[whatwg] W3C restarts HTML effort

[Ian Hickson]

The W3C today publicly announced that they are restarting an HTML 
specification effort.

   http://www.w3.org/2007/03/html-pressrelease

This is great news and a clear validation of the WHATWG effort, which has 
been leading the maintenance and development of HTML since 2004. I'd like 
to congratulate everyone who has been involved in the WHATWG work, this 
really confirms that we have been doing good work.

Surprisingly, the W3C never actually contacted the WHATWG during the 
chartering process. However, the WHATWG model has clearly had some 
influence on the creation of this group, and the charter says that the W3C 
will try to "actively pursue convergence with WHATWG":

   http://www.w3.org/2007/03/HTML-WG-charter.html#conformance

Hopefully they will get in contact soon. In the meantime, apparently 
anyone can actually join the W3C effort.

   http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/40318/instructions

The instructions to join the group are as follows:

1. Fill in the Public Access Request Form; in the "Reason" field, put: "To 
apply for participation in the HTML Working Group as an Invited Expert."

   http://cgi.w3.org/MemberAccess/Public

2. When you get a reply back, you should have a username and password. 
Fill in the W3C Invited Expert Application form.

   http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/1/ieapp/

3. E-mail Dan Connolly and Karl Dubost (connolly at w3.org, karl at w3.org) 
asking for approval.

4. When you get a reply back, fill in the Joining the HTML Working Group 
form.

   http://www.w3.org/2004/01/pp-impl/40318/join

I would encourage everyone interested in working with the HTML working 
group to go through these steps as soon as possible, so that you will be a 
member of the group before the work starts.

I have also posted a WHATWG blog entry with this information:

   http://blog.whatwg.org/w3c-restarts-html-effort

Cheers,
-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'