protocols and W3C

First cut at text for my action from this week's core vision meeting:

Protocols define message formats and rules for exchanging those
messages. W3C frequently works on data formats and how user agents
should process, them and there is a gray line between this and
protocols, so that it is better to look at each proposed work item in
context, to determine whether it is in scope for a given Working Group
charter.

Although there is strong overlap in cross participation by organizations
in the W3C and the IETF, it is less likely to be the case for individual
participants. Moreover, the IETF and the W3C have different emphases,
and bring different strengths to their working groups.

The IETF is well known and highly regarded for its work on transport
layer protocols, including HTTP, and provides an effective venue for
work on HTTP, and related work such as streaming HTTP and Web sockets.

W3C is an appropriate venue for protocols at a higher level and with a
strong focus on Web data formats and conformance requirements for Web
user agents. This builds upon the skill sets of participants in W3C
Working Groups.

Strong standards benefit from extensive review and implementation
experience. This is why it is valuable for W3C Working Groups to review
and coordinate with related work at the IETF, and vice versa. In some
cases there will be multiple proposals, and these will have to play out
in the market place, but solid peer review from a broad range of
perspectives will benefit the market whichever solution wins out.

-- 
 Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett

Received on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 13:10:24 UTC