Florian Rivoal

AB Meet the Candidates Responses

What priorities should the AB take on in the next year? How will you help accomplish them?

Improve the chartering process. I think the next most important Process reform is around chartering, in order to provide better community engagement in the early phases of charter creation, and more accountability. I believe that improving this area will go a long way in reducing the number and severity of Formal Objections raised.
Complete and fine-tune the “Director-free” reforms. The so-called “Director-free” Process reforms, such as the W3C Council, enable us to no longer depend on the singular authority of Tim Berners Lee. At a fundamental level, these reforms are working, but a few of them need fine-tuning. In addition, a few areas (such as the Patent Policy and WHATWG MOU) still need fixing.
Provide guidance to the CEO and W3C Inc. leadership to further stabilize and improve on the standalone Legal Entity. One of the chief purposes of the AB is to advise and support the CEO and Team. The transition to the legal entity is still recent, and not fully stabilized yet. Moreover, it has opened many opportunities for W3C to improve in pursuing its mission. The in-depth experience I have with this organization, the good working relations with many members of the W3C Team (at headquarters and at each Partner), and my experience with non-profit organization management give me strong insights on how we got where we are and what we still need.

There's certainly more to do, and a diverse group of participants will help the AB cover the whole range of concerns, but that's where I plan to spend most of my energy.

The AB positions are unpaid but require regular meetings at inconvenient times/locations, preparation for said meetings, and collaboration with people you might disagree with. Why do you personally wish to take this on?

I don't like to stand still when I see something that could be improved and where I can help. In my past terms on the AB, I've helped deliver a number of critical reforms, and I believe I can do more. Luckily, my time and expenses on the AB are sponsored, so I can afford to invest energy in our collective interests. As for the diversity of opinions on the AB, I find that stimulating.

How do you think W3C should build consensus in large groups, and can you speak to your ability & experience building consensus (at W3C or elsewhere)?

Taking the time to hear and understand other people's points and to explain yours, address feedback, document what you've done and why you've done it, iterate… That will often goes a long way.

Providing good structure for discussions for decision making is also a strong enabler of consensus and progress. The W3C Process is a strong asset in this regard, as it sets everyone's expectations about what needs to happen and how it should happen, enabling us to focus on the substance of the arguments in constructive ways. This is why I am devoting a good chunk of my energy in maintaining and evolving the Process, to keep it current for our needs.

Overall, Group level consensus works pretty well, but we have more room for improvement when it comes to consortium-wide consensus, and indeed, we get most Formal Objections when questions like charters or Proposed Recommendations broaden discussions to the whole W3C. I see at least two main causes:

We also have a natural tendency to cluster into somewhat isolated sub-groups, sometimes clustering by geography or by industry. To build the one Web that the vision reminds us of, we need to be one W3C, with a better sense of commonality. This may be facilitated by improvements to meetings like TPAC or the spring AC meeting, better tools for communication, better usage of online meetings…
Too often for consortium-wide questions we start with a consensus-check in the form of an AC Review, skipping the consensus building phase that could resolve disagreements before they get escalated. I think there's room for a bit more structure around things like charter creation to help people engage constructively early on.

In terms of track record, I can point to successfully delivering multiple iterations of the Process itself, one revision of the Patent Policy, the design of the Board of Directors for W3C and more broadly of the W3Cs bylaws, or on the technical front to few Recommendations in the CSS Working Group.

How can W3C improve its diversity and inclusion, and what is the role of the AB in improving those?

There's no silver bullet on this topic, but the AB is well position to push for improvements in a number of areas, such as:

Work on the CEPC and related procedures, that aim to keep our keep our work environment comfortable to all, helping make sure we don't lose by attrition participants, especially from under-represented or fragile demographics
Nudge the Team for corrective action when appropriate
Welcome, promote, and mentor participants from underprivileged backgrounds
Evaluate where diversity-focused sponsorship programs could help and lobby management for the relevant budgets
Provide guidance to the Team when organizing events on how to best make them welcoming to all (child-care at TPAC, health protocols…)
Work with the Team at developing initiatives to support specific locales or demographics (local meet-ups, translations…)

The AB has been working on the Vision for W3C, as a member of the AB how would you put the Vision into practice? How might it impact our decision making or priorities?

The Vision is a high level document, so how it gets applied varies by context.

One way I expect it to be used is by serving as a reference and anchor for other future more specialized documents. A first instance of this may be the Board's work-in-progress on their document covering W3C Inc.'s Corporate Purpose.

Even if it does not get incorporated as a direct reference, it can provides a useful reminder of what we agree W3C stands for when developing or reviewing other documents such as charters, the Process, or various Policies.

Similarly, when disagreements get elevated to a W3C Council, having documented values and principles that we collectively stand behind can be helpful can help restore clarity in some otherwise confused situations.

The vision is also helpful in terms of external signaling. It can help people who share our values confirm that W3C is indeed appropriate for them, as well as help people who don't care for what we do or how we do it steer clear, and save themselves and everyone else a lot of frustration.