Re: "Webizen" task force re-convening - Please complete doodle poll

On Wed, 02 Jul 2014 23:56:03 +0400, Jeff Jaffe <jeff@w3.org> wrote:

> The draft agenda for the first call is:

Regrets: chaals

> 1. Goals for program

This is the most important question.

> 2. Success criteria for program

I think we have a few rough ones.
- If it costs a lot of money to deal with, it failed.
- If "nobody" joins, it failed.

> 3. Target market and marketing study

I think the target market boils down to people who don't have a community
around them, and need W3C to make them one. People who can build their own
communities just join as an organisation - which is probably cheaper than
the 200x $100 proposed to qualify for an AC rep.

> 4. Brainstorming
>
> To have a more efficient call, let me say a bit in email about these
> agenda items.
>
> *Goals for the program*:  I was challenged to articulate the goals of
> the program.  The questioner suggested 5 potential goals:
>
> A. W3C wants to establish itself as the primary steward of the Web, and
> toward that goal wants to have individuals participate.

I think this is actually a useful goal. However, I think our Invited
Expert mechanism, the fact that most groups work in public, and the fact
that all specs are required to go through a Public Last Call and "should"
be published for review at intermediate stages is adequate for this
purpose.

(Not to say that there are no problems, but that I don't think "Webizens"
is the right approach to a solution to them.)

> B. Countries grant citizenships -- W3C  wants to create Webizens a la
> Citizens

I don't think this is a good thing, so I am glad it wasn't the option you
chose :)

> C. W3C  wants to involve the wider community -- rather than be seen as a
> place where only companies play

This is important.

> D. W3C wants to create an additional revenue stream

While this should not be the goal, I agree that a Webizens program should
be both self-funding (at minimum) and highly scalable. Which means if we
had the happy problem that it was bringing in a lot of revenue to W3C we
would need to address it. Ideally, we would have our goals sufficiently
clear that it would be obvious what we should and should not do in
response to this hypothetical.

> E. Degrading further: W3C  wants to sell t-shirts and coffee-mugs that
> are "branded".

I doubt this is anyone's goal. Not because it is a bad idea, but because a
webizen program is a terribly inefficient way to do it, and since it is
primarily a distraction from W3C's mission, it should only happen in some
very efficient and highly scalable way.

But there is a flip side. If we think that Webizens' goal includes
'getting W3C-branded stuff', we should say so, and think carefully about
the cost of production, handling and shipping, and what stuff we give them
after a couple of years.

[...]

> *Marketing study.*  At some point we will need to do a marketing study.
> It is probably too early in this effort to create the study - but I
> would like to discuss what we think is the minimum intensive study which
> qualifies as a marketing study.

IMHO: One that identifies at least 100 individuals with their money
committed, and provides a clear explanation of where the next 900 will
come from.

>  I asked W3C Members to fund a marketing
> study (dollars or people to perform the study) but I received not
> volunteers.  The Team, with its meager resources volunteered to
> undertake a study.  I've asked task forcers whether the Team proposal is
> adequate, but I've gotten few responses.  So we'll resolve it on the  
> call.
>
> For your study, here is the Team proposal:
>
>   * We have 87K twitter followers.
>   * We could send them a survey monkey survey with a few questions, and
>     offer anyone who completes the survey 10 vaildator coupons.

Why are the validator coupons necessary or useful? It looks likely to bias  
the responses to be from people who want something free from W3C, if it  
isn't a waste of time making the offer.

What I think we are really looking for is pledges of commitment. Which I  
guess should be discounted at about 50%, although this area isn't my  
specialty (in various events I am involved in running, 2/3 of registered  
people turning up is a pretty common figure. In any event, there is likely  
a difference between answering a survey and actually shelling out cash).

>   * We estimate that we get 100 answers that way at relatively low cost.
>   * The Webizen task force would design the survey and the Team would
>     implement it.

If we're using survey monkey (or even WBS) it should be feasible for the  
TF to implement a survey.

But I think we first need to understand what the question is…

cheers

-- 
Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
chaals@yandex-team.ru         Find more at http://yandex.com

Received on Thursday, 10 July 2014 07:30:09 UTC