Re: W3C officially launches Web Payments initiative

On 10/15/2014 11:36 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> Congrats Manu, and all.  Lots of very hard work paying off!
> 
> Are you not going to chair this group?

No, I'm not and that's a good thing for a number of reasons:

1. The chairs for official W3C work need to come from large industry
players to signal to other large industry players that we have the right
organizations at the table. Dave Ezell is from the retail space,
specifically the National Association of Convenience Stores (if you buy
gasoline, you use their services). Erik Anderson is from Bloomberg,
which is a big player and trusted name in the finance world.

2. It lets me focus on representing the use cases and specs that have
been developed in this community without raising concerns about the
chairs having a conflict of interest.

I have been asked to chair some of the technical work, and I've pushed
back a bit because I don't want a perceived (or real) conflict of
interest to be used against the work that we're doing here.

For example, an organization that doesn't want the W3C to succeed in
this endeavor could accuse the technical working group of playing
favorites by appointing a person that has a technical horse in the race
to a position of leadership. In reality, the argument is spurious, but
it would waste precious time convincing people that the W3C formal
objection and voting process is there to prevent such a thing from
happening. I've never heard of a rogue chair in W3C ignoring consensus,
but if such a thing were to happen, they'd quickly find themselves removed.

So, I may chair some future technical work if I'm asked to do so, but
only if we can't find someone better and the perceived conflict of
interest is low to non-existent. I think W3C has chosen very wisely for
the Web Payments IG chairs. I know both of them and trust that they will
do a splendid job once the IG finds its footing.

So, while I don't think I will be chairing anything any time soon,
Digital Bazaar (for profit), the Open Payments Foundation (non-profit),
and the Web Payments CG (R&D / tech / civil society) will be deeply
involved and represented in the official W3C work that will happen over
the next several years.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: The Marathonic Dawn of Web Payments
http://manu.sporny.org/2014/dawn-of-web-payments/

Received on Sunday, 19 October 2014 18:45:58 UTC