Re: W3C officially launches Web Payments initiative

On Oct 19, 2014, at 12:02 PM, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
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> 
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>> On 19 October 2014 20:45, Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com> wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> Thanks for explaining.  You are a great chair, and even better on the technical side.  It's going to be good that some of your time is (potentially) freed up.
> 

+1

Gregg

>> -- 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/
>