Re: Please Keep Our Decentralized Web Standards Open

+1

On Thu, 21 Sep 2023 at 10:57, James <jamesg@jamesg.blog> wrote:

> Thank you for such a thoughtful email!
>
> > Decentralized Web standards deserve to be developed in a truly open and
> > inclusive manner - rather than a top-down approach where all concerned
> > voices cannot possibly be heard, simply because they don’t actually have
> > access to the process.
>
> I completely agree.
>
> We have seen success with an open approach in the IndieWeb community. Over
> the last six years, we have had several people implement standards produced
> by the former Working Group and have incubated improvements to standards
> that have also received multiple interoperable implementations. The barrier
> for participation is indeed much lower. We maintain a process via GitHub
> Issues, community discussion, and wikifying to ensure implementations,
> ideas, and discussions are widely available. This is somewhat akin to the
> FEP process for ActivityPub.
>
> The IndieWeb community adopted a "Living Standard" mechanism by which
> documents could be improved outside of the W3C. The canonical example of
> this is IndieAuth, which is maintained by the community at
> https://indieauth.spec.indieweb.org/, but was originally published as a
> W3C Note https://www.w3.org/TR/indieauth/.
>
> There is work the IndieWeb needs to do to document the Living Standard
> process, but it is perhaps a model of interest to parties here. The process
> hinges on there being spec editors or implementers with extensive
> experience participating actively. Access is open to implementers and
> people working with standards, decisions are consensus-based, and there is
> no membership or invitation barrier.
>
> With that said, there has been some interest in Living Standards becoming
> W3C standards for the rigor that goes into the process (TAG review, etc.).
>
> > To that end, I think it would be a tragedy to move any decentralized
> > social web standard activity from the current open, consensus-based
> > process to any closed, member-only process.
>
> Quick note: Working Groups are able to invite Experts to contribute to
> work. Experts do not need to have W3C Member status. Work of a WG is
> documented, informed by the CG, consensus-based, and follows the W3C
> Process (https://www.w3.org/2023/Process-20230612/).
>
> The CG would continue to exist and follow through with its work, such as
> creating a test suite, continuing to raise issues implementers and users
> run into, triaging and working on errata, etc.
>
> James
>
>
> ------- Original Message -------
> On Thursday, September 21st, 2023 at 06:53, Lisa Rein <lisa@lisarein.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> > Hello Everyone,
> >
>
> > Lisa Rein, Co-founder of Creative Commons and Aaron Swartz Day here.
> >
>
> > I have strong concerns about moving any open social web work out of the
> CG
> > process and into a WG because it means less folks will be able to
> > participate.
> >
>
> > The whole point of creating a Decentralized Web is to have a more level
> > playing field where independent groups can interoperate and flourish,
> > which requires the process for creating Decentralized Web standards to be
> > as transparent and inclusive as possible.
> >
>
> > To that end, I think it would be a tragedy to move any decentralized
> > social web standard activity from the current open, consensus-based
> > process to any closed, member-only process.
> >
>
> > Decentralized Web standards deserve to be developed in a truly open and
> > inclusive manner - rather than a top-down approach where all concerned
> > voices cannot possibly be heard, simply because they don’t actually have
> > access to the process.
> >
>
> > Only a transparent process, that is truly inclusive, will have any hope
> of
> > being able to address the concerns of the numerous, diverse and often
> > marginalized communities that will be depending on these very important
> > Decentralized Web standards.
> >
>
> > Thanks,
> >
>
> > lisa
> >
>
> >
>
> > Lisa Rein
> >
>
> > Co-Founder, Creative Commons
> > Co-Founder, Aaron Swartz Day
> >
>
> > Chelsea Manning's Archivist
> > Digital Librarian, Dr. Timothy Leary Futique Trust
> >
>
> >
>