How does the WHATWG work?
People send e-mail to the mailing list. The editor then reads that feedback and, taking it into account along with research, studies, and feedback from many other sources (blogs, forums, IRC, etc) makes language design decisions intended to address everyone’s needs as well as possible while keeping the language consistent. This continues, with people sending more feedback, until nobody is able to convince the editor to change the spec any more (e.g. because two people want opposite things, and the editor has considered all the information available and decided that one of the two proposals is the better one). This is not a consensus-based approach — there’s no guarantee that everyone will be happy! There is also no voting. There is a small oversight committee (known as the “WHATWG members”, see the charter) who have the authority to override or replace the editor if he starts making bad decisions. Currently the editor is Ian Hickson.
