This charter is written in accordance with
section 3.2.3 of the
W3C Process.
Table of Contents
The Device Independence Working Group (WG) is a Working Group as defined by the W3C Process. The purpose of
this WG is to collect the
requirements on Web access with various kinds of devices, study the domain
specific issues, find the commonality among the issues, review related
specifications within and outside of W3C, and provide the study results and
requirements to related activities.
Although there are several suggested topics led by
discussions at the W3C Workshop on
"Web Device Independent Authoring" in October 2000, the WG will focus on
the following topics as first work items of the WG.
- To discuss, collect and describe requirements on Web
access with various kinds of devices including cellular phones, PDAs, car navigation, TV
sets, printers etc.
- To review Web related specifications for mobile, TV
and other devices made outside of W3C.
This review will include:
- studying the domain specific issues, find the commonality among the
issues
- studying the commonality and difference between W3C and external
specifications
- studying the possibility of transformation among W3C and external specifications
- To review W3C work with device independence issues in mind. This is
done at the requirements stage for new work and in particular during Last
Call.
- To provide the study results and requirements to related activities in
W3C.
- To explore how the diverse needs of content
providers and consumers for delivery of content across many platforms can
be met through the use of appropriate standards, notations, tools and
guidelines.
NOTE: If the DI WG discovers
compatibility issues with standards or recommendations from other bodies with
which there is an ongoing liaison activity, these issues will be put on the
agenda of the group in charge of the liaison to find the appropriate
solution.
NOTE: The DI WG does not produce
W3C Recommendations; it does produce guidelines (as Working drafts and Notes)
and reviews. Input and comments on these documents will be solicited from the
organizations in charge of the standards in question. This will be done
through the coordination channels when they exist.
One of the main criterion of success for Device Independence WG is to
avoid fragmentation of the Web space accessible with various kinds of
devices, and make sure that the Web related technologies with various kinds
of devices can interoperate with each other or with the existing Web as much
as possible.
The other main criterion of success for Device Independence WG is that W3C
Recommendations released during the operation of the WG do not contain
barriers to Device Independent Web access, and that they enable and promote
Web access with various kinds of devices.
New:
The duration of the Device Independent Working Group is
extended with approval from the W3C Director to 31 May 2002. This will allow
the working group to work on the future new charter of the
group.
The Device Independence Working Group is initially chartered for one year,
from February 2001 to the end of February 2002, but clearly, the topic is a
long term one. Therefore, after one year we will evaluate the achievements,
and depending on the results we could propose to recharter the group.
The Group will have to maintain contacts with many other Groups within
W3C as listed below.
In addition, W3C considers
proposing a new Multimodal Dialogs activity soon. In such a proposal, the
relationship with the Device Independence Activity will be explained and the
synergies will be highlighted.
- Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI):
- To make contents accessible with various kinds of devices, the Device
Independence WG will coordinate with the relevant WAI groups, in
particular with the Protocols
and Formats WG, Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines WG , User Agent Accessibility
Guidelines WG, and Authoring Tools Guidelines WG on
the following points:
- Procedural coordination: Both the Device Independence WG and WAI
are reviewing W3C specifications.
- Technical coordination: There are parallels between device
independence and the principle of universal access at the base of
the WAI work. Common issues resulting from such parallels will be
coordinated.
- Cross review mechanisms.
- Internationalization (I18N) IG/WG:
- The Device Independence WG
has to take into consideration the requirements on internationalization.
- Procedural coordination: Both the Device Independence WG and
Internationalization IG/WG are reviewing W3C specifications.
- Cross review mechanisms.
- Television and the Web IG:
- The TV community shares many technical interests and requirements on
device independent Web access, and describing device profiles. The
Television and the Web IG is expected to take the role of collecting
the requirements on device independence from the TV community.
- Mobile Access IG:
- The mobile community shares many technical interests and requirements
on device independent Web access, and describing device profiles. The
Mobile Access IG is expected to take the role of collecting the
requirements on device independence from the mobile community.
- CC/PP WG:
- This Working Group is making specifications for describing device
capabilities and user preferences based on RDF. Device Independence
WG should look at the work of
this WG.
- Voice Browser WG:
- Voice browsing is an interesting approach with non-PC devices such as
mobile terminals. Recently, multimodal Web access is being discussed in
the WG which is an important feature for Web access with mobile
terminals for instance. Device Independence WG should look at the work of this
WG.
- HTML WG:
- Device Independence WG has
to watch XHTML WG trends
carefully for modularization/profiling technologies especially the work
for constructing lightweight profile namely XHTML Basic, and maintain
close contact with the HTML WG.
- CSS WG:
- Style sheets are very important to realize both scalability and
interoperability with various kinds of devices. Device Independence
WG has to watch CSS WG
especially for modularization/profiling technologies (e.g. CSS3),
and maintain close contact with the CSS WG.
- Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM) WG:
- The bandwidth of the network is expected to be wide enough for
multimedia contents/services with small appliances such as mobile
terminals. Device Independence WG has to watch SYMM WG trends
carefully for modularization/profiling technologies especially the work
for constructing lightweight profile namely
SMIL Basic Profile, and maintain close contact with the SYMM WG.
- P3P Specification and Policy Outreach WG:
- With the growth of the Web to include mobile access and service
options, it is now necessary to develop a consistent approach to
privacy protection that enables both users and service providers to
build trust and confidence in user relationships throughout both the
wired and wireless Web. Device Independence WG has to watch P3P
Specification WG and P3P Policy Outreach WG; and
maintain close contact with the
WGs. The Mobile Web Privacy workshop may well
give a more concrete direction here.
- Hypertext CG:
- The Hypertext CG is the
forum to address the issues that concern several working groups in the
Hypertext area, which will strongly related to the Device Independence
issues. The Device Independence WG will need to send someone to take
part in the Hypertext CG.
The Device Independence WG will produce deliverables,
in the form of Working Draft, Notes, internal
reviews, or inputs/requirements to other Working Groups. Expected
deliverables are as follows:
- Requirement document on device independent Web access for related W3C
Working Groups.
The WG will initiate requirements and proposals to other WGs and to W3C
work in general. The requirements of the WG will be made available in
document taking the form of a W3C Working Draft or
Note, and where necessary should be further discussed with the
appropriate group in order to find a satisfactory solution. Particularly, if the WG plans to have intermediate
versions for review by the community, we publish them in the form of W3C
Working Drafts.
- Publication as a W3C Working
Draft(June 2001).
- The W3C Working Draft or Note may be maintained and revised
according to new inputs.
- Documentation of review results on Web related specifications produced
by external bodies in the area of mobile, TV and other devices, including
comparison sheets between W3C specifications and other specifications.
The purpose of the comparison is to study how those Web related
specifications could fit into the modularization/profiling technologies
in the works being done by W3C. The document may also include reports on
issues for transformation or content adaptation with those Web related
specifications.
- Publication as an internal review document for W3C Members
only(September 2001).
- Publication as a W3C Working Draft or
Note(December 2001).
- The review document will be made available for W3C Members only in
the first place, and will be open to the general public as a W3C Working Draft or Note afterwards. Before
the general publication, the relevant external bodies will be
contacted to discuss the results.
- The WG will review external specifications at appropriate times,
for example when an external body asks for review of its
specifications or publishes specifications of interest to W3C.
- Documentation of review results on W3C work with device independence
issues.
The WG will review the work on W3C specifications at appropriate times,
for example when other groups ask for requirements or publish working
drafts or requirements document. The findings of the WG can be summarized
in documents taking the form of a W3C Working Draft or Note or in an
email, and where necessary should be further discussed with the
appropriate group in order to find a satisfactory solution.
Specifications and groups will be covered as far as the resources of the
WG allow it; details are given in the section describing coordination
with other groups. Schedules and deadlines must be negotiated with those
groups.
- This will be done through the lifetime of the WG.
- The publication dates of the documents will be decided by the WG
after consideration of the progress of other groups. Then a calendar
will be posted on the Group page.
The discussion archives will be open to W3C Members. This charter itself
is open to the public.
The following is a list of groups that are known or presumed to be working
on or interested in integration of Web technologies into various kinds of
devices, including pointers to the respective projects. It will be amended as
appropriate.
The coordination mechanisms with the external groups would vary according
to the nature of those external groups respectively. Cross membership would
be one of the ways to achieve cooperation if both W3C and the external group
can agree on the cross membership. The other way of the coordination would be
to have invited experts from related external groups (Please see at "the W3C
invited experts and collaborators agreement".)
- IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force)
- IETF is a
large open international community of network designers, operators,
vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to
any interested individual.
- WAP Forum (Wireless
Application Protocol Forum)
- WAP Forum is
a mobile industry forum that is making specifications and cooperates
with W3C.
- ATSC (Advanced Television Systems
Committee), USA
- Broadcast HTML: a proposal of a subset of HTML, CSS and SMIL
discussed in the Special Group DTV Application Software Environment
(DASE)
- ARIB
(Association of Radio Industries and Businesses), Japan
- BML: a subset of XHTML, CSS with extensions for Japanese Digital
broadcast services.
- ATVEF (Advanced Television
Enhancement Forum), USA
- Advanced Television Enhancement Forum
Specification: a proposal to subset a number of W3C/IETF standards
to create enhanced, interactive television programs.
- CEMA (Computer and Electronics
Marketing Association), USA
- published a specification on how to send URLs over Line21 VBI
- DVB (Digital Video Broadcast),
Europe
- Multimedia Home Platform: An effort to standardize on APIs, content
formats etc. to be used by digital set-top boxes.
- EBU (European
Broadcasting Union)
- Webcaster group
- ISO
MPEG-4
- ISO
MPEG-7
- ISO MPEG-21
- A project in its initial phase for adding metadata to audiovisual
content. RDF could become relevant in this area.
- Television anytime
- Organization whose goal is " to
encourage the development of TV and related multimedia services based
on the use of persistent local storage irrespective of the manner of
service delivery".
New: a
new milestone proposed for the 3 month extension : setting up a new charter
with identified work items
These are proposed milestones of this Working Group. Additional milestones
may be added when the group decides to take on additional work items.
The publication dates of the documents of review results on W3C work with
device independence issues will be decided by the WG after consideration of
the progress of other groups. Then a calendar will be posted on the Group
page.
- February, 2001
- Working group kick-off meeting (tentative location: Boston/US)
- June, 2001
- 2nd face-to-face meeting
- W3C Working Draft or Note for requirements on Web access with various
kinds of devices
- September, 2001
- 3rd face-to-face meeting
- review results on Web related specifications produced by external
bodies
- December, 2001
- W3C Working Draft for review results on Web related specifications
produced by external bodies
- from December 2001 to February, 2002
- During this periods, both W3C documents will be maintained and
updated when needed
- 27 February, 2002 (New)
- Working Group Extension
- 15 April, 2002 (New)
- Publication of the future DIWG charter to AC
representatives
- 15 May, 2002 (New)
- Response to comments
- 31 May, 2002 (New)
- Working Group Completion
Face-to-face meetings are one day or two day sessions held three times
during the period of the WG.
Teleconferences are scheduled once per two weeks. To advance the global
perspective of the Consortium, face-to-face meetings will be held on at least
two separate continents during the year of the Working Group activity.
Teleconferences will be scheduled with attention to the time zones in which
all WG Members work.
The participants of the Device Independence WG communicate via an archived mailing list,
w3c-di-wg@w3.org.
When voting is necessary, it shall proceed per W3C Process.
New: From March 1, 2002, the chair
of the group is Roger Gimson (HP), and the W3C team contact of this group is
Stephane Boyera. Kazuhiro Kitagawa is the alternate staff contact, and Device
Independent Activity Lead
The Chair of this Group is Hidetaka Ohto, and the W3C Team contact of this Group is
Kazuhiro Kitagawa
W3C Members
Requirements for meeting attendance and
timely response are described in the W3C Process document. Device
Independence WG participation (attending meetings, reviewing documents and
preparing drafts) is expected to consume one day per week.
For invited experts
Interested individuals, and adaptive technology experts will be sought and
welcomed as W3C invited experts to give the Working Group access to the kinds
of knowledge required. Especially, the participation from related
standard bodies is strongly encouraged. Invited experts are encouraged
to adopt the same requirements for meeting attendance and timely response as
are required of W3C Members. Invited experts are subject to the same
requirement for information disclosure as are required of W3C Members and
they have to agree to the W3C
invited experts and collaborators agreement.