- From: Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>
- Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2003 09:20:02 -0800
- To: Rick Jelliffe <ricko@topologi.com>
- Cc: www-tag@w3.org
Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> Am I right in thinking that all members of the TAG are now residents of North America?
No. Chris Lilley is a resident of France and Stuart Williams of
Britain. The national makeup of the TAG is interesting: 3 Canadians
(Bray/Cotton/Orchard), three British (Berners-Lee/Lilley/Williams) and
three Americans (Connolly/Fielding/Walsh).
> If so, does the TAG feel that this may compromise their ability or credability to architect
> a "World Wide" Web to some degree? Or, as a lesser question, does the TAG feel they
> are actively encouraging and perpetuating a centre-periphery divide between dominant
> regions and dominated regions?
We have observed with regret more than once that the TAG is composed
entirely of middle-aged white guys who are native speakers of English.
Since this is supposed to be a technical activity, I'd be worried more
about the fact that we're all anglophones, except for we have pretty
good i18n expertise on-board and via callout to people like Duerst and you.
I know for a fact that there are people in various combinations of
non-male non-white non-native-English-speaker who are plenty well
qualified to be on the TAG.
Do I think that increasing the diversity would have any impact on the
outcomes of our technical discussions? No. Do I think that it might be
potentially of symbolic value? Maybe.
> Will the TAG consider altering its membership rules to encourage diversity?
The TAG doesn't make its membership rules, so you need to talk to the AB
and AC.
--
Cheers, Tim Bray
(ongoing fragmented essay: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/)
Received on Sunday, 9 March 2003 12:20:01 UTC