Draft intro to Process 2016 Document to be sent to

All,

As promised at the last AB Telcon, I have drafted a cover letter to go with
the proposed Process 2016 draft to be sent to the AC for consideration and
comments. 

 

Steve Z

 

=========Draft Letter ========

All,

The Advisory Board is forwarding a proposed Process 2016 draft [1], [2] and
[3] to the Advisory Committee for consideration and comment. The plan is
that, based on the received comments, a revised draft will be sent to the
Advisory Committee for formal Review prior to the September TPAC meeting and
that there will be time for questions and comments on the proposed Review
document at the TPAC meeting. 

[1] https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html

[2] https://www.w3.org/2016/07/28-Process2016-diff.html (HTML Diff version)

[3] https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/ (Detailed Diffs)

 

Please send comments to public-w3process@w3.org
<mailto:public-w3process@w3.org>  (Mailing list archive
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-w3process/> , publicly
available) or to process-issues@w3.org (Member-only archive
<https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/process-issues> ). A Public Issue
Tracker <https://www.w3.org/community/w3process/track/>  and detailed
changelogs <https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/>  are available online. You may
discuss your comments on any other list, such as w3c-ac-forum@w3.org
<mailto:w3c-ac-forum@w3.org> , as long as you send the comments to one of
the W3process lists above and copy that list in the discussion.

 

The major changes in this document and their rationale are outlined below:

Renumber - 5.2.8, it becomes 5.2.7 (there was no section 5.2.7 in Process
2015)

 

Added a process to make a Recommendation Obsolete and consolidate it with
Rescinding a Recommendation - 6.9
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#rec-rescind> 

The AB observed that there are some Recommendations that have (mostly)
outlived their usefulness and should no longer be implemented in new
software. This class of Recommendations, called Obsolete Recommendations,
is different from the class of Rescinded Recommendations. A Recommendation
that is Rescinded is no longer a Recommendation and has no licensing
commitments nor can it be referenced Normatively. A Recommendation that is
Obsoleted remains a Recommendation, it still has patent licensing
commitments and it can be referenced Normatively, but implementation of that
Recommendation is discouraged.

 

Section 6.9 of the Process Document has been changed to specify the
processes to Rescind, to Obsolete and to un-Obsolete a Recommendation. The
details of the process are similar in each case, but he effect is different.
Since all these decision are binary (that is, the content of the affected
Recommendation, except for the Status section, does not change), Wide Review
prior to the AC (and Public) Review is not required or necessary. Anyone can
request one of these actions. If the Working Group that produced the
specification is still extent (or exists as a re-chartered group) then that
Working Group acts to recommend that the requested action take place. If
there is no such Working Group, the TAG acts to do a technical assessment of
the requested action. If proceeding is recommended or the AC appeals a
rejection, then an AC Review and the Director's Decision determine the
result. See 6.9
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#rec-rescind>  for the
exact details.

 

Changed the voting for AB and TAG elections to Single Transferable Vote -
2.5.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#AB-TAG-elections> 

The W3C Membership recommended that W3C experiment with different voting
mechanisms for TAG and AB elections. After analysis of the 2-year experiment
that occurred as a result of that recommendation, the Membership supported
the adoption of an Single Transferable Vote tabulation system for TAG and AB
elections with the expectation that it will be more representative of the
Membership's will.

 

The text that is in the proposed Process document was designed with the
following goals in mind:

*	The tabulation system description (and choice of specific tabulation
system) should be independent of the process document text. 
*	The tabulation system should be described independent of specific
voting operations (e.g., the forms that members fill out). 
*	The tabulation system should be described independent of any
software we use to compute results (that is: we should not rely on a single
piece of software for implementation).

 

The Team currently believes that the Meek STV
<https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/steve/trunk/stv_background/meekm.pdf>
tabulation system is the best fit for the TAG and AB elections. Details on
why and how are at https://www.w3.org/community/w3process/wiki/Voting2016. 

 

 

Simplify and Rationalize Appeals, so they can occur whether there was
dissent or not, and in a broader range of cases - see especially 6.4
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#candidate-rec> , 6.6
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#rec-publication> ,
6.9 <https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#rec-rescind> , 7
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#ReviewAppeal> , 7.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#ACAppeal> , 7.3
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/ACVotes> , 10
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#Submission> , 10.4
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#SubmissionNo> , 11
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#GAProcess> 

Toward the end of the process of creating Process 2015, a number of issues
related to "appeals" in the W3C process surfaced. At that time, there seemed
to be too little time to appropriately address the issues with the care the
seem to be needed. These issues (and ones which have arisen since then) are
addressed in the proposed Process 2016. 

 

These changes made the following clarifications:

A.     Which of the three types of appeal is to be used MUST be explicitly
identified. The three types are:

i.                  Group Decision Appeal

ii.                 Submission Appeal

iii.                Advisory Committee Appeal

B.     Who can initiate the appeal MUST be identified (whether it is an
individual or an AC Representative)

C.      What is being appealed, what "decision" and who (chair, Director,
W3C or Team) made it MUST be identified.

D.     There should be a specification of what DOCUMENTATION should
accompany each type of appeal. This is specified for a Group Decision
Appeal.

 

Note: Formal Objections are not strictly an "appeal". They are "registered"
not "initiated" and they follow the document to which they apply. A separate
step, the Group Decision Appeal, that asks the Director to "confirm or deny
a decision" (of the group) is the appeal mechanism. Any individual may
register a Formal Objection, but only group participants may issue a Group
Decision Appeal and if they belong to a Member organization then they must
do so through their AC Representative.

 

Finally, the rules for what decisions are appealable were simplified to be
uniform across each class of decisions.

 

Clarified the rights and obligations of Member Consortia and their
representatives - 2.1.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#RelatedAndConsortiumM
embers> 

The Problems:
When we introduced the Introductory Industry Membership level [4, 5] we
imposed limitations on the rights and privileges of this category of Member.
The proposed change eliminates the disagreement between the current terms of
an Introductory Industry Member per their Member Agreement and this section
of the Process which implies such Members may participate in (all) Working
Groups and Interest Groups.
 
[4] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/fees?showall=1
[5] http://www.w3.org/2014/08/intromem
 
In looking at the way we define the entitlements of Member Organizations
that are also a Consortium in nature, there are a couple of issues that need
to be addressed.  They arise from the fact that we allow these Members to
appoint four (or more) people to represent them within W3C.  While we say
they are there to represent the Consortium we have been experiencing cases
where these designated representatives are in fact representing their own
interests.  This opens an IP exposure for W3C because we don't have
commitments from their employers just from the Consortium.  It also offers a
"back door" for large corporations to participate without joining
themselves.  The proposed changes, in section 2.1.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#RelatedAndConsortiumM
embers> , attempt to close those loopholes.
 

Clarified the process for continuing work on a specification initially
developed under another charter - 5.2.3
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#CharterReview> ,
5.2.4 <https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#cfp> , 5.2.6
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#WGCharter> , 6.2.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#transition-reqs> .

When the W3C Patent Policy and Process Documents were drafted, some Members
may have assumed that work on a W3C Recommendation would be the product of
work under a single Working Group charter; instead, Working Drafts often
evolve through multiple Working Group charters. The major uncertainty has
often been phrased as "When do Working Groups end?", but in fact concerns
the situation where a Recommendation is developed under more than one
Working Group Charter.  Many specifications take more than one charter
period to move from First Public Working Draft to Recommendation. There is
less than perfect clarity on whether a re-chartered Working Group is the
same or a different group and trying to clarify that in the Process seems
unlikely to reach consensus readily.  However there is a longstanding
practice of adopting a Working Draft that was published under a previous
charter, and continuing to develop it

 

The changes apply to Working Drafts that have had a full exclusion
opportunity under a Working Group pursuant to the Patent Policy (i.e.,
Reference Draft (RD) issued within 90 days of a First Public Working Draft
(FPWD) and a Candidate Recommendation (CR) (called Last Call Working Draft
(LCWD) in the Patent Policy).

 

The changes in this draft cover:

a)    A change in the W3C Process Document to clarify how work can continue
under a new Working Group charter on a Working Draft that has already had a
full exclusion opportunity; and

b)    Suggested improvements in practice to improve the ability to trace the
origin of Working Drafts, and their associated Reference Drafts and
Candidate Recommendations.

 

The most relevant text, currently in section 5.2.6 Working Group and
Interest Group Charters, is:

"For every Recommendation Track deliverable that continues work on a Working
Draft (WD) published under any other Charter (including a predecessor group
of the same name), for which there is an existing Reference Draft or
Candidate Recommendation, the description of that deliverable in the
proposed charter of the adopting Working Group must provide the following
information:

*	The title, stable URL, and publication date of the Adopted Working
Draft which will serve as the basis for work on the deliverable
*	The title, stable URL, and publication date of the most recent
Reference Draft or Candidate Recommendation
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#last-call>  which
triggered an Exclusion Opportunity per the Patent Process
*	The stable URL of the Working Group charter under which the most
recent Reference Draft or Candidate Recommendation was published.

The Reference Draft is the latest Working Draft published within 90 days of
the First Public Working Draft, and is the draft against which exclusions
are be made, as per section 4.1
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy/#sec-exclusion-with>  of the
W3C Patent Policy <https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy>  [PUB33
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#ref-patentpolicy> ].

The Adopted Working Draft and the most recent Reference Draft or Candidate
Recommendation
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#last-call>  must each
be adopted in their entirety and without any modification. The proposed
charter must state that the most recent Reference Draft or Candidate
Recommendation is deemd to be the Reference Draft or Candidate
Recommendation in the adopting Working Group, and that the Exclusion
Opportunity that arose as a consequence of publishing a First Public Working
Draft or Candidate Recommendation has finished, meaning any exclusions
against those drafts must be made on joining the group, as per section 4.3
<https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy/#sec-join>  of the W3C Patent
Policy <https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy>  [PUB33
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#ref-patentpolicy> ]

The Director must not issue a call for participation less than 60 days after
the beginning of an Advisory Committee Review for a charter that continues
work on a Reference Draft or Candidate for which an Exclusion Opportunity
has occurred."

Other changes are in 5.2.3
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#CharterReview> ,
5.2.4 <https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#cfp> , 6.2.2
<https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/AB/raw-file/default/cover.html#transition-reqs> 

Note:  Except for Section 3.1 of the Patent Policy, there is no explicit
statement in the 

Patent Policy that commitments made under the Patent Policy ever expire.