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21FEB2000 |
The W3C Process Document describes what is required for a Working Group's charter. Its guidelines are followed here.
The Math Working Group is chartered to continue the task of facilitating the use of mathematical formalism on the Web, both for scientific documentation and for education. This involves the development of a next version of the MathML specification, maintenance of and encouragement of the use of the present MathML 1.0 Recommendation, continued liaison with other Working Groups within the W3C to ensure that the potential of MathML is realized, and relations with other organizations designed to strengthen the position of MathML and the use of math on the Web.
This will mean that the use of math in Web documents will be encouraged by the W3C, to which the MathML specification belongs, and should significantly contribute to the usefulness of the Web for science, technology and education. The continuation of the work on mathematics on the Web falls well within the User Interface Domain.
This group commenced at the beginning of September 1998 and was expected to persist for 18 months, terminating in February 2000. The life of the group is to be extended to December 2000. The drafts of the revision of MathML will follow a timeline intended to produce a Recommendation in June 1999. The further period will cover some post-recommendation activity.
The precise Working Drafts in production at a given time are listed on the WG page. The group will produce a Proposed Recommendation, evolved from stable Working Drafts. Minutes of teleconferences and face to face meetings are also available from the Math WG Page.
A list of documents actively under consideration by the group, is maintained by the chair. To add a document to the list, or to revise a document in the list, the draft should be sent to the chair or to the group mailing list. The chair will decide on new or revised drafts in collaboration with the group, provided the document falls within the scope of work items for the group.
As documents stabilize, they will be released as W3C Working Drafts. No document may stay on the list of documents actively under consideration by the group for more than three months without being released to the public as an intermediate draft. Documents may be released sooner if consensus is achieved. If the three-month deadline is reached, the current draft will be released (and not a draft from three months earlier). If, before this time, anyone in the group feels the current draft will not be not suitable for public release as an intermediate draft, their options are:
One or more public Working Drafts will be produced covering each of the Work Items, to the following revised schedule:
| Milestones | Date |
| First public requirements document | May 1998 (by previous Math WG) |
| New Math Working Group meeting | 19-20 October 1998 |
| Requirements Documents for other W3C WG | November 1998 |
| Working Group meeting | 15-16 March 1999 |
| First Roadmap of MathML 2 revision | April 1999 |
| Public MathML 1.01 revision | 7 April 1999 |
| Final Roadmap of MathML 2 revision | June 1999 |
| Working Group meeting | 9-10 August 1999 |
| First Working Draft of MathML 2 | November 1999 (public 1 Dec) |
| Second Working Draft of MathML 2 | 22 December 1999 |
| Third Working Draft of MathML 2 | January 2000 (public 11 February) |
| Working Group meeting | 13-14 March 2000 |
| Fourth Working Draft of MathML 2 [Last Call] | 20 March 2000 |
| Fourth Working Draft of MathML 2 [Last Call Ends] | 17 April March 2000 |
| Candidate Recommendation for MathML 2 Request (WD5) | 24 April 2000 |
| Reques for Proposed Recommendation for MathML 2 | 25 May 2000 |
| Test Suite for MathML | 27 April 2000 |
| Document on Continuation Activity | 15 May 2000 |
| Test Suite for MathML, version 2 | 21 June 2000 |
| MathML Schema | 13 July 2000 |
| MathML and Math on the Web Conference | 19-20 October 2000 |
| Working Group termination | 31 December 2000 |
Five face to face meetings will be arranged. Meeting details will be made available on the W3C Member Calendar and from the WG page. A Conference emphasizing the practical application of the MathML Recommendation is scheduled for the post-Recommendation period, and is listed under the Milestones above.
Meetings:
| Meeting | Date | Location |
| New Math Working Group meeting | 19-20 October 1998 | Long Beach, CA US |
| Working Group meeting | 15-16 March 1999 | Redmond, WA US |
| Working Group meeting | 9-10 August 1999 | Champaign, IL US |
| Working Group meeting | 8-9 November 1999 | Oxford, UK |
| Working Group meeting | 13-14 March 2000 | Ann Arbor, MI US |
The archived member-only mailing list w3c-math-wg@w3.org is the primary means of discussion within the group. Postings to this list are Member confidential, as is the Working Group page, but not the WG charter.
The mailing list www-math@w3.org is used for public discussion of mathematical markup and related issues, and WG members are encouraged to subscribe; there is also an archive for it. There will be a public page on W3C Math Activity, maintained by the chair.
One-hour phone conferences will be held at least bi-weekly. Both US and French numbers will be made available. These two bridges will be joined together to create a single teleconference.
The Group works by consensus. In the event of failure to achieve consensus, the Group may resort to a vote as described in the Process Document. Each Member company which has at least one Group member in good standing may vote. There is one vote per W3C Member company. Votes are held by email to allow all participants a chance to vote; there is a two week voting period followed by a period of two working days for the announcement of the result. W3C staff and invited experts do not vote; however in the event of a tie the chair has a casting vote. If the issue is resolved by consensus during the voting period, the vote is cancelled.
Participants (W3C Member representatives, Invited Experts, and W3C Team members) are required not to disclose information obtained during participation, until that information is publicly available.
Requirements for meeting attendance and timely response are described in the Process document. Participation (meetings, reviewing and writing drafts) is expected to consume time equal to 1 day per week for a period of one year.
W3C Members may also offer to review one or more working drafts from the group for clarity, consistency, technical merit, fitness for purpose and conformance with other W3C specifications. They are required to provide the review comments by the agreed-to date but are not required to attend meetings.
As decided on a case by case basis, invited experts may attend a single meeting or a series; they may in some cases be subscribed to the Group mailing list. For the duration of their participation, invited experts are encouraged to adopt the same requirements for meeting attendance and timely response as are required of W3C Members.
The W3C team will ensure that the mailing lists and Group page are adequately maintained and that public Working Drafts are made available on the Technical Reports page.
A W3C team member will provide liaison between any non-team document editors and the W3C team; including posting revisions of Working Drafts to the Group page.
W3C team liaison are expected to adopt the same requirements for meeting attendance and timely response as are required of Working Group Members. The expected commitment from the W3C is therefore at least 20% of a full time person, plus 5% of an administrative person.