- From: Jim Whitehead <ejw@ics.uci.edu>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 21:37:11 -0800
- To: w3c-dist-auth@www10.w3.org
At the Palo Alto WEBDAV meeting, participants overwhelmingly supported pursuing sponsorship with both the IETF and the W3C. As your Chair, I have followed the group's wishes, and I have investigated becoming a dual IETF and W3C working group. In the end, my conclusion is that it is not in the best interests of this group to pursue joint sponsorship by the IETF and W3C. Several problems with joint sponsorship have been identified: 1. It would be difficult to concretely document the interactions between the IETF, the W3C, and WEBDAV if both the W3C and the IETF sponsored the WEBDAV group. 2. Pursuing joint sponsorship would definitely delay the creation of an IETF WEBDAV working group. Before approving such a group, the IESG would want to understand what constraints were imposed by the association with W3C. 3. The W3C is resource constrained, and does not currently have the resources to support the WEBDAV group. However, the W3C has recently hired Ralph Swick, formerly of the X Consortium, and he is now the official WEBDAV liason with the W3C. It is expected that once he finishes immediate work on privacy and demographics he will be able concentrate his time on Web collaboration work, such as WEBDAV. I would like to recommend that WEBDAV adopt the following policy towards the relationship between WEBDAV, the IETF, and the W3C (thanks to Larry Masinter for initially suggesting it): The IETF will sponsor, and W3C will assist and facilitate the WEBDAV group. The WEBDAV group will follow all IETF rules and procedures, but will be able to, as appropriate, hand copies of documents to the W3C for publication at the appropriate level within the W3C (either a working draft, proposed recommendation, or recommendation). The WEBDAV group will also be able to receive technical review and guidance from W3C staff, and will continue the current close relationship between WEBDAV and the W3C. In my view, this allows WEBDAV to receive the advantages of association with the W3C (technical review and guidance, dissemination within the Web community) while also receiving the strong benefits of the IETF working group process, the collective experience the IETF has had with their process, and the guidance and significant technical expertise of IETF members and review bodies. I strongly feel that being an IETF working group will allow us to produce a WEBDAV protocol specification which is of high technical quality. This policy will be discussed further at the WEBDAV meeting in Irvine next Monday and Tuesday. I am also very interested in the opinions of people on the list who will not be able to attend the meeting. - Jim
Received on Thursday, 23 January 1997 00:37:14 UTC