xml-dev - Re: sunshine and standards development

[Bob La Quey <robertl1@home.com>]

>At 10:08 AM 10/16/00 -0400, Mick Goulish wrote:
>>So, Simon, here's what you can do to influence "standards" formation
>>without telling *other* people what they should do.  
[snip]
>
>Very conventional ideas, none of which do anything to change the overall
>state of the W3C.  I've done plenty of #1, I question the value of #2, and
>regularly attempt #3 when I can find time and money.  
>
>If you haven't noticed, I've put in plenty of time on XSchema/DDML, Common
>XML, and XPDL.  Not all blaring successes, but all of them contributions. I
>can't say I ever expected to hit home runs my first few times out, or to
>ever hit home runs all by myself.
>
>>But don't tell me that I ought to be more "accountable" to you or 
>>anybody else for expressing my technical judgements in a voluntary
>>forum.
>
>I'm not saying that you personally should be accountable, but that an
>organization creating de facto standards should be accountable in some
>significant way that extends beyond its membership.
>
>I'm much more concerned with the accountability of the organization than
>its participants.  
>
>Simon St.Laurent

Simon is not alone in this. There are many of us who feel as he 
does. I, for one, am glad for his energetic defence of a point of
view which I share. 

Some of us have been thrown out of better bars than this though
so we won't just back off. It is, however, clear that the path
forward almost certainly involves significant routing around 
as we pursue 

>3. Implement, or if you can't implement then *describe* Something 
>    Really Cool.  A meme that spreads through the community like 
>    SAX has done.

with our own time and money. 

Viva la Napster,


Bob La Quey