Charter of the XML Core Working Group

The XML Core Working Group is a Working Group of the W3C and follows the Working Group process described in section 6.2 Working Groups and Interest Groups of the Process Document. This is a modification of the charter for this Working Group. It extends and supersedes the Working Group's previous charter of June 2004. Except as specified in this charter, the Working Group follows the Common Procedures for XML Working Groups.

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1. Mission
2. Scope
3. Deliverables
4. Schedule
5. Duration
6. Coordination With Other Groups
7. Working Group Participation
8. Meetings
9. Communication
10. Confidentiality
11. Patent Policy

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1. Mission

The mission of the XML Core Working Group is to maintain and develop as needed core XML specifications.

2. Scope

The XML Core Working Group is chartered to consider comments on the following existing specifications:

1. XML 1.0, XML 1.1
2. Namespaces in XML 1.0, Namespaces in XML 1.1
3. XML Information Set
4. XML Base
5. Associating Stylesheets with XML
6. Canonical XML
7. Exclusive XML Canonicalization
8. XML Linking Language
9. XInclude
10. XPointer Framework, xmlns() scheme, element() scheme

The Working Group is responsible for:

1. updating errata documents and publishing new editions incorporating published errata when appropriate;
2. maintaining the test suites associated with the specifications and providing careful updates as warranted.

In addition to the maintenance effort, the XML Core Working Group will react on the evolution of the XML Platform and could develop and extend the core of the XML Platform when needed. Note that the development of new W3C Recommendations, not listed in the deliverables section of this charter, would require a new charter revision.

3. Deliverables

This charter extends the ongoing work of the XML Core Working Group.

Since a sizable portion of this Working Group's work is ongoing in nature, milestones and success consist of regular updates to Errata documents and existing specifications. In addition to errata management, the Working Group expects to:

1. Publish a second edition of the Namespaces in XML specification under the 24 January 2002 CPP as amended by the W3C Patent Policy Transition Procedure.
2. Maintain conformance test suites for XML, and for other specifications where possible.

The charter also includes the new W3C Recommendations:

xml:id Version 1.0

People have expressed the need to define Id attributes in XML without requiring the use of a schema, be it a DTD, an XML Schema, or something similar. The XML Core Working Group has been tasked to address this request and will continue of the current W3C Candidate Recommendation for xml:id.

XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1

A number of simple extensions to XLink 1.0 have been proposed. The XML Core Working Group published a Working Group Note describing specific possible changes and will produce XLink 1.1 to implement these changes.

Canonical XML version 1.1

The work on xml:id uncovered some inconsistencies in Canonical XML version 1.0 (see xml:id CR, Appendix C, "Impacts on Other Standards"). The Working Group will produce a new version of Canonical XML to address those inconsistencies, as well as others that might be discovered at a later stage.

4. Schedule

The XML Core Working Group has generally had strong liaisons with other Working Groups, and it is appropriate for low-level infrastructure work to proceed slowly and cautiously. This schedule is therefore to be taken as a rough guide.

April 2005

• xml:id moves to Proposed Recommendation
• XLink 1.1 moves to Last Call

May 2005

• First Working Draft for Canonical XML 1.1

June 2005

• Namespaces 2nd Edition published as PER
• xml:id to be published as a W3C Recommendation
• XLink 1.1 moves to Candidate Recommendation

August 2005

• Last Call Working Draft for Canonical XML 1.1
• XLink 1.1 moves to Proposed Recommendation

September 2005

• XLink 1.1 moves to Recommendation

October 2005

• Errata for XML Core specifications to be reviewed by the Working Group, and possible Edited Recommendations published if the Working Group deems it appropriate.

November 2005

• Canonical XML 1.1 moves to Candidate Recommendation

December 2005

• Canonical XML 1.1 moves to Proposed Recommendation

February 2006

• Canonical XML 1.1 moves to Recommendation

5. Duration

The expiration date of this charter is 30 June 2006.

6. Coordination With Other Groups

W3C Groups

The XML Core Working Group co-chairs participates in the XML Coordination Group to help track dependencies. In addition to all the Working Groups in the XML Activity, the Internationalization Working Group is also expected to provide last call review of deliverables of this Working Group.

External Groups

The XML Core Working Group needs to review and comment on work on the definition of the Internet Media type for XML (see RFC 3023).

7. Working Group Participation

Effective participation is expected to consume one workday per week for each Working Group participant (though closer to a third of a day per week average for the W3C Team Contacts); two days per week for editors. Participants must continue to fulfill the participation requirements.

To be successful, we expect the XML Core Working Group to have 10 or more active participants for its duration.

Chair

The initial chairs of this Working Group are Paul Grosso, Arbortext and Norman Walsh, Sun Microsystems.

W3C Team Contact

The initial W3C Team contacts are Henry Thompson and Philippe Le Hégaret. It is expected that this Working Group would consume about 0.15 FTE of Team resources, including administrative logistics.

8. Meetings

The Working Group uses a public mailing list for technical communication public-xml-core-wg@w3.org, supplemented by teleconferences approximately once per week. The yearly W3C Technical Plenary meeting is expected to fulfill the need for face-to-face meetings.

9. Communication

The XML Core Working Group shall communicate among its participants using the public mailing list public-xml-core-wg.

10. Confidentiality

The proceedings of this Working Group are public, with exceptions made by the co-chairs with the Working Group's agreement.

11. Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.