Subject: SC 24 and W3C Response to US NB Comments on JTC 1 N 5199

From: Steve Carson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:31:22 -0600

Below you will find a proposed response to US NB comments (from the US JTC
1 TAG, NOT from your US SC24 colleagues) on the Cooperative Agreement
between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). As I have
previously told you, the agreement as currently written was unanimously
approved by JTC 1 without a single NO vote and only two "Yes with comments"
votes. The JTC 1 Chair and Secretary have directed SC 24 to respond to the
comments from the US NB in writing to the JTC 1 plenary meeting that begins
on 1 June in Sendai, Japan.

I have passed this proposed response to the PNG editing meeting that is
going on now in France and asked them for a review. If there are any other
comments I need them by 1700 UTC this Thursday 14 May 1998.

- - -
SC 24 and W3C Response to US National Body Comments on JTC 1 N 5199 -
Cooperative Agreement between ISO/IEC JTC 1 and the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C)

SC 24 and W3C have reviewed the US NB comments contained in JTC 1 N 5287
and regret that we cannot accept most of the proposed changes. We feel that
the proposed changes were requested because of simple misunderstandings of
both the Cooperative Agreement and the intentions of SC 24 and of W3C in
agreeing to cooperative work. We provide further explanations below:

1.  This agreement is in no way exclusive. Other JTC 1 SCs and WGs and JTC
1 itself are all free to work cooperatively with W3C on other projects in
other ways. The agreement covers only those projects that W3C and JTC 1
identify at the time of project initiation as being conducted under the
terms of the agreement.  SC 24 is not attempting to interfere with other
SCs and WGs that may choose to work with W3C differently nor are we
foreclosing the use of the PAS or other JTC 1 level processes.

2.  We cannot limit the scope of the agreement to SC 24 only. The reason
for this is simply JTC 1's continued re-engineering efforts that may result
in SC 24 or any other sub-division of JTC 1 ceasing to exist or being
merged with another sub-entity at any time. Therefore, it is possible that
the JTC 1 sub-entity (SC or WG) that completes a project may not be the one
that initiated it. To protect the intellectual property, resource
investment and rights of W3C in ongoing work with JTC 1 it is essential
that projects that are initiated under the agreement are completed under
the terms of the agreement. 

3.  Neither SC 24 nor W3C desires to limit the scope of the agreement to
the PNG project only. It is the intention of both parties to transpose a
significant number of specifications under this agreement, with PNG being
only a first "trial" case. (SC 24's submissions to JTC 1 in support of the
original approval of the agreement, SC 24's business plans, and SC 24's
request for Category C Liaison with W3C give specific examples of
anticipated future work.) The exceptionally large amount of overhead, both
in terms of elapsed calendar time and management time, required to
negotiate an agreement and to get the required approvals makes it
impractical to go through a separate agreement approval process for each
new piece of cooperative work with W3C.

4.  Both SC 24 and W3C realize that, due to the long time it took to
approve the agreement, JTC 1 procedures regarding permitted changes at FDIS
and FCD have changed since the time the agreement was first submitted to
JTC 1 almost a year ago. We will interpret the agreement in the light of
the current JTC 1 directives in these as well as other areas and will
update the agreement to reflect such changes at its next revision.

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Steve Carson                 phone:   +1-505-521-7399
GSC Associates Inc.          fax:     +1-505-521-9321
5272 Redman Road             e-mail:  [email-masked]
Las Cruces, NM 88011 USA
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