This charter is written in accordance with section 3.2.2 of the W3C Process.
Mobile Access Interest Group (IG) is an Interest Group as defined by the W3C Process. The purpose of this IG is to provide a forum for W3C Members to discuss issues related to mobile Web access. The goal of this IG is to establish WG(s) for mobile access related specifications, or to describe guidelines within the Interest Group itself.
Originally, this IG was established in June, 1998, following the strong support from membership at the Workshop on Mobile Access, held in April 1998. Initial duration of the IG was one year, until the end of June 1999. At the last IG face-to-face meeting, participants have agreed to continue its work for another year. Hereby the Mobile Access IG is rechartered.
To discuss and describe requirements for the Web access with mobile terminals (mobile Web clients) such as mobile phones, PDAs, car navigation systems, voice browsers, small information appliances, etc. For example:
To decide what kind of requirements should be described in detail as guidelines and/or specifications, and what kind of Working Group(s) (WGs) should be established for the description or not.
Those requirements should reflect a consensus among hardware manufacturers, software providers, communication service providers and content providers on a solution for Web access that is suited to the Web in general and does not fragment and confuse the promising mobile market.
The Group will exist for one year, from July 1999 to the end of June 2000. Even after some WG(s) are established the Group can remain as the forum for general discussion about mobile access.
The Group will have to maintain contacts with many other Groups within W3C. To mention the most important ones:
As this Group is part of the User Interface domain, the actual coordination efforts will mainly be made through the Hypertext Coordination Group. Cooperation with I18N and WAI is also important from the viewpoint of guidelines to other standards/recommendations.
Deliverables are:
The discussion archives will be open to W3C Members. This charter itself is open to the public.
This Group will maintain contacts with some external groups, such as:
These are initial milestones of this Interest Group. Additional milestones may be added when the group decides to take on additional work items.
Face-to-face meetings are one day or two days sessions held three times during the period of the IG, and venues will be in North America (San Francisco Bay Area), Europe and Asia. But if the Interest Group feels it unnecessary, the 2nd and/or 3rd meeting(s) can be canceled. Teleconferences are scheduled by the Chair as needed.
The participants of the Mobile Access IG communicate via an archived mailing list, w3c-mobile-ig@w3.org.
When voting is necessary, it shall be proceeded as per W3C Process.
The W3C Team members will coordinate discussions, and write and edit briefing package(s) of WG(s) when the establishment of the WG(s) comes to an agreement.
The Chair and the W3C Team contact of this Group is Tatsuya Hagino, W3C.
Membership of the IG is open to all employees of W3C member organizations. There are no minimum requirements, neither in terms of expertise, nor in terms of time. If the IG decides to write W3C Notes, the editor(s) will be asked to commit to a certain percentage of their time.
The Web page <http://www.w3.org/Mobile/Group/IG/> will contain all essential information, such as this charter, instructions on how to use the mailing list(s), event schedules, links to interesting documents, and a list of IG members.