Call for Editors for Server-sent Events, Web Storage, and Web Workers

Hi, Folks-

This is an active call for editors for the Server-sent Events [1], Web 
Storage [2], and Web Workers [3] specifications.  If you are interested 
in becoming an editor, with all the rights and responsibilities that go 
along with that, please respond on this thread or email us directly at 
team-webapps@w3.org.

Previously, Art Barstow asked for an analysis of the current status of 
these specs, with regards to LC comments, implementations, test suites, 
and so forth; these are typically performed and coordinated by the 
editor of a spec, and it's appropriate that someone doing this work 
would get editor credit for their effort.

These specs have not made progress along the Recommendation track in 
some time, and we want to move them forward to a stable state.  We 
appreciate and acknowledge the work the current editor, Ian Hickson, has 
put into these specs, but he seems to have indicated that he does not 
wish to be the one to drive them forward (which is understandable, given 
his other commitments, such as the HTML5 spec).  Ideally, we would 
prefer that Ian stay on as active co-editor, but if the logistics don't 
work out, we may ask the new co-editor to take on the sole 
responsibility for finalizing the spec, including processing comments 
from the WebApps WG, and from the community at large.


In the earlier thread, there was a discussion on the logistics and 
differing philosophies on spec development; without dwelling on that 
topic too much, it's worth stating that stability of a spec is a goal 
not only for licensing commitments, but also as a matter of coordination 
with multiple implementers, and for development of the entire 
infrastructure around a technology, including tests, tutorials, script 
libraries, and cutting-edge usage, some of which happens within W3C, and 
some of which happens in the wild.  We have an obligation to our 
community to make clear and consistent statements on the stability of 
our documents, because it costs real time, effort, and money to invest 
in these technologies.

Secure and efficient specifications are obviously the most important 
goal, but pushing out deadlines and changing the spec without clear 
progress toward a stable state is frustrating and troublesome for our 
community.

There is a difference in strategies between Ian's stated approach and 
W3C's; both are valid, but W3C has chosen to publish stable snapshots of 
specifications in the form of Recommendations, and to release updates to 
those technologies as subsequent editions, or to build upon them with 
new versions or levels.

This is the expectation in the WebApps WG, so we are calling for active 
co-editors who will dedicate themselves to the task of driving these 
specs to a stable state in a reasonable and predictable timeframe.


[1] Server-sent Events
http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-eventsource-20091222/

[2] Web Storage
http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-webstorage-20091222/

[3] Web Workers
http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-workers-20091222/

Regards-
Doug Schepers, W3C Team Contact
Art Barstow (Nokia), Co-Chair
Charles McCathieNevile (Opera), Co-Chair,

Received on Monday, 13 December 2010 21:16:29 UTC