Re: Why 90 percent of XML standards will fail

["Christopher R. Maden" <crism@maden.org>]

At 09:28 27-02-2001, Benjamin Franz wrote:
>No one *FORCES* me to comply with the IETF's RFCs (Request For Comments,
>anyone? More political cover for its originating era...), either. (That
>would be treading on the ground of *law*, not standards, BTW - and perhaps
>that is what you believe 'a standard' is - a standard with the force of
>the legal system behind it via trademark or other IP based enforcement
>mechanism. If so, you are mistaken.).

That's exactly what a Standard is.  The situation is a little weaker in the 
US, but in many countries ISO Standards *do* have the force of law.  ANSI 
is an independent organization, but the ISO representatives from other 
countries are often government bodies.

The use of "standard" with a small s isn't as big a deal, but it's still 
useful, IMO, to distinguish between standards produced by international or 
open organizations (ISO, IETF) and specifications (my preferred generic 
term) produced by industry consortia (W3C, OMG, OSF).

-Chris
-- 
Christopher R. Maden, XML Consultant
<URL: http://crism.maden.org/consulting/ >