RE: local copies of WAI logo

At 08:45 AM 2000-12-19 -0500, Leonard R. Kasday wrote:
>Is there a w3c policy which simply allows or doesn't allow people to make 
>local copies?   If so, lets follow it.  (I couldn't find it however).
>

This is why we have a Web Architecture Group forming up.  In principle we have
a policy, but not all the layers of rules connecting general principles with
bits for individual information resources are in place and connected up and
down the line.

As I have said before and elsewhere, the W3C has been living under the
illusion
that it didn't have to mess with controlling substantive changes.  The
existing
W3C practices are really only sufficiently for W3C pronouncements that are
eternally good.  Web clients don't really honor "expires" data in practice, so
it is hard to mechanize a fully functional policy.  Let's just not go there
over this detail.

>If it's up to each w3c group to decide its own policy (which would surprise 
>me), and we need to debate this, my two cents would be:
>

There is not a complete plan coming at us from top down.  That is why I
suggest
(in this instance - note exception to general pattern!) we just do it and see
who tells us we did it wrong.  We could ask Gerald who he talked to or who
talked to him about the "copy permitted" legend on the validator icon.

>1. If we change the logo in a purely cosmetic way, with no change in 
>meaning, it doesn't matter if people are using the old one, so copies can 
>be allowed.
>
>2. If we change both the logo's meaning along with its appearance, then 
>it's not appropriate to have it change without the page owner being able to 
>control it, so local copies should actually be recommended.
>

This much of the W3C global policy is clear:  If you change the meaning of a
conformance claim, you should be changing the URI-reference which points to
the
definition of the standard to which [the subject of the claim] claim to
comply.  So on the W3C side if we change the rules, we have to create a new
URI
by which people will identify the rules when they claim conformance to the new
rules.  So we are not supposed to change the rules behind a published URI,
once
the rules are an official pronouncement of the W3C.  Note that this does not
strictly apply to URIs for namespaces, and there is still debate about how
much
change should precipitate a namespace URI change.  Whether and how much we
change the icon when we change the rules is a separate question.  It could be
that the family resemblance of the old vs. new icon is more important than
signaling minute changes in the configuration of the ruleset.

>I also support the point made by Kynn about the practical problems of 
>referring to images on w3c servers.  And thanks William for  pointing that 
>copies are OK for the validator.
>
>So I move we post a small errata that local copies be encouraged.
>

I suggest Len accept as a friendly amendment that we publish "a small erratum"
since there is only one involved here.  Speaking of errata...

Al

>Len
>
>
>At 03:10 PM 12/18/00 -0800, you wrote:
>>At 01:31 PM 12/18/2000 , Cynthia Shelly wrote:
>> >If we ask people to point to the official one, we can change it if we need
>> >to.  If we encourage people to make local copies, then old versions will
>> >hang around forever.
>>
>>If we ask people to point to the official one then we are asking
>>for a great amount of load on W3C servers, we are asking for
>>people to potentially violate firewalls to use the logo, and we
>>are making it unusable in situations which are not directly web
>>connected.  That's silly, to me, and it doesn't fit with any other
>>W3C logo usage.
>>
>>Note that other W3C logos can be used, say, on boxes of software.
>>There's no concern about "old versions being around forever" and
>>in fact that's not necessarily a bad thing.  In what kind of scenario
>>would we change the logo, and why wouldn't we want the old one
>>to persist?
>>
>>--Kynn
>>
>>--
>>Kynn Bartlett  <kynn@idyllmtn.com>                   
<http://kynn.com/>http://kynn.com/
>>Director of Accessibility, Edapta              
<http://www.edapta.com/>http://www.edapta.com/
>>Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet  
<http://www.idyllmtn.com/>http://www.idyllmtn.com/
>>AWARE Center Director                     
<http://www.awarecenter.org/>http://www.awarecenter.org/
>>What's on my bookshelf?                        
<http://kynn.com/books/>http://kynn.com/books/
>
>--
>Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
>Institute on Disabilities/UAP and Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Temple 
>University
>(215) 204-2247 (voice)                 (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
><http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday>http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday        
<mailto:kasday@acm.org>mailto:kasday@acm.org
>
>Chair, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Evaluation and Repair Tools Group
><http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/>http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/
>
>The WAVE web page accessibility evaluation assistant: 
><http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/>http://www.temple.edu/
inst_disabilities/piat/wave/
>

Received on Tuesday, 19 December 2000 23:14:40 UTC