[MPEG-OTSPEC] [font-text] Consensus Protocol / Font and Text Group

[Simon Cozens]

On 26/08/2020 08:20, MURATA Makoto wrote:
> Aren't we going to use the W3C process and rely
> on the W3C convention on the use of GitHub?

Hello Murata-san,

	I think we all need to be clear that this point who we are talking 
about and to. I am sure you know, but to explain just for clarity, there 
have been two parallel sets of conversations on this mailing list 
recently: one set of conversations have been the usual ISO AHG traffic 
about the Open Font Format; at the same time, there is a group of people 
interested in text shaping standardization who have been invited to use 
this list temporarily to discuss how best to formalize their group.

	So right now there is often uncertainty about which audience a mail is 
for and what it refers to. I have added the tag "font-text" to the 
subject of this email to make it clear that I am talking to the second 
set of people, those interested in text shaping.

	As I understand it, the email you are replying to from Dave was about 
font formats, and about the AHG input into OFF - it's not totally clear, 
because there is significant overlap between the two different 
discussions (and many of the same people involved), but my understanding 
is that Dave was talking about updates to OFF. The OFF AHG will continue 
as before, with no reference to W3C or W3C processes. If the procedure 
for achieving consensus for spec updates was unclear before, it will 
remain unclear. ;-)

	For anyone who was not on the latest call for those interested in text 
shaping, we reached a consensus that *that* group of people group will 
become a W3C Community Group, called "Font and Text Community Group" or 
"font-text" for short. Those who wish to continue discussions about 
formalizing text shaping standards should make sure that they have 
joined font-text, which they can do at this web page: 
https://www.w3.org/community/font-text/participants (You will need a W3C 
account.)

	I recommend that we now move any conversations about text shaping 
(including further development of the scope and structure of the text 
shaping group) to the W3C forums so that we can reserve the AHG mailing 
list for its intended purpose and avoid confusion between the two sets 
of conversations - except of course where text shaping conversations 
reflect the need for proposed changes to the OFF specification. (But 
probably that the best way to do that would be for us to appoint someone 
as a "rapporteur" to communicate back and forth the consensus of each 
group, but we're nowhere near that stage yet.)

S