Give the Advisory Board a mission statement

[fantasai]

Tries to tie together the various roles of the AB under a coherent mission statement, similar to the TAG.

Based on discussions captured in

• https://github.com/w3c/AB-memberonly/issues/248
• https://www.w3.org/2025/03/26-ABpurpose-minutes.html
• https://www.w3.org/2025/Talks/AC/ab-wendy-reid/slides.pdf

[nigelmegitt]

I thought the role was stronger than this with respect to the process?

[frivoal]

I thought the role was stronger than this with respect to the process?

In what sense?

[TallTed]

Those </li> may be optional. I do not feel that such optionality means they should always be left out. To my eye, they help keep the source coherently readable, which is important since that is where the document is edited. (So far as I'm aware, there's no user-focused editing tool for .bs documents that shows the rendered result along the way.)

[tantek]

Suggested change

its role is strictly advisory.

Given the AB's role in managing the Process document (and now also The Vision, and facilitating the Code of Conduct, which can be a separate PR), and FO Councils, it's high time to remove this legacy phrase which causes more confusion than clarity in practice.

[frivoal]

I am cautiously in favor of this proposed removal. Removing this sentence does not cause the AB to gain any decision power it does not otherwise have, so this seems to be a safe change, and "strictly" hasn't really been true, so this is a likely source of confusion.

[plehegar]

In fact, I don't believe that sentence is correct anymore. The Process says: "Revision of the W3C Process and related documents (see below) undergoes similar consensus-building processes as for technical reports, with the Advisory Board acting as the sponsoring Working Group.".

So, the AB does have decision powers, similar to Working Groups. Both are subject to AC Reviews.

[tantek]

Suggested change

	and has no decision-making authority over W3C;
	and has no decision-making authority over W3C.

Punctuation consistent with the prior suggestion.

[tantek]

Made a couple of optional suggestions which I think improve this section along with these edits, however will defer to editor's discretion.

Rest of it is a solid incremental improvement.

[frivoal]

About the optional </li> tags, I think this is an editorial question that should be left to the editor(s). More over, the editor(s) have documented their preference in this matter for the whole document: https://github.com/w3c/process/blob/main/index.bs#L21

[chaals]

The reason for electing an Advisory Board is to provide guidance to the Team in the areas indicated on behalf of the membership, i.e. without having to poll the entire membership. That serves the Team, in enabling them to have regular input, and the members in enabling them not to have to give it as a body so often.

I think it would be helpful if that were clarified in working out this PR.

[chaals]

Suggested change

	is elected by the Membership to advance the effectiveness of W3C as a community by:
	<ul>
	<li>Providing ongoing guidance to the Team
	is elected by the Membership to provide ongoing guidance to the Team, on behalf of the Membership,

(with subsequent markup tweaks left for the editor - I think they're obvious).

[tantek]

I think "community" was simpler and provided the AB more flexibility. This particular change to focus on "SDO", while I may have my own opinions about it (leaning toward 'can live with') feels like a big enough change that I'd rather see explicit commentary from members of the current AB in support of such a focus before adding it to this PR. Maybe consider postponing this change (community/SDO) for a separate PR?

[plehegar]

The reason for electing an Advisory Board is to provide guidance to the Team in the areas indicated on behalf of the membership, i.e. without having to poll the entire membership.

That's no longer always the case since 2023.

1. the AB acts as the Working Group to revise the W3C Process, and related documents. It is no longer guiding the Team on how to revise the Process.
2. the AB is part of W3C Councils, where Team and W3C decisions can be affirmed or overturned.

So, with the exception of those 2 cases, the AB only has a guidance role, per Process 2025.