Re: Reviewing solid formal objection (9) -- broadening the scope of the group

On 2023-10-12 12:11, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> Solid CG founder's hat on.
Thank you for putting that specific hat on when you speak because it 
helps to clarify your position to me (and possibly others?), and adds 
much depth to the topic at hand.

> It's important not to rewrite the history of 
> this group.

I agree completely. That is undoubtedly a useful and mature behaviour 
for everyone participating in/around open standards development. Thank 
you for raising and emphasising this point.

Do you reckon that there was anything said or implied by anyone in this 
thread thus far that gave you the feeling that an attempt was made to 
rewrite the history of this group?

> I started this group completely on my own.I did ask TimBL 
> if i could and he said sure. 

Your initiative to get Solid CG started is unquestionable as it is on 
public record. I believe it gave much energy, dimension, and further 
helped to legitimatise the Solid Project, and to boldly no one has gone 
before. I am for one immensely thankful for your efforts, and always at 
the edge of my seat to see what you come up with next.

> Only after the group had become a success.

No doubt. What success criteria did you use to come up with that 
assessment? Is it publicly documented?

> With the group I 
> appointed two chairs, and allowed it to set its own path.

As far as I can tell as per references to the data mentioned in 
https://github.com/solid/process/pull/323#issuecomment-1661270059 , 
you've co-chaired for approximately 3 weeks, which then followed with a 
few weeks of no-chairs.

> I started this group to be a broad inclusive group and a way to discuss 
> wider topics in Solid in a threaded way, and in a way that the history 
> would be saved.  This became a vital part of Solid because other areas 
> (e.g. github) had become dysfunctional with comments and the history 
> censored or even deleted.  Whole repositories were deleted, too.  That 
> left the CG as the sole place where thoughts about solid could be 
> expressed and survive.

Can you please remind me with a few examples? Was this something broadly 
agreed by folks working on the wider Solid community or the Solid CG? 
Some references to that assessment would be helpful, while of course 
wearing your Solid CG founder hat. Or any other hat would be equally 
insightful.

> Something happened, I dont know what, perhaps someone in the group 
> knows.  But we went from having two chairs selected by the group.  To 
> having just one chair, the pseudo-anonymous "Solid Manager".  After that 
> we had just one chair, from Inrupt, namely Sarven.

I've documented the Solid CG chair appointments as extensively and 
accurately as possible to the best of my abilities based on information 
that's publicly available:

* https://github.com/solid/process/pull/323#issuecomment-1661270059
* 
https://web.archive.org/web/20230907183633/https://github.com/solid/process/pull/323#issuecomment-1661270059

Before gathering that data, I have in fact reached out to W3C staff to 
provide that information themselves as the source of truth, however they 
did not have CG chair appointments on record, which is why I relied on 
the Internet Archive as the best neutral third-party. I've found that 
useful enough to move discussions forward until more accurate and 
precise information that's publicly verifiable is brought forward, with 
the exception of course W3C providing that information somehow in the 
future.

The record does not show that there was only one chair until I became 
the chair. Initially that was with my previous affiliation as you've 
mentioned, and the remaining period until today I've been participating 
independently (with "Individual CLA commitment"):

* 
https://github.com/solid/specification/blob/main/meetings/2023-03-01.md#affiliations
* 
https://web.archive.org/web/20230321160956/https://www.w3.org/groups/cg/solid/participants/git

Your humble servant,

-Sarven
https://csarven.ca/#i

Received on Thursday, 12 October 2023 11:28:01 UTC