timeline flexibility

As we're coming down to the wire, and external interest has picked up, 
I've been double-checking what flexibility there might be in our 
deadlines.  The schedule I sent a few weeks ago (which said the last 
possible date for going to CR was last week -- see below) was 
constrained by getting to Recommendation by the end of our charter.    
It turns out there's a little flexibility in that technically we only 
have to request PR before our charter ends, because the process after 
that does not require a WG; it's all managed by the staff.  So, if 
necessary, we could actually restart CR as late at May 16th (then 
publish May 25, wait 28 day comment period, then approve going to PR at 
a final Jun 27 meeting).

That would be a risky option; it increases the things that could go 
wrong, and us not making it to Rec at all.   But it's better than 
including some kind of fatal flaw in a spec.

There are also longshot options of extending the group and re-chartering 
the group, if enough interest arises, but I definitely wouldn't count on 
either of those.

As we're talking with external folks looking at WebSub and AP, though, 
it would be good to listen for things they think need to be solved in 
the future, or unhappily are stopping them from adopting our stuff 
now.    A good place to record things like this is in issues labeled 
'postponed'.   Then we can look at that list as a to-do list for a 
future group.

     -- Sandro


-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:  New meeting scheduled: April 4th, WebSub only
Resent-Date:  Wed, 29 Mar 2017 01:04:35 +0000
Resent-From:  public-socialweb@w3.org
Date:  Tue, 28 Mar 2017 21:04:00 -0400
From:  Sandro Hawke <sandro@hawke.org>
To:  public-socialweb@w3.org <public-socialweb@w3.org>



It turns out we're behind schedule on WebSub.   I apologize for not
flagging this sooner.  To get to Recommendation status before our
charter runs out, we're on a very tight timeline.  Basically, we need to
have all issues closed and all comments addressed, and decide we're
ready for CR, by a week from today.  If there are a couple thing's we're
still not sure about, we can leave them as features At Risk in the spec
for another 5 weeks.

The chairs (and WebSub editors) have agreed to a 2 hour meeting, in our
usual time slot, next week.    Hopefully we can all stay engaged in
github & email so that meeting goes smoothly, and I can submit our
transition request at the end of the meeting.

Here's what the timeline looks like, if you're curious.   It's dictated
by (1) ending by June 30, (2) manual publications only happening on
Tuesdays and Thursdays, (3) us deciding things only on Tuesdays, (4)
transition requests needing 7 days, (5) the patent policy giving 60 days
after CR to exclude patents, (6) the AC needing 14 days after the
exclusion period ends to make their final decisions.   The first few of
those might turn out the be flexible, the later ones probably wont.
Hopefully nothing will go wrong and we can just stick to this timeline.

Mar 28 - Final call for wide review, schedule upcoming decision meeting
(7 days)
Apr  4 - WG Decides to request CR, sends transition request (7 days)
Apr 11 or 12 - transition meeting
Apr 13 - Publish CR (review for 28 days until May 11)
May 16 - WG assesses the CR exit criteria are met (two impls of each
feature); Request transition to PR
May 25 - Publish PR
Jun 12 - End of 60 day CFE period (Call-for-Exclusions on Patents)
Jun 26 - End of AC review (14 days after CFE ends, 32 days after PR)
Jun 29 - Publish Rec

Through most of this, the Working Group's job is to be addressing issues
& comments as they come in, hopefully quickly and so the commenter feels
we've handled their comment reasonably.  We'll also need the test suite
finished, and to be tracking incoming test results.   As long as we get
sufficient implementation reports & are able to handle people's comments
well, things are likely to proceed smoothly.

     -- Sandro