How can external organization reference draft W3C specifications

Dear W3C Process Community Group chairs and participants,

we (=Web&TV IG chairs and staff contacts) got a liaison letter (attached)  
 from the Open IPTV Forum asking about how they should handle references to  
W3C specifications that are not yet Recommendations.
The liaison letter lists a set of options (with pro/cons) and ask the W3C  
for advice on how to move forward and how this issue has been addressed in  
other cases.

The Web and TV IG held a telco [2] and had some initial discussion on  
possible options.
There was no consensus on how to deal with the issue but the following  
options (non mutually exclusive) were mentioned:

1. For all specs referenced by HTML5, indirectly reference them through  
html5 specification (to avoid inconsistencies in references and reduce the  
number of open ended references)
2. Reference dated snapshots
3. Reference a generic undated TF version (e.g. as done by EPUB)

(note: the letter also list other options)

In general, the IG participants felt that was important for the W3C to be  
looking into this problem (that is common to many organizations) and  
formulate some policy/best practices.
That is why I'm fwd this to you.

Do you have any recommendations on this topic or do you think having a  
general policy on this will be in scope of your CG?


Regards,
/g on behalf of the web&tv IG chairs


[1] www.oipf.tv
[2] http://www.w3.org/2012/03/12-webtv-minutes.html

-- 
Giuseppe Pascale
TV & Connected Devices
Opera Software