W3C Process Document

5 The W3C Submission process

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The W3C Submission process allows Members to propose technology or other ideas for consideration by W3C. The formal process affords the submitters a record of their contribution and gives them a mechanism for disclosing the details of the transaction with the Team (including IPR claims). The Submission process also allows the Team to review proposed technology and accurately relay the status of Submission requests to the media.

Note. Members do not submit Notes to W3C; they make Submission requests. A Note is one artifact of an acknowledged Submission request.

Note. The Submissions process is not related to the W3C Recommendations track. Documents that are part of a Submission request have been developed outside of W3C. Members do not submit documents to W3C for "ratification" as Recommendations.

5.1 How to Send a Submission Request

The Submission process begins with a Submission request from representatives of one or more Member organizations (and only Member organizations) to the Director. Organizations that are not Members of W3C may not send Submission requests directly to W3C (either alone or in conjunction with submitting Members). Submitters should refer to the submission request template [PUB13] published at the W3C Web site.

To send a Submission request:

The Submitter will receive prompt notification that the Team has received the Submission package.

If for any reason the Submission request is deemed incomplete or incorrect by the Team (e.g., the Submission package lacks information, documents in the Submission package are invalid, confirmations of position statements have not been received, Member agreements from participating companies have not been signed, etc.), the Team will help the Submitter complete and correct the request.

The Team sends a validation notice to the Submitter as soon as the Team has reviewed any Submission request and judged it complete and correct. The Director then reviews the validated Submission request and either acknowledges or rejects it. The Submission request is acknowledged only after the Director has announced the decision to the Advisory Committee. This announcement must occur between one and four weeks after the validation notice. The announcement may come at any time during the three-week window, but the Team must tell the Submitter, within one week of the validation notice, when the announcement is most likely to occur.

Prior to the acknowledgment, the Submission request must be held in the strictest confidentiality by the Team. In particular, the Team must not comment to the media about the Submission request.

Under no circumstances may a document be referred to as "submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium" or "under consideration by W3C" or any similar phrase, nor should there be any implication made that W3C is working on a specification or with a company prior to the acknowledgment.

5.2 Submitter Rights and Obligations

The Submitter may withdraw the Submission request at any time prior to acknowledgment. W3C will not make statements about withdrawn Submission requests.

Submitting organizations have the right to publish the documents in the Submission package before acknowledgment. However, the W3C name cannot be used in this publication.

Only after the Director has acknowledged the Submission may the submitting organizations refer to it as having been submitted to W3C. There may be no implication made to any further or required action by W3C until and unless the item is taken up as part of a W3C Activity.

5.3 Acknowledgment of a Submission request

Once the Director has acknowledged a Submission request, the Team:

Publication of a Note by W3C indicates no endorsement by W3C, the W3C Team, or any W3C Members. The acknowledgment of a Submission request does not imply that any action will be taken by W3C. It merely records publicly that the Submission request has been made by the submitting Member. This document may not be referred to as "work in progress" of the W3C.

The list of acknowledged Submissions [PUB10] may be found at the Web site.

5.4 Rejection of a Submission request

A Submission request may be rejected by the Director on the following grounds:

If the subject of a Submission request is already being addressed by a Working Group and the Director feels that acknowledging the Submission request would interfere with the group's work (e.g., for reasons of confidentiality), the Director may ask the Submitter to take the proposal to the Working Group. The Submitter may proceed with the Submission track nevertheless, but ultimately the Director may choose to reject the request.

In case of a rejection, the Director will inform the Submitter's Advisory Committee representative. The Submitter may appeal the decision to the Advisory Committee. No statements will be made by W3C about the reasons why a Submission request was rejected.

5.5 The Submission package

A Submission package must include the following information:

The Submission request must include complete electronic copies of any pertinent documents. The Communication Team will establish a policy for which electronic formats (e.g., HTML) it will accept and criteria that must be met prior to publication (refer to conventions for creating and publishing documents [MEM11]). Please refer to general information about documents and the section describing W3C Notes for more information.

The Submission request must also address the following questions: