- - URI

URI Coordination Group Charter

This charter has expired. The URI CG is replaced by the URI IG effective Feb 2005. Per section 4.3.1 Coordination Group Creation and Closure of the W3C Process, this charter, and any changes to it, take effect by way of an announcement to the W3C Membership via w3c-ac-members.

1. Mission and Scope
2. Relationship with Other Activities
3. Membership, Meetings, and Logistics
4. Resource Allocation

Mission and Scope

The mission of this group is to coordinate ongoing work in the area of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs); to serve as a coordinating body of all issues involving URIs in the W3C and act as the coordinating body for URI issues with other groups.

This includes:

• coordination of URI issues between W3C and the IETF, including monitoring maintenance of IETF/IANA URI scheme registries, updating and maintaining materials and documentation on the W3C site relevant to URIs, and promoting development of supplementary guidelines
• coordinating review of use of URIs in W3C specifications
• bringing architectural issues and recommendations to the attention of the TAG
• acting as a resource for information and clarifications involving URI issues to the W3C Membership
• working with other organizations on URI issues where appropriate

Relationship with Other Activities

The URI CG coordinates review of the use of URIs in W3C specifications. Dependencies may be added to this list by the URI CG, but as of this writing, W3C groups responsible for such review include:

W3C Technical Architecture Group

The former URI planning interest group developed a NOTE, URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0. The URI CG should coordinate the review of this note by the W3C TAG, with a goal of elaborating it and adopting it as an architectural recommendation.

Dan Connolly represents the W3C TAG in the URI CG.

W3C Internationalization Working Group

The Character Model for the World Wide Web references an extension to URI reference syntax (called IRI) introduced in HTML 4.0 and carried into XML 1.0 and other specifications. The URI CG should ensure appropriate review.

Martin Dürst represents the I18N WG in the URI CG.

XML Core

Many of the documents under development by the XML Core WG make use of URIs. For example, namespace names, entity references, base URIs, and XInclude URIs. The URI CG should ensure review in the IETF etc.

Norm Walsh represents the XML Core WG in the URI CG.

RDF Core

URIs are the core means to identify resources and make statements in RDF.

Graham Klyne represents the RDF Core WG in the URI CG.

The URI CG also coordinates development of URI-related technology in W3C with other organizations:

IETF Applications Area

The core URI specifications were developed in the IETF applications area, and they continue to be used throughout the IETF. The URI CG coordinates with the IETF on guidelines for new URI schemes, registration of URI schemes, appropriate supplementary documentation about URIs, etc.

Leslie Daigle and Michael Mealing represent the IETF applications area in the URI CG.

OpenURL

OpenURL is an effort by NISO ((US) National Information Standards Organization) to develop a standardized format for transporting metadata in a URL.

Mark Needleman represents OpenURL in the URI CG.

Library Community

A number of library applications depend on identifiers. For example, libraries want to build and maintain large digital libraries, provide access to traditional library information such as bibliographic records, describe resources, and preserve digital material. These applications raise concerns including (but not limited to) resolution of URIs and registration (and proliferation) of URI schemes, persistence, location independence, granularity, separation of metadata from identifier, Unicode support, and support for legacy identifiers.

Ray Denenberg represents the library community in the URI CG.

ICANN

Through the use of domain names in URIs, both the Web and W3C have a substantial dependency on a stable DNS. W3C is one of the four members of the Technical Liaison Group (TLG). The technical experts on the TLG from W3C are Danny Weitzner and Martin Dürst. They will use this Group to provide additional technical expertise.

Membership, Meetings, and Logistics

The proceedings of the URI CG are open to the public.

Membership of the group consists of liaisons from the various related activities. The URI CG may decide (by consensus) to add relationships.

The mailing list is public-uri-cg@w3.org; archives are available to the public. The group home page, also available to the public, provides an edited view of the proceedings of the group.

In order to stimulate timely resolution of discussion items, the chairs may call occasional teleconferences, as often as every other week. As per W3C process for remote meetings, the time and date shall be announced at least a week in advance, and an agenda (including telephone number) shall be made available 24 hours in advance.

No face-to-face meetings are planned, though participants in this group are encouraged to take notes and share them from discussions at, for example, at IETF meetings, conferences, workshops, etc.

W3C Team and Membership Resource Allocation

This coordination group is part of the W3C URI Activity, in the Architecture Domain.

The W3C Team is expected to spend about 15% of one full-time-engineer for the duration of this group. We expect that Dan Connolly and Martin Dürst will provide this effort.

The initial time period for the charter of the URI CG is one year from Jan 2003 through Dec 2003. Since it is expected that the work will be ongoing, applications for charter renewal will be made as appropriate.

In order to be successful, we estimate that the group should include 5 to 15 active participants from the membership.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Mark Needleman for earlier drafts of this charter, and to the participants of the former URI planning interest group: Tony Coates, Diana Dack, Leslie Daigle, Ray Denenberg, Martin Dürst, Paul Grosso, Graham Klyne, Larry Masinter, Michael Mealing, Mark Needleman, Norman Walsh (co-chair).