#rhiarodka: Dan Applequist, cochair of the TAG, and one of the original chairs of the social web incubator group way back when before social web was cool
#rhiaro... what's the current status of .. there's been a lot of talk on the fediverse about the need to recharter the WG. What's the status?
#rhiarotantek: relatedly, I'd like to talk about possible rechartering as well, specifically in scope of a bunch of the specs we have produced have advanced, had adoption and patches and fixes and gained critical mass. We've also seen several other protocol stacks emerge, I think there's an opportunity for bridging and enhancing interop across those stacks
#Loqi[preview] [Tantek Çelik] going to the #SocialWeb CG meeting @W3C #w3cTPAC tomorrow (2023-09-12) at 09:30 CEST.
Looking forward to seeing @evanp.me (@evan@cosocial.ca @evanpro) and many others!
So many advances in #ActivityPub, #Webmention, Micropub, #IndieAuth etc. that it...
#rhiaroeprodrom: reminder that we do have two breakouts tomorrow about data portability, and interop and testing
#rhiaroeprodrom: background. When we originally created ActivityStreams Core and Vocab documents we included a section on extensibility
#rhiaro... the section covers the technical aspects, and somewhat the process aspects
#rhiaro... suggesting we maintain a registry of well known extensions to the activitystreams vocab
#rhiaro... and also that we have a process for including those extensions into the context document for AS2 itself
#rhiaro... Assuming some understanding of JSON-LD in this case
#rhiaro... you can import and reuse other schemas within the context
#rhiaro... we do that already with AS2 for a couple of different vocabs, and we said we'd have a mechanism for that in the future, but we deferred on creating that process
#rhiaro... we've had two (I think?) major additions to the AS2 context since we finished the REC
#rhiaro... the first was including the activitypub specific vocabularly and the second was addnig the alsoknownas from the did vocabularly
#rhiaro... during this time AP has been actively used and developed on the social web, and consequently there are a number of different extensions out in the world
#tantekpfefferle are you able to join the meeting?
#rhiaro... the idea is having a structured process for including those vocabularies within the activitystreams context doc to make it easier for developers to just use one context
#rhiaro... Any questions about the goals of this discussion?
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#rhiarodka: can you give me an example of a user need serviced by an extension so I have more context?
#rhiaroeprodrom: common use case on the social web - playing games across the network. Eg. words with friends across the social network using your identity, being able to make guesses at words etc. Being able to create an extension that wasn't built into activitystreams at the time that supports the new functionality in a new way
#rhiaro... there's also a reference in this doc that says approval of extensions will be by the CG.. process and criteria is being finalised. The suggestion is to finalise that and link it here
#rhiaroeprodrom: community process for creating FEPs
#rhiaro... for creating extensions.. Fediverse Enhancement Proposals
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#rhiaro... a light community oriented process that mirrors a lot of programming language enhancement processes
#rhiaro... I think it's based on PEPs the python process
#rhiaro... there are some very interesting extensions built with this mechanism
#rhiaro... there's a lot of interesting process here
#rhiaro... it's loosely connected to this community group through the socialhub forum
#rhiaro... suffice it to say I'm not sure there's a part of the FEP process that includes the process of including terms within the AS2 context document
#rhiaro... because the loose affiliation of people involved don't have access to modify that document
#rhiaro... we as the CG are responsible for maintaining that document and doing these extensions
#rhiaro... I'm not sure that the idea that there is this FEP process is entirely related to how we included extensions in activitystreams 2.0
#tantekpfefferle more like did eprodrom answer your question? (also please use /me for meta comments, we're using IRC text as minutes of the meeting of what people are saying)
#rhiaro... how many people today can contribute to this discussion?
#rhiarobumblefudge_: how are you defining implementer and participation? I'm working on FEPs with people
#rhiarotantek: we're not directly implementing AP per se but we have launched a mastodon instance at mozilla.social and we've been making lots of modifications to that implementation
#rhiaro... not to its ap functionality yet, but we are touching code that is touching activitypub
#rhiaroeprodrom: the criteria for including extensions in AS 2.0 .. the extension must have its own context, describes terms and usage, has an IPR policy that's compatible with w3c
#rhiaro... asking for 2 independant publishers and consumers regardless of whether it's c2s or s2s
#rhiaro... a publisher and consumer might be the same software
#rhiaro... that's the minimum for interoperability. Hard to make a case for interop happening with only one implementer
#rhiarobumblefudge_: this seems really straightforward. There's something a little implicit which is what happens if my work is msasively overwhelmingly successful and there's 20 FEPs that have been implemented twice that each have testable context files attached in the FEP repo
#rhiaro... and the WG has to timeline them, prioritise them, pick which are worth foisting on all implementers
#rhiaro... there's a gating thing that isn't mentioned at all
#rhiaro... once lal the criteria is met, there's a deliberation process?
#rhiaro... the context document is not large. 10s of kb
#rhiaro... but there i sa point at which it can get very large
#rhiaro... and it's hosted on the web. There may be size issues to be concerned about
#rhiaro... Third, the process. How do we queue things coming in from FEPs and other systems?
#rhiaro... the fact that we would vote on it within the CG before including something, is that the point at which we'd use that discretion?
#rhiarobumblefudge_: I can imagine a couple of of ways of doing it that have strengths and weaknesses. I don't have an answer I prefer
#rhiaro... I've seen extensions in other processes are welcome, but merging into the main context is almost like making it a required feature
#rhiaro... some processes do that only at major versions
#rhiaro... extensions now are eligible to be in the context in the next major version
#rhiaro... that's one form of governance I've seen for these kinds of processes
#rhiaro... in some contexts the testability is debated for a while
#rhiaro... you have to provide an extesnion to a test suite that proves you can work with someone who didn't implement the extension for example
#rhiaro... Just positing that it maybe forces other issues abot what's a major version, what's the WG/CG division of power?
#rhiaroeprodrom: interesting question. Because we've already done this twice since the major version of AS2, we at least have some precedent for doing it between major versions
#rhiaro... I would not see that we need a version change in order to do this
#rhiaro... I also think this is a backwards compatible process if we're doing it additively
#rhiaro... if we were to add the security vocabularly that we use for http signatures in AP and is widely used, but the vocab has to be included each time you create an AP document
#rhiaro... I think for that .. how do we .. what are the test case requirements for that?
#rhiaro... usually you demonstrate a test suite that can validate for a publisher, or a for a consumer a set of test cases that produces a user visible result
#rhiaro... I think it would be useful for the criteria to be explicit about that, and give an example
#rhiaro... the difference is we have a few stages. Proposed, draft, stable
#rhiaro... we've found that's useful to give people an idea of where a proposal is in the process, and how to move it to the next stage
#rhiaro... one difference is we settled on 3+ publishers/consumers
#rhiaro... people would get excited about an extension, you could easily get 2, and those wouldn't necessarily last
#bumblefudge_q+ to differentiate vocabulary changes (which should be backwards compatible) from features or behavioral changes (which require test cases/suite support)
#Zakimsees tantek, bumblefudge_, btsavage on the speaker queue
#rhiaro... but it does feel like criteria.. if you're expecting some to be part of the core spec they'll need to go through that level of rigour at that point
#rhiaro... better to catch those issues ahead of time
#rhiaro... especially around a11y, i18n, privacy and security
#rhiaro... we have assets in the TAG that can help people reivew their specs
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#rhiaroeprodrom: it's a good point, but a heavier process
#rhiarotantek: support the horizontal review in the TAG, that's important. the vocab in AS2 predates the registry process in w3c
#rhiaro... the way evan is proposing is much closer to the way registries are handled in in w3c now
#Zakimbumblefudge_, you wanted to differentiate vocabulary changes (which should be backwards compatible) from features or behavioral changes (which require test cases/suite support)
#rhiarobumblefudge_: some of the things that are currently FEPs include .. if something is only adding something to the vocab... a vocab change should be backwards compatible, deosn't break implementations
#rhiaro... but most of the time they're not just semantic extensions, they're semantic and behaviour
#rhiaro... we're dancing around the fact that the semantic extension part should always be backwards compatible. But there's a behavioural extension motivating adding the extension
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#rhiaro... the context is just a registry, but there's almost always a behavioural extension attached
#rhiaro... if the behavioural extension is big enough to maybe break implementations that haven't implemented it, then you need a test suite.... that's a totally different beast
#rhiaro... Also, there isn't currently a single robust test suite that is easy to extend as a fep is to write
#rhiaro... if you coudl just write a fep and then add some test cases to an existing test suite it would be much easier to make a testability requirement
#Loqi[preview] [Tantek Çelik] going to the #SocialWeb CG meeting @W3C #w3cTPAC tomorrow (2023-09-12) at 09:30 CEST.
Looking forward to seeing @evanp.me (@evan@cosocial.ca @evanpro) and many others!
So many advances in #ActivityPub, #Webmention, Micropub, #IndieAuth etc. that it...
#bengoq+ to discuss whether the w3c process generally requires f2f meetings to have agenda items like rechartering to be published two weeks before f2f meetings (https://www.w3.org/2023/Process-20230612/)
#Zakimsees bengo, plh, tantek on the speaker queue
#rhiaro... There have been, since the publication of activitystreams and activitypub and the others, there have been a lot of development use, real world experience
#rhiaro... there may be some value in applying those to iterations on those documents
#Zakimbengo, you wanted to discuss whether the w3c process generally requires f2f meetings to have agenda items like rechartering to be published two weeks before f2f meetings
#Loqi[preview] [Elika J. Etemad / fantasai] W3C Process Document
#rhiarobengo: I noticed there was an agenda published before the meeting but it didn't include anything about rechartering
#rhiaro... wrt to process it would normally the agenda for f2f meetings would be published 2 weeks in advance, especially to discuss something as serious as rechartering a group
#rhiaroeprodrom: I think this is a discussion, not a decision
#Zakimsees tantek, plh, tantek, dka on the speaker queue
#rhiaro... if we feel comfortable with it, we'll not make any decisions in this morning's meeting
#rhiarotantek: the process doesn't have that requirement for CGs, only for WGs
#rhiaro... second, a common process is to do agenda gardening as the first thing in the beginning of the meeting, people are given an opportunity to suggest or prioritise items
#rhiarobengo: sounds good. Just worth having future discussions and not making resolutions without a bigger quorum
#rhiaroplh: we don't need a WG to make editorial changes to docs, you can come to the Team for that
#rhiaro... but for substantive changes, we need a WG
#rhiaro... The way the current process.. the short version is the team propose a charter to the AC. We're looking for a group to tell us what they like for a charter, and we'll send it to the AC
#rhiaro... I'd be looking for, if we're going to create a WG to work on ActivityPub, I'd be looking to this community to tell the Team what you'd like to see in the charter because you know better than us
#rhiaro... I'm very supportive of relaunching the social web WG for the simple reason that we have a rec and I'd like to have a WG to maintain it
#rhiaro... when we closed the WG back then, we didn't have this process
#rhiaro... Nowadays we dont' close the WG, they're in charge of maintaining the rec as a maintenance WG
#rhiaro... Now there's interest in actively maintaining the rec
#bengo(for posterity, it is very hard for remote attendees to hear)
#rhiaro... example - bridgy.fed - interesting unintended successes of the previous WG
#rhiaro... evan and I worked really hard with the staff contacts and chairs to take 15 or so approaches to the social web and narrow them down to 2.5 to 3
#rhiaro... we decided instead of trying to fight that out down to 1, we'd allow those communities to develop their technical approachs, and use the wg as a forum to develop interop across them
#rhiaro... in terms of semantics, minimising friction when coverting between them
#dmitriz@rhiaro - great question re why, needs more polling / conversion. just noting that there has been.
#rhiaro... now we have services like bridgy fed that can connect between these different stacks
#rhiaro... on tantek.com I publish html, I use webmentions, and I use bridgyfed to connect directly with the fediverse
#rhiaro... I haven'tw ritten a single line of ap myself, and send bridgyfed a webmention, it delivers them ap inboxes across a number of people
#bumblefudge_nostr<>AP bridging is already happening in the wild (somewhat chaotically for the moderation system of AP that is, as yet, underspecified...)
#rhiarodka: if you do recharter a WG that you keep the CG running as well - having that dual mode approach I've seen work very well with other things
#bumblefudge_and i have also heard from the bsky team that IETF is being targeted for some specs
#rhiaro... I will also say that there are ... with aset of recommendations that exist right now that are available for developers to use right now, I'm less supportive of more protocols being built right now
#rhiaro... I'd probably not think that adding BlueSky to socialcg makes sense
#rhiaro... it's an effort to build a proprietary protocal separate from existing standards
#rhiaro... I'm not sure having an array of standards is helpful for developers or users
#rhiaro... it's a different world than it was in 2017
#rhiaro... considerably more people, more implemenations, more infrastructure
#rhiaro... I would not necesssarily encourage other experimentation at this point that isn't compatible
#Zakimtantek, you wanted to note we can be explicit about keeping AP compatibility in the Charter scope and to also note rechartering a previous WG is very different than chartering a
#rhiaroplh: we can make the charter of the wg about only fixing.. not allowing new features. Only modify normative aspects of specs if it's already deployed and reflects reality
#rhiaro... we can make the charter as tight as possible
#rhiaro... As ben pointed out, we're not going to try and make decisions today, but it sounds like from this conversation that there is... can we do a straw poll?
#rhiaro... sounds like we have support for exploring a charter
#rhiarodka: gotta go, but +1, feel like this is necessary
#rhiaroeprodrom: suggest we defer this to the next cg meeting in 2 weeks
#bengoa straw poll would be misrepresentative of the broader cant-afford-to-attend-TPAC-on-company dime ecosystem
#dmitriz@bengo - it includes those joining online tho
#tantekPROPOSED: Explore rechartering the Social Web WG to do updates on existing RECs with wide implementations, consider adopting NOTEs with interoperable implementations as WDs, and consider incubations with interoperable implementations for WDs
#bumblefudge_PROPOSED: Explore rechartering the Social Web WG to do updates on existing RECs with wide implementations, designate a core suite of testing strategiesconsider adopting NOTEs with interoperable implementations as WDs, and consider incubations with interoperable implementations for WDs
#rhiaroplh: are you proposing that the WG has new features in scope?
#rhiarotantek: yes because implemenations have added new features that are beyond the scope of the spec right now. Eg. extensions. I'd like the WG to consider a similar process for improving AP and AS2 specs
#rhiaro... people look in the minutes of the days we voted on those TRs that there were some surprise things inserted in and voted on things that were published before even AS2
#bumblefudge_PROPOSED: Explore rechartering the Social Web WG to do updates on existing RECs with wide implementations, designate a core suite of testing strategies, and integrate it with the FEP process and/or additional independent/community processes. Maybe adopting NOTEs with interoperable implementations as WDs, and incubation of interoperable implementations for WDs could stay in CG for now, until the test suite has consensus that would be t[CUT]
#rhiarobumblefudge_: laying tracks before moving train... if a maintenance group could take as its target defining a set of test tools that would be the basis for interoperable things
#rhiaro... and bengo's comment about defining what's wide enough adoption
#rhiaroeprodrom: proposal that takes out what we'd be exploring. Explore means we're going to spend time in the cg over the next multiple meetings now that we have this on the table, to discuss what that would actually entail, and work with staff and members to decide about what that is
#tantek+1 from dka as well who had to leave who gave general support for rechartering a Social Web WG
#rhiaro+1 exploration without specifying detail yet
#ZakimAs of this point the attendees have been Dan_Appelquist, tantek, btsavage, eprodrom, bkardell_, rhiaro, cwilso, Chris_Needham, plh, miriam, pfefferle, dmitriz, bengo, Juan
#Loqi[preview] [Evan Prodromou] OK, this is happening Tuesday night from 19:00-20:00 local. We're having a fediverse meetup aka a #FedUp.If you're in Seville for #W3C #TPAC and you're on the fediverse, come hang out with us for drinks and snacks.100 Montaditos, C. San Fernando, 29I...
#RRSAgentexcuses himself; his presence no longer seems to be needed
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