Meeting minutes
matters arising
job: thanks for joining
… recaps last meeting
Improving Web Advertising Business Group
wseltzer: [introductions]
… W3C is all about reaching consensus
… hearing needs and use cases
… explains changes to browser behaviour around privacy
… how do we stop tracking but still allow monetization opportunities
… Improving Web Advertising Business group has more than 300 members
wseltzer: we have built out a table of use cases from lots of different ecosystem players
… we mostly work in Github
… we have dozens of proposals
… and we have weekly teleconferences
with hundreds of participants
… at which we generally hear about one or two use cases
… though sometimes we also do more introductory topics
wseltzer: explains how IWABG fits into wider w3c community
… specifications to existing or new working groups
… incubation in the web platform incubation community group
… external liaison
wseltzer: explains use case document
nicktr: can you say more about moving from "needs" to "spec"
wseltzer: starts with an incubation
… and then W3C team works with the more mature proposals to move into a working group
… although not a popularity contest, the proposal needs to be able to get traction
karen: can you say more about how the proposed cohort model works differently from the cookie model?
wseltzer: we have a series of proposals knowns as the "birds" which started with "FLoC" from google
… ad targeting has historically been about tracking individuals (mostly by cookies)
… that's clearly a privacy concern
… the cohort idea groups users together
… done locally in the browser
… and once the cohort is big enough (say 1000 users) the group is offered up to advertisers
dezell: how to you prove that you should be in a cohort?
… especially for age-restricted product
wseltzer: that's not something that we've talked about yet
… or identity based solutions
… but it is interesting and you'd be welcome to bring it to the group
phila_: am struck by success of the group with many members
… this merchantBG is still very small
… what did you get right?
wseltzer: I think deprecating third-party cookies had a huge effect, and the IWABG was seen as a place to talk to browsers
dezell: I think we have burning platform issues too - one use case is proximity based selling - how to do that in a privacy protecting way?
wseltzer: I think that the place to start is in the use cases - and to explore possible solutions
karen: are retailers aware that there are changes coming?
nicktr: I don't think so
phila_: there are lots of disconnects in big businesses
… what are the things that folk in this group think is important, and can talk to other people in their own organisations
wseltzer: I think that's the key - we don't need to come up with the answer. It's good enough to come up with a problem that solving would make the web better
capturing use cases and best practice
dezell: none of these topics are "burning" - especially EMV
… there's a very short hop from advertising to selling
… let's categorise some of these issues as urgent and critical
dezell: I see digital receipts as being cirtical
<dezell> agree that accessibility is crucial
melob: accessibility is definitely a critical issue for us - especially for an ageing population
<dezell> i will volunteer
karen: could group develop a survey and get out to a representative segment of retailers?
nicktr: how did that get out to the community
karen: local personal networks, social networks
phila_: most retailers put structured data in their sites - but is not made accessible
… I would love to see that happen because it makes things easier to find
dezell: I have a concrete use case - much product searching is now done by voice assistants like Siri and Alexa
karen: W3C has a voice accessibility task force
ian: we have participants like MAG and Conexxus who may have a list of hot issues that we can use to jump start the conversations
next meeting 15th March, 2021 at 21h00
RRSAgent: make minutes