|
Addressing
Universal Resource Identifier Interest Group (URI-IG) Charter -- ProposedT
This charter is written in accordance with section 3.2.2 of the W3C Process.
Table of Contents
The Universal Resource Identifier Interest Group (URI IG) is an Interest Group as defined by
the W3C Process. The purpose of this
Interest Group is to provide a forum for W3C Members and non-Members
to discuss issues related to Web identifiers.
The URI Interest Group will address both architectural/systems issues as
well as application interests; it is a forum for everyone
interested in the definition and use of identifiers on the WWW.
The URI Interest Group will focus primarily on URIs as defined by RFC 2396
and related documents, potential future work items related to URIs, and
the relationship of that work to other activities of W3C.
All topics related to URIs are relevant here, but in-depth detailed
discussions should typically be carried out in the context of groups
that are interested in those details, with summaries presented to the
URI Interest Group for review. Using particular instances as examples,
the URI-IG should try to stay focused on the bigger picture, on the
relationships between identifiers and internet resources, and on the
properties of different kinds of identifiers and their associated
protocols.
An important function of the URI Interest Group is information sharing
within and between URI-related communities. For example, conference
announcements and post-conference reviews may be mailed to the URI
Interest Group mailing list.
The goals of the URI Interest Group include the following:
- Review deliverables of W3C and non-W3C working groups and interest
groups that relate to URIs. This includes review of proposed URI
schemes.
- Inform IG members about the activities and resources of W3C's URI activities.
- Gather and exchange information about URI-related activities
around the world.
- Discuss and describe requirements for URI guidelines and/or
specifications.
- Discuss what Working Group(s)
should be established
to meet those requirements, and write their charters.
As an Interest Group, the URI Interest Group primarily serves to
facilitate discussion and review that may result in W3C process
deliverables by other groups. The Interest Group may make proposals for
new Working Groups through the W3C team contact when there is evidence
of sufficient Member interest in specific work. Those proposals would
then enter the W3C Process for
Advisory Committee review.
As a public group, rather than a member-only group, the URI Interest
Group does not have any deliverables that must be agreed to by the W3C
membership. The deliverables in the list below are intended to be
non-controversial and informative rather than requiring debate and
agreement on standards.
Deliverables are:
- A W3C Note summarizing the concepts and terminology concerned with
addressing, naming, resolution protocols, and resources. The
purpose of this activity is to identify and describe the various
general properties that identifiers and resolution mechanisms
have. This activity would serve to build a shared understanding
and a common vocabulary that will be very helpful when discussing
proposed uses of URIs and new URI schemes.
- A W3C Note summarizing the current state of URI-related standards, the
publically acknowledged degree to which applications meet those
standards, and possible future developments. This note could be
periodically updated.
- Reviews of draft deliverables from URI-related groups.
Reviews:
The Interest Group may be asked to
review "last call" working drafts and Proposed Recommendations for
architectural consistency with URI-related standards and guidelines.
The URI IG can provide a broad review of draft deliverables from
URI-related groups by people who have an interest in URIs but are not
able to participate directly in those working groups. Review periods are
usually two to four weeks, with advance notice of upcoming reviews so
that interested individuals can review background materials and set
aside time. Reviews are announced with a message to URI IG with the
review topic in the subject line, the URI of the draft document,
instructions on where to send comments, and the closing date of the
review period. All Working Group Chairs whose deliverables are reviewed
by the URI IG shall send a summary to URI IG of comments received and
changes made as a result of the review.
There are no fixed milestones for this Interest Group.
Milestones may be added when the group determines the extent of
the work required to achieve the deliverables, or if the group decides
to take on additional work items.
The Group will exist for one year, from January 2000 to the end of
January 2001. We expect to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the
URI Interest Group at that time and submit a plan for any followup
activity to the W3C Members. Even after URI working groups are
established the URI Interest Group may remain as the forum for general
discussion about URI issues.
The Group will maintain contacts with many other Groups within W3C.
Some of the most important work includes the following:
This Group will maintain contacts with some external groups, such as:
- IETF
(Internet Engineering Task Force)
- IETF is
a large open international community of network designers, operators,
vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to
any interested individual.
- International DOI Foundation (IDF)
- Digital Object
Identifiers are based on the Handle System
developed by The Corporation for National
Research Initiatives.
Other groups to be in contact with include the library community (e.g.
D-Lib Forum) who use identifiers of
both internet and non-internet resources, and intellectual
property rights organizations (e.g. World Intellectual Property
Organization) since IPR claims may use identifiers of protected property.
The URI Interest Group exists only as an email forum; it does not
conduct regular phone conferences or face-to-face meetings, although
occasional workshops and meetings may be arranged as needed. The
Interest Group may hold meetings at conferences,
at the discretion of the Chair and W3C team contact.
The URI-IG list may be used by any participant to post announcements of
URI-related workshops and meetings, and post followup summary reports
of those meetings. URI-IG participants are encouraged to post periodic
reviews of URI-related issues, activities and events to keep each other
informed and to keep the group alive.
The W3C team contact may organize a workshop on identifiers, perhaps
with a focus on web-specific issues such as how to add metadata to the
web to support persistence, and solve other URI-related problems.
Before such as workshop occurs, we should first clearly identify the
problems to be addressed and determine whether these problems could be
delegated to an existing working group or whether a new working group
charter should be written.
The participants of the URI
IG communicate primarily via a public archived mailing list,
uri@w3.org.
Participants are also encouraged to join the
RDF Interest Group to discuss metadata related issues.
Additions to the public URI-IG web pages are
another important means of communication, both between current group members
and the public at large.
A voting mechanism will not be required by the Interest Group.
Controversy will be averted by avoiding decision making unless there
is clear consensus.
A W3C Team member will coordinate discussions, and contribute to
Notes and briefing packages for potential working groups.
The initial Chair and the W3C Team contact for this Group is
Daniel LaLiberte.
Membership of the URI Interest Group is open to the public. Any person
interested in the issues and applications of URIs is eligible to
participate in this Interest Group; W3C Membership is not a
prerequisite. Membership is signified by subscribing to the 'uri'
mailing list, uri@w3.org.
(Subscribe by mailing to uri-request@w3.org with
'subscribe' in the Subject header. Your email address
will be used, or include a Reply-To header if you want to
subscribe under a different email address.)
There are no minimum membership requirements, neither in terms of
expertise, nor in terms of time commitment. The editor(s) of W3C Notes
and working group briefing packages will be asked to commit to a
reasonable percentage of their time.
The Web page <http://www.w3.org/Addressing/IG/> will
reference all essential information, such as this charter, instructions on
how to use the mailing list(s), event schedules, links to interesting
documents, and a list of principle members (i.e. chair, staff contact,
editors) of the URI-IG.
Last modified: Sat Dec 11 21:56:20 EST 1999
CVS: $Date: 2014/02/24 22:45:45 $ by $Author: sysbot $