BLM statement v2 - Githubissues

The IDCG closed #27 with a parting shot: it seems there is a consideration we should continue with a statement, in v2 form.

The draft v1 BLM statement stalled for two reasons:

The statement received one formal objection from the W3C Advisory Committee (but this group recommended no further action, due to this reason and the second below) and therefore the W3C Team did not ask the W3C Director how to dispose of the formal objection); it was noted at the 2020-12-01 IDCG Meeting, that the v1 statement had strong and positive W3C Advisory Committee support overall.
Well-known expert Kim Crayton reviewed the draft v1 BLM statement and her feedback that it wasn't going to achieve as is what we wanted it to: her recommendation was to choose either to make a solidarity statement of a BLM one, that as written, ours was an "all lives matter" statement and that it was not going to help and if we were to keep it this way, we ought to change the title. She told us that she believes it's worth it for W3C to make this right because others can learn from us, that it's a shared strategy and it is no longer just a USA issue.

Based on the above, this issue is about exploring a version 2 Black lives matter statement from W3C.

Revised Statement after Kim's feedback:

The web is for everyone.

This is the first design principle of W3C. It has guided our work since 1994 when W3C was founded.

The web is supposed to enable people to communicate, and to create opportunities for commerce, entertainment, collaboration and knowledge sharing. One of W3C’s goals is to make sure that everyone can contribute to and benefit from the web, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what kind of technology they use.

The reality is that for far too long we have not taken enough action to make sure that we uphold our core goal of inclusion. While we aspire to create a web that is for everyone, including via the W3C reviews of accessibility, security, privacy, and internationalization, we recognize that until our community is truly diverse, our work cannot fully reflect or serve the global community. The composition of most of our working groups, community groups, and the W3C team itself does not reflect this core belief. Without a diversity of voices and experiences in every part of our community, we cannot lead the web to its full potential.

W3C believes that Black lives matter. We can no longer be complicit in anti-Black racism in technology and society. We will no longer be silent.

As an organization, we intend to take the following actions in order to address the inequality present in our organization, and by extension, in the standards we produce.

[actions]

Perhaps as a start for a concrete simple action the W3C can place the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter up front on the W3C home page. This thought was inspired by my happening to go to Kickstarter the other day and they have the tag up front. It's simple, succinct, and doesn't require explanations. All of the other work in the idcg should continue as is but at least this would be a simple and fast way of saying something.

Sandy Ressler NIST (opinions my own) sressler@nist.gov

On Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 9:24 AM Wendy Reid notifications@github.com wrote:

Revised Statement after Kim's feedback:

The web is for everyone.

This is the first design principle of W3C. It has guided our work since 1994 when W3C was founded.

The web is supposed to enable people to communicate, and to create opportunities for commerce, entertainment, collaboration and knowledge sharing. One of W3C’s goals is to make sure that everyone can contribute to and benefit from the web, no matter who they are, where they come from, or what kind of technology they use.

The reality is that for far too long we have not taken enough action to make sure that we uphold our core goal of inclusion. While we aspire to create a web that is for everyone, including via the W3C reviews of accessibility, security, privacy, and internationalization, we recognize that until our community is truly diverse, our work cannot fully reflect or serve the global community. The composition of most of our working groups, community groups, and the W3C team itself does not reflect this core belief. Without a diversity of voices and experiences in every part of our community, we cannot lead the web to its full potential.

W3C believes that Black lives matter. We can no longer be complicit in anti-Black racism in technology and society. We will no longer be silent.

As an organization, we intend to take the following actions in order to address the inequality present in our organization, and by extension, in the standards we produce.

[actions]

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/w3c/idcg/issues/35#issuecomment-745317298, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAIEA3CE2FO4B6QPEHDFHH3SU5WQHANCNFSM4UKMMWCA .

Sandy Ressler

http://www.sandyressler.com @sressler

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sressler

sressler at acm.org

w3c / idcg

BLM statement v2 #35