Compound Document Formats Group Charter

Mission

The mission of the W3C Compound Document Formats Working Group is to develop specifications which combine selected existing document formats from the W3C and elsewhere, and which specify the runtime behaviour of such combined documents.

The need for this group arises from the increasing demand for certain document formats that either mix by reference or by inclusion existing W3C formats. The primary short-term goal is to address the needs of the restricted capabilities of devices in the Mobile Computing space such as mass-market cellphones, where there is strong industry demand for delivering content that mixes XHTML, SMIL and SVG. As industry areas such as Interactive Television and Consumer Electronics develop the same requirements, it will become necessary to ensure that as many platforms as possible can use the same formats. The typical desktop Web browser is also an important potential target platform.

Scope

The scope of the Compound Document Formats Working Group covers the technologies related to combining existing documents formats, either by reference or by inclusion.

It is not within scope to create a new document format for an specific purpose, where the new format does not consist of a combination of existing W3C formats. For example, it is not within scope to create a markup language for text documents (where it overlaps with HTML), graphics (where it overlaps with SVG) or styling (where it overlaps with CSS).

As described above, it is within scope to create a new document format that combines existing W3C formats to address industry needs. It is also within scope to create new technologies that apply to the possible new complications that arise from combining formats. Furthermore, it is within scope to define solutions for accessing and manipulating the formats developed by this group, using a DOM API through both scripting and compiled programming languages.

Architectural Constraints

The architectural constraints on the work are:

• compatible with the principles of Architecture of the World Wide Web
• meet the needs of the user community and industry
• actively incorporates feedback from content developers and user community
• be widely implementable in browsers and authoring tools
• be as simple as possible in order to foster implementability and testability
• make appropriate use of other W3C specifications
• support programming compound documents and handle document events in both scripting and imperative languages

Technical Items

• Specifications for combining W3C technologies, such as SMIL, SVG and XML Events, with XHTML by reference.
• Specifications for combining W3C technologies, such as XHTML, XML Events, CSS, SVG, SMIL and XForms, into a single document by inclusion.

Testing

• Clear conformance criteria for any specifications.
• Development and publication of a comprehensive test suite for any of the group's deliverables.
• Publication of implementation reports associated with the test suites.

Tracking

• Collect errata and periodically publish new editions for any of the Group's Recommendations
• Gather requirements for subsequent versions of any of the Group's Recommendations

Success Criteria

• Production of stable documents addressing the work items.
• Availability of multiple, independent, interoperable implementations and authoring tools, including implementations for Mobile Computing and potentially Embedded Computing, Interactive TV and Desktop PCs.
• User community and Industry adoption of the group deliverables.
• Production of a comprehensive test suite for the deliverables.

Duration

The Working Group will run until 15 November 2007.

Deliverables

• A document listing use cases for compound documents.
• A document listing requirements for a document format that combines existing W3C Document Formats.
• A Recommendation or Recommendations for combining existing W3C Document Formats by reference.
• A Recommendation or Recommendations for combining existing W3C Document Formats by inclusion.
• Conformance test suites for the above deliverables.

Milestones

A tentative schedule of expected milestones is given below. All milestones are dependent on the outcome of the requirements and what the Working Group believes is the appropriate timeframe.

• October 2004 - Compound Document Formats WG starts
• November 2004 - Publication of use cases and requirements for future work. At this point the Working Group will begin making decisions on which formats should be included in future work.
• December 2004 - First drafts of "Combination by Reference" specifications.
• February 2005 - Last Call of "Combination by Reference" specifications.
• April 2005 - Candidate Recommendation of "Combination by Reference" specifications.
• April 2005 - Publication of "Combination by Reference" test suite.
• April 2005 - First drafts of "Combination by Inclusion" specifications.
• June 2005 - Proposed Recommendation of "Combination by Reference" specifications
• July 2005 - Recommendation of "Combination by Reference" specifications
• July 2005 - Last Call of "Combination by Inclusion" specifications
• August 2005 - Publication of "Combination by Inclusion" test suite.
• August 2005 - Candidate Recommendation of "Combination by Inclusion" specifications
• November 2005 - Proposed Recommendation of "Combination by Inclusion" specifications
• Post November 2005 - More specifications in "Combination by Inclusion", more Test Suite development, work on complications that have become apparent in existing work.

Dependencies

The Working Group has to work closely with other groups at W3C, especially those developing document formats:

Hypertext Coordination Group:

The Hypertext Coordination Group has the responsibility to ensure that all the W3C Working Group creating Document specifications review each other's work. The Compound Document Formats Working Group should be represented on the Hypertext Coordination Group.

W3C Groups developing document formats:

Including the HTML, CSS, SMIL, XForms, Voice and SVG Working Groups. Since the Compound Document Formats Working Group will produce technology based on the products of these Working Groups, it is essential that there is a close working relationship.

Device Independence Working Group:

Much of the scope of the Compound Document Formats Working Group is aimed towards non-desktop devices. A close collaboration with the DIWG is essential. Also, the DIWG are planning a deliverable Language Profile for Device Independence Version 1.0, which should be closely followed by this working group.

Multimodal Interaction Working Group:

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group faces many similar problems. A close collaboration with the MMI WG is needed.

Math Interest Group:

Many scientific and technical documents use MathML, and the community has an interest in compound document issues.

Multimodal Interaction Working Group:

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group faces many similar problems. A close collaboration with the MMI WG is needed.

QA Working Group:

A very strong focus of the Compound Document Formats Working Group is the development of a comprehensive test suite for conformance evaluation.

Internationalization Working Group:

The Working Group will cooperate with the I18N Working Group.

Web Accessibility Initiative:

The Working Group will cooperate with WAI to ensure that all work meets the W3C accessibility goals.

The following is a tentative list of external bodies the Working Group should collaborate with:

3GPP:

Some of the outputs of this Working Group are technologies that could be endorsed by 3GPP.

OMA:

Some of the outputs of this Working Group are technologies that could be endorsed by OMA.

JCP:

Some of the outputs of this Working Group are technologies that could be used in Java Community Process Expert Groups.

DVD Forum:

Some of the technologies developed here should be applicable to the DVD Forum, or other related industry bodies (such as BlueRay).

Communication

The Compound Document Formats Working Group shall communicate among its participants using the member-cdf-wg mailing list, which is archived.

The Compound Document Formats Working Group communicates with the public through the public-cdf-discuss mailing list. This list is open for public discussion and archived. The Working Group may send public summaries of the technical work to this list on a regular basis.

Confidentiality

The proceedings of this working group are Member-confidential.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.

Operation

The Working Group is expected to meet face to face approximately 4 times a year, and to have a 90 minute teleconference every week.

The first face to face meeting of this group will take place Nov 8-10 in Sophia Antipolis, France. Details on this meeting are available [W3C Members only].

Resources

Working Group participants are expected to contribute 20% of a Full-Time workload.

The W3C Team will contribute 50% of a Full-Time workload.

The proposed chair for this working Group is Vincent Hardy from Sun Microsystems.