W3C Repository Manager in a Nutshell

Need for
IPR management on GitHub

• These days more and more W3C Specs are developed on GitHub.
• W3C Specs are produced by WGs operating under the W3C Patent Policy.
• So we need IPR management mechanism, e.g., Pull Request, on GitHub as well
• That's why Contributor Management for a tool that is available to automate that process.

W3C technical report development process

1. FPWD: First Public Working Draft
2. WD: (Ordinary) Working Draft
3. CR: Candidate Recommendation
4. PR: Proposed Recommendation
5. REC: W3C Recommendation

See also the W3C Process Document.

W3C patent policy

• What: normative technology in specifications
• How: must be provided based on the Royalty-Free license
• When: published as a W3C Recommendation
• Who: W3C specs are generated by WG participants

See also:
* W3C Patent Policy
* Patent Policy FAQ

Participation in WG discussions

• Join the WG and Make Licensing Commitments
• For:
  • Telephone Conferences and F2F Meetings
  • Mailinglists
  • GitHub Repositories

See also:
* W3C Patent Policy.
* Patent Policy FAQ

Who can participate?

• WG Participants:
  • W3C Members, Invited Experts and W3C Staff
  • Everybody is required to make Royalty-Free commitment.
• Invited Guests:
  • The Chair(s) can invite a non-participant guest to a F2F meeting/telco.
  • However, should be aware of possible issues about contributions from non-participants.

See also:
* Patent Policy FAQ - Q6

Important points

• To help manage expectations of meeting guests:
  • Should remind non-participant guests of the goals of the W3C Patent Policy.
• When a contribution is being considered for actual inclusion in a document intended to become a Recommendation:
  • The Chair(s) should ask the Contributor to disclose any essential claims.
• In cases where disclosure reveals possible incompatible licensing:
  • The Working Group should either (1) steer away from the Contribution or (2) attempt to secure W3C Royalty-Free licensing terms.

That's why this talk to make sure everybody is aware :)

W3C spec work on GitHub

• These days more and more W3C Specs are developed on GitHub.
  • W3C GitHub Repository
• Need for IPR management mechanism, e.g., Pull Request
  • Repository Manager Tool

Repository Manager tool
to help you

• Repository Manager site:
  https://labs.w3.org/hatchery/repo-manager/
• List of Managed Repositories:
  https://labs.w3.org/hatchery/repo-manager/repos
• List of Pull Requests:
  https://labs.w3.org/hatchery/repo-manager/pr/open

Additional resources to be added to your GitHub repository

• LICENSE.md:
  • WG-LICENSE.md (for specs under the W3C Document License)
  • WG-LICENSE-SW.md (for specs under the W3C Software and Document License)
• CONTRIBUTING.md:
  • WG-CONTRIBUTING.md (for specs under the W3C Document License)
  • WG-CONTRIBUTING-SW.md (for specs under the W3C Software and Document License)
• w3c.json

How to manage contributions?

• The repository manager interacts with GitHub pull requests.
• You can associate your W3C account with your GitHub account.
  • particularly important for those who contribute (substantive) pull requests.
• Once we activate the Repository Manager
  • Contributions from Github accounts not associated with a W3C account gets flagged with a warning:
    • ipr - PR has contribution issues. The following users were unknown: @your-gh-account
  • Contributions from Github accounts that didn't make the IPR commitments get flagged with a warning
  • Please manually approve flagged pull requests if they are not substantive via the Repository Manager.

Expectation for Chairs/TCs

Steps expected by the Group to use the Repository Manager

1. Ask the Group participants to associate the account (e.g., within 2 weeks)
2. Make sure w3c.json, CONTRIBUTING and LICENSE.md get added to the repository for your spec
3. Ask your Team Contact to import your repository in the Rpository Manger

Resources on GitHub

• Ash-Nazg Tool Repository:
  https://github.com/w3c/ash-nazg/
• Detailed Manual:
  https://github.com/w3c/ash-nazg/blob/master/README.md
• Reporting bugs & asking for improvements on the tool:
  https://github.com/w3c/ash-nazg/issues