Timed Text Working Group Charter (TTWG)

This charter is written in accordance with section 4.2.2 of the W3C Process Document.

Table of Contents

  1. Mission Statement
  2. Scope and Deliverables
  3. Duration
  4. Success Criteria
  5. Milestones
  6. Dependencies/Relationship with other W3C Activities
  7. Coordination with External Groups
  8. Membership, Participation and Resources
  9. Communication, Meetings and Logistics
  10. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
  11. Existing Timed Text Documents

1. Mission Statement

The mission of the Timed Text Working Group (TTWG) is to develop an XML based format used for the representation of streamable text synchronized with some other timed media, like audio and video. A typical application is real time captioning of movies on the Web (e.g. integrated in SMIL).

2. Scope and Deliverables

The scope of the TTWG includes:

Deliverables of TTWG include:

3. Duration

This Working Group is scheduled to last for 24 months, from January 2003 through December 2004. This includes a six month "life after Recommendation" phase.

4. Success Criteria

The main criterion of success for TTWG is that:

5. Milestones

A tentative schedule of face-to-face meetings and deliverables is given here:

January 2003
TT WG starts
February 2003
Requirements document
March 6-7th 2003
First f2f meeting at W3C Technical Plenary March 3-7, Cambridge, MA (meeting room not allocated yet)
March 15 th 2003
First Working Draft with one or more strawman proposals
Provide an initial summary of patent statements for Timed Text.
June 2003
Second f2f meeting
October 2003
Third f2f meeting
December 2003
Last Call Working Draft of Timed Text format
January 2004
Fourth f2f meeting
February 2004
Create "disposition of comments" document for Last Call comments
Provide a final summary of patent statements for Timed Text.
March 2004:
Advance Timed Text to W3C Candidate Recommendation
April 2004
Fifth f2f meeting
May 2004
Provide a Test suite for the Timed Text format
June 2004
Interoperability testing of implementations with the Test suite
June 2004
Timed Text moves to W3C Proposed Recommendation
July 2004
Timed Text becomes a W3C Recommendation
Life after Recommendation phase starts
December 31st 2004
TT WG ends

Note that public working drafts will be made available at least once every three months, per W3C Process.

6. Dependencies/Relationship with other W3C Activities

The Working Group has to take into account technologies developed by other groups within W3C, and advises about the requirements for Timed Text and ask them to review specifications prepared by the Working Group. At the time the charter was written, the following ongoing W3C activities are concerned:

Hypertext Coordination Group
The Hypertext Coordination Group has the responsibility for ensuring that reviews between Working Groups are planned and carried out so as to meet requirements for deliverables and deadlines. The Hypertext Coordination Group includes representatives for the XML Coordination Group and for the Web Accessibility Initiative, as well as the Working Groups in the Document Formats Domain and Interaction Domain
HTML Working Group
The Working Group cooperates with the HTML Working Group to ensure a smooth transition to next generation Timed Text, since HTML is a possible building block for Timed-Text.
CSS Working Group.
The work of the Working Group coordinates with this group on presentation and layout issues.
Web Accessibility Initiative
The Working Group cooperates with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to ensure Timed-Text meets W3C accessibility goals
Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group
The Working Group cooperates with this group to ensure that Timed Text can be seamlessly integrated with the scalable vector graphics capabilities being developed by this group, since SVG is a possible building block for Timed Text.
Device Independence Working Group
The Working Group cooperates with this group to ensure that Timed Text meets the requirements for device independent access, e..g. to ensure that the format is usable both on mobile devices and PCs.
Synchronized Multimedia Interest Group
The Working Group coordinates with this group to ensure that Timed Text meets the requirements of timing and integration in interactive multimedia presentations. SMIL is a building block for Timed Text.
Internationalization Working Group
The Working Group cooperates with this group to ensure Timed Text provides effective support for internationalization.
QA Working Group
The Working Group coordinates with the QA WG to develop test suites.
TAG Working Group
The Working Group ensures that Timed Text meets the general Web architecture of the TAG and helps coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.

7. Coordination with External Groups

Outside W3C, a number of groups are working technologies relevant for the Timed Text WG.

Given the extensive existing body of work on Timed Text formats in other bodies, the WG should make an explicit effort to harmonize with one or more existing approaches. If possible, the WG should focus on the development of an XML-based representation that includes concepts of these approaches, since this is the "missing piece" in the standards that are available today.

8. Membership, Participation and Resources

8.1 Membership

To become a member of the Timed Text Working Group, a representative of a W3C Member organization must be nominated by their Advisory Committee Representative (please send email to the Working Group chair and the W3C team contact). The nomination must include explicit agreement to this charter, including its goals, a Patent disclosure and the level of effort required of the representative.

Membership is also open to invited experts from the community, selected by the chair in order to balance the technical experience of the group. Invited experts participate as principal members.

Participation is expected to consume at least one day per week of each Working Group member's time.

8.2 Resources

The TTWG is chaired by Glenn A. Adams from XFSI.
The W3C team contact is Thierry Michel.

8.3 W3C Team Involvement

The W3C team is responsible for the mailing lists, public Working Group pages, for the posting of meeting minutes, and for liaison with the W3C communications staff for the publication of working drafts. W3C team members are expected to adopt the same requirements for meeting attendance, timely response and information disclosure as are required of W3C Members.
The W3C team contact is expected to devote 20% of his time to this Working Group.

9. Communication, Meetings, and Logistics

9.1 Email Communication

The Working Group utilizes a member-confidential mailing list <[email protected]>, and a public mailing list <[email protected]>. The public mailing list, with its wider audience, exists to promote openness and interoperability, and is the preferred channel of communication.

9.2 Group Home Page

The Working Group has a home page that records the history of the group, provides access to the archives, meeting minutes, updated schedule of deliverables, membership list, and relevant documents and resources. The page is available to the public and is maintained by the Chair in collaboration with the W3C team contact.

9.3 Telephone Meetings

A one to two hour Working Group phone conference is held every week. When necessary to meet agreed-upon deadlines, phone conferences may be held twice a week. The Chair may, at his discretion, invites guest experts to attend particular phone conferences.

Meeting records should be made available within three days of each telephone meeting. Meeting records must be made publicly available except for non-technical issues that do not directly affect the output of the Working Group. The Chair decides which issues are not made public.

9.4 Face-to-Face Meetings

Participation in face-to-face meetings is limited to Timed Text Working Group members and observers invited by the Chair. Decisions may be taken in face-to-face meetings but must be announced on the Working Group mailing list. Observers may take part in decision-making at the discretion of the Chair.

The Chair makes Working Group meeting dates and locations available to the group at least eight weeks before the meeting, per W3C Process.

10. Intellectual Property

W3C promotes an open working environment. Whenever possible, technical decisions should be made unencumbered by intellectual property right (IPR) claims.

This is a Royalty Free Working Group, as described in W3C's Current Patent Practice, dated 24 January 2002.

Working Group participants disclose patent claims by sending email to [email protected]; please see Current Patent Practice for more information about disclosures.

11. Existing Timed Text Documents

Initial Timed-Text Requirements Draft (edited by the Timed-Text Task force)
This document sets out the requirements for a Timed-Text format.
Thierry Michel <[email protected]>��(last modified on $Date: 2007/05/30 07:33:07 $)

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