Re: any comments on HTML charters

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006, Ian Hickson wrote:
> 
> I have attached a proposed charter

Here is the promised charter:

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The HTML Working Group

Mission

  To continue the evolution of HTML by contributing to the WHATWG
  community, and publishing the relevant WHATWG specifications on the
  W3C Recommendation Track.


Scope

  The working group will only discuss issues arising from the WHATWG
  specifications and suggestions that working group members may wish
  to contribute to the WHATWG community.


Deliverables

  The working group is expected to publish a single specification
  defining the semantics of HTML as a DOM language, a serialisation
  format compatible with legacy HTML user agents and content, and a
  set of DOM APIs for use with the language.

  The working group is also expected to author or co-author a
  comprehensive test suite for this specification.


Criteria For Success

  The working group's work will be considered a success if there are
  two independent complete and interoperable implementations of its
  deliverables that are widely used (more than 10% of the Web browser
  market each according to at least two widely recognised metric
  reporting organisations).

  Interoperability will be tested according to a comprehensive test
  suite that has at least as many tests as the specification's source
  has non-blank lines of text (assuming an average of 80 character
  lines).


Expected Milestones

  This working group is expected to last at least ten years before
  reaching its criteria for success, but may need a further ten years
  before achieving full interoperability.

  The expected timetable as of the writing of this charter is:

    First Working Draft in October 2007.
    Last Call Working Draft in October 2009.
    Call for contributions for the test suite in 2011.
    Candidate Recommendation in 2012.
    First draft of test suite in 2012.
    Second draft of test suite in 2015.
    Final version of test suite in 2019.
    Reissued Last Call Working Draft in 2020.
    Proposed Recommendation in 2022.

  The working group will decide when to publish based on feedback from
  the WHATWG community as to when the specification is in a stable
  state, and will formally agree to publication by the process of the
  chair posting an e-mail to the working group's mailing list asking
  if everyone agrees, and publishing if nobody disagrees within a
  week.


Dependencies

  The group's deliverables are expected to depend on various other
  specifications, in particular DOM Core, DOM Events, the Window
  Object specification, XML, and XML Namespaces. However, given the
  timescales involved it is not expected that any particular
  coordination will be required.


Communication and Membership

  The group will operate completely in the open, using the public
  mailing list <www-html@w3.org>. Anybody may join the group, whether
  or not they are W3C members. However, all members of the working
  group must agree to the W3C Patent Policy.

  The group will not have meetings, but may discuss issues on a
  publicly announced and open IRC channel when convenient.

  The group will communicate its suggestions to the WHATWG community
  either through posting to the WHATWG mailing list, or by having
  WHATWG community members being part of the HTML working group.


Time Commitments

  Members are expected to have widely varying abilities to contribute
  time to the working group. Some may contribute as much as forty
  hours a week, others may have only the occasional fifteen minutes to
  help. As the actual editing work is to be performed by the WHATWG,
  and the HTML working group will only provide guidance and
  publication, no significant time commitment is required from
  participants to this working group.

   
Patent Policy

  This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February
  2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C
  seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to
  this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.

  The following features are considered in scope for the purposes of
  the patent policy:

   * A language evolved from HTML4 for describing the semantics of
     documents and applications on the World Wide Web.

   * A serialised form of such a language using XML.

   * A serialised form of such a language using a custom format
     compatible with the parsers of legacy Web browsers.

   * DOM interfaces providing convenience APIs for such a language.

   * Common UI widgets such as progress bars, datagrids, menus, and
     other controls.

   * Command abstractions and related APIs.

   * APIs for the manipulation of sound, 2D bitmap and vector
     graphics, 3D graphics.

   * Editing APIs and user-driven WYSIWYG editing features.

   * Data storage APIs.

   * Networking APIs for server-push, asynchronous two-way
     client-server communication, peer-to-peer communication, and
     client-side cross-domain communication.

  The charter will be renewed to update this list as needs change.

  For more information about disclosure obligations for this group,
  please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Wednesday, 1 November 2006 17:38:11 UTC