SVG Public Issue Tracker

Hi, www-svg-

In an effort to have more transparency into our process, and to better 
address issues with our specifications, our test suite, our errata, and 
other documents, we intend to use a public issue tracker, where issues 
can be filed and the progress followed by implementors, authors, and the 
general public.

To get things rolling, we've added SVG to the list of options for W3C's 
Bugzilla.  We know it's not ideal for issues (being designed for bugs in 
software), but it can at least serve as a stopgap, and we can learn from 
it what features we need going forward.  You can use it here 
(registration required):

    http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/enter_bug.cgi?product=SVG

To raise an issue with any of the SVG documents, including the 
specifications, the errata, or the test suites, simply fill out the 
form.  Make sure to select the following fields (you can ignore Platform 
and OS):
* Version: Profile and Version
* Component: Area of the specification
* Target Milestone: If you wish to raise an issue about the errata or 
test suite, indicate it here; otherwise, leave it as the default.

This same form can also be used to make feature requests, by selecting 
that option from Target Milestone (and/or "enhancement" under Severity). 
  Again, apologies for the awkward interface.


Obviously, we have our own internal issue tracking, but it's not geared 
toward the general public.  So right now, we're looking into 
issue-tracker software that would be better suited for this purpose.  We 
are interested in hearing feedback from this list on what software is 
best suited for this task.  The software should be open source, and 
customizable to fit this task (that of tracking issues on documents, 
rather than bugs in software).  We would like to offer the ability to 
select specific documents (spec version and chapter, for example), to 
allow linking to or inclusion of discussion, to incorporate 
dependencies, and to display the current status of the issue.

We're also interested in feedback about what sorts of features you'd 
like to see in this issue tracker.  Obviously, forms that fill 
themselves out and automagic write-access to the specs themselves would 
be nice, but we encourage you to err on the side of realism... and if 
your wishlist comes with a suggestion of a software package to match, so 
much the better.


We realize that some people may not wish to fill in a form to submit 
issues, so of course we will still be taking email requests and 
discussion.  But we strongly encourage you to work with us on this, as 
we think everyone will benefit from a more open process.

Let us know what you think!

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Staff Contact, SVG, CDF, and WebAPI

Received on Tuesday, 17 July 2007 18:07:46 UTC