[RTW] New proposed charter text. Please review before the BoF.

[David Singer]

Listening to the discussion this morning, I remain a little concerned that a couple of things are not clearly separated in the existing charter(s).

1) There is the framework of APIs, events, DOM, modular decomposition, module interfaces, and so on.
2) Instantiated within that framework, we need an initial (probably mandated) set of modules and capabilities.

(1) is not easily changed, and represents the interface between the IETF and the W3C, and there is only one of it. It enables the work to be split into modules.
(2) are instantiations of the modules, which are more easily changed, or added to, and they establish actual interoperability in this domain and with others.

If we make mistakes in (1), we live with them for ever, for the most part.


For example, questions of privacy and security should be covered by both, but especially (1).   But questions of interop are mostly (2). Will I be able to interop with most/all legacy systems?  Yes, if I am willing to supply enough modules (protocols, codecs, etc.).

I don't think we can design in this order (1 then 2);  the design of the architecture has to be informed by the modules we understand and know we need to instantiate.

But we do need to be clear whether a goal is an architectural goal or a goal for the initial modules.

David Singer
Multimedia and Software Standards, Apple Inc.