xml-dev - RE: sunshine and standards development

[Matt Sergeant <matt@sergeant.org>]

On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Bill dehOra wrote:

> 
> >This is the argument I have a real problem with. If the W3C is closed
> >simply so that the member organisations can get a "leg-up" over, say,
> >someone wanting to implement an open source equivalent of said
> >specification then something is really wrong with the system. 
> 
> The W3C is closed since you have to pay to get in.

Rather, the W3C is closed since you have to pay huge amounts to get in. I
would personally pay private dues if it were reasonable like Oasis
($250). That would allow some open source implementors and single person
shops in on the closed discussions.

> >How can this
> >situation end up with anything *but* competing implementations, rather
> >than interoperable, compatible implementations?
> 
> Surely that's because the W3C isn't in the implementation business?

I guess we're not seeing the same thing here. I see a closed shop where
the companies with the mega-bucks can start working on their
implementations very early on. You seem to see the world where that is a
necessary evil, and I disagree with you. The way I see the world is that a
standards organisation should not be in in the market for help businesses
further their self worth - they should be in the business of producing
standards. Non-disclosure has nothing to do with the latter and everything
to do with the former.

> >> Simply, the internet is not and never has been, free. 
> >
> >Maybe you got there after I did. I remember a pretty free 
> >internet, when companies didn't even know what the internet 
> >*was* (and I'm not even very old!).
> 
> I don't remember a free internet. I remember an internet I didn't think I
> was paying for, but I know better now. Subsidised maybe, not free.

You and I have different definitions of the word free. Think libre not
gratis.

-- 
<Matt/>

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