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Martin Soukup wrote:
> The biggest problem with large open standards is that they must serve a
> wide community of users and through that an even wider range of
> customers. I guess the issue here is that one should have the option of
> doing things either way. Wouldn't that serve the most people?
Possibly not. The thing with open standards is that they act as a
public good (if you like, they have macro-economic value) as well as
serving to increase the size of market by drawing in more buyers.
Not everyone gets served equally by them (there will be
detrimental, micro-economic consequences for individuals). If there
is a bias in standards, it's usually towards consumers of the
products the standards target, not the sellers - arguably by the
time a sector needs standardizing, the sellers have made sufficient
margin as opaque markets tend to favour sellers. Fwiw, Eric
Newcomer's article which Len linked to is a resonable portrayal of
what goes when standards come to town, though I agree that the
choices are not so clear cut - differnt areas and verticals will
move at different rates.
Bill de hÓra
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