RE: W3C openness, participation, innovation,etc. (was re: Web Philosophy)

[Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@ebt.com>]

> They are not REALLY working for the good of humanity....

Hey! Speak for yourself! ;-)

> But don't expect to single-handedly change the course 
> of a W3C spec by your witty critiques on the mailing lists
> ... the "low hanging fruit" have been plucked. 

... a long time ago. Standards work is *hard* and is getting
harder, partly due to conflicting requirements, partly because
of past decisions, partly because or momentum, partly because
it's just plain *hard*.

> - If you want to innovate rather than co-opetate, just DO it. 

Right. If something is compelling enough, people *will* adopt
it.

The thing here is that after every iteration, it becomes harder
to displace what already exists. 

For example, say you wanted to replace XML... you'd have to come 
up with something that is so blindingly better that people will 
adopt it. SML failed to gain more than a niche...

Schemas are another one. If Schematron et al. are *sooo* much better
than XSchema, they will displace it with or without the political
gyrations going on right now. If not they will fail regardless.