Geolocation Working Group Overview

The mission of the Geolocation Working Group, part of the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity, is to define a secure and privacy-sensitive interface for using client-side location information in location-aware Web applications. The Working Group meets regularly by phone and has two to three Face-to-Face meetings per year.

Charter

The Geolocation Working Group Charter details what the W3C has tasked this Working Group to do.

Members should join the Geolocation Working Group.

Milestones

Milestones

Note: This table will be updated periodically as the Working Group identifies new milestones.
Specification	FPWD	LC	CR	PR	Rec
DeviceOrientation Event Specification	Q2 2011	Q2 2014	Q4 2014	Q2 2015	Q3 2015
Geolocation API L2	Q2 2014	Q1 2015	Q3 2015	Q2 2016	Q2 2016

Publications and Drafts

The Geolocation Working Group published the Recommendation of the Geolocation API on 24 October 2013:

Geolocation API Specification

Recommendation, 24 October 2013

A test suite is also available:

Geolocation API Test Suite

Ongoing work is reflected in the public editor's draft:

DeviceOrientation Event Specification

Editor's Working Draft

Geolocation API Level 2

How to Participate

Members should join the Geolocation Working Group, but we do our work in the public, mainly on the mailing lists.

The main mailing list for the Geolocation Working Group is: [email protected]. This list is open to the public and also has a public archive. To subscribe or unsubscribe please send mail to [email protected] with a subject line of subscribe or unsubscribe.

There is also an IRC channel dedicated to the Geolocation Working Group: #geolocation on the W3C IRC server: irc.w3.org:6665

In addition there is a member-only mailing list at [email protected] for administrative purposes. This list also has a member-only archive.

The Working Group maintains a Wiki with links to minutes from Face-to-Face meetings and teleconferences. In addition the group uses Tracker to maintain issue and action item lists.

Relationship with Other W3C Work

As listed in the Geolocation Working Group Charter, it is expected that we will be interacting with the following W3C Working Groups.

Device APIs Working Group

The DAP Working Group is responsible for other device APIs. DAP should review the Geolocation API documents in order to maintain consistency between Geolocation and other device APIs.

System Application Working Group

The System Application Working Group is responsible for developing other device APIs executed in a privileged environment. SysApps should review the Geolocation API documents to ensure they apply correctly in that environment.

Web Applications Working Group

The Web Applications Working Group is responsible for core Web APIs, and thus may provide valuable feedback on our documents. It also develops WebIDL which the Geolocation deliverables will rely on to define their interfaces

Technical Architecture Group

The TAG and participants in the Geolocation WG have discussed the privacy aspects of the Geolocation API v1, and will likely continue to do so going forward.

Privacy Interest Group (PING)

As sharing location information has a direct impact on users' privacy, the Geolocation WG intends to secure reviews on its deliverables from the Privacy Insterst Group to ensure they offer the right level of protection to users.

Web Security Interest Group

The Geolocation Working Group intends to secure reviews on its deliverables from the Web Security Interest Group to ensure they offer the right level of security.

Web Accessibility Initiative

The Geolocation Working Group expects to work directly with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group to ensure that any accessibility implications inherent to this work have been taken into account and addressed.

Giridhar Mandyam, Chair, Qualcomm

Kaz Ashimura, <[email protected]>, Team Contact, W3C