Re: Toward standardization of WebVR?

IMHO it is time for the process to begin...
the parties already working on this
will all benefit from having an institutional memory
if nothing else

working on the Mobile Web Initiative in the past
convinced me of the value of starting fairly early

jeffs
--
Jeff Sonstein
Assoc. Prof. (ret'd)
College of Computing, R.I.T.


> On Mar 13, 2017, at 8:41 AM, Dominique Hazael-Massieux <dom@w3.org> wrote:
> 
> Dear WebVR Community Group,
> 
> One of the conclusions of the Web & VR workshop we held in October 2016
> was that WebVR was a key component needed to make the Web a viable
> platform for VR, and that work on standardizing it should be part of
> W3C's roadmap.
>  https://www.w3.org/2016/06/vr-workshop/report.html
> 
> For those not necessarily familiar with the W3C process, the benefits of
> the formal W3C standardization process (compared to the spec development
> in a Community Group) includes:
> * Royalty-free licensing commitment with the protections from the W3C
> Patent Policy
> 
> * Strengthening of the specifications via so-called "horizontal reviews"
> from other W3C groups in the fields of accessibility,
> internationalization, security, privacy
> 
> * More cross-pollination with other spec-developing Working Groups, esp.
> through the participation to the annual W3C Technical Plenary week
> 
> * Assistance from the W3C staff with designated staff contact(s) who can
> help with process, public communication (press release, conferences,
> etc) and coordination with other groups and external liaisons
> 
> 
> I've been watching the great progress the community group is achieving
> on the WebVR API, and have started inquiries about the timing to start
> the formal standardization work on that API.
> 
> Some of the early feedback I got was that the work should continue its
> incubation for a bit more time, and that during that time, it would be
> helpful for W3C to identify and ideally smooth any obstacle that the
> consensus-based standardization process might bring.
> 
> I am now thus seeking input from the Community Group at large on two
> main questions:
> * what would be the criteria that you would see as relevant to determine
> that WebVR is mature enough to start its path on the standardization
> process? From my reading of our own internal best practices on the topic
> [1], WebVR ticks pretty much all of the boxes, but there may be
> constraints specific to this spec or community that would be worth
> knowing about.
> 1. https://www.w3.org/Guide/standards-track/
> 
> * what risks or obstacles can you think of that the standardization
> process might bring? I can imagine for instance that getting an early
> understanding of the impact of some of the horizontal reviews (e.g.
> accessibility) would help, but again, would prefer to get as clear a
> picture as possible to pave the way forward.  Since horizontal reviews
> address issues that help implementation and  deployment, not just
> standardization, how can we help those reviews to fit, for example with
> early use of self-review checklists.
> 
> 
> I'm interested in input from as many interested parties as possible,
> either on this list or by private email directly to me and my colleague
> Yingying Chen  <yingying@w3.org>.
> 
> I'm also happy to given more context and clarifications as needed. Thanks,
> 
> Dominique Hazael-Massieux
> organizer of the W3C workshop on Web & VR
> 
>

Received on Monday, 13 March 2017 13:44:33 UTC