Note.This charter has expired. Please refer to thenew charter.
This charter is written in accordance withsection 3.2.3 of theW3CProcess.
To fulfill the promise of XML for applying XHTML toa wide variety of platforms including mobile, television,desktops and hardcopy. To assist W3C's leadership role inadvancing the baseline for Web browsers to support rich Web pagesthat combine W3C's work on areas such as math, scalable vectorgraphics, synchronized multimedia, and forms.
This will be the third time that the W3C has chartered aworking group for HTML. The scope of this charter is to seethrough to completion, the transition to XML. This includesfinishing work on modularizing XHTML for use with mobile,television and other platforms. This work has hitherto focussedon using XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) to provide a formaldescription for modules. Further work is now needed to expressXHTML Modularization in XML Schemas.
DTDs are mature, and there is a broad pool of experience thatcan be used as guidance for creating maintainable modular DTDs.By comparison, Schemas are new, and it will take some time tobuild up the skills needed for creating easy to maintain schemasfor XHTML Modularization. It may be appropriate to use a approachwhere an easier to maintain representation is transformed intothe XML Schema representation.
The W3C Recommendation for XHTML 1.0 has provided a startingpoint for transitioning the Web from SGML-based HTML, butprogress will be limited while XHTML is reliant on the use of"text/html" for delivering content to user agents. The next stepwill be to register an Internet Media Type for XHTML followingthe guidelines set out by the W3C-IETF liaison group studyingInternet Media types for applications of XML.
W3C's work on areas such as math, scalable vector graphics,synchronized multimedia, voice browsing and forms holds greatpromise for a new generation of Web pages. Work is now needed oncombining these with XHTML, and for W3C to take a leadership rolein promoting the resultant document types as the new baseline forbrowser interoperability. The HTML working group will need tocollaborate with other working groups to assist W3C in reachingthis goal.
The need for liaison with other relatedW3Cgroups and activities is described below. Of particular note,is the Hypertext Coordination Group, which provides a forum formanaging cross working group activities, for instance, reviewingspecifications developed by other groups. There is an increasingneed for technical collaboration between groups for joint work onrequirements, specifications and test suites. One way for this tooccur is via small subgroups, set up for a strictly limited timeand scope, which report back to the respective workinggroups.
The success of the HTML working group will be judged on howwell it fulfills the above objectives in terms of thedeliverables and milestones set out below.
This group was planned to last for 18 months, following itsapproval by W3C members.The charter commenced in June 2000 and was originally supposed toexpire in December 2001. It was extended by the Director's decisionuntil June 2002 to finish remaining work.
In the following, the terms: Note, Working Draft, CandidateRecommendation, and Proposed Recommendation are defined in theW3C Process.
Minutes of telephone conferences and face to face meetings
A regularly updated publicly accessibleroad map settingout the expected dates for the working group's publicdeliverables, e.g. working drafts, last calls, candidate andproposed recommendations.
Proposed Recommendation for XHTML Modularization formalized interms of XML Schemas and XML 1.0 DTDs. This work will bedelivered in two stages. The first will provide an XML 1.0 DTDand the second will add an XML Schema.
Proposed Recommendations for XHTML document types composedusing XHTML Modularization. These are being developed in responseto requests from organizations targeting mobile, television anddesktop platforms.
Registration of an Internet Media Type for XHTML following theguidelines set out by the W3C-IETF liaison group studyingInternet Media types for applications of XML.
An investigation into the requirements for event binding forXHTML. This work may lead to a revised XHTML module.
Theobject element introduced in HTML 4.0 has inpractice presented problems for interoperability. Aninvestigation is to be carried out to study these problems, toidentify requirements, and to propose potential solutions. Thiswork may lead to a new XHTML module that updates or replaces theXHTML 1.0 object element.
Profiles and test suites for document types that combine XHTMLwith other W3C specifications, for instance, Math, SMIL Boston,XForms, etc. This work will be restricted in scope and done incooperation with other W3C working groups leveraging test suitesdeveloped by these groups
On-going maintenance of W3C's Open Source tool (HTML Tidy) for cleaning up HTMLand transforming it to XHTML. This is now widely used, either onits own, or as part of other HTML editing tools.
Promotional materials and activities - encouraging thedevelopment of authoring tools, user agents and good practicesfor the next generation of HTML, for example, tutorialdescriptions and open meetings
A list ofdocuments actively underconsideration by the group, is to be maintained by theW3C staff contact under the direction of theworking group chair. To add a document to the list, or to revisea document in the list, the draft should be sent to the chairand/or thegroup mailing list. The chair willdecide on new/revised drafts in collaboration with the group,provided the document falls within thescope ofwork items for the group. As documents stabilize, they willbe released asW3C Working Drafts.
The Working Group Charter shall be publicly accessible onthe W3C Web site, along with descriptions of the goals andcurrent status of the Working Group's proposals, plus guidelines,tutorials and other promotional materials. A public mailinglist and archive shall be provided to encourage open discussionof the Working Group's proposals. The Working Group is expectedto track discussions on this list and to respond appropriately,as a commitment to public accountability.
To ensure the freedom of discussion sometimes necessary for anopen and fruitful exchange of views, the e-mail archives andminutes of meetings of the Working Group will be restricted toW3C members and invited experts.
Liaison with other W3C groups can take advantage of a broadrange of mechanisms such as cross membership, reviews of draftsproduced by other groups, joint meetings etc.
Aside from the dedicated work of the Group members, a chair isrequired to facilitate discussion and coordinate efforts; thetasks of posting minutes and other materials to the groups Webpages must be taken care of too.Steven Pemberton hasvolunteered to serve the Group by performing these roles as theChair.
Face to face meetings are generally hosted by organizationsparticipating in the working group. This will involve arranging aplace to meet, reserving accommodation for participants andcatering so as to maximize effective working time.
The Working Group gathers for face-to-face discussions atleast once every 6 months and preferably 4 times a year. Meetingdetails will be made available on the W3C Member Calendar andfrom theWorking Group page.
Thearchivedmember-only mailing listw3c-html-wg@w3.orgis the primary means of discussion within the group.
Thearchivedmailing listwww-html@w3.orgis used for public discussion of the new generation of HTML, andWorking Group members are encouraged to subscribe. The Working Groupis expected to track discussions on this list and to respondappropriately, as a commitment to public accountability.
A weekly one-hour phone conference will be held. The exactdetails, dates and times will be published in advance on theWorking Grouppage. The Chair is expected to post an agenda in advance ofthe conference call.
The Working Group shall maintain aWeb page that showsthe list of active documents, the meeting schedule, and links toemail archives, meeting minutes, and the list of Working Groupparticipants etc. These pages will be restricted in access to W3Cmembers and invited experts.
The Group works by consensus. In the event of failure toachieve consensus, the Group may resort to a vote as described intheW3C Process. Each Membercompany which has at least one Group member in good standing mayvote. There is one vote per W3C Member company. Votes are held byemail to allow all participants a chance to vote; there is a twoweek voting period followed by a period of two working days forthe announcement of the result. W3C staff and invited experts donot vote; however in the event of a tie the chair has a castingvote. If the issue is solved by consensus during the votingperiod, the vote is cancelled.
Requirements for meeting attendance and timely response aredescribed in theW3C Process.Participation (meetings, reviewing and writing drafts) isexpected to consume time amounting 1 day per week for thelifetime of the group. Working group participants are requirednot to disclose information obtained during participation, untilthat information is publicly available.
W3C Members may also offer to review one or more workingdrafts from the group for clarity, consistency, technical merit,fitness for purpose and conformance with other W3Cspecifications. The only participation requirement is to providethe review comments by the agreed-to date.
As decided on a case by case basis, invited experts may attenda single meeting or a series; they may in some cases besubscribed to the Group mailing list. For the duration of theirparticipation, invited experts are encouraged to adopt the samerequirements for meeting attendance and timely response as arerequired of W3C Members.
Invited experts are subject to the same requirement forinformation disclosure as are required of W3C Members.
W3C team will ensure that the mailing lists and Group page areadequately maintained and that public Working Drafts are madeavailable on theTechnical Reports page. W3Cteam will arrange to take minutes at teleconferences and face toface meetings and post these to the Group mailing list and to theGroup page.
A W3C team member will provide liaison between non-teamdocument editors and the W3C team; including posting revisions ofWorking Drafts to the Group page.
W3C team are expected to adopt the same requirements formeeting attendance, timely response and information disclosure asare required of W3C Members.