Re: small comment on the AB draft process document

On Oct 17, 2013, at 7:41 PM, "Charles McCathie Nevile" <chaals@yandex-team.ru> wrote:

> On Fri, 18 Oct 2013 02:10:25 +0200, Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On Oct 17, 2013, at 6:50 PM, Charles McCathie Nevile <chaals@yandex-team.ru> wrote:
>> 
>>> On Wed, 16 Oct 2013 10:44:38 +0200, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org> wrote:
>>>> chaals wrote
>>>>> Ivan had written
>>>>>> 7.6.2, classes #1 and #2 of changes: does it mean that the Working
>>>>>> Group (or the team) is allowed to make changes on the documents
>>>>>> directly, in situ, on the TR pages? Or does it mean that a new
>>>>>> document is created (with a new dated URI) by the Working Group, which
>>>>>> is then silently put up on /TR (maybe with a home page announcement)?
>>>>> 
>>>>> This text was inherited from the existing process document. I believe the practice is that in the first case the changes can be made in situ (although there is a difference between changing the invisible content of markup and the actual text of a link, IMHO). I am not sure when the second class of change would be made, but my inclination is to either remove it, or require an Edited Recommendation rather than allowing in situ editing.
>>>>> 
>>>> Actually, I do like what is there, ie, that even #2 changes can be done in situ. Let me give a typical example: we have a document in the making (JSON-LD), that has a dependency on Promises (or whatever the name in vogue is these days). We would really like to publish this as a Rec today, but the reference to the Promises document cannot be normative. Say in 6 month the Promises document, in its current format, becomes final and cast in concrete. That means that a new JSON-LD document should be issued with the reference changed to normative. This change would not affect conformance of implementations, but it is not a broken link or invalid markup change: ie, it falls under category #2. On the other hand, it looks like madness to go through the whole hoopla and contacting the AC over this change, so I would like the team or the WG to make the change in situ, announce the change and go on with their lives...
>>> 
>>> I raised ISSUE-47 for this point. I think that markup changes should be
>>> allowed "silently" - i.e. no announcement required.
>> 
>> Here is the Director's current policy:
>> http://www.w3.org/2003/01/republishing/
> 
> Thanks. I am proposing to bring the Process more in line with this. But I am still not entirely happy with the section - it is unclear *who* can request or approve a change…

That document says:

 "Editors (or others) send a request to the Webmaster, cc'ing the domain lead, webreq, and w3t-comm. The request must include:"

I believe it is intentionally left open. I would not want to constrain it unwittingly.

Ian


> 
> So I'll make changes to try and clarify, but leave the issue open.
> 
> cheers
> 
> Chaals
> 
>>> I agree that it is reasonable to update a reference (another example that
>>> leaps to mind is IETF URIs that vanish) with a simple announcement. This
>>> is a judgement call, since it may be that the change (for example in the
>>> case of promises) is accompanied by a change in the target that actually
>>> affects conformance. But if not, it should as you say be possible to make
>>> a quick change and get on with more important things.
>>> 
>>> However beyond that, I think editorial changes should be reviewed (I've
>>> seen, and probably even made, too many "editorial" chagnes that turned out
>>> to have a serious impact on someone out there…).
>>> 
>>> So I propose to change class 2 of changes to be references, and allow
>>> markup changes silently, references to be changed with a new publication
>>> and announcement but no formal review, and fold editorial changes into
>>> class 3, requiring an Edited Rec.
>>> 
>>> And I'll put that into the draft I am working on right now and will
>>> publish before I go to sleep.
>>> 
>>> cheers,
>>> 
>>> Chaals
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Charles McCathie Nevile - Consultant (web standards) CTO Office, Yandex
>>>       chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Ian Jacobs <ij@w3.org>      http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
>> Tel:                                          +1 718 260 9447
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Charles McCathie Nevile - Consultant (web standards) CTO Office, Yandex
>      chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com
> 

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

Received on Friday, 18 October 2013 01:25:07 UTC