From carson@siggraph.org Tue May 12 20:30:49 1998 Received: from siggraph.org (siggraph.org [205.168.252.205]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id UAA09383 for ; Tue, 12 May 1998 20:30:46 +0200 Received: from study.huntleigh.net by siggraph.org (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id MAA12187; Tue, 12 May 1998 12:28:51 -0600 Message-Id: <3.0.32.19980512123117.010d53b0@siggraph.org> X-Sender: carson@siggraph.org X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:31:22 -0600 To: SC24@dkuug.dk From: Steve Carson Subject: SC 24 and W3C Response to US NB Comments on JTC 1 N 5199 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Below you will find a proposed response to US NB comments (from the US JTC 1 TAG, NOT from your US SC24 colleagues) on the Cooperative Agreement between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). As I have previously told you, the agreement as currently written was unanimously approved by JTC 1 without a single NO vote and only two "Yes with comments" votes. The JTC 1 Chair and Secretary have directed SC 24 to respond to the comments from the US NB in writing to the JTC 1 plenary meeting that begins on 1 June in Sendai, Japan. I have passed this proposed response to the PNG editing meeting that is going on now in France and asked them for a review. If there are any other comments I need them by 1700 UTC this Thursday 14 May 1998. - - - SC 24 and W3C Response to US National Body Comments on JTC 1 N 5199 - Cooperative Agreement between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) SC 24 and W3C have reviewed the US NB comments contained in JTC 1 N 5287 and regret that we cannot accept most of the proposed changes. We feel that the proposed changes were requested because of simple misunderstandings of both the Cooperative Agreement and the intentions of SC 24 and of W3C in agreeing to cooperative work. We provide further explanations below: 1. This agreement is in no way exclusive. Other JTC 1 SCs and WGs and JTC 1 itself are all free to work cooperatively with W3C on other projects in other ways. The agreement covers only those projects that W3C and JTC 1 identify at the time of project initiation as being conducted under the terms of the agreement. SC 24 is not attempting to interfere with other SCs and WGs that may choose to work with W3C differently nor are we foreclosing the use of the PAS or other JTC 1 level processes. 2. We cannot limit the scope of the agreement to SC 24 only. The reason for this is simply JTC 1's continued re-engineering efforts that may result in SC 24 or any other sub-division of JTC 1 ceasing to exist or being merged with another sub-entity at any time. Therefore, it is possible that the JTC 1 sub-entity (SC or WG) that completes a project may not be the one that initiated it. To protect the intellectual property, resource investment and rights of W3C in ongoing work with JTC 1 it is essential that projects that are initiated under the agreement are completed under the terms of the agreement. 3. Neither SC 24 nor W3C desires to limit the scope of the agreement to the PNG project only. It is the intention of both parties to transpose a significant number of specifications under this agreement, with PNG being only a first "trial" case. (SC 24's submissions to JTC 1 in support of the original approval of the agreement, SC 24's business plans, and SC 24's request for Category C Liaison with W3C give specific examples of anticipated future work.) The exceptionally large amount of overhead, both in terms of elapsed calendar time and management time, required to negotiate an agreement and to get the required approvals makes it impractical to go through a separate agreement approval process for each new piece of cooperative work with W3C. 4. Both SC 24 and W3C realize that, due to the long time it took to approve the agreement, JTC 1 procedures regarding permitted changes at FDIS and FCD have changed since the time the agreement was first submitted to JTC 1 almost a year ago. We will interpret the agreement in the light of the current JTC 1 directives in these as well as other areas and will update the agreement to reflect such changes at its next revision. --------------------------------------------------------- Steve Carson phone: +1-505-521-7399 GSC Associates Inc. fax: +1-505-521-9321 5272 Redman Road e-mail: carson@siggraph.org Las Cruces, NM 88011 USA ---------------------------------------------------------