xml-dev - RE: sunshine and standards development

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 05:11 PM 10/16/00 +0200, Karl Dubost wrote:
>At 12:59 -0400 14/10/00, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
>>The W3C might be wise to acknowledge and address the resentments that a
closed
>>monopoly process will raise over time, and consider changing some aspect of
>>their approach - opening the archives if they want to maintain their
>>decision-making role, or encouraging competition if they would prefer to
>>remain closed.
>
>The conspiracy theory.

Conspiracy?  Just a membership organization that does important work and
has a severe confidentiality policy.  That can rub people the wrong way
over time.

>So, I can only tell you that we (W3C - Team People) are vendor 
>neutral. It's a kind of ethical responsibility. I know that you just 
>have to trust them and it seems to be not satifying for you.

It's not satisfying given the position the W3C holds in the creation of de
facto standards.  Remember 'be strict to be cool'?  That's got a pretty
strong message in it.

>But, just one comment, you tend to say that Members have big power on 
>the W3C and that the process is not publically available. You feel it 
>as a tyranny, a kind of dictature, but have you think to the power of 
>free time in mailing-list.  

I'm not calling for total mailing list anarchy.  I'm calling for public
disclosure of discussions currently reserved to a privileged few.

>Try just to synthetize your ideas and not post so often. [It should 
>be my first message this month :) ]

Posting once a month doesn't encourage discussion of any kind, I fear.  I'd
like very much to post less, as I have paying work I need to do, but I'd
also like to make sure that the status quo gets a close examination
periodically.



Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books