See also:

• W3C Process Document, especially
  • Introduction section which is a good one-page summary
• process diagram (in PNG, in SVG)

W3C Core Values

• Consensus
• Interoperability
• Good Design
• Quality

Goal: Technology Deployment

• Technologies
  • XHTML, CSS, MathML, SVG, SMIL (Interaction Domain)
  • RDF, XML D-Sig (Technology and Society)
  • XML Schema, SOAP (Architecture Domain)
• Integrated approach
  • Internationalization
  • Web Accessibility
  • Web Architecture (TAG)

The Evolutionary Cycle

• Research
• Prototyping
• Standardization
• Deployment

Community Scale

• design by 1 or 2 or a few
• development by a dozen or so
• review by a few hundred
• early adoption by communities of various sizes
• global consensus

Nuts and Bolts

I'm just a bill...

• Semi-formal preparation
• Activity Creation/Modification - W3C Decision
• Working Group, toward Last Call (you are here)
• Last Call
• Candidate Recommendation
• Proposed Recommendation
• Recommendation

Process is based on experience. For each rule in the process, there is a story of what happened before that rule was there. e.g. 8 week notice for meetings is based on 4 weeks to find the relevant people in an organization and 4 weeks to buy an advance ticket.

See also: process diagram.

Semi-formal preparation

• Submissions
• W3C Workshops
• Interest Groups
• Mailing Lists
• Academic, Industry Conferences

Activity Creation/Modification (W3C Decision)

• Activity Proposal from Director/Team to Membership
• Membership responds with advice
• Director announces Decision, allocating resources (or not)

Activity Proposal from Director/Team to Membership

• Context
  • research, industry, market status
  • existing W3C members? new members?
  • related efforts elsewhere?
  • why here at W3C? Why now?
• Proposal, Resources
  • structure: Working Groups, Interest Groups, scope
  • resources: team contacts, travel, communications, systems

Membership responds with advice

• each member responds thru its Advisory Committee Representative
• advice may be shared with other members or sent only to The Director (and team)

Director announces Decision, allocating resources (or not)

• should be made by consensus; establishes mandate
  • may proceed despite objections, provided justification is given
• may incorporate suggested changes

Working Group, toward Last Call

• mechanics/infrustructure, norms
  • mailing lists
  • teleconferences
  • face-to-face meetings
  • IRC
  • shared web space
    • Internal Drafts
    • Issues list
    • Test suite
• regular publication
• engage peer groups
  • if you go into the scope of group X, you owe them the right of review
  • e.g. Web Architecture, XML
  • integrated Internationalization, Accessibility review
• best-effort response to community review

Story Telling and Test Cases

• Story telling (aka Use Cases, Requirements)

  goal: Stories that scope the problem and make sense to both users and developers

• Test Cases, Examples

Last Call
"We Think We're Done"

• starts with WG decision that all issues are addressed
• formally document that all dependencies are discharged
• formally address all issues raised

Candidate Recommendation
"Implementations, Please!"

• starts with Director's Decision that Last Call achieved sufficient review, consensus, etc.
• formally document that all features are implemented
• exit criteria, e.g.
  • each feature, issue should have a test
  • two implementations should pass all tests
• formally address all issues

Proposed Recommendation

• seek official endorsement from W3C membership
• formally address all issues

Recommendation

• press release, party, ...
• errata, maintenance
• what comes next? start the cycle again...