Re: DOM, Promises, and licensing

On 7/12/2013 10:01 AM, Alex Russell wrote:
> Hi Jeff,
>
> We have a problem and I understand that you -- and pretty much nobody 
> else -- can solve it. That might be mistaken, as might my 
> understanding of the whole situation, but that's because there's 
> little I can find to outline the thinking behind the problem: Anne van 
> Kesteren is /*not allowed to edit the W3C DOM spec!?!?*/
>
> This despite being employed by a member organization in good standing, 
> his long service as an even-handed arbiter of technical disputes, and 
> previous (generally praised) editorship of the DOM spec.
>
> Indeed, it's safe to say that Anne//is the only editor of the DOM spec 
> who has poured significant time into the maintenance of the W3C 
> version of the spec.
>
> I understand -- but can find no discussion in public or member space, 
> why is that? -- that this comes down to Anne /also /editing the DOM 
> spec at the WHATWG.
>
> This leads to the situation in which the most competent, reasonable, 
> invested person in a core web spec is, through your action,

Reading subsequent posts on this thread, this appears to be a 
complication related to the pre-existing W3C Invited Expert agreement, 
which indeed looks complex.

It is unclear to me what action I've taken personally to make Anne 
unable to work on this document.

Unless you mean that I've not changed this agreement or not changed the 
W3C document license.  I am not empowered to changes these agreements 
unilaterally - although as you know - we are trying hard to gain 
consensus to liberalize both the W3C General Document License as well as 
the license for HTML5 extension specifications.

> unable to help evolve it. This might not be fatal for the lack of 
> others doing work in this area at the W3C, but that's where we're at: 
> blocked on doing substantive discussion of important new features 
> (currently Promises, soon Streams) among members who which to use the 
> W3C and functioning WGs to convene technical work under W3C rules.
>
> This situation is intolerable.

I agree that it would be desirable for Anne to work on the DOM spec.

>
> Looking forward to a response at your earliest convenience.
>
> Regards