"Month in QA" is a monthly summary of the main topics discussed on www-qa@w3.org, the public mailing-list of W3C QA Interest Group and www-qa-wg@w3.org, the public mailing-list of W3C's QA Working Group.
The regular editor for "Month in QA" is Lynne Rosenthal, NIST, co-chair of the QA Interest Group.
See also the initial calendar and initial requirements for this resource.
Wanted: your review and comments. This QA Framework: Specification Guidelines is a guide for writing better specification and includes a checklist to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. Its easy to read, with lots of examples. We invite you to use the Specification Guidelines' checklist to see how well your specification does against the 9 requirements - let us know how you did. Send comments regarding the technical value of the document, what's missing, and its usability to www-qa@w3.org,
In an effort to find where the principles and good practices of the Specification Guidelines are already implemented, the QA WG will review a few select Recommendations and complete the Implementation Conformance Statement (i.e., checklist). The findings will be shared with the appropriate Working Groups. Additionally, QA team members (Karl, Dom, and Olivier) are working with several Working Groups in a proactive way - as these WGs develop their specifications, the QA team will point out where Specification Guidelies can help to resolve an issue.
Is it legal for a group to create a profile of a Recommendation which contains the Document License? The License states, "No right to create modifications or derivations of W3C documents is granted...". Profiles are derivatives of the base standard. The belief is that copyright in this instance would protect the text of the specification document and not apply to the derived profile. Given the current enviornment and concern about IPR, a timely clarification on this issue would be welcome. Perhaps the License FAQ could be updated with a clarification. See Thread.
The QA Interest Group and Working Group meet in Reading England, October 27-29, hosted by the Open Group. The meeting resolved open issues on the Specfication Guidelines and QA Handbook. Future activities of the Working Group were discussed, including publication of its documents, advocating QA within W3C, and recruiting new members. Minutes.
All meeting minutes are available at: http://www.w3.org/QA/Agenda/