{"id":194,"date":"2011-06-23T03:32:22","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T03:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/?page_id=194"},"modified":"2026-09-08T20:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T20:29:07","slug":"compare","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/about\/process\/compare\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparison of Group Types"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following table compares some key elements of W3C group types. See also original design goals<\/a> for the Community and Business Groups program.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/th>\nWorking<\/th>\nInterest<\/th>\nCommunity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Scope<\/th>\nDetermined by Charter<\/td>\nDetermined by Charter<\/td>\nDetermined by scope statement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Creation process<\/th>\nTeam proposes charter to Membership<\/td>\nTeam proposes charter to Membership<\/td>\nProposal is complete<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Duration<\/th>\nLimited by charter, may be extended<\/td>\nLimited by charter, may be extended<\/td>\nUnlimited<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Primary Deliverable<\/th>\nStandards-track and supporting<\/td>\nNote (which may become a Statement)<\/td>\nCommunity Group Report (e.g., a technology innovation from a small set of developers). Community Groups Reports are not standards-track documents.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Staff Contact<\/th>\nYes<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\nNot generally; but see W3C Team support for W3C Community Groups<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other Staff Interactions<\/th>\nBackground support and coordination<\/td>\nBackground support and coordination (for some)<\/td>\nMonitoring, Outreach<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Fee to participate or organize<\/th>\nMembership or Invited Expert (no fee)<\/td>\nMembership or Invited Expert (no fee)<\/td>\nNone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Confidentiality of activities<\/th>\nPublic<\/td>\nGenerally Public<\/td>\nPublic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Patent Licensing Commitment for this Group’s Deliverables<\/th>\nDefined in Section 3 of W3C Patent Policy<\/a><\/td>\nNo<\/td>\nDefined in section 3 of W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA)<\/a> or Final Specification Agreement<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Patent Disclosure Obligation<\/th>\nDefined in Section 6 of W3C Patent Policy<\/a><\/td>\nDefined in Section 6 of W3C Patent Policy<\/a><\/td>\nDefined in Section 6<\/a> of W3C Patent Policy; no new obligations under CLA\/FSA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Copyright for documents<\/th>\nSpecified in charter<\/td>\nSpecified in charter<\/td>\nW3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA), Final Specification Agreement<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Copyright for software<\/th>\nW3C Software License generally<\/td>\nW3C Software License generally<\/td>\nGroup determines, but expectation is compatibility with Open Source Software Licenses.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chair selection<\/th>\nAppointed by Team<\/td>\nAppointed by Team<\/td>\nGroup determines<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Access to Member site<\/th>\nFor IEs depends on charter<\/td>\nFor IEs Depends on charter<\/td>\nNo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Decision-making based on consensus<\/th>\nRequired<\/td>\nRequired where applicable<\/td>\nRecommended where applicable<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Expectations regarding scope overlap with other groups<\/th>\nActively avoided<\/td>\nActively avoided<\/td>\nAcceptable but not recommended<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Note:<\/strong> A previous version of this table included Business Groups, but W3C is no longer creating new Business Groups. A previous version of this table included Incubator Groups, but W3C closed the Incubator Activity in 2012.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following table compares some key elements of W3C group types. See also original design goals for the Community and Business Groups program. Working Interest Community Scope Determined by Charter Determined by Charter Determined by scope statement Creation process Team … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":79,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9870,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions\/9870"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}