[minutes] 9 August New Standards task force

Hello all,

Minutes from today's call on an early proposal:
  http://www.w3.org/2010/08/09-newstd-minutes

Next meeting: 23 August, 11:30 ET for 90 minutes.

Text version of minutes below.

  _ Ian

================

             New Standards Vision Task Force Teleconference

09 Aug 2010

    See also: [2]IRC log

       [2] http://www.w3.org/2010/08/09-newstd-irc

Attendees

    ArnaudLH, LarryR, CarlC, EduardoG, AndrewU, IanJ, MichaelC, ThomasR.

    Regrets: Dom

Contents

      * [3]Topics
          1. [4]early draft of proposal
          2. [5]Next meeting
      * [6]Summary of Action Items
      _________________________________________________________

    <trackbot> Date: 09 August 2010

early draft of proposal

    IJ summaries [7]early proposal, to be discussed next week with other
    task force chairs.

       [7] http://www.w3.org/2010/07/community

    EG: Please mention time-out idea

    mchampion: Structure seems ok

    Ian: My goal is to work all week on this, send something for comment
    later this week.

    Carl: Point out the benefit here is "play ground....some structured
    play"
    ... some structure:

    - way to introduce an idea

    - moderator

    IJ: What about peer-moderator?

    Carl: Want to ensure that conversations don't degenerate quickly.
    ... there needs to be some supervision

    Mike: The problem that we (MS) have is similar...we need to talk to
    a community of people.
    ... take WebSRT for example.
    ... some pushback in some places on simplifying something, aligning
    it with user needs.
    ... that discussion is happening outside W3C
    ... having a place to brainstorm where there may be civil
    disagreement, is valuable.

    IJ: I can see a W3C with three things: new discussion forum,
    community group, WG.
    ... need to see what values are of current XG process or current IG
    process

    mchampion: Some support in MS for reusing existing processes where
    we can.
    ... some concern about a "community specification" and effect on
    brand.
    ... some time ago, IGs were really the open forum where deep
    technical discussion occurred; WGs did the mechanics of spec writing

    IJ: This is the study phase; not suggesting we have 5 things

    mchampion: +1

    Arnaud: Agree that adding to what we have may not be a good idea.
    Phase I is figuring out what we want. Phase II is analyzing what we
    have and morphing something or renaming if we have to

    IJ: see also the two objectives synthesis from discussion

    # Simplifying our interface to the world

    # Identify and eliminate unnecessary process slowdowns. Provide
    rationale to the community for remaining timing expectations.

    [8]http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-vision-newstd/2010Jul/
    0054.html

       [8] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-vision-newstd/2010Jul/0054.html

    * The vision statements

    * The objectives. What high-level messaging is important to

    communicate our intent? Are the objectives all in scope? What's
    missing?

    * Whether the comparison table is useful; how to improve it, what's

    missing, and so on.

    Arnaud: One question of clarification - what is meant by new idea
    forum
    ... "One idea: if a community group is created, discussion SHOULD
    move there."

    is that SHOULD or MUST?

    Arnaud: I see this as sort of a forum for doing a public call for
    participation.
    ... perhaps some discussion of scope, etc.
    ... and then you move on.

    [IJ note to self: group creation notification mechanisms]

    lrosen: What infrastructure, services are available to newly formed
    community group?

    IJ: Progression along multiple axes (infrastructure, legal, etc.)

    lrosen: In Apache there are various levels of responsibility, e.g.,
    committer privs, v. members who can vote, ...
    ... In IETF, anyone can participate and that can sometimes cause
    problems....
    ... in Apache, you don't just say you want to be a project...
    ... there is an incubator project management committee.
    ... once a project has started:

    * anybody can read email

    * only trusted people become committers

    [Discussion of what hurdles should look like and how much]

    [IJ notes that "peer-selected people" is more interesting than
    "self-selecting"]

    Andy: One observation about the two different systems (open source,
    open standards) while acknowledging how they meet in the middle.
    ... when you are in the standards-creation mode, it tends to be more
    of a discussion + voting and ultimately more binary
    ... in the open source world, there is much more granularity - you
    can make changes line-by-line or module-by-module with multiple
    authors.
    ... the opportunities for problems may be greater in the case of
    code than in the case of standards (which may only be a few pages)

    lrosen: I understand that there are differences here...not my
    intention to sell the Apache model here.
    ... trying to highlight that there are these mechanisms that have
    evolved in Apache to provide for a kind of equitable, peer-directed,
    reputational value assigned to people who participate.
    ... it has worked successfully in the software world...not sure if
    it would work in standards world.
    ... I agree it is overloaded with process...
    ... I merely present it as a model to draw from.

    carl: The IETF went through a similar process...the reality is that
    each group, depending on what it's doing, has a set of processes.

    carl: w3c is seeking to distinguish itself (e.g., via its inception
    then its RF policy)
    ... agree we should take best from various fora and tie it back
    together.
    ... you always compete with organizations that have less structure
    but that are transient
    ... W3C will face issues like (1) installed based (2) membership
    structure (3) may find itself easily conflicted
    ... much of the stress we are seeing is how to encourage ideas
    without disturbing the installed base.

    IJ: Not reinventing W3C; adding a new offering we've not
    traditionally offered.

    Carl: Management needs to decide whether this is evolution or
    revolution.
    ... need to focus on amount of change management and members are
    willing to accept
    ... what are risks of creating a new track? not creating it?

    mchampion: There seems to be less dissent on a "new ideas forum"

    mchampion: perhaps we can move quickly on that...and continue to ask
    people what prevents people from participating.
    ... I think we can start the new idea forum quickly; doesn't require
    a process change. Suggest we make that happen sooner.

    IJ: Should we try stuff out and experiment or wait to talk to the
    AC?

    mchampion: I would have a bias towards action. I do think it would
    rude to modify the process, but something that doesn't require a
    process change or undermine the business model would be good to do
    and talk about preliminary results in November.

    tlr: On open discussion fora: Larry cited IETF IPR WG where an open
    discussion got out of hand.
    ... if there are two sets of discussions that chronically get out of
    hand, it's IPR and process discussions....
    ... individual submission is a valuable piece of the IETF process
    ... what can W3C learn from this?
    ... is the lesson that the gating factor towards a lightweight
    forum....
    ... might be "put an initial draft on the table and you get a group
    to discuss it right away"

    <mchampion> +1 to Thomas -- quickly create a mechanism to put ideas
    out in front of W3C community for discussion and review

    carl: +1

    Arnaud: How far do we want to go into discussing the process?
    ... you can define a wide range, from sourceforge to Apache

    IJ: Yes, we want to try to come up with consensus on values for
    various parameters. But not on this call or this week.

    Arnaud: There are some strong beliefs associated with various
    models.
    ... I would lean towards the trust position.

    lrosen: We need to involve more public since we are tailoring
    something to them
    ... we should engage the public in this discussion

    <scribe> ACTION: Ian to put more explicitly in the wiki that public
    comment is welcome, and also set expectations about public outreach
    as the process matures. [recorded in
    [9]http://www.w3.org/2010/08/09-newstd-minutes.html#action01]

    <trackbot> Created ACTION-5 - Put more explicitly in the wiki that
    public comment is welcome, and also set expectations about public
    outreach as the process matures. [on Ian Jacobs - due 2010-08-16].

Next meeting

    23 August, 11:30 ET for 90 minutes

    scribe: agenda likely to be about feedback from next week's
    management meeting

Summary of Action Items

    [NEW] ACTION: Ian to put more explicitly in the wiki that public
    comment is welcome, and also set expectations about public outreach
    as the process matures. [recorded in
    [10]http://www.w3.org/2010/08/09-newstd-minutes.html#action01]

    [End of minutes]
      _________________________________________________________


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--
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)    http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                                      +1 718 260 9447

Received on Monday, 9 August 2010 17:04:49 UTC