Status: This charter was an update of the initial draft charter reviewed by the W3C Membership. It has been superseded as a result of Advisory Committee Review; please see the revised charter.
The mission of the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group, part of the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity, is to define client-side APIs to enable Real Time Communications in Web browsers.
These APIs should enable building applications that can be run inside a browser, requiring no extra downloads or plugins, that allow communication between parties using audio, video and supplementary real-time communication, without having to use intervening servers (unless needed for firewall traversal, or for providing intermediary services).
| End date | 28 February 2013 |
|---|---|
| Confidentiality | Proceedings are public |
| Initial Chairs | Harald Alvestrand |
| Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 10) | François Daoust |
| Usual Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: up to 1 per week, as needed
Face-to-face: up to 3-4 per year |
Enabling real-time communications between Web browsers require the following client-side technologies to be available:
To advance to Proposed Recommendation, each specification is expected to have two independent implementations of each feature defined in the specification.
To advance to Proposed Recommendation, interoperability between the independent implementations (that is, bidirectional audio and video communication between the implementations) should be demonstrated.
The definition of the network protocols used to establish the connections between peers is out of scope for this group; in general, it is expected that protocols considerations will be handled in the IETF.
The definition of any new codecs for audio and video is out of scope.
The working group will deliver specifications that cover at least the following functions, unless they are found to be fully specified within other working groups' finished results:
The working group may decide to group the specified functions in one or more specifications.
This work will be done in collaboration with the IETF. The W3C will define APIs to ensure that application developers can control the components or the architecture for selection and profiling of the wire protocols that will be produced by the IETF Real-Time Communication in WEB-browsers (RTCWeb) Working Group. While the specified API Functions will not constrain implementations into supporting a specific profile, they will be compatible with the Profile that will be specified by the RTCWeb Working Group.
The specified API Functions and the requirements on their implementation must offer functionality that ensures that users' expectations of privacy and control over their devices are met - this includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that users are assured at all times that they know what media they are transmitting, and are able to find out who they are transmitting media to.
Similarly, all the deliverables must address issues of security - this includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that arbitrary UDP packets cannot be sent to arbitrary destinations and ports. The security and privacy goals and requirements will be developed in coordination with the IETF RTCWeb Working Group.
A comprehensive test suite for all features of a specification is necessary to ensure the specification's robustness, consistency, and implementability, and to promote interoperability between User Agents. Therefore, each specification must have a companion test suite, which should be completed by the end of the Last Call phase, and must be completed, with an implementation report, before transition from Candidate Recommendation to Proposed Recommendation. Additional tests may be added to the test suite at any stage of the Recommendation track, and the maintenance of a implementation report is encouraged.
Other non-normative documents may be created such as:
Given sufficient resources, this Working Group should review other working groups' deliverables that are identified as being relevant to the Working Group's mission.
| Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page. | |||||
| Specification | FPWD | LC | CR | PR | Rec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTC API Functions | Q3 2011 | Q2 2012 | Q4 2012 | Q4 2012 | Q1 2013 |
<audio> and <video> tagsTo be successful, the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants for its duration. Effective participation to Web Real-Time Communications Working Group is expected to consume one work day per week for each participant; two days per week for editors. The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group will allocate also the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.
Participants are reminded of the Good Standing requirements of the W3C Process.
This group primarily conducts its work on the public mailing list public-webrtc@w3.org (archives).
The group uses a Member-confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and participants of the group, for Member-only discussions in special cases when a particular participant requests such a discussion.
Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group home page.
As explained in the Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus. We expect that typically, an editor makes an initial proposal, which is refined in discussion with Working Group members and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal decision-making. However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress, but after due consideration of different opinions, consensus is not achieved, the Chair should put a question (allowing for remote, asynchronous participation using, for example, email and/or web-based survey techniques) and record a decision and any objections, and consider the matter resolved, at least until new information becomes available.
This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.
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.
For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.
This charter for the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.
This charter was prepared as part of discussions related to the RTC Web Workshop in October 2010.
Copyright ©2011 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved.
$Date: 2011/05/05 13:14:04 $