Global-Participation-Management

From W3C Wiki

Background Information

For an international member organization like W3C, there is no need to address how important it is for its members to participate in the work. And we are fully aware that serious efforts are needed to improve the current participation situation. So a new Global Participation Management function was created in the 2016 W3C Internal Reorganization so that we can find out why the members are not participating and what we can do about it. By enhancing the member participation globally, we hope we could help each and every member to realize their value at W3C, and then build a truly global community that work together to lead the Web to its full potential.

A Team to Make Things Happen

The global participation management function needs staff based in Hosts and Office regions to set up direct connection with local members so as to enhance their participation. A plan to set up a Global Participation Management team was proposed to W3M and it was approved on Oct 12 2016. The current Global Participation Liaison team include the following staff:

  • Angel Li (Global Participation Management Lead)
  • Susan Westhaver (Americas and Australia Member Participation Manager)
  • Bernard Gidon (EMEA Member Participation Manager)
  • Naomi Yoshizawa (Japan and Korea Member Participation Manager)
  • Yan Wang (China Member Participation Manager)

W3C global Offices are encouraged to contribute to this function too. Currently, Spanish Office and Brazil Office have volunteered to joined.

The role of Member Participation Manager is to act as the connect point of the members of their region. They help members to get on board via welcome emails and orientation calls, respond to the members’ requests, provide resources that can help with member engagement, collect member feedbacks to concerns and interests, organize events for local members, provide input from stakeholders to Strategy Management and find means to overcome barriers of time zone, culture, and language.

What Do We Mean By Participation

An AB TF on Encouraging Participation explored this topic before.@@@

Challenges Identified for Global W3C Member Participation

  • Member does not know what to participate in W3C
  • Member has no resources/limited resources to participate
  • Member organizational structure does not support effective participation
  • Member AC rep not functioning
  • Member does not list participation as priority
  • Member has concerns on W3C Patent Policy
  • Participation information acquisition difficulty
  • Language barrier
  • Time zone issue
  • Working Environment in W3C groups
  • Culture

Best Practices Collected

Spanish Office's Efforts on Local Member Participation

There are 18 members affliated to Spanish Office. 1 Full Member and 4 startups.

  • Leading Person: Mr. Martin Alvarez-Espinar, Manager of W3C Spanish Office takes they kye role in member participation activities in Spain. He keeps direct contact with all the local members via phone and email.
  • Key Principal: Martin thinks the key point to help a member involved is to find what a member is interested in, e.g. some are interested being a W3C for the public image, some takes W3C as a source of knowledge, and some are interested in getting involved in the Web standards work;
  • Communication: Spanish members prefer a direct contact with the Spanish Office for better communication; Spanish Office sends 1:1 emails to local AC reps and key stakeholders to inform them about important W3C info; Martin the Office manager is always reachable on the phone; Martin checks on the local members periodically about their interests in new W3C standards work;
  • Offline Event: an annual F2F event is organized for members. Usually 1 or 2 new topics are selected for the event, e.g. Web Payment or WoT. W3C team staff, most of the time the ERCIM staff, are invited to give presentations on these member events. Sometimes local members are willing to help with logistics, which is a big relief. These member events are both for member retention and new member recruiting as well;
  • Online Event: online event are organized each quarter for Spanish members too. The online events, sometimes video events, are mainly offered to present the highlight, e.g. the launching of new groups or activities, change of Process Document; one online event will be organized after AC meeting and another after TPAC, to give a briefing of the event highlights;
  • Others: Spanish Office listens to the needs of local members, even some of their needs are commercial related. The Office will see how they can help in a more neutral way, since setting up good cooperation relationship is important to work with the members;

ERCIM Host's Efforts on Local Member Participation

  • Mr. Bernard Gidon is working closely with ERCIM members to participate as member retention efforts. Bernard helps ERCIM members to reach out to technical staff if there has not been direct contact between them yet.

Keio's Efforts on Local Member Participation

The entire Keio team spends considerable resources to help local member participate in W3C activities, especially organizing member events.

  • Member Event: Keio Host organizes Member Event twice a year, after AC and TPAC meetings. They , together with the member reps, present the summary of these major W3C member event for those who could not attend.
  • Exhibition Events: Keio team organize W3C session during noted ICT exhibition event in Japan, e.g. Interop and ORF;
  • C-Level Club: Keio tried the 1st C-Level Club in late 2016. About 30 members participated. This event helped the members, esp full members, who had difficulty in participating. Keio team leverage this event as a member retention efforts and plan to keep it once a year.
  • Member Party: Keio team organize a member party during AC meeting and TPAC week. Most of the Keio team will attend. They spend a relaxing evening with local member reps and catch up on the topics which fit for a more casual occasion.

Some Japanese members would like to be connected to Jun or Osamu. Keio team helps them to do the socializing.

Beihang Host's Efforts on Local Member Participation

  • Member Communication: Beihang Site uses W3C China Website, mailing lists, Wechat groups, Weibo as well as some other social channels to distribute W3C news to local member community. Beihang team keeps the W3C China Website synchronized with W3C global website in a very timely fashion. About 1 or 3 emails with W3C news items and local events will be sent to local member mailing list. An mailing list for AC reps is used to remind local AC reps about important notices such as Charter Call for Review. Local members use Wechat group more for discussing W3C work related topics as well as socializing. Local team review the info which should be send to local members on Site meeting each week.
  • Member events: Beihang Site organizes W3C member events 3 or 4 times each year, which includes the warmup meetings for AC and TPAC as well as an event with one focused topics, e.g. payment, WoT, Chinese layout, etc. The Warmup meetings are for fresh W3C event attendees to know about the background of the meetings, meeting tools like IRC and zakim, highlights of the agenda, etc;
  • Document Translation: Beihang team translates W3C news items, Press Releases, Highlight reports, Workshop reports, some W3C blogs with topics which Chinese members are interested;

Processes & Practices for Global Member Participation Management Team (For Discussion)

W3C team, as well as the member community are actually taking various efforts to help W3C members to participate. By collecting the best practices and developing a standard process, the Global Participation Management team aims to enhance W3C member engagement via in a more organized way. Though a global standard process is recommended, we highly value the localized practices and encourage the each Host and Office seek the most suitable ways to help the members in their region to participate.

Onboarding

New AC rep welcome & training

  • Welcome Email with orientation information. The welcome email should be sent once the membership of a new member gets activated and their AC rep account has been registered. The welcome email should include basic information about How-To-Be-An-AC-rep, upcoming events, etc.
    • A template for New AC rep welcome email

Dear Mr/Ms/Dr It is a pleasure to welcome you in your new role as @@@'s Advisory Committee Representative to W3C! W3C team appreciates the efforts that you and your organization invest to lead the Web to its full potential. Here we would like to provide some onboarding materials that might be helpful for a better understanding of the role of a W3C Advisory Committee Representative [1].

  • The New Member Orientation [2] explains how to subscribe or unsubscribe to Advisory Committee mailing lists, provides information about Advisory Committee Meetings, explains how to name a new Advisory Committee representative, and more;
  • Some advices are provided by the Advisory Committee itself [3] for the new representatives, including W3C events, different types of W3C groups, the involvement of legal assistance, etc., and there are more info on the AC-editable wiki with information for new AC Reps [4];
  • As stated in the W3C Process Document [5], Advisory Committee representatives must follow the conflict of interest policy [6] by disclosing information according to the mechanisms described in the New Member Orientation;
  • Also, some additional roles of Advisory Committee representatives are described in the W3C Patent Policy [7] ;
  • For more details of W3C Groups, please visit [8];

We look forward to working closely with you in W3C. Please do not hesitate to contact me at or anyone in the W3C team, should you have any questions or concerns. Also, we would be happy to schedule a telephone briefing with you if you think that could be useful.

Sincerely,

Heading text

ou have any questions or concerns. Also, we would be happy to schedule a telephone briefing with you if you think that could be useful.

Sincerely,

  • New AC rep training, upon request: a good collection of groups’ wisdom on how to participate in W3C groups is available, but the way too many information introduced on the guide page can be too much to handle for a fresh participant. A one hour phone call training for the new AC rep as well as the very likely group participants can be helpful for them to figure out their way into W3C in a more efficient manner. Suggested topics include organization intro, process, tooling, working environment in W3C, culture and some other W3C specific items.
  • New AC rep Introduction email to AC mailing list [current practice]
  • Group Participation toolkit/guide delivery via AC rep: arm the AC rep with info to help his/her organization employees to participate. A suggested way for the AC rep to convey the info is to forward this toolkit/guide email to the new group participants who just get approved by the AC rep. Or, it might be even friendlier and efficient if W3C system could send the toolkit/guide email automatically when a new participant joins a group.

Participation

Participation Enhancement

  • Guide documents development
  • Training: Chair/Editor Development, tooling training
  • Teleconf time-zone friendly status checking and possible changing
  • Handholding/welcome buddy in groups

Contribution Recognition

  • Annual thank you letter program for chairs, editors and other major contributors (maybe around new year): an E version of thank you letter signed by Jeff or Tim sent on Web birthday can be a plus to show W3C’s appreciation for their contribution
  • Technical contribution recognition badge for individual contributors: a W3C Recommendation Contributor page with individual names behind badges and the badges can be linked to their contribution, just like how the validator logos work. The contribution might need to be verified by team contacts and approved by functional team leads such as project lead.

W3C Event Engagement

  • Big Meeting WarmUp call: a regional warmup call in local language for registered event participants with no W3C big meeting experience, this should be organized one or two weeks before the event, suggested topics include meeting tools introduction, background briefing, highlights in the agenda, suggestions to agenda building, travel tips, werewolves guide, etc.
  • New AC rep Check: when a new AC reps shows on a W3C big meeting, he/she should be marked on the registration list. Onsite Global Participation Manager is encouraged to check on the new AC rep and offer help.
  • Language Support via irc or other channels

Local Member event As has proved to be a very effective way of communication and interaction with the members, organizing local member event is highly recommended for each Host and Office. Local language as the major communication language is recommended to include more local audience. See more Best Practices info about local member events.

  • Keio Host Member Event
  • Spanish Office Member Event
  • Beihang Host Member Event

Translations

Communication with related W3C teams

Set up communication mechanism with strategy management team, project management team, meeting planners and other related W3C teams.

With Strategy team

  • Provide input from members to Strategy Management
  • Collect the Next Year Plan from Strategy team and share with members in a timely manner, ideally before their budget making season. Information needed include priorities in W3C technical work, workshop plans.

With Project team

W3C Document Translation

Translation Strategy

See more of W3C Translation Strategy

Design Requirements for W3C Translation Database

See more of Design Requirements for W3C Translation Database

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