Subject: HTML version of agreement

From: Steve Carson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 12:19:11 -0600

<!doctype html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML Experimental 970421//EN">
<html><head><title>Cooperative Agreement Between ISO/IEC JTC1 and the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)</title></head>

<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<h2 align="right">ISO/IEC JTC1/SC24 N 1753r2</h2>

<h1 align="center">Cooperative Agreement Between ISO/IEC JTC1 and the World
Wide Web
Consortium (W3C)</h1>
<h2 align="center">Revision 2</h2>

<h3>Draft 4<br>
21 July 1997</h3>

<blockquote>[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.]</blockquote>
<hr>

<h2>1 Introduction</h2>

<p>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:

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

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

<p>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.

<p>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.

<h2>2 Distribution of final standards</h2>

<p>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.

<h2>3 Document interchange</h2>

<p>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.

<h2>4 Intellectual property rights</h2>

<p>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 (<a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png">REC-png-961001</a>)) 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.

<p>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.

<h2>5 Alignment of procedures</h2>

<p>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.

<h3>5.1 Liaison</h3>

<p>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:

<p>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;

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

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

<p>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

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

<h3>5.2 Early collaboration</h3>

<p>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.

<p>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.

<h3>5.3 Initiation of ISO/IEC work</h3>

<p>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:

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

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

<p>c) the work is technically stable.

<p>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.

<h3>5.4 Late stage technical changes</h3>

<p>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.

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

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

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

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

<h3>5.5 Finalization of ISO/IEC work</h3>

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

<p>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.

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

<p>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.

<h2>6 Joint meetings</h2>

<p>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.

<h2>7 Publication rights</h2>

<p>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.

<h2>8 Base document</h2>

<p>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.

<p>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:

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

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

<h2>9 Availability of drafts and other working documents </h2>

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

<h2>10. Maintenance of standards</h2>

<p>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.

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

<p>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.

<hr>
<address>Steve Carson, Andr&eacute; Ducrot, Chris Lilley<br>
HTML conversion by <a
href="http://www.w3.org/people/chris">Chris</a></address>