Relationship of WEBDAV to IETF and W3C

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