Summaries of TPAC2015 Breakout Sessions

During TPAC ("Technical Plenary / Advisory Committee") every year, W3C hosts a Technical Plenary with panels and presentations that brings participants together. For a few years now, we've organized most of the plenary as "camp-style" Breakout Sessions and all the participants are invited to propose Breakout Sessions. The meeting attendees build the Breakout Sessions Grid early in the day, drawing from ideas socialized in advance and new ideas proposed on that day.

TPAC2015 was an extremely successful week of meetings. Nearly 580 people attended, 43 work groups met face-to-face, and participants organized 50 Breakout Sessions on topics ranging from network interactions, device synchronization, Web Payments, Social Web, Testing, Web of Things, distributed Web applications, video processing, Web-based signage, digital marketing, privacy and permission, just to name a few. Please, lear more in the W3C CEO report on TPAC2015 and IETF94.

A few summaries

We invite you to read the summaries of a few of these breakouts, excerpted here:

Network Interactions

Network Interactions, proposed by Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, reviewed the outcomes of the recent GSMA/IAB MaRNEW workshop and looked at various cases where this additional interaction could be applied: WebRTC optimization, network usage adaption based on user data allowance, overall optimization of radio usage. The overall discussions of how and when the network operator would want to accommodate more specific requests for control or information on their network from the application layer remain inconclusive on a way forward.

FoxEye - video processing

FoxEye - video processing, proposed by Chia-Hung Tai and Tzuhao Kuo, aimed at bringing more power to the Web to make the Web more friendly for video processing and computer vision. Issues garnered as part of the work session were filed to the github repository for tracking.

Cross-device synchronization

Cross-device synchronization, proposed by François Daoust, explored cross-device synchronization scenarios, including shared video viewing, lip-sync use cases, distributed music playback, video walls, cross-device animations, etc. The Timing Object specification defines an API to expose cross-device sync mechanisms to Web applications. Interested parties are invited to join the Multi-Device Timing Community Group to continue the work on this specification.

How blockchain could change the Web-based content distribution

How blockchain could change the Web-based content distribution, proposed by Shigeru Fujimura and Hiroki Watanabe, was about the mechanism of blockchain and its potential related to web-based content distribution followed by a open discussion focusing on business model regarding the incentive to continue maintaining blockchain.

Requirements for Embedded Browsers needed by Web-based Signage

Requirements for Embedded Browsers needed by Web-based Signage, proposed by Kiyoshi Tanaka and Shigeru Fujimura, started from a presentation of the feature of the web-based signage and requirements for the browser. The API ideas such as auto-pilot API and rich presentation API were shown and discussed regarding the proper Working Groups where such APIs would be considered. The results of this session were provided to the Web-based Signage Business Group and reflected the discussion in the review of a draft charter for a proposed Web-based Signage Working Group.

HTMLCue

HTMLCue, proposed by Nigel Megitt, discussed the idea of a new kind of Text Track Cue which would allow any fragment of HTML+CSS to be used to modify the display on a target element in synchronization with a media element's timeline. Different views were expressed during the discussion, and two actions were noted. Other next steps include summarizing the HTMLCue proposal in a clear document.

Webex - how's it going?

Webex - how's it going?, proposed by Ralph Swick and Nigel Megitt, was a feedback gathering session to understand the experience particularly of working groups since W3C moved from Zakim to Webex for audio calls. Some of the issues can be resolved through best practices, others Ralph Swick offered to handle off-line.

Distributing Web Applications Across Devices

Distributing Web Applications Across Devices, proposed by Mark A. Foltz, discussed the potential for creating a new class of Web applications that can be distributed among multiple devices and user agents, instead of executing within the context of a single device/user agent.

Read more

The well-attended Breakout Sessions during TPAC is an opportunity to meet and liaise with participants from other groups, brainstorm ideas, coordinate solutions for technical issues. Although participation in TPAC is limited to those already in W3C groups, the TPAC proceedings are public, including the TPAC2015 Plenary Breakout Sessions records, which we invite you to read.