London

I hosted W3C’s Advisory Board at Apple’s office in 22 Bishopsgate in the City of London this week. London isn’t at its best in February—the weather was pretty crummy, but the city charmed despite conditions. I stayed at Club Quarters Hotel in Gracechurch Street, a short walk from the office, to minimize getting soaked during my daily commute.

I arrived on BA284 midday Tuesday and, after dropping my things at the hotel, met up with Anne and his family at Picadilly Circus—they just happened to be in London on holiday. We wandered from there to Convent Garden via Leicester Square, stopping in various shops while catching up. I then met up with Max for a pint at The Euston Tap, followed by dinner together at Dishoom in King’s Cross.

The meeting kicked off Wednesday morning. 李安琪 (Lǐ Ānqí) and Dan ably guided us through our agenda over the following three days. Some highlights:

• Heather Flanagan told us all about IETF Dispatch, and its lessons for the nascent Exploration IG;
• We made significant progress on two position papers—one on the use of AI to produce web standards, and another on the incorporation of human rights considerations in standards work;
• Brent and I led a number of breakout sessions to explore possible changes to the Process Document;
• and Coralie presented exciting ideas to us on ways to increase Member engagement.

李安琪 (Lǐ Ānqí), Brent, Dan, 丁蔚 (Dīng Wèi), Elena, Emma, Hidde, 五十嵐 (Igarashi)卓也 (Tatsuya), Max, and 太田 (Ōta)浩史 (Hiroshi) were all able to be there in person. And we had some special guests: Chris and Léonie from the Board of Directors joined us in person for a session Wednesday afternoon that several other directors and Seth called in for. Amy and Avneesh each engaged in spectacular time zone heroics to call in for as much as they could.

We ate at Coya City, a Peruvian place not far from the office, Wednesday night. Supper the following evening was more traditional fare: Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street. The peas were mushy; the toffee pudding, sticky. Elena and I had a couple of cocktails at Opium in Soho afterwards.

I got to catch up with Nick while in the office, despite being based at Battersea himself, and I met up with Marina and a friend of hers at La Camionera, a lesbian bar in Hackney, after dinner Friday night.

I was able to spend a few hours touristing around on Saturday morning before returning to Heathrow. I walked to Southwark across London Bridge, wandered through Borough Market and past The Globe, and visited the Tate Modern. I returned for my things via the Millennium Bridge, enjoyed the views it affords, and caught the Elizabeth Line to Heathrow T5 from Liverpool Street. I ran into Anne and his mother as I was walking through T5—quelle surprise !