About producing HTML WG drafts [was: Henri's RDFa statements in the XHTML2 FAQ]

Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net>, 2009-07-07 20:34 -0400:

>  The quibble: I believe that in order to produce a draft with the intent of 
>  being considered a product of the HTML Working Group, one must be a member 
>  of that group.  Fortunately, we the Working Group has a policy of being open 
>  to all that wish to contribute, so effectively this is not a barrier at all.

That is also my understanding of the publication policy that the chairs
of the group have been seeking to establish: Anybody can join the group,
and anybody in the group can become an editor, and any substantial draft
that a member of the group takes time to put together and commits to
further editing for (including responding to comments on) deserves
support from the group for consideration of publication as a FPWD -- in
parallel with any other drafts published by the group.

I realize that's a different approach than the way most other groups
handle FPWD publication. But there is a somewhat exceptional history
behind the chartering of this particular group at the W3C, and the
circumstances that let up to that, and the set of circumstances that to
some degree the group inherited when it was chartered. And those
circumstances may mean that we all need to consider taking some
different approaches in the near term (for example, genuinely
encouraging and supporting parallel publication and review of multiple/
alternative WDs) in order to be successful with this work overall in the
long term.

I believe we have leadership in the group with the resolve that would be
needed to manage that kind of approach and make it ultimately
successful. If we have additional editors with the resolve to put other
drafts for discussion and to really carry through on them in the process
toward wider publication, I believe you will find we have organizational
commitment and ability to make that actually happen.

  --Mike

-- 
Michael(tm) Smith
http://people.w3.org/mike/

Received on Wednesday, 8 July 2009 04:11:10 UTC