xml-dev - Availability of WG and SIG archives (was Re: Namespaces and XML validati

[Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>]

At 12:11 11/08/98 +0200, james anderson wrote:

>would someone be so kind as to edit the appropriate contributions to the
>working group archive to make them available for public consumption.

[There are two issues here:
	- making available
	- editing
The second is an enormous labour - e.g., close observers will note that I
haven't found time for several months to edit XML-Jewels. There are several
possible actions:
	- sanitising (i.e. taking out any thing that cannot appear in public)
	- normalising (i.e. removing redundant material)
	- annotating
etc.]

I have considerable sympathy with this request and suggest that if anyone
on the WG reads this, they might consider pressing this inside the W3C.
There are two independent archives:
	
XML-SIG, contributed to by ca 100 invited experts including me. The SIG
archive has been made available at intervals - I don't know whether there
is an automatic policy. 

XML-WG, of about 12 members and invited experts. XML-SIG members can read
the XML-WG lists and are occasionally encouraged to do so because matters
are initiated there.

I have the following reasons for suggesting publishing:

	- it saves going over existing ground. Thus the XML-SIG spent probably
2000 emails on namespaces and the discussion was of extremely high quality.
It would be inappropriate to relive it all again here (although parts of it
might spark of relevant discussion). I would hope that it could be
published after a month or two delay.

	- it is a historical archive. This is extremely important to me (and to
henryR). In XML we are building the railways of the 21st century and it
would be a historical disaster if records were lost. It's quite possible
that our e-mail discussion of 1998 will appear just as fascinating in the
long-term future as the blueprints, letters and equipment of the early
railways do to us.

It is at least partly for the latter reason that HenryR and I try to keep
some constraints on how the material appears on XML-DEV (i.e. useful thread
titles, normalised contributions, clarity, etc.) Do not underestimate how
quickly information decays - HenryR tells us that the early use of the
Chemical Internet is now largely lost irretrievably.

	P.

Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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