Discussion about earl:confidence so far

Dear Group,

Please find a summary of the discussion about earl:confidence so far, and the resolution that was decided at the teleconference on 7 June, 2005.

The background and scope of the problem is discussed in the following thread:
  <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-ert/2005May/0045.html>

Summary of previous discussions and resolutions are in the following thread:
  <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-wai-ert/2005May/0071.html>

The following three options on how to proceed with the confidence claims in EARL were discussed during the call on 7 June:

1. Dropping the ConfidenceLevel all together
Even though previous discussions seemed to indicate that confidence claims are somewhat related to tests than to results, there wasn't much support to fully drop confidence claims from EARL. Several tools already make use of it and would like to continue doing so.

2. Keeping the property but dropping the values
Leaving ConfidenceLevel as a "stub" for developers to attach their own measurement of confidence (interval, nominal, integer, ...) was better received than the first proposal. However, the concern that this could lead to even less interoperability was raised.

3. Defining precise meanings for the values
A clear and unambiguous definition for the values "high", "medium", and "low" would yield to highest interoperability yet it is uncertain how this can be achieved. Nick has offered to write up how his tool calculates these values in the context of WCAG.

Resolution:
Nick will send a proposal for the precise definition of the values to the group by the end of June. At that point we will examine the definition and reassess how we should handle confidence in EARL.

Regards,
  Shadi


-- 
Shadi Abou-Zahra,     Web Accessibility Specialist for Europe 
Chair and Team Contact for the Evaluation and Repair Tools WG 
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),           http://www.w3.org/ 
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WAI-TIES Project,                 http://www.w3.org/WAI/TIES/ 
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Received on Thursday, 9 June 2005 13:49:28 UTC