From carson@siggraph.org Tue Aug 12 20:15:15 1997 Received: from siggraph.cgrg.ohio-state.edu (siggraph.cgrg.ohio-state.edu [128.146.18.100]) by dkuug.dk (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id UAA00240 for ; Tue, 12 Aug 1997 20:15:13 +0200 Received: from study.huntleigh.com (carson@siggraph.org) by siggraph.cgrg.ohio-state.edu (8.8.5/941010.52) with SMTP id OAA26570 for ; Tue, 12 Aug 1997 14:15:03 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3.0.32.19970812121126.00a57f78@siggraph.cgrg.ohio-state.edu> X-Sender: carson@siggraph.cgrg.ohio-state.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 12:19:11 -0600 To: SC24@dkuug.dk From: Steve Carson Subject: HTML version of agreement Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Cooperative Agreement Between ISO/IEC JTC1 and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 N 1753r2

Cooperative Agreement Between ISO/IEC JTC1 and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Revision 2

Draft 4
21 July 1997

[Note: (to be removed in final version) This version is not for circulation, but for internal review within SC24 and the Graphics Group of W3C. It incorporates changes requested by Chris Lilley that arrived too late to be incorporated in Kista. It also incorporates changes resulting from discussion by W3C management.]

1 Introduction

The purpose of this document is to establish the detailed procedures whereby ISO/IEC JTC1 and the W3C will cooperate to continue the development of a series of ISO/IEC standards based on the work of the Consortium, including the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Specification. The general principles from which the details of this agreement are derived are:

a) The W3C produces "publicly available" industry specifications through an open, consensus based process with international participation by thousands of individuals and organizations.

b) ISO/IEC JTC1 wishes to adopt suitable industry specifications as ISO and IEC standards.

c) Both organizations desire to harmonize their procedures. Initial technical development work is done primarily in the Consortium with provisions for ISO participation. Once the technical work is stable and the editorial state is satisfactory - as indicated, for example, by the issuing of the work as a W3C Recommendation - final editorial and independent assessment technical work, eventually resulting in an International Standard, is done primarily in the ISO/IEC JTC1 with provisions for W3C participation.

d) Both organizations desire that W3C recommendations be adopted as ISO and IEC standards as quickly as is feasible and with only minimal changes based on an agreed set of criteria.

2 Distribution of final standards

All documents developed under this agreement, including the final ISO/IEC standards, will be made available through ISO/IEC sources and also through normal W3C sources, including the open W3C web site.

3 Document interchange

ISO/IEC documents developed under this agreement will be made available to the W3C and the W3C community by placing copies on the W3C Web site. Relevant W3C Documents on the W3C Web site will be referenced in the ISO/IEC activity. No documents will be referenced which are not generally available. Notification of availability of new documents on the W3C web site will be announced on an e-mail reflector limited to the appropriate ISO/IEC WG(s) and the W3C participants only.

4 Intellectual property rights

In accordance with W3C procedures, the text of all working documents developed under this agreement, as well as the final ISO/IEC standards, shall remain free of intellectual property right restrictions which would limit their open distribution following normal W3C practices. The name of the standards (including, for the PNG specification, the words "PNG" and "Portable Network Graphics") shall also remain free of intellectual property right restrictions. The W3C certifies to ISO/IEC that, to the best of its knowledge, the original base document (the W3C Recommendation: PNG (REC-png-961001)) is free of intellectual property right restrictions, and in particular, contains no material which any organization claims is proprietary or confidential or is the subject of any patent.

W3C grants to ISO and IEC the rights to use the text of the document "PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Specification, Version 1.0," dated 1 October 1996 (W3C Recommendation: PNG (REC-png-961001) as the base document for the development of the initial ISO/IEC standard to be done under this agreement. ISO and IEC agree that the resulting ISO/IEC International Standard shall contain a suitable copyright statement similar to the one in the base document indicating that the standard was derived from this W3C document.

5 Alignment of procedures

To allow coordinated review of all working documents developed under this agreement, appropriate portions of ISO and W3C procedures must be aligned. The various aspects of this alignment are described in the following subclauses.

5.1 Liaison

The ISO/IEC JTC1 Class C Liaison mechanism will be used as a primary mechanism to enable cooperation. ISO/IEC JTC1 has appointed the W3C as a Class C liaison organization to ISO/IEC JTC 1. This allows W3C members, W3C technical staff and W3C nominated experts to attend ISO/IEC working meetings and to participate in the work. The W3C will accept an ISO/IEC JTC 1 representative as a liaison to W3C so that liaison in the other direction can be achieved. This representative shall have the following responsibilities:

a) at the point that the W3C Director agrees that work should be passed to ISO/IEC JTC1 for further processing, forward documents to ISO/IEC JTC 1;

b) pass formal comments from ISO/IEC JTC1 to the W3C community;

c) report on the work of the W3C at each relevant ISO/IEC JTC 1 or JTC 1 subcommittee meeting;

d) in coordination with the W3C Director, provide early notification to ISO/IEC JTC1 of W3C work that is likely to eventually be submitted to ISO/IEC JTC1; and

e) coordinate ISO/IEC JTC1 participation in the W3C commenting and voting process that approves W3C Proposed Recommendations as W3C Recommendations.

5.2 Early collaboration

Both organizations desire that any W3C specifications that are input into ISO/IEC JTC1 be as close to meeting ISO/IEC style and quality requirements as possible. To help achieve this goal, ISO/IEC JTC1 agrees to produce a "Style Guide" and provide it as an aid to W3C Working Groups in the original creation of their specifications. As a general rule, submitted specifications shall have reached the status of W3C Recommendation by the time of their submission to ISO/IEC JTC1.

Participation in all W3C Working Groups is open to any W3C member that has signed a W3C Commitment Agreement for the work plus W3C technical staff and any technical experts nominated by the Chair of the Working Group. ISO/IEC JTC1 National Bodies are encouraged to participate in the technical work on PNG and other W3C technologies by participating in these Working Groups. Since the desire of both organizations is that technical changes not be made once work has been passed to ISO/IEC JTC1 for finalization, ISO/IEC JTC1 National Bodies will encourage their technical experts to participate in W3C Working Groups.

5.3 Initiation of ISO/IEC work

No work on W3C Recommendations shall start within ISO/IEC JTC1 until the W3C Director has agreed that the work will be forwarded to ISO for processing as an ISO/IEC Standard. This requirement shall not prevent individual experts who participate in the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 from simultaneously participating in the technical work of one or more W3C Working Groups. The criteria that shall be applied by the W3C Director with the assistance of the ISO/IEC liaison representative include:

a) the work is of sufficient interest and importance to the W3C community to become an ISO/IEC standard;

b) the work is complete as measured by the style guide;

c) the work is technically stable.

The preferred mechanism for initiating work within ISO/IEC JTC1 is the combined NP/CD (New Work Item Proposal/Committee Draft) ballot. One exception is work that can be processed as an additional part of an existing standard so that an NP is not required.

5.4 Late stage technical changes

It is expected that editorial changes may be made to the document, relative to the base Consortium specification, as it is processed to become an ISO/IEC standard.

Technical changes to a specification once ISO/IEC processing has been initiated shall be allowed only in accordance with the following criteria:

a) clarification is necessary for the sake of completeness or consistency;

b) a serious technical flaw is found that would render the specification unusable

When making such changes, issues of backwards compatibility with the installed base of Web software should be considered.

5.5 Finalization of ISO/IEC work

ISO/IEC JTC1 and the W3C agree to the following procedures for the processing work once it has entered ISO/IEC JTC1:

a) From the time of initiation of processing (normally the NP/CD ballot) through to the publication of the IS text, ISO/IEC JTC1 procedures shall be followed.

b) The W3C can participate in this stage of the work through the Category C liaison mechanism.

c) The ISO/IEC DIS text shall be published by the W3C for review within the Consortium according to Consortium practices simultaneously with the DIS ballot within ISO/IEC. This review will involve a full AC ballot, similar to that involved in moving a W3C Proposed Recommendation to a W3C Recommendation. If either the DIS ballot or the W3C ballot fails, the DIS text shall not become an ISO/IEC International Standard.

6 Joint meetings

All formal work under this agreement will take place at appropriately scheduled ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 meetings. W3C can participate in formal ISO through the Class C liaison mechanism.

7 Publication rights

Both W3C and ISO/IEC retain the rights to publish all documents developed under this agreement according to their own practices. In the event of successful balloting, the resulting International Standard will be published as a W3C Standard on the W3C Web site.

8 Base document

At the time that a W3C specification is submitted to ISO/IEC JTC1 for processing as an ISO/IEC standard, the W3C shall identify the base document(s) for the work.

To insure that users of both W3C Recommendations and ISO/IEC International Standards can readily ascertain changes introduced during ISO/IEC JTC1 processing, any standards developed under this agreement shall contain:

a) a link back to the original W3C Recommendation(s) from which it was derived; and

b) a complete list of technical changes from the W3C base document.

9 Availability of drafts and other working documents

All drafts and working documents will be freely available to participants according to each party's normal practices.

10. Maintenance of standards

Both organizations agree to coordinate matters of interpretation an defect correction in any ISO/IEC standards that result from this agreement. When requests for interpretation or reports of defects are submitted to ISO/IEC JTC1, they shall be forwarded to the W3C to provide solutions which shall then be processed through normal ISO/IEC JTC1 processes for defect resolution and interpretation.

ISO/IEC JTC1 agrees to establish Defects Editing Committees as needed to work with W3C .

Both organizations acknowledge that a registration authority will be required for items in the resulting ISO/IEC standard. W3C volunteers to serve as this registration authority and will submit its application to ISO once the New Work Item Proposal for this work has been approved.

Steve Carson, André Ducrot, Chris Lilley
HTML conversion by Chris