Re: [emergency] IF-SC meeting today at 11ET - moving DE 2.0 forward

[Jacob Westfall <jake@jpw.biz>]

> find indicating this change needed for DE2.0.  However, I want to be sure we
> are all in agreement as to the best way to move the DE forward.  If you have
> an interest in this topic, please be on the call or post a reply to this
> note with your input.  If we are all happy with the DE as it is, we will

I'm not happy with the DE as it is.  My feeling is that there has been a lot of time invested by the IF-SC on DE 2.0 and Jeff and others have done very well keeping the work going with the limited participation so far.  While I think there are some technical problems with the DE 2.0 draft, to me the larger concern is the lack of any interested community for the DE itself.  The latest draft went out with some substantial and controversial changes and no comments were received.  That says to me that no-one even bothered to read the draft.  Where is the community of users who should be invested in where DE 2.0 is going?  DE 1.0 suffered from poor uptake/adoption, and I'm concerned DE 2.0 is fairing even worse.  The community needs to step up.

I'd like to propose that an effort be made to re-engage the DE community prior to moving the spec forward any further.  Feedback is sorely needed on whether it will meet the needs of the community and see any sort of uptake.  To that end, I think the current draft provides a "release candidate" that developers could begin using.   Either this TC or the Adoption TC could arrange for a DE technical interop (virtual, no participation fee) in the coming months and reach out to all potential DE users and ask for their participation.  Actually using and building systems to participate in this interop will help to focus attention on the current draft and elicit comments and feedback on where it works and where it doesn't.  Finally, like past events, this interop would also help with the statements of use needed for final vote later.

-- 
Jacob Westfall <jake@jpw.biz>