct profiles?
- If we keep them separate, what will be the name of the new group? (Say, "Publishing Business Community Group"?) Do we want to also rename the current CG to make the profile clearer? (Say, "Publishing Technology Community Group"?)
- If we merge them, who will chair the new group?
- How do we explain the change to the current BG members? Do we want to use this announcement to make some extra CG recruiting, or, on the contrary, do we downplay the change as a purely administrative step?
- What other communication steps should we make, if any?

Would it be possible to get these discussed, and decide upon, next Friday, so that we can move on with the practicalities?

Thanks

Ivan

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Ivan Herman, W3C
Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/

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