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document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary;
resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG;
help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.
The TAG consists of inventor of the Web and W3C directorSir Tim Berners-Lee, engineers elected by W3C member organizations, as well as participants directly appointed byTim Berners-Lee.
Today, the TAG's primary responsibilities are two-fold:
to conductspecification reviews ("design reviews") of newWeb platform features,[5] to ensure API design consistency, and respect for web users' security and privacy
to document the design principles of the Web platform, which is done in theWeb Platform Design Principles document,[6] theEthical Web Principles document[7] as well as various separate "Findings" documents.[8] Notable past publications includeArchitecture of the World Wide Web, volume one (2004)[9][10]
While the TAG is a W3C working group, design reviews are not limited to W3C specifications. The TAG is often asked to reviewTC39,[14]WHATWG,[15] orIETF[16] specifications as well.
Despite some participants having a corporate affiliation, when participating in TAG meetings they are expected to act in their personal capacity to find the best solutions for the Web, not just for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user.[4]
During its first decade, the TAG had a very different role and responsibilities than what it does today.
The primary focus of the first three years of the TAG was on documenting in a clear and easily understood manner the architectural foundations of the Web. The result was published at the end of 2004 as Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One.[10] It is written in a relatively informal style, with illustrations, and many of its conclusions are expressed in succinct 'principles', 'constraints' and 'good practice notes', such as:
Principle: Global Identifiers Global naming leads to global network effects.
Good practice: Identify with URIs To benefit from and increase the value of the World Wide Web, agents should provide URIs as identifiers for resources.
Constraint: URIs Identify a Single Resource Assign distinct URIs to distinct resources.
After this publication and until 2012, the work of the TAG primarily resulted in publishing Findings documents, centered around XML, RDF, and URIs.[27]
In 2012, four prominent web developers felt that the TAG had become disconnected from the realities and pain points of web developers.[28] Led by Alex Russell, they dubbed themselves "the reformers" and participated in the 2012 TAG election for four vacant seats.[29][30][31][32] All of them got elected.[33] It was only after this reform that design reviews of new specifications became a significant part of the TAG's work and the process for requesting a design review moved toGitHub and became streamlined.[5]
In February 2019, Google requested a TAG design review of their First Party Sets proposal[34] as required per their shipping policy.[11] The proposal was rejected by the TAG in 2021.[35] The group's review concluded that "the First Party Sets proposal harmful to the web in its current form".[36][37] This resulted in Google updating its timeline for removing third-party cookies and postponing it to 2023.[38]
This follows earlier public statements by the TAG about prioritizing user security and privacy when conducting design reviews.[39]
