Facilitating continued participation in a Working Group

We want CG Specifications with traction to be taken up in a Working Group in order to secure additional guarantees. In some cases, a CG may be reluctant to transfer a Specification with traction to a Working Group, and one of the primary reasons appears to be that non-Members who have made significant contributions to the CG Specification will face a sudden cost increase (W3C Membership) in order to continue.

How can we facilitate continued participation in a Working Group for those non-Members who have already made significant contributions? (I note that W3C has benefited from those contributions without incurring any direct cost and would do well to express appreciation to those contributors.)

Some ideas:

• Any mechanism involving non-member participation is undoubtedly going to involve organizational IPR commitments.
• Ideas for participation:
  • The IE mechanism
  • Reduced participation fee as non-Member.

The issue does not identify files, tests, or an implementation entry point. Start by reviewing the proposed IE mechanism and reduced non-Member participation fee, then determine the organizational IPR requirements and what concrete policy change would address continued participation.