confidentiality in W3C WGs

[Reynolds, Gregg]

The situation you describe certainly could happen, but I respectfully submit
that the possibility of such situations arising would be a very bad reason
indeed for the confidentiality agreement, at least from the perspective of
the "web community".  The W3C should not provide a cloak of secrecy for
companies who do not want to cooperate or who subvert the standards process
for their own ends.  Of course, we can take it as axiomatic that private,
for-profit corporations will do everything they can to use the W3C to their
advantage, and to the detremint of their competitors - that's their job,
after all.  All the more reason to insist on openness and candor.

Openness would make it that much harder for those dastardly journalists to
distort the facts.

I also strongly disagree with the notion that the W3C WG structure removes
politics from the equation.  The smoky back room doesn't go away.  Companies
can and no doubt do still hold private discussions.  W3C secrecy hasn't
changed this, and openness wouldn't either.

The only place I can see for secrecy is in the vote itself.  

Sincerely,

Gregg  (These are my personal opinions only, and don't necessarily reflect
those of anybody on the XSL WG nor of my employer.)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lauren Wood [mailto:lauren at sqwest.bc.ca]
> Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 2:16 PM
> To: xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
> Subject: confidentiality in W3C WGs
> 
> 
> The only really good reason I see for the confidentiality agreement  
> that exists in several W3C Working Groups has marketing, public 
> relations, and politics at its base.
> 
> Imagine a lively WG discussion, in which two large member 
> companies (let's call them A and B) disagree. The rest of the WG 
> agrees with A and that's what goes into the spec. Maybe B gives in 
> graciously, maybe B gives in less than graciously, maybe B 
> doesn't give in at all. Then imagine the minutes are all public, and 
> everyone can tell everyone else exactly what happened. 
> 
> The upshot is that some journalist, or maybe a public relations 
> person in company A, starts making a big thing out of how 
> company A "won" over company B in this issue. Next thing you 
> know, company B starts fighting back in public, or refuses to give 
> in graciously on any issue, or doesn't contribute properly to the 
> discussions, or leaves the WG.
> 
> Could this happen? Yes. I've had journalists call me to talk about 
> specs such as the DOM or XML, and when I've said that there are 
> discussions and sometimes companies disagree, I've had 
> questions such as "tell me when company A won and company B 
> lost" (no prizes for guessing which companies they were 
> most concerned with). I've seen articles written about other 
> standards committees (not in W3C) where the journalist has tried 
> to make out there is a fight in every small disagreement, and to get 
> quotes from any participant and twist them to make it look like a 
> fight. Makes for better press, I guess. Not so great if you're on the 
> WG involved, trying to get some consensus on sticky technical 
> issues. That can be hard enough without press articles and PR 
> problems getting in the way. 
> 
> So sometimes you need confidentiality, to build trust and a 
> knowledge that what is said in a WG remains within that WG, so 
> that people can concentrate on the technical work, and not on the 
> politics.
> 
> 
> Lauren
> 
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