[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] W3C Process - suggestions
Here's a few ideas for specific things the W3C could do to improve communication with the outside world. I'm rather pressed for time these days, so I don't have time to write up a formal proposal, but maybe somebody on the list will pursue something like it. - Add an "Issues List" or the like as an official required work product, along with a required publishing schedule of, say, every two weeks. To accurately record the topics of discussion at the least, with WGs free to include debating points, comments, etc. as they see fit. - Provide a required format for said issues list, designed to facilitate clarity and communication by including such things as a numbering scheme, an annotation mechanism, a means of identifying and referencing revisions/annotations/comments/etc, a means of relating items on the issues list and parts of a working draft; etc. - Provide administrative support for the production of such work products; that is, people whose job it is to see to administrative issues like just editing the Issues List, putting it in the required form, putting it up on the required web page, publicizing its release, etc. Where the WG's wishes are contrary to the required publication schedule, such administrative staff should be empowered to publish anyway. There are probably lots of other concrete steps the W3C could take to improve communication, but those three strike me as reasonable for a start. Confidential discussions are still protected, for those members that feel it important, but the public feedback loop would be improved considerably, and WGs would be held more strictly accountable to a publishing schedule. I think such mechanisms might have prevented some of the unhappiness we now see w/r/t XHTML, or at least reduced the surprise factor. Unfortunately, the last item, administrative support, is the most important and the least likely to be adopted, since it involves real money and makes the WGs a little less autonomous. Surely somebody on xml-dev could come up with an issues-list dtd or the like. (I guess I should say I haven't been able to follow the list closely for some time, so if somebody already made these suggestions, uh, please pretend that they didn't.) Gregg Reynolds these are my personal opinions only, and do not reflect the views of etc. (you know the drill). xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)
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