Registry Inclusiveness

[egekorkan]

As part of #378 , a discussion started on how inclusive the linked bindings should be, i.e. is any link to a binding with any access and usage permissions are allowed? The points raised so far are:

1. Should the binding document be required to follow W3C copyright rules, and should the document follow the exact template and look and feel?

   • Ege: No as we want other organizations to also submit bindings. -> TD TF seems to be fine with this requirement.

2. Should the binding document be publicly available and for free? What about the license, e.g., can I write a binding driver without any fees, etc. The dimensions we thought of are: Reading the binding document, reading the protocol specification, implementing a device/Thing, implementing a Consumer application/driver, building a commercial product with the binding, making a statement about your product's supporting that binding.

• Ege: At least the custodian and the reviewers should be able to access it for free. This is either with a liaison so that the WG can read it, or the reviewer has access to the binding as they are affiliated with an entity who is a member of the other organization.
• Koster: Requiring everything to be free to use would limit the amount of bindings. At the very least, the entry should contain a freely available summary document that explains the protocol and how WoT is used there, ideally with an example. The reader should know to what extent the binding goes (e.g. reading device data or device management).
• Cris: We should promote open protocols and be more restrictive

The minutes of the relevant meetings:

• https://www.w3.org/2024/12/18-wot-td-minutes.html#9693
• https://www.w3.org/2024/12/12-wot-td-minutes.html#9299

[lu-zero]

A binding that has usage or access restriction cannot really be part of the registry, we (w3c) have to be able to store, format and redistribute all the bindings in the registry otherwise the registry itself does not have many reasons to exist.

[mmccool]

For legal matters, we need to talk to @plehegar

[sebastiankb]

Should the binding document be required to follow W3C copyright rules, and should the document follow the exact template and look and feel?

We may follow the same approach what is IANA is asking for. E.g., https://w3c.github.io/wot-thing-description/#iana-section But I'm not sure if IANA force to have same exact template and look & feel.

Should the binding document be publicly available and for free?

The registry should make this clear if there are some access limitations. E.g., there are fees associated with accessing and acquiring IEC standards