Motivation

• Bring innovators to the table
• Connect with new communities
• Make it easy to create, join groups for specification development
• Enhance value of W3C Membership
• Improve the quality of W3C work
• Make it easy for innovations to transition to standards

Now Have Variety of Inputs to Standards Track

Community Groups (CGs) Are …

• open to all
• without fee
• quick to start
• public
• self-determined
• without time limit
• IPR balanced
• tuned for transition to standards-track

What do you get with Community Groups?

• Infrastructure
• Policies: light process, balanced IPR
• Community
• Staff support for ensure operations

See the Community Group FAQ for useful information.

Infrastructure

Tools by default:

• WordPress Blog (with RSS feeds)
• Mailing lists
• Wiki
• IRC (with access to IRC tools for meeting management)
• Issue tracking tool ("Tracker")

Available on request: Mercurial repository

We expect the toolkit to grow (e.g., more social features)

Light Process

Light process:

• Groups determine how they operate
• Minimal requirements:
  • Must have a chair (selected by group)
  • Some publications requirements related to the IPR policy and persistence, but no format requirements
  • Some rules to avoid disruptive behavior

Lightweight IPR Goals

• Permissive copyright
• Lower barriers to participation.
• Encourage participation by developers
• Secure organizational patent commitments
  • People may request to participate as individuals if they own their IPR.
• Protect implementers of drafts
• Facilitate transition to Recommendation Track

Patent Policy Structure

• Two-step patent commitment:
  1. Contributor Agreement (CLA) covers drafts.
  2. Voluntary Final Specification Agreement (FSA) when spec is done.
• No patent disclosure obligations

Benefits of this approach

• Faster start since no charter scope to review
• Easier to join since no licensing commitment if no contribution; final commitment is voluntary
• Contributor agreement gives some (but limited) protection to implementers
• Continuity of commitments with W3C Patent Policy

The Community Group FAQ discusses differences between W3C Patent Policy and CG Policy.

Key Elements of CG Patent Policy

• Obligations arise from Contributions, so:
  • No specification to include contributions → no obligations
  • No contribution → no obligations
  • Contribution does not appear in specification → no obligations
• Contributions are to be intentional, so:
  • Opt-out within 45 days of contribution → no obligations
  • Final Specification Agreement is voluntary
• Contributors comfortable when context is known, so:
  • After 150 days, if contribution not in spec → no obligations
  • If contribution modified subsequently → no obligations
• CG Policy intended to play well with W3C Patent Policy, so:
  • If work moves to Rec Track, commitments flow
    • But: exclusion possible (and without having to join the Working Group)
  • Patent commitments do not follow derivative works outside of Rec Track
  • If CG spec same as Rec (that is: no modifications), licensing commitments are identical. CG licensing commitments do not increase as a result of transition but could shrink if material removed or modified.

Community

• Strong existing W3C Community (notably Membership) to connect with
• W3C Forum is "general forum" for proposing ideas, getting feedback, building support
• Community Development Lead (CDL) monitors process
• Community Council assists existing community groups, looks for new ones; helps CDL
• W3C Staff supports operations of the program

Business Groups

Business Groups are a premium forum to:

• work on Web technology within a group of like-minded stakeholders
• provide high-bandwidth input to the standards process
• organize around regional or business interests
• otherwise meet to address business or other needs

Business Groups (CGs) Are …

• open to all
• without fee to Members; fee for non-Members
• quick to start
• public or non-public
• facilitated through W3C staff (more than CGs)
• self-determined
• without time limit
• IPR balanced
• tuned for transition to standards-track

Comparison of Community and Business Groups

Similar:

• Anyone may participate in either.
• The group can address topics of their choosing.
• There is no end date.
• Participants agree to the same IPR policies (except that a Business Group may choose to distribute a report under the W3C Document License)

Different:

• There is no cost to participate in a Community Group. Non-Member organizations and unaffiliated individuals pay a fee to participate in a Business Group.
• As a result, Business Groups benefit from additional W3C staff involvement. By default, a Community Group has no staff involvement (other than oversight of the program as a whole).
• Community Group proceedings are public. Business Groups may choose public or non-public.
• Business Groups have access to teleconference facilities.

Learn More

• Community and Business Group Home
• Current Groups
• Comparison of W3C Group Types (Working, Interest, Community, Business, Incubator)
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)