Why not have two levels of specification: experimental and official? Official specs are hosted at FD.o and can implement a backwards-compatible freedesktop.org interface, while experimental specs are hosted by the maintainer and can't use the freedesktop.org name. Instead of this ( http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications ) format, use a table with columns for the spec (with link), status (official or experimental), and for the implementation in each DE or WM ( complete, in-process, planned, deprecated, or not planned). This table will make clear how much current and planned implementation exists in the community.
Which DEs are represented and how does a spec become official? That's up for discussion, but I suggest a board with voting privileges, as follows: Initially open the board to a representative from each DE or WM which wants to participate. The criteria for inclusion should be interest, not the size of the project. Which person represents each DE/WM and how that person is chosen is up to the individual project. The process of selection is not FD.o's concern. Interested DEs/WMs have a set time to select the representative (maybe one month) before the initial board is constructed. Once the board is set, new members can be added by two supporting votes (or majority, whatever) by existing members. Specs are promoted to official status by a motion, second, and majority vote (non-voting members don't count toward the majority. Projects which fail to vote for two or three successive votes lose membership. Projects can change representatives at any time, and projects which lose membership can lobby for re-inclusion using the new members' method. Because FD.o's specification page shows a more descriptive than prescriptive role, the official or experimental status of a spec becomes a little less important than it does now, but becoming an official spec will be a simple process. Specs need to have version numbers, and these version numbers need to be broken out on the wiki page. At any point in time, for example, some DEs may implement the experimental version of the spec but not the later, official version, that support being planned, and this information should be easily discernible. DE/WM reps should probably be given write access to this page and the responsibility of keeping the project information up to date. Of course, whatever rules there are need to be spelled out in a charter. Just my 20 Korean won. Daniel _______________________________________________ xdg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
