xml-dev - Re: sunshine and standards development

[Mick Goulish <michael.goulish@softwareag-usa.com>]

----- Simon, missing the point, says:

// Ah, but the point is that I (and others) are growing tired of being told
// what to do by *other* people inside of organizations issuing specs.  The
// list of answers you provide doesn't really fix that.



----- Mick, with the strained but still generous patience of a *real* saint,
replies:

Half of what I tried to do with my previous post was to point out the
difference between my 'making a recommendation' and my 'telling you
what to do.'

If you don't like it, don't do it.  Nobody in the W3C told anybody to
do anything.  I sure as hell wouldn't be there if they were that kind of
organization.  I am not a mugger, a rapist, or a Congressman.  The W3C
only says "we think this would  be good technology to implement."  If you
are a  company owner who's  interested in this  tech, or a teacher who
writes  books -- then what you  do after that recommendation is up to you.

I expect, for example, that you have decided *not* to write books on
some W3C recommendations because you took one look and said
"That's a loser, I'm not even going to bother writing a query letter to
my publisher about that."    Implementers go through exactly the same
process.  They just ignore stuff they don't like.  They also implement
stuff, like SAX, that the W3C has nothing to do with.

There is no justification for telling the W3C to open up more to non-member.
*That* constitutes telling others what to do.

You were at XTech 2000 when Don Park announced that he and his buddies
were starting a more open organization to bless XML-related standards.
Hold on.  Weren't you *one* of those buddies??

Stop lecturing the W3C.  Go forth and make your own standards if you
want to.  Nobody's stopping you.

----------------------------------------------- Mick, the Libertarian .