This was extracted (@ 2024-04-17 21:10) from a list of minutes
which have been approved by the Board.
Please Note
The Board typically approves the minutes of the previous meeting at the
beginning of every Board meeting; therefore, the list below does not
normally contain details from the minutes of the most recent Board meeting.
WARNING: these pages may omit some original contents of the minutes.
Meeting times vary, the exact schedule is available to ASF Members and Officers, search for "calendar" in the Foundation's private index page (svn:foundation/private-index.html).
A report was expected, but not received
A report was expected, but not received
A report was expected, but not received
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
A report was expected, but not received
A report was expected, but not received
The W3C is holding a "Secure the Web Forward" Virtual Workshop. It is a joint event with OpenSSF, OWASP and OpenJS. The first attempt with mostly in-person event failed to attract enough interest. https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/9969 ------------ henry story (bblfish@) has joined RDF surfaces community group. ASF has agreed to the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
ASF continued its membership of the renewed JSON-LD working group. ASF has two participants: Steve Blackmon sblackmon@ and Adam Soroka ajs6f@. ASF has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement for the WebAssembly Community Group and Timothy Chen @tnachen has joined.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
W3C Inc. has now started, taking over the staff and services that were previously hosted by MIT.
The Foundation as 3 participants in active working groups (which create W3C standards) and 14 in community groups (which range from discussion forums to groups aiming to seed a working group).
Nothing to report this month.
The World Wide Web Consortium, Inc. Board of Directors has been announced: https://www.w3.org/blog/news/archives/9685
Andy Seaborne (andy@) has joined two W3C working groups: * RDF-star Working Group * RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group Apache Jena already provides the work fo the RDf-star community group which is the main input into the working group. Only Working Groups produce W3C Recommedntiosn (standards). W3C Patent Policy applies for workgin group, in particular the section on licensing obligations for Working Group Participants (section 3.1) https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20200915/#sec-W3C-RF-license
A report was expected, but not received
W3C is planning a change in how it is constituted becoming a public-interest non-profit organization from January 2023. Currently, it is "hosted" by 3 universities and ERCIM, a research consortium. https://www.w3.org/2022/06/pressrelease-w3c-le.html.en ASF has supported the creation of the "RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group" ASF has voted in favor of the creation of the "RDF-star Working Group". Apache Jena already provides an implementation of the community group work that led to this working group proposal.
A report was expected, but not received
Niklas Merz (niklasmerz@) and Bryan Ellis (erisu@) joined the WebView Community Group. These are the first people join the community group and ASF has now signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement
A report was expected, but not received
Jian Song (songjian@) has joined the Metaverse Interoperability Community Group. This is the first participant from ASF. The foundation has agreed to the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement for the group.
W3C are considering relicensing many W3C Recommendations using the W3C Software and Document License [1]. This is already the default license for work since about 2015. Many older recommendations are under versions of the non-permissive W3C Document License [2]. [1] https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/copyright-software-and-document [2] https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/doc-license
Nothing to report this month.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Currently, ASF has 12 people participating at W3C with a declared Apache affiliation. 2 people are in the JSON-LD Working Group, which is evolving from active work on the JSON-LD specification to maintaining the specifications. The other area of participation is Community Groups (CG) shich range from discussion communities through to generating material for future working groups. Long-running Working Groups are no longer favoured and instead W3C team expects substantive material to begin the WG phase. CGs form one way to generate that material.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Henry Story (bblfish@) has joined the "Notation (N3) Community Group". This is our first member to join so ASF has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement for the CG.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
W3C have updated their process (Process Document and Patent Policy). It aims to smooth the working group flow and also to have specifications to evolve after publication (optional choice for the Working Group). This includes bug fixes and also new features, and will help real-world implementations experience to affect a specification where currently the input window for implementation experience is quite short.
Nothing to report his month.
Nothing to report this month. Response to comments: ASF participation is primarily in the web data area of W3C where much of W3C's "new work" nowadays happens in Community Groups (CG) which are open to individuals and not requiring a W3C member organisations. In addition, ASF has 2 people on the JSON-LD Working Group, which does require individuals to come from a W3C member organisations. I only have some knowledge of the web data area of W3C. A quarterly overview of what is happening in W3C is a significant amount of work to track areas I currently have no insight into. Does W3C Relations need to be a direct report to the board or can it be folded into another activity?
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month. ---- For some reason, the comment from 2020-06-17, didn't get to me. Apologies for the delayed response. I would find it difficult to give a regular overview of W3C activity because to track activity across W3C is quite an investment of time. I try to watch for items that might be of particular interest to ASF but mainly the role has been to ensure members and committers can contribute to W3C groups. Most ASF participation is in community groups, which are discussion forums. They do not need an organisation such as ASF to support joining, but the announcing affiliation to ASF helps promote ASF. Many community groups are dormant. There is representation on one Working Group (JSON-LD Working Group).
Isaac Kamga (ikamga@) has joined the WebAuthN Adoption Community Group and ASF has signed the Community Group Contributor Agreement.
Nothing to report this month.
W3C are proposing process changes: 1/ "Recommendations" become "Specifications". 2/ Working groups can choose to have "living documents" with errata and additions added in-place after publication. These steps make it a little easier for open source projects to get feedback recognized in specifications. Proposed changes in-place https://w3c.github.io/w3process/#major-changes-2019 The Patent Policy is revised in line with these changes, but this should not affect ASF participation.
A report was expected, but not received
Andy Seaborne (andy@) and Steve Blackmon (sblackmon@) have joined the W3C Bridging GraphQL and RDF Community Group. ASF has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement for this Community Group.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month. """ Is there a file/page/database/beer mat where we collate the information about who is on what committee? """ The W3C managed list isn't publicly accessible. I sent a current list to the w3c@a.o mailing list.
Andy Seaborne(andy@) has joined the SHACL Community Group. This is a follow-on group to the RDF Data Shapes Working Group. As this is the first ASF member to join, ASF has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement and acknowledged the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing specific to report this month.
Aaron Coburn (acoburn@) has moved his individual account to affiliation ASF and joined as ASF: SPARQL 1.2 Community Group Solid Community Group LDP Next Community Group RDF JavaScript Libraries Community Group No new CG agreements for ASF were necessary.
Andy Seaborne (andy@), Rob Vesse (rveese@) and Adam Soroka (ajs6f@) have joined the W3C SPARQL 1.2 Community Group. ASF has agreed to the terms of the W3C Community and Business Group Process and to abide by the terms and spirit of the Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Henry Story (bblfish@) has joined the Solid Community Group. ASF was already participating.
Nothing to report this month.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Andy Seaborne (andy@) has joined the W3C Solid Community Group. As this is the first ASF member to join, ASF has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement and acknowledged the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. Solid CG: "The Solid project aims to improve privacy and data ownership on the Web through a proposed set of conventions and tools for building decentralized social applications. "
Nothing to report this month.
Steve Blackmon (sblackmon@) has join the JSON-LD WG. The Foundation was already participating (Adam Soroka, ajs6f@) in this WG so no further commitment to the W3C WG participation agreement was needed.
Adam Soroka (ajs6f@) has joined the "Art & Culture (Museums) On The Web" Community Group. The Foundation was already participating in this CG so no further commitment to the W3C CG process was needed.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Andy Seaborne, andy@, has joined the "Veres One Community Group" (a public discussion group for decentralized identifiers). This is the first time ASF is represented and ASF has signed the community group agreement.
Nothing to report this month.
W3C Advisory Board proposed making a public statement in support of Net Neutrality. Given the short notice, the W3C Team asked for any objections, rather than a full discussion cycle. They received 3 and will not be making a public statement. Bruno Kinoshita (kinow@) has joined the Art & Culture (Museums) On The Web Community Group and the foundation has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement. Stian Soiland-Reyes (stain@) has joined the Bioschemas for lifesciences Community Group and the foundation has signed the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement.
Nothing to report this month.
The appeal vote on Director's decision to pubish the EME standard passed with votes split approximately 2:1 in favor. ASF formally abstained (with comments). EME has been published. Otherwise, nothing to report.
The appeal vote on Director's decision to pubish the EME standard has run. Within ASF there was more discussion on board@. Combining that with the earlier members@ discussions, I formaly abstained, with comments wishing to see better protection for independent developers and security researchers.
There was a request from EFF to appeal the directors decision to have EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) in HTML proceed to REC status. In W3C process, an appeal is heard if it passes an initial vote where 5% of the member organisations vote in favour of hearing the appeal. The Foundation voted to hear the appeal (discussion on members@). The request for appeal passed comfortably. The appeal is being held over 16 August - 13 September and is a vote on the original directors decision. ASF support for hearing the appeal is not expressing a view in W3C on the appeal itself.
Andy Seaborne (andy@) has joined the "Declarative Linked Data Apps" Community Group. ASF has already joined this CG so no further commitments are made.
Nothing to report this month.
The review of the "Encrypted Media Extensions" recommendation concluded with majority in favour of publication but a significant minority objecting. 53 : Supports publication (some with suggested changes) 6 : Does not support publication, not a formal objection 30 : Formal objections Nothing else to report.
The HTML Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) specification came up for review as it moves to Proposed Recommendation, which is effectively the last stage in the W3C Recomendation process. This has been a very controversial specification. It has become a symbol for much wider debate around DRM. Both sides are still a long way apart, at least in public. The ASF review was the option: """ does not support publication as a W3C Recommendation for the reasons cited in comments but is not raising a Formal Objection (your details below). """ with comments asking W3C to make renewed efforts to find a compromise between the various interests, especially for security researchers and independent implementers.
A report was expected, but not received
EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) has been a controversial area in W3C. It provides a standard browser interface to DRM. The Advisory Committee review late 2016 has 69 responses with 23 objections, and 46 in favour of advancing the work to recommendation status. The main concern is for protection of security and privacy researchers. A proposal from the Electronic Freedom Foundation was a "covenant" which required signatories to waive rights of US DMCA for circumvention of DRM by anyone. W3C have failed to find a compromise and have undertaken to publish (March 2nd) guidelines to protect security and privacy researchers. Initially this is voluntary with a further possibility of being a requirement for joining future Working Groups. ---- Stian Soiland-Reyes has joined the WebID Community Group, Schema Architypes Community Group, Schema.org Community Group and Permanent Identifier Community Group. His previous membership of these groups was through the the University of Manchester, but the University is withdrawing from W3C membership.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report.
Bruno Kinoshita (kinow@) has joined the "SPARQL Maintenance (EXISTS)" Community Group and ASF has signed the community contributor agreement.
No changes to W3C participation by ASF. An open letter from the EFF to the W3C Advisory Committee regarding EME (Encypted Media Extension) generated a lot of discussion. This included resubmiting the proposal for a covenant to protect implementers and to make it an exit condition for the EME work proceeding. The outome so far is a propsal for an advisory "Technology and Policy Interest Group" (TechPolig). Proceedings will be W3C-member-only. The initial areas for TechPolig are Deep Linking, DMCA-like challenges and Surveillance. W3C background: https://www.w3.org/2016/03/EME-factsheet
Nothing to report this month.
Noting to report for this month or last month.
A report was expected, but not received
Nothing to report this month.
In December, there was a charter extension request for the HTML Media Extensions Working Group; a significant part of the extension is work on Encrypted Media Extensions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation canvased support for a formal objection with charter modifications requiring all participants agree to conditions that allow security researchers (and others) to circumvent technology for protecting copyright. The Foundation is not represented on the ongoing working group. The ASF response to the charter extension expressed support for the principle of free security research and open source implementation, but did not support the formal objection nor the mechanism proposed. Sergio Fernández has joined The Tourism Structured Web Data Community Group. This is the first time ASF is represented so ASF has signed the community group agreement. Andy Seaborne has joined the CSV on the Web Community Group. This is the first time ASF is represented so ASF has signed the community group agreement.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report.
Henry Story (bblfish@) has joined the Credentials Community Group. This is the first member of the group for ASF, so the foundation agrees to the standard community group conditions.
Andy Seaborne (andy@) has joined the "RDF Test Suite Curation Community Group". This is the first member of the group for ASF, so the foundation agrees to the standard community group conditions.
Henry Story (bblfish@) has resigned from the Social Web WG. The Foundation is still represented by Matt Franklin (mfranklin@). Sergio Fernández (wikier@) has joined the LDP Next Community Group. The Foundation has signed up to the terms and conditions of the CG.
ASF has joined the "Data on the Web Best Practices" and "Spatial Data on the Web" working groups. ASF is represented by Lewis John McGibbney (lewismc@) on both WGs. Lewis was already active previously representing NASA but NASA are withdrawing from W3C Membership.
W3C has adopted a new Software and Document License. This updates the the W3C Software License to cover documentation. This new License can be used for material produced by W3C groups, including community groups, and also for relicensing of unfinished specs. This is not the license for published specifications.
Matt Franklin (mfranklin@) has joined the Social Web Working Group. The Foundation is already represented by Henry Story. Henry Story (bblfish@) has joined the Social Interest Group, with the Foundation signing up to the Interest Group as this is the first representative. Sergio Fernández (wikier@) has joined the Schema.org Community Group, with the Foundation signing up to the Interest Group as this is the first representative.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report.
Nothing to report.
Joined Antonio Perez Morales (adperezmorales@, a committer on Apache Stanbol) to RDF Data Shapes Working Group. This is the first Apache rep on the WG.
There is an election for participation (by individuals) in the W3C Technical Architecture Group. Voting closes end 2015-01-08.
HTML5 has been published as a REC. Nothing to report this month that is directly relevant to the Foundation.
W3C continues to discuss a "webizen" programme to allow individuals to have a formal stake in W3C. There is a general sense that "something" would be a good idea, there are different, changing details. It does not affect the Foundation directly. It might be interesting to some committers eventually.
ASF voting in the W3C TAG election caused a discussion about what membership of W3C brings, and whether to the foundation and/or an individual committer. W3C members are organisations, not individuals, and some roles at W3C are explicitly for organisation representation.
Henry Story (bblfish@) nominated to Social Web Working Group. Sam Ruby has been nominated by IBM for the upcoming TAG election.
W3C is discussing the idea of extending the participation roles to include "Webizen". A "Webizen" would be an individual (or group); they would not have the full rights of W3C membership. Discussions are at a very early stage. For ASF, nothing proposed so far would affect ASF current membership of W3C.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Nothing to report.
Nothing to report this month.
Andy Seaborne has joined the "CSV on the Web Working Group". Currently, there are 13 ASF members with W3C accounts.
Nothing to report this month.
ASF is no longer represented on: * Patents and Standards Interest Group * Push API Patent Advisory Group (ASF was also represented on the Widgets Patent Advisory Group - this PAG is now closed.)
Henry Story has joined the RDF JavaScript Libraries Community Group. Andy Seaborne has joined the Property Graphs Model and API Community Group.
Rob Vesse and Stephan Allen have joined the RDF Stream Processing CG.
W3C are discussing a proposal to make clear the licensing to permit non-specification derivative works from content in W3C recommendations.
W3C are revising their membership fees. Thanks to Larry Rosen, W3C have confirmed that the current arrangement for the foundations membership remains unchanged.
Lawrence Rosen has joined the Push API Patent Advisory Group. The W3C election for the Advisory Board was contested - 12 candidates for 4 places. This also highlighted some work going to streamline W3C standard process in the later stages. One area that is currently a center for debate is the experiment in licensing for use with HTML5 extensions. The experiment is to use a W3C Open Document License (c.f. CC-BY) which allows derived works.
The W3C Advisory Board election process has started. There are 12 candidates for 4 places. Nothing to report this month on ASF related activity.
The SPARQL Working Group, in which ASF participated, has closed. The implementation reports included a report from Apache Jena.
Nothing to report this month.
ASF has made the W3C community group commitments on IP and copyright so that Sergio Fernández can join the Open Data Spain Community Group.
Sergio Fernández is a committer on Incubator project Marmotta. He is not employed by a W3C member company. o He has joined the Linked Data Platform (LDP-WG) and rejoined the ReadWriteWeb (RWW) and WebId community groups under ASF affiliation.
4 seats on the Technical Architecture Group are up for election; I am not intending to express an opinion. No changes in W3C participation this month.
Nothing to report this month.
Henry Story has joined the "Federated Social Web Community Group". Andy Seaborne has resigned from the "Networked Data Community Group".
With the successful publication of reports, Lawrence Rosen has left XML Security PAG Touch Events PAG
Nothing to report this month.
Andy Seaborne took over from Sam Ruby as VP of W3C Relations. Henry Story joined the Linked Data Platform Working Group.
WHEREAS, the Board of Directors heretofore appointed Sam Ruby to the office of Vice President of W3C Relations, and WHEREAS, the Board of Directors is in receipt of the resignation of Sam Ruby from the office of Vice President, W3C Relations, and WHEREAS, Sam Ruby has recommended Andy Seaborne as the successor to the post; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that Andy Seaborne be and hereby is appointed to the office of Vice President, W3C Relations, to serve in accordance with and subject to the direction of the Board of Directors and the Bylaws of the Foundation until death, resignation, retirement, removal or disqualification, or until a successor is appointed. Special Order 7G, Change the Apache Vice President of W3C Relations, was approved by Unanimous Vote of the directors present.
Andy Seaborne and Henry Story joined the Linked Data Platform (LDP) Working Group. There is a resolution later in the agenda to change the VP of W3C Relations from Sam Ruby to Andy Seaborne.
Nothing to report this month (in particular, nobody joined or left a Working or Community group on behalf of the ASF).
Henry Story has joined the Philosophy of the Web Community Group Larry Rosen has left the Web Applications Working Group Jeremias Märki has joined the Print and Page Layout Community Group
Jeremias Märki joined the Print and Page Layout Community Group. Larry Rosen left the HTML5 working group (he still participates in the PSIG).
Henry Story has joined the WebID and Unhosted Web Community Groups Larry Rosen has joined the Touch Events Patent Advisory Group
No changes this month.
Andy Seaborne joined the Networked Data Community Group. Ross Gardler joined the Native Web Apps Community Group.
W3C TPAC F2F meeting was in Santa Clara the week before ApacheCon. I attended the HTML WG portions. Otherwise not much to report.
Larry mentioned upcoming work on the WARP PAG. Sam encouraged this to be brought up on the relevant Apache mailing list.
Henry Story joined the Uncertainty, Trust and the Semantic Web Community Group on behalf of the ASF.
Henry Story joined the Read Write Web and Web Crypto API Community Groups. Andy Seaborne rejoined the SPARQL-WG as the WG was rechartered.
The SPARQL Working Group has rechartered, and I've rejoined the ASF as a member of the Working Group and reconfirmed Andy Seaborne as our representative. TPAC this year is 31 October to 4 November in Santa Clara, and includes a PSIG face to face on Monday and Tuesday: http://www.w3.org/2011/11/TPAC/ There is a registration fee of 50 USD per day to defray a portion of the meeting costs. Registration will increase to 150 USD per day after 14 October 2011. The ASF traditionally does not cover such costs.
Larry will attend the face-to-face at TPAC in Santa Clara if ASF pays the registration fees. Sam noted that this is not "traditionally" done since "traditionally" this implies a "pay to play" which Apache is fundamentally opposed to. In this case, it's $50 to cover lunch and a conference room, and Sam will authorize payment as a Legal Affairs expense.
The ASF has joined the WebApps WG in order to enable Larry Rosen to participate in the Widgets Patent Advisory Group. See the Legal Affairs status report for more background.
Last call for HTML5 is proceeding, and the results of the Advisory Council license survey have not been published. Nothing major to report on any of the other ASF activities at the W3C.
[verbal report] I attended the Advisory Council meeting, where the license for HTML5 was a hot issue. This has yet to be resolved, and there is a survey of AC members proceeding. Additionally, we expect HTML5 to proceed to last call later this month.
HTML WG continues to make progress towards Last Call. Current schedule: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0759.html The PSIG has made public the licenses that they have been discussing: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0757.html Mozilla has proposed an additional license option for consideration: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Apr/0263.html There will be an W3C Advisory Council meeting May 15-17th. I'll be representing the ASF there.
Henry Story joined the Federated Social Web Incubator Group in support of Apache Incubator Clerezza. The W3C Patents and Standards Interest Group (PSIG) has yet to come to consensus on a single replacement license. Discussing such openly and with the HTML WG prior to proceeding to an Advisory Council (AC) survey and then to a Director's decision was at one time controversial, but this appears to be on its way to being resolved. A key part of resolving this was Larry's willingness to join the HTML WG where he presented his preferred choice (known as option 3). Two other options have yet to be so presented.
Henry Story is now participating on behalf of the ASF on the WebID Incubator Group. Henry is the Chair of this W3C incubator group. Apache Incubator Clerezza implements WebID. Andy Seaborne is now participating on behalf of the ASF on the RDF and SPARQL Working Groups. Andy is an editor of SPARQL. Apache Incubator Jena implements both specifications.
The ASF has joined as an Initiating member the WebID Incubator. Henry Story is representing the ASF, and has been named as (one of) the initial chair(s). http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/webid/charter Apache Incubator Clerezza is an implementation of WebID. The PSIG continues to deliberate privately on the topic of the HTML5 spec license. Saturday is the deadline for escalating bugs for Last Call consideration, with the plan being to get HTML5 to Last Call in May.
The ASF joined the WebID Incubator Group at the W3C. WebID is related to the Apache Clerezza incubator project: http://incubator.apache.org/clerezza/ The HTML5 licensing issues remain unresolved. Progress is being made to taking the spec to last call, with a target of May 22nd.
No issues requiring board attention. TPAC in Lyon, France came and went without any change in status of the proposal to offer the HTML5 specification under a more liberal license. HTML5 continues to progress towards a Last Call in May of 2011.
No board level issues. In fact, no change from last month's report. Concurrent with ApacheCon will be the W3C TPAC conference. My plans are to attend ApacheCon.
No board level issues. The W3C is still contemplating the next steps on the proposed new W3C license. The HTML WG has proposed a schedule for getting to an (initial) last call: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2010Sep/0074.html
No board level issues. The FSF has rejected the proposed W3C license for HTML as not being GPL compatible. The HTML5 WG is building a backlog of bug reports, issues.
Approved by general consent.
Not much to report. The differences between the WHATWG and W3C drafts continue to grow, but to date none of the differences that relate to HTML5 are normative or substantive. The WHATWG draft does contain content that is not present in the W3C draft - some of it is content that may be considered in future versions of HTML, others of which have been rejected by the W3C WG. There is no clear marking as to which is which. The W3C still has not settled on a license for the HTML5 specification. The current holdup is awaiting confirmation from the FSF that the license selected is GPL compatible. Of course, there are other working groups in the W3C, just none that I am aware of people participating in an ASF capacity.
Verbal report: no board level issues. The W3C continues to labor towards producing a new license for HTML5.
Work is ongoing to come up with a HTML specification license to permit reuse of the spec text in both proprietary and open source code bases. The W3C is actively trying to prevent fragmentation of the standard. Not clear if the ASF should be taking a larger position. My take: these changes are not addressing any real need; those that have indicated a desire to reuse the spec text are the ones whose needs are satisfied by the WHATWG copy of the spec. The real issue, namely the WHATWG/W3C split is not being addressed.
Verbal report.
AC meeting was held this month in Boston. Only item of interest to the ASF is work ongoing to produced a HTML spec license that permits reuse of spec text inside of software.
Voted YES on a poll to allow the HTML5 specification to be released by the W3C under a more liberal license. There are two parts to this: the basic belief that execution and community, not licensing, should motivate contributions; and the fact that there are two copies of substantially the same spec (the other published by the WHATWG), and only affect that restricting licensing on one of those copies would be to make that copy less useful. Additionally, the Apache License, Version 2.0 is among the licenses being considered, and I indicated that the ASF would be in support of such a plan. The AC meeting is on the 29th and 30th. I plan to attend and represent the ASF. The HTML5 license issue is likely to be a hot topic.
General discussion on licensing, and the relative roles of the WHATWG and the W3C.
The W3C is soliciting input on allowing more permissive licenses for specs such as HTML, and I would be interested in people's opinion on the subject. Larry has been participating in this discussion and has recommended two licenses for consideration, including the Apache License, Version 2.0. The next AC meeting is in Cambridge during the fourth week of March. I plan to be in attendance.
Larry is now a member of the W3C Patents and Standards Interest Group, and has participated in calls. Among the current topics being discussed is the request by the HTML WG for a more liberal license for HTML5 standard (i.e., the document itself). This will likely result in the W3C soliciting opinions from the Advisory Council representatives.
Sam clarified that the current level of participation in the W3C consists of Sam in the AC and Larry in the PSIG. Sam also described the process by which the AC rep nominates participants to W3C activities.
WHEREAS, the Board of Directors deems it to be in the best interests of the Foundation and consistent with the Foundation's purpose to appoint an officer responsible as the W3C Liaison, including but not limited to serving as the W3C Advisory Committee representative for the ASF. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the office of "Vice President, W3C Relations" be and hereby created, the person holding such office to serve at the direction of the Board of Directors, and to have primary responsibility for interfacing with the W3C; and be it further RESOLVED, that Sam Ruby be and hereby is appointed to the office of Vice President, W3C Relations, to serve in accordance with and subject to the direction of the Board of Directors and the Bylaws of the Foundation until death, resignation, retirement, removal or disqualification, or until a successor is appointed. Special Order 7C, Appoint a Vice President of W3C Relations, was approved by Unanimous Vote of the directors present.
[Prepared by Sam Ruby] Starting to organize a set of people interested in participating in W3C activities on the ASF behalf; at the present time we have Larry Rosen, Glen Daniels, Rahul Akolkar, and myself expressing interest. I encourage others who are interested to join the members-only w3c@apache.org mailing list. As I am working closely with the W3C staff anyway, I am willing to step forward and assume the role of VP, W3C for the ASF as well as W3C Advisory Committee Representative for the ASF. I don't see this as being a time concern (activity is low, and this would enable me to work direct vs through an intermediary). I would also be quite willing to hand this off at any point in the future if somebody else has the interest and cycles to pursue it. A board resolution has been created on this topic. Only "real" business this month: forwarded a request for contacts regarding developer outreach to the PRC list (as I didn't find a separate list for Marketing and Publicity).
Roy suggested that the title be "VP, W3C Relations", which met with general approval.
[initial, draft, report provided by Sam Ruby] Sam Ruby attended the W3C AC meeting in Santa Clara on the ASF's behalf. Not much discussed that can be publicly minuted or is of direct concern to the ASF's business; in general much of the discussion dealt with attempting to find ways for the W3C to improve the value it provides to members, and to make people aware of things like the new look and feel to the W3C website. A new (and member confidential) w3c@apache.org mailing list has been set up with the ASF to allow members to coordinate ASF participation in the W3C. W3C AC notifications are automatically being forwarded to this mailing list. Larry Rosen has joined the W3C Patents and Standards Interest Group, representing the ASF. He's exploring the use of OWFa as a potential solution to the use cases provided by the HTML WG: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/actions/29 http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Feb/0388.html Jim has indicated a desire to step down as the W3C AC representative for the ASF, and discussion has begun on a replacement.
Roy would prefer that Larry discuss the OWFa license with the W3C on behalf of the OWF and not as the ASF rep. Otherwise, not an immediate concern for the ASF.
Nothing much to report. The W3C f2f is happening in parallel with ACUS, and due to the conflict, I've asked Sam Ruby, who will be attending, to represent the ASF for us; he's agreed. W3C "members" mailings are forwarded to the ASF members@ list (with the [W3C] Subj. prefix)... there was a suggestion to create a mailing list for just these Emails, but I haven't done anything with that yet.
The representative role is, as I see it, a fairly passive one. It is to monitor what is going on within the W3C, as it would impact the ASF, provide a single point of contact between the W3C and the ASF and to provide some opportunities for the ASF and ASF members to coordinate with W3C activities. The link to the W3C public newsletter can be found here: http://www.w3.org/News/Public/pnews-20090907 Regarding member activities, the current "main event" is the upcoming "Advisory Committee and Technical Plenary" which conflicts with ApacheCon. I am hoping to take a day and attend, but that is most questionable at this time.
Sam and Jim to connect offline to coordinate Apache participation at TPac