[Odrl-version2] ODRL-related post at W3C; time-frame of HTML 5

[Steven Rowat]

Greetings,

Today a short essay of mine has appeared on the W3C TAG (Technical 
Architecture Group) mailing list, and I believe it could be of 
interest to many ODRL WG members for several reasons; it concludes 
with a recommendation that ODRL, or a language like it, be 
incorporated into the current HTML 5 proposal.

"HTML 5's proposed basis in DOM/JS skews web control and monetization 
towards corporations and away from individual authors/researchers, to 
the detriment of society."
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2009Sep/0028.html

As far as I know, the TAG is the proper place to host a discussion 
about corporate versus individual empowerment in HTML 5 (and whether a 
language like ODRL should be embedded directly into HTML 5 or at least 
specifically designed to link to it), so I am hopeful that those in 
the ODRL community with more knowledge both of ODRL and of browser 
architecture than I have will follow any discussions there, because 
results of these discussions conceivably could have wide-reaching effects.

The essay also makes reference this bug report I filed for HTML 5, 
which appeared recently on the public-html mailing list, and which may 
also be of interest:

""HTML 5" Editor's draft misnamed and suboptimal for HTML content 
authors unless refactored into HTML (main) and DOM API (appendix)."
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=7546


The publication of the HTML 5 proposal has been recommended to occur 
as Last Call this October; in a month or so. It appears to be far from 
being a consensus document at this point, however. I suggest that this 
might be a key time for those from outside the W3C to make comments, 
although following Last Call there will be several more weeks at 
least, during which time external comments are especially encouraged.

Here is the full list of public W3C mailing lists:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/

There are several of those where I feel comments relevant to the above 
issues might be fielded, including the
TAG - www-tag at w3.org
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/latest

HTML Working Group - public-html at w3.org
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/
[This is also where W3C bugzilla reports appear, if HTML is chosen as 
the subject. These can be filed from:
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/
They can be used both for technical issues and for more abstract 
philosophical needs/issues.]

And many lists related to aspects of the Semantic Web (e.g., RDFa) are 
also listed on the main W3C page given above; the Semantic Web 
Activity main page is:
http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/



Best wishes,

Steven Rowat