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Organize a Recommendation Track Transition (Details)

This Guidebook is the collected wisdom of the W3C Group Chairs and other collaborators.

This document explains the processes W3C uses internally to prepare and carry out a transition of a document on the Recommendation Track. This document complements the version of "How to Organize a Recommendation Track Transition". Please refer to the latest version of "How to Organize a Recommendation Track Transition" with this URI: <https://www.w3.org/Guide/transitions>.

This document does not address:

1. Requirements for documents themselves; see Technical Report Publication Policy ("pubrules") for this information.
2. What required information must be public; this is covered in section 7.2 of the Process Document and in the governing patent policy.
3. Possible next steps after each transition; see the description of the Recommendation Track Process.
4. The Comm Team's policy regarding in-place modification of W3C Technical Reports.

Exceptions to these processes MAY be authorized by the Director or authorized proxy.

The key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Roles

• The Webmaster publishes documents.
• The Director may assign Director responsibilities to other Team members.
• Chair responsibilities may be carried out by either the Chair or Team Contact.
• The Document Contact is either the Team Contact of the group requesting publication, or the document editor. Consult the W3C Project Management Lead if you're not sure who is the relevant Document Contact.
• The Maintainer Contact is a designated individual tasked with requesting Director's approval in order to publish a candidate amended Recommendation. Consult the W3C Project Management Lead if you're not sure who is the relevant Maintainer Contact. (Note: as of January 2018, the maintainer contact is plh)

See also the W3C Editor's Home Page and Guidebook documentation of roles of W3C participants, including the Chair's role and the Team Contact's role.

Interactions with the W3C Communications Team

At various stages during the Recommendation Track process, the W3C Communications Team assists Working Groups as follows:

• Organizing formal Advisory Committee reviews (including scheduling and preparation of review forms).
• Issuing a press release around a First Public Working Draft, Candidate Recommendation, Recommendation, or other transition (for example, to announce completion of important work or to raise awareness at a conference). The Communications Team generally begins work on a draft press release several weeks in advance of an anticipated release, soliciting review within the Team. The Communications Team may also request Working Group review of a draft press release. In general, the Communications Team strives to make press releases available in English, French, Japanese and Chinese. The W3C Offices translate W3C press releases into additional languages.
• Soliciting testimonials in support of a document, usually more than a month in advance of publication of a Recommendation.
• Announcing publication to Members and the press.
• Listing the publication on the W3C home page and in Member publications. In general, the Communications Team drafts home page announcements for publications (see past news items). Input from Team Contacts for announcements of First Public Working Drafts is appreciated.
• Writing speaking points for the press, generally with input from the Working Group.
• Coordinating spokespeople to answer technical questions from the press.

Please contact the Communications Team at w3t-comm@w3.org (cc'ing the group's Team Contact) if you have any general questions regarding the publications process.

History of "How to Organize a Transition"

20180416: Fixed broken fragments, updated links, general quality assurance and updates.

20170301: Revised for transitions documentation for Process 2017.

20161101: Updated for reorganization 2016

20160804: Transitions 2005 and 2014 superseded by 2015.

20151123: Revised for transitions documentation for Process 2015.

20140801: Revised for transitions documentation for Process 2014.

20060131: Revised for release with pubrules. Released 31 January 2006 but created in August 2005.

20031201: Version sent for review with 24 Dec 2003 Process Document.

20030501: Version published with June 2003 Process Document.