The Politics Behind HTML5

Organizer: Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software

HTML5 is the flavor of the month. Steve Jobs thinks it will feed his cat, Google thinks it means whatever they think is good, and the rest of us are waiting to discover what (apart from video, better forms, and interoperable parsing on the web) it actually *is* when it's done. Obviously, there is a lot of interest in the next generation of such an important technology, and a lot of discussion about what it will be, how it works, etc. Where the people go, politics follows close behind. From CSSquirrel to MrLastWeek, from the New York Times to bloggers in Kyrgyzstan, people are also watching the politics. And there is a lot of it. On this panel, the people who have been there take you on a guided tour of the (smoky backroom) discussions and deals that shape HTML5, and looks at what is happening now. Where did HTML5 come from? Who were the players, who are the players, and what do they think? Why is X3D not in HTML5 if MathML is? What happened to accesskey, and why are people unhappy? Why does HTML5 have two licenses, and two specs? This panel *won't* answer your questions about how to include HTML5 in your website. It will explore the thorny questions you want to ask but nobody wants to answer, and we'll maybe have a little fun along the way. \

Questions Answered:
* Where did HTML5 come from and why did they do it?
* How did HTML5 get to W3C, and how is that working out?
* What is the WHAT-WG's role now, and what will it do next?
* How come X(3D) is out of HTML5 but (accesske)Y is in it?
* What are the political drivers for video?