Chinese Text Layout Task Force Charter

The mission of this task force is to document gaps and requirements for support of Simplified and Traditional Chinese on the Web and in eBooks.

The documents will provide requirements for the development of W3C standards affected by Simplified and Traditional Chinese. This task force will gather and integrate feedback from the participating members about the need for and technical feasibility of various requirements.

The Task Force is part of the Internationalization Interest Group.

The aim of this task force is to follow the example of Requirements for Japanese Text Layout and collect information about specific use cases for technologies defined in various Web specifications as they relate to the aforementioned scripts, and to report the results of its activities as a group back to the Internationalization Working Group, as well as to other relevant groups and to the W3C membership and community.

This charter is intended to reflect the current direction of the group, so that there is common agreement. It may be altered at any point in order to reflect new priorities or work items.

Join the Chinese Text Layout Task Force.

End date	2025-04-30
Confidentiality	Proceedings are public
Chairs	Yijun Chen (Invited Expert) Eric Q. Liu (Invited Expert)
Team Contacts (FTE %: 2)	Richard Ishida Fuqiao Xue
Usual Meeting Schedule	Teleconferences: on an as-needed basis Face-to-face: on an as-needed basis

Scope

The proposal for the group originated from consultation with stakeholders and W3C members in China on how to help facilitate increased involvement in W3C activities around CSS, digital-publishing, and other Web technologies for Simplified and Traditional Chinese.

In addition to those specifications, the group may review (but is by no means explicitly limited to reviewing) the following:

The work of the Internationalization Working Group.
CSS Modules, in particular:
- CSS Writing Modes
- CSS Text
- CSS Text Decoration
- CSS Lists
- CSS Transitions
- CSS Fonts
- CSS Ruby
- CSS Counter Styles
Browser testing and Tools
HTML (in particular references to ruby, locale-specific formats, and other internationalization aspects)
EPUB
Accessibility standards

The group may also review draft specifications produced by Web API related working groups. Along with reviewing the above-mentioned specifications and related specifications, it is expected that the group will also gather comments and questions about those specifications, collect information about specific use cases in China for technologies defined in those specifications, and report the results of its activities as a group back to the Internationalization Working Group, as well as to other relevant groups - such as the CSS Working Group, SVG Working Group, WHATWG etc.

Deliverables

The Chinese Text Layout Task Force will not produce Recommendation-track deliverables but will produce documents that can be published by the Internationalization Working Group as Working Group Notes on text layout and related technologies in China and elsewhere, the contents of which might include (but by no means are explicitly limited to) the following:

The group may also choose to produce other non-normative deliverables, such as test cases and error reports – under the terms of the Policies for Contribution of Test Cases to W3C, and in coordination with any relevant working groups.

Documents can be produced in both Chinese and English, but there should always be an English version available, since people who don't speak Chinese are part of the target audience for the documents. In fact, opening up information to an international audience is an important aspect of the group's mission. In line with W3C policy, the authoritative version of a document will be the English one: this may be a translation from Chinese, or may be originated in English.

Success Criteria

The success of the Task Force will be evaluated based on how productively it engages with W3C members and the relevant script communities to promote discussion of specifications that affect layout and presentation of languages on the Web, and how effectively it is able to produce additional documents for the refinement, implementation, and adoption of text layout and related technologies in China and worldwide.

Relationships to External Groups

Working Drafts and Notes will be published by the i18n WG, and the i18n WG will work with the task force closely to assist with development and review of the documents. For information about the wider framework into which the Chinese layout work fits, see Analysing support for text layout on the Web.

Dependencies

The Chinese Text Layout Task Force has no formal dependencies on any other W3C Working Groups. Important points of contact are:

Other Groups

The Chinese Text Layout Task Force is also expected to take advantage of opportunities for discussion and collaboration with existing groups and communities in China as well as groups and communities elsewhere.

Participation

The Task Force provides for two levels of participation.

Followers are subscribed to the public-i18n-chinese mailing list, where they can track discussions, and contribute opinions via the GitHub issue list. Rather than just 'Watch' the GitHub repository, it is best to subscribe to the mailing list, because that list is notified once a day (in digest form) about activity in the clreq repository, but also about activity for other W3C Working Group issues related to Chinese. (Participants are expected to use GitHub issues rather than the mailing list to send feedback.)

Task force members are expert contributors who participate actively in producing the work of the group, contributing text and advice to create the outputs, and participating in any meetings. These people are subscribed to the task force group by W3C staff.

All TF members and people making contributions (via issues or pull requests) must read and agree with CONTRIBUTING.md.

Participants in the group are required (by the W3C Process) to follow the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Communication

Chinese Text Layout Task Force discussions take place in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other areas using scripts covered by the project.

The clreq GitHub repository and its issue list are the main vehicles for technical discussion. Discussion can be in Chinese and English but, where useful, Chinese discussions should be summarised in English when a conclusion is reached, so that the wider community can follow.

The public-i18n-chinese@w3.org list receives notifications of changes in the clreq repository, and also of changes to issues in other repositories when those issues are tagged with a clreq label. This includes the CSS and HTML repositories, amongst others. That mailing list should not be used for technical discussion. The public-i18n-chinese list must archive or point to minutes and summaries of all teleconferences and face-to-face meetings. Meeting minutes will list all attendees at a given meeting.

The group will use the Internationalization Activity home page and W3C China Website to provide updated public information about its activities.

Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the clreq GitHub repository.

Meetings may be held in Chinese, but an effort should be made to communicate key findings and conclusions in English in the minutes.

Decision Policy

As explained in the Process Document (section 5.2.1, Consensus), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus. In cases where there is a need to formally produce a group resolution about a particular issue, its Chair will put a question about the issue to the group and gather responses (including any formal objections); then, after due consideration of all the responses, the Chair will record a group resolution (possibly after a formal vote and also along with responding to any formal objections).

Patent Policy

Participants in the Chinese Text Layout Task Force are obligated to comply with W3C patent-disclosure policy as outlined out in Section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy document. Although the Chinese Text Layout Task Force is not chartered to produce Recommendation-track documents that themselves require patent disclosure, participants in the group are nevertheless obligated to comply with W3C patent-disclosure policy for any Recommendation-track specifications that they review or comment on.

For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.

Licensing

This Task Force will use the W3C Software and Document license for all its deliverables.

About this Charter

This charter for the Task Force within the Internationalization Interest Group has been created according to section 5 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.

Charter History

The following table lists details of all changes from the initial charter:

Date	Changes
2014	N/A
14 April 2021	Removed references to Mongolian, Tibetan, and Uighur scripts. Zhuang Chen, Bobby Tung, and Nashun-urt stepped down as co-chairs. Added Yijun Chen and Eric Q. Liu as co-chairs. Anqi Li and Xiaoqian Wu stepped down as team contacts. Added Fuqiao Xue as team contact. Added Chinese Layout Gap Analysis to the group's deliverables.