POI Core Editor's Draft Released

Yesterday, I sent an email to the public-poiwg mailing list (you are subscribed, right?) announcing that an Editor's Draft of the POI Core is now available.  It is an attempt to gather all of the various ideas we have had on the wiki, mailing list (you are subscribed, right?), in our meetings (and some stuff I just made up) into one semi-cohesive document.

With this draft, the group is now close to publishing what is known as a "First Public Working Draft" (FPWD), which is the first step on the "Recommendation Track".  The process document has this to say about FPWDs (selectively quoted, emphasis mine):

The publication of the First Public Working Draft is a signal to the community to begin reviewing the document. ... The Chair must record the group's decision to request advancement. Since this is the first time that a document with this short name appears in the Technical Reports index, Director approval is required for the transition.

Ongoing work: After publication of the First Public Working Draft, the Working Group generally revises the technical report (see the Working Group "Heartbeat" Requirement) in accordance with its charter. I

n order to make Working Drafts available to a wide audience early in their development, the requirements for publication of a Working Draft are limited to an agreement by a chartered Working Group to publish the technical report and satisfaction of the Team's Publication Rules. Consensus is not a prerequisite for approval to publish; the Working Group may request publication of a Working Draft even if it is unstable and does not meet all Working Group requirements.

Working Groups should encourage early and wide review of the technical report, within and outside of W3C, especially from other Working Groups with dependencies on the technical report. Advisory Committee representatives should encourage review within their organizations as early as First Public Working Draft, i.e., before a Last Call announcement and well before a Call for Review of a Proposed Recommendation.

What I'd like to emphasize here is that:

1. An FPWD serves to announce our work to the greater world, rather than just our mailing list (you are subscribed, right?)
2. It is just a beginning point and is subject to change.  It is not until we reach the Last Call stage where things must be stable
3. It doesn't have to be perfect, in fact the group doesn't need consensus to publish it

I encourage everyone to read the Editor's Draft and get behind publishing it as an FPWD quickly, warts and all.

-Matt

Editor Pro Tempore

P.S.:

Our technical work is done in the public on our mailing list, you are subscribed, right?