Infrequently Noted

So election season is upon us -- no, not that one -- elections for the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG). You might be thinking to yourself "self, I didn't know the W3C had such a thing...how very strange...I wonder what it does." Also, you might be wondering why I'd bother to write about a perfunctory process related to a group whose deliverables you have probably never encountered in the wild and are fantastically unlikely to.

The answer is that I'm now in the running for one of the TAG's 4 open seats. At last week's TPAC I was talked talked myself into running. Google has nominated me, so we're off to the proverbial races. Given the number of condolences I've received since deciding to run, you might wonder why I'd do such at thing at all; particularly since the general consensus is that the TAG's impact is somewhere between "mostly harmless" and "harmless". I've never heard it described as "valuable" or "productive" in its modern incarnation, so why run? Could it be for the warmth of human contact that a weekly conference call could provide? A deep-seated but as yet unfulfilled desire to weigh in on what really irks me about how people use HTTP? Indeed not.

I'm running to try to turn the TAG into an organization that has something to say about the important problems facing devs building apps today; particularly how new specs either address or exacerbate those challenges.

Notionally that's what the TAG does now; review specs in development and provide feedback. If you look at the current work items, however, there's nothing about JavaScript. There's similarly little on DOM or the sorry state of API design at the W3C and how it is enabled by WebIDL and a broad cultural ignorance of JS. The TAG could provide advice on API design to WGs, how to think about creating a well layered platform, and how to keep webdevs in mind at all times.

State management gets a lengthy exposition that doesn't do much to uncover the challenges in designing apps that need to keep and manage state, synchronize that state in local data models, and map state onto URLs. Its a hard problem that most JS-driven apps struggle with and the TAG has no view beyond motherhood, apple pie, and pushState(). It can do better.

For webdevs, the TAG is a natural ally -- it carries the weight of the W3Cs reputation in ways that vendor-motivated WGs don't. It can be an advocate for building things well to reluctant managers and organizations, helping you make the "environmentalist" argument; "the web is for everyone, why are you making it bad?" It can also be a go-between for agitated webdevs and the WGs, a voice of reason and patient explanation.

As a talking shop, the TAG can never be expected to have power over implementations or webdevs, but it can be opinionated. It can take a stand on behalf of webdevs and call out huge problems in specs, missing work items for WGs, and build bridges to the framework authors that are doing the heavy lifting when the browsers don't. It can also build bridges to other standards bodies that specify hugely important parts of the web platform, bringing a webdev perspective to bear.

I have worked inside a browser, represented Google at TC39, and have built large apps and frameworks on the web stack. I have seen firsthand how the TAG isn't doing this important work of building bridges and jawboning on behalf of web developers. And I plan to fix it, if elected.

If you work at a company that is a member of the W3C, I hope to get your AC rep's vote. If not, I would still love your support in letting AC reps from the Member organizations know that you support the goal of turning the TAG into an advocacy organization for the interests of webdevs.

If you're particularly interested in this problem, I'd love your help -- I'm looking for reformist-minded candidates to join me in running for the TAG. If you don't have a sponsoring or nominating organization, send me mail or a tweet.

Voting nitty-gritty, largely cribbed from Ian Jacob's mail to a Members-only W3C mailing list:

• Nominations: any Member organization may nominate one individual to serve on the TAG. That nominating organization is expected to cover their nominee's costs for the period of service, so don't nominate in haste. Nominations are currently open and close on Nov 30th.
• Voting: only Advisory Committee members from Member organizations can vote on the TAG elections. It's not clear when voting starts but it ends on January 31st, 2013. So if you have an opinion about this, find your AC rep (or one from a company you think should be voting here) and let them know how you feel.