W3C | TAG | Previous teleconference: 11 June 2009 | Next teleconference: 16th July 2009 (tentative).

TAG face-to-face meeting, 23-25 June 2009 — MIT Stata Center, Cambridge, MA, USA

Noah Mendelsohn, Jonathan Rees, Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly, Henry Thompson, Larry Masinter, Ashok Malhotra, John Kemp

Agenda Summary

Logistics

Agenda Details

1. Convene

   Goals:

   • Appoint scribes
   • Review F2F logistics
   • Approve minutes of telconferences
     • 11 June 2008
2. Review F2F Goals and Agenda

   Session shepherd:

   Noah Mendelsohn

   Session goals:

   • Review F2F Goals
     • Establish more clearly TAG priorities for coming year
     • Set goals and decide next steps for ISSUE-60 (WebApplicationState-60) and for working draft Usage Patterns For Client-Side URI parameters
     • Decide whether further TAG work on extensibility and versioning will be cost effective, and in particular whether it will likely have positive impact on the development of HTML 5.
     • Decide whether the TAG should be working more actively in areas relating to use of the Web with "mobile" devices.
     • Decide whether the TAG should begin consideration of architectural issues relating to W3C standardization of APIs used for Web Application development.
     • Make progress on other open TAG issues (e.g. metadata, use of URI schemes, security, etc.)
   • Review F2F Agenda (this document)

   Preparation:

   • Whiteboard summary of proposed TAG priorities from March 2009 TAG F2F.
   • TAG F2F Priorities email from Noah
3. W3C Work on Web APIs

   Session shepherds:

   Ashok Malhotra, John Kemp

   Background:

   Traditionally, most of the W3C's Recommendations have focused on data formats such as HTML, identification mechanisms such as URI's, etc. With the rise of AJAX, JavaScript and similar APIs have become an increasingly important aspect of content and application development for the Web, and W3C is considering at least one proposal to charter work on the standardization of such APIs.

   The TAG has also had some informal discussionts (see thread starting with email from Thomas Roessler) of Geolocation APIs and the Geopriv work.

   Session goals:

   • Discuss technical and architectural issues relating to Web APIs.
   • Decide:
     • Whether there are technical issues relating to APIs that merit ongoing consideration by the TAG
     • Decide whether the TAG should play a role in helping the W3C to decide whether to undertake work in this area, and/or how to structure charters for such work
     • Consider privacy and security issues relating to Javascript APIs that give access to the user's location.

   Preparation:

   • W3C and APIs from Larry Masinter and Ashok Malhotra (announcement email)
   • Email geolocation update from Thomas Roessler.
   • (optional - late addition) Proposed HTML 5 2D graphics context for use with the canvas element
4. Language Versioning and HTML

   Session shepherds:

   Jonathan Rees, Larry Masinter

   Background:

   The TAG has for years studied the means used to evolve document and programming languages, and techniques for maximizing interoperability as languages evolve. We have also considered the structure and evolution of HTML in particular, including the tradeoffs between "tag soup" and XHTML views of robustness and error handling. This session is scheduled because some TAG members have recently proposed that we may be able to apply our analyses of language versioning to HTML in particular.

   TAG Issues relating to this discussion:

   • ISSUE-20 (errorHandling-20) What should specifications say about error handling? — shepherd: Henry Thompson
   • ISSUE-33 (mixedUIXMLNamespace-33) Composability for user interface-oriented XML namespaces — no shepherd
   • ISSUE-41 (LanguageVersioning-41) What are good practices for designing extensible languages and for handling versioning? — shepherd: Larry Masinter
   • ISSUE-54 (TagSoupIntegration-54) Tag soup integration — shepherd: Henry Thompson

   Session goals (both sessions):

   • Decide whether further work on versioning by the TAG is likely to have a constructive effect on HTML in particular
   • Consider, as a framework, the draft prepared by Larry Masinter and Jonathan Rees
   • Decide which issue(s) we will use to track this work, and ensure that shepherds have been identified.

   Preparation:

   • Architectural Considerations for Language Versioning for the Web (Note from Larry Masinter and Jonathan Rees)
5. ISSUE-60: Web Application State Management

   Session shepherd:

   T.V. Raman

   Background:

   • The TAG has recently issued a First Public Working Draft titled Usage Patterns For Client-Side URI parameters

   Session goals:

   • Make plans for further work on Client Side URI parameters
   • Plan next draft of Usage Patterns For Client-Side URI parameters

   Preparation:

   • First Public Working Draft of Usage Patterns For Client-Side URI parameters
6. JavaScript Security

   Session shepherd:

   Jonathan Rees

   Background:

   • The TAG recently discussed JavaScript technologies such as Caja, which apply capability-based sandboxing techniques to JavaScript. The goal is to support the "safe" execution of untrusted JavaScript code in a Web page.
   • The chair does not believe that we currently have an open issue that would provide for continued work in this area.
   • ACTION-274: See if I can reconstruct a discussion with tlr where present course and speed will lead to GET-based links becoming regarded as unsafe - on Dan Connolly. This is marked PENDING REVIEW, and it appears that no followup on unsafe GET is planned.

   Session goals:

   • Clarify significant use cases for safe execution of untrusted code in Web pages (I.e. remind ourselves why we care).
   • Further educate the TAG regarding technical work and standardization efforts relating to safe execution of untrusted code in Web pages.
   • Decide whether the TAG has a continued interest in working in this area, and if so, with what goals.
   • Open an issue and assign a shepherd, if appropriate.

   Preparation:

   • Resource protection (Jonathan's F2F preparation notes)
   • Paragraph on "Chattiness" in Mark Nottingham's review of CORS
   • Origin isn't (Tyler Close blog post)
   • Re: The HTTP Origin Header (draft-abarth-origin) (Roy Fielding email)
   • (optional, longish) ACLs don't (paper by Tyler Close)
   • (optional, long) Cross-origin resource sharing W3C working draft
7. Mobile Web

   Session shepherd:

   John Kemp

   Background:

   • John Kemp has offered to give us an overview of important issue relating to the Mobile Web, based on his 10 years of experience working in that area.

   Goals:

   • Get better informed about the Mobile Web, related architectural challenges
   • Decide whether the TAG wants to undertake work relating specifically to the Mobile Web. If so, open issues, assign shepherds, and agree on next steps as appropriate.

   Preparation:

   • Mobile Phones, the good, the bad and the ugly
8. Metadata Access and Formats

   Session shepherds:

   Ashok Malhotra (metadata access), Jonathan Rees (metadata formats and ontologies)

   TAG Issues relating to this discussion:

   • ISSUE-57 (HttpRedirections-57) The use of HTTP Redirection — shepherd: Jonathan Rees
   • ISSUE-62 (UniformAccessToMetadata-62) — shepherd: Ashok Malhotra (this issue was "split" from issue-57 at the March 2009 TAG F2F meeting.)
   • ISSUE-63 (MetadataFramework-63) Metadata on the web: representations and ontologies? — shepherd: Larry Masinter (ACTION-254 calls for Larry to announce creation of this issue on www-tag.)
   • ISSUE-54 (TagSoupIntegration-54) Tag soup integration — shepherd: Henry Thompson

   Background:

   • As noted above, we discussed metadata access and formats at the March 2009 TAG F2F meeting, and we now have 3 issues open, but it's not clear that we are making good progress.
   • Some TAG members have informed the chair that this area is of interest to them.

   Goals:

   • Take stock of where we are on all of the above, and see what if anything we actually want to do.

   Preparation (Metadata access):

   • Jonathan Rees e-mail discussing LRDD

   It has been suggested (member-only) that the TAG review but not not necessarily take any action on the following drafts:

   • http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hammer-discovery-03
   • http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nottingham-site-meta-01
   • http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nottingham-http-link-header-05

   Preparation (Metadata formats):

   • Email from Ashok (member only) outlining perceived interests and concerns of various TAG members. Response from Raman. (The chair suggests that copies of this correspondence be moved to the TAG's public www-tag@w3.org archive.)
9. Naming Schemes

   Session shepherd:

   Henry Thompson

   TAG Issues relating to this discussion:

   • ISSUE-50 (URNsAndRegistries-50): URIs, URNs, "location independent" naming systems and associated registries for naming on the Web - shepherd: Henry Thompson
   • May also be related to ISSUE-49 (schemeProtocols-49): Relationship of URI schemes to protocols and operations - no shepherd assigned

   Goals:

   • Make sure we are agreed on target audience, success criteria, etc. for this work.
   • Review the new Dirk and Nadia draft
   • Consider whether this work should be better coordinated with, e.g., ISSUE-49.
   • Decide on next steps.

   Preparation:

   • June 2009 draft of Dirk and Nadia design a naming scheme (the new draft is promised within the next few days — this agenda will be updated with a pointer to the new copy when available)
   • John Kemp email (member-only) pointing to Widget URIs Editor's Draft
   • (optional) Widgets 1.0: URI Scheme W3C First Public Working Draft 18 June 2009
10. HTTP Semantics (AWWSW)

    Session shepherd:

    Jonathan Rees

    Background:

    • Jonathan Rees has been participating in the regular teleconferences of a group attempting to more formally relate HTTP to RDF (email archives). This work was started, at least informally, under the auspices of the TAG.
    • Recently, discussions have focused on (a) clarifying and relating conflicting notions of "information resource" and (b) considering what HTTP interactions say about resources independent of httpRange-14. Some questions have arisen, and the TAG's input may be helpful in resolving them.

    Goals:

    • Send agreed TAG comments on the HTTPbis section on 303 responses (see email from Henry suggesting we do this).
    • Hear a summary from Jonathan of progress that's been made, and questions that have arisen.
    • Provide guidance on use cases and goals of an HTTP ontology.
    • Review the nature of the TAG's relationship to AWWSW, and adjust it if needed.
    • Review Jonathan's review of HTTPbis's treatment of GET+303.
    • Determine next steps for ISSUE-57.

    Preparation:

    • AWWSW status report
    • Summary of current state of HttpRedirections-57
    • Comments on proposed GET+303 text in HTTPbis
11. TAG Priorities

    Session shepherd:

    Noah Mendelsohn

    Background:

    • Discussion of TAG priorities at the March 2009 TAG F2F (see minutes of all days, as there were several sessions, and also several lists of potential work areas.)
    • Summary of potential priority work areas gathered on flip charts at the end of the March F2F
    • Emails from the chair:
      • summary of materials relating to TAG priorities
      • request that the next round of discussions of goals and priorities be done using email (response from Tim).
12. Web Architecture for Applications

    Background:

    At the F2F session on June 23, 2009, the TAG decided to consider the possibility of a significant enhancement to the Web Architecture document, to focus on the Web as an application platform. This might be in the form of revisions to the existing Web arch document and/or become a second volume.

    A rough outline of a table of contents has been written on a white board:

    • Declarative vs. procedural
    • APIs
    • Modules and dependencies
    • Security - trust boundaries
    • Privacy (including cross-site issues)
    • Client-side URIs
13. TAG Administration

    Goals:

    • Discuss summer telconference schedule
    • Discuss dates for future F2F meetings
    • Consider TAG plans for particiation in the November W3C Technical Plenary and AC Meeting (TPAC)
    • Discuss summer teleconference scheduling

    Background:

    • Tabulation of TAG member responses on summer availability (member-only).
14. Unscheduled items

    No specific discussion time is allocated to the following, but we may choose to discuss these in some of the free time slots.

    • ACTION-265 Work with Larry, Henry to frame technical issues relating to the vairous overlapping specs. about URIs, IRIs and encoding on the wire - on Dan Connolly - Due 19 June 2009
    • ACTION-264 Draft agenda item for upcoming telcon discussion of geolocation and privacy - on Ashok Malhotra - Due 3 June 2009
    • Sniffing - see actions 257 (Noah) & 264 (Larry)