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Q002 — Search Log

Query

The W3C Credibility Coalition and Credible Web Community Group developed content credibility indicators (CCIV) and a credibility signals specification. What is the current status of this work? Is it actively maintained, adopted, or abandoned? Does it include any of: hierarchical evidence quality scale, calibrated confidence language, structured bias assessment, or source reliability tiering?

Search Executions

Search 1

  • Terms: W3C Credibility Coalition credibility signals specification CCIV status 2025 2026
  • Rationale: Direct search for current status of the specific initiative.
  • Results returned: 10
  • Selected:
  • SRC-Q2-01: W3C Credibility Community Group page — W3C — Official group page.
  • SRC-Q2-02: Credibility Signals specification (2018-10-21 version) — credweb.org — Original signals specification.
  • SRC-Q2-03: Reviewed Credibility Signals (2020-02-24 version) — credweb.org — The reviewed and approved subset.
  • SRC-Q2-04: Content Credibility Indicators Vocabulary (CCIV) — credweb.org — The CCIV document (archival).
  • SRC-Q2-05: Meedan blog post on W3C credibility work — Meedan — Context on the initiative's goals.
  • SRC-Q2-06: Credibility Coalition — What We Do — credibilitycoalition.org — Organizational overview.
  • Rejected:
  • VCALM v0.9 (w3c-ccg.github.io) — Different working group (Verifiable Credentials), not credibility signals.
  • W3C 2017-11-10 minutes — too old to assess current status.
  • Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 — different W3C specification entirely.

Search 2

  • Terms: Credibility Coalition inactive dormant abandoned status credweb.org last update
  • Rationale: Falsification search — explicitly looking for evidence of abandonment or dormancy.
  • Results returned: 10
  • Selected:
  • SRC-Q2-07: credweb.org main page — credweb.org — Current state of the site.
  • SRC-Q2-08: Credibility Coalition main page — credibilitycoalition.org — Organizational website.
  • SRC-Q2-09: CredCatalog — Credibility Coalition entry — credibilitycoalition.org — Self-description in their catalog.
  • Rejected:
  • Canceled CredWeb meeting (2018-08-29) — single meeting cancellation from 2018, not evidence of overall dormancy.
  • GitHub w3c/credweb — captured in Search 4.

Search 3

  • Terms: credibility coalition W3C community group meetings 2024 2025 active participants
  • Rationale: Look for evidence of recent meeting activity to assess whether the group is genuinely active.
  • Results returned: 10
  • Selected:
  • SRC-Q2-10: W3C Credible Web Community Group page (meetings section) — W3C — Shows quarterly meetings in 2024.
  • Rejected:
  • W3C Credentials Community Group meetings — different group entirely (Verifiable Credentials, not Credibility).
  • W3C TPAC 2024 ODRL issue — different working group.
  • W3C Advisory Committee 2024/2025 meetings — general W3C meetings, not credibility-specific.
  • VCWG Meeting — Verifiable Credentials Working Group, not credibility.

Search 4

  • Terms: site:github.com/w3c/credweb commits issues 2023 2024
  • Rationale: Check GitHub repository for recent development activity.
  • Results returned: 3
  • Selected:
  • SRC-Q2-11: w3c/credweb GitHub repository — GitHub — Repository for the Community Group.
  • Rejected:
  • Commit 6e426f7 — from October 2019, too old.
  • scribing.md — documentation file, not activity indicator.
  • Finding: JUDGMENT — The GitHub repository shows very limited recent activity. The most recent commit found via search was from 2019. This suggests the specification development has stalled even if quarterly meetings continue.

Search 5

  • Terms: credweb.org credibility signals specification hierarchical evidence quality scale source reliability tiering
  • Rationale: Specifically search for the features asked about in the query (evidence quality scale, confidence language, bias assessment, source tiering) within the credibility signals specification.
  • Results returned: 10
  • Selected:
  • SRC-Q2-12: Credibility Signals (2019-11-26 version) — credweb.org — Later version of the signals specification.
  • SRC-Q2-13: Technological Approaches to Improving Credibility Assessment on the Web (report snapshot) — credweb.org — Overview report of approaches.
  • SRC-Q2-14: Survey on Automatic Credibility Assessment of Textual Credibility Signals in the Era of LLMs — arXiv — 2024 survey referencing credibility signals.
  • Rejected:
  • W3C credweb signals page (general) — captured in Search 1.
  • credweb.org/credibility-tech — mirror of SRC-Q2-13.
  • w3c.github.io version of signals — older version already captured.

Search 6

  • Terms: credibility coalition credweb last meeting minutes 2023 2024 mailing list activity
  • Rationale: Deep check on actual meeting content and mailing list activity levels.
  • Results returned: 10
  • Selected: No new sources — confirmed quarterly meetings in 2024 (February, May, August, September/TPAC). Meeting minutes from 2018 were accessible but recent minutes were not found in search results.
  • Rejected:
  • 2018 minutes (April 11, April 25) — too old.
  • Mailing list archive link (2018 canceled meeting) — too old.
  • Finding: JUDGMENT — Quarterly check-in meetings continued through 2024, but the meetings featured guest presentations (e.g., Japan's Originator Profile initiative) rather than active specification development. This is consistent with a group in maintenance/networking mode rather than active development.

Search Completeness Assessment

  • Total unique searches executed: 6
  • Total results evaluated: ~53
  • Sources selected: 14
  • Sources rejected with rationale: ~39
  • Falsification searches conducted: Search 2 (looking for abandonment) and Search 3 (looking for active participation) provided balanced evidence.