The discussions and debates on the w3c-xml-sig mailing list were
foundational to every XML related technology in use today.
It is now 15 years since the Special Interest Group was disbanded and
the archive closed. Isn't it time to release the archive to public
access? The historical importance should be obvious.
Here is the message that announced the end of the beginning. I think
everyone should now have the opportunity to see what went before.
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From: jon.bo...@eng.sun.com (Jon Bosak)
To: w3c-xml-...@w3.org
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 17:03:40 -0700
Subject: Declaring victory and going home
Message-Id: <199809020003.raa04...@boethius.eng.sun.com>
Resent-Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 20:05:22 -0400 (EDT)
Resent-Message-Id: <199809020005.uaa00...@www19.w3.org>
Resent-From: w3c-xml-...@w3.org
Two years ago we set out to bring SGML to the World Wide Web. Many
people thought this would be impossible; others, myself included,
thought it was a long shot at best. But we did it. We won. And now
it's time to move on.
Revolutions have a form of organization appropriate to their task.
When they succeed, the task changes, and the form of organization has
to change, too. In Montreal, just over a week ago, we reorganized the
XML activity in a way that that's more appropriate to the work that
lies ahead of us. The former XML Working Group has been divided into
five new working groups: one for schemas and data typing; one for
linking; one to define the XML information set; one for fragment
wrapping; and one to deal with the issues of subsetting and style
sheet linking.
In this new division of labor, the XML Working Group (formerly the
SGML ERB) and the XML SIG (formerly the SGML WG) have ceased to exist.
The work of the former XML WG will be carried on by the new XML
working groups under the direction of an XML Coordination Group made
up primarily of the WG chairs. The work of the former XML SIG will be
carried on in several different ways.
1. General discussion of XML and its underlying philosophy will
take place in the public mailing lists and news groups that have
been formed for this purpose.
2. Technical contributions to the work of the XML project in W3C
will be made through formal submissions from properly constituted
standards bodies and industry groups. This traditional liaison
mechanism is being adopted as part of a larger attempt to put the
XML development effort on a more regular basis conforming to
practices followed in industry and in the international standards
community. A formal input (a statement of requirements, for
example) from a properly constituted group is much more difficult
to accomplish than a mail message sent to a discussion list, but
it has vastly more impact on the shape of the resulting
specification. Random examples of the kind of groups from which
we will be accepting formal input include OASIS, ISO/IEC
JTC1/SC34, IETF, and CommerceNet. Former XML SIG members who are
not employees of W3C member organizations are strongly urged to
join an appropriate national or international standards body and
work through that organization to supply us with formal input.
The new XML working groups are committed to making requirements
publicly available for comment as part of this process.
3. Each of the new WGs has the option of forming an interest group
(IG) of its own. Former invited non-W3C members of the XML SIG
are not automatically guaranteed membership in these new IGs;
their participation is at the discretion of the chair of each WG.
The chairs and the current policies for IG formation in each WG
are listed below.
XML Schemas WG
Co-chairs: C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (cms...@uic.edu)
Dave Hollander (d...@hpsgml.fc.hp.com)
IG policy: TBD
XML Linking WG
Chair: Bill Smith (bill.sm...@sun.com)
IG policy: There will be a moderated IG
XML Information Set WG
Chair: David Megginson (da...@megginson.com)
IG policy: The xml-dev list will be used for the discussion
of particular issues
XML Fragments WG
Chair: Paul Grosso (p...@arbortext.com)
IG policy: Will be formed only if there is strong interest
Canonical XML WG (temporary name)
Chair: Joel Nava (jn...@adobe.com)
IG policy: Will be formed only if there is strong interest
I would like to express my personal gratitude to everyone who has
contributed to this activity over the last two years. Without the
dedicated participation of the members of the XML SIG, XML would not
exist. As a result of your efforts, the world is a different place.
Thank you.
Jon Bosak
Founder and former Chair of the XML SIG
Los Altos, California
September 1, 1998
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