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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] W3C policies (Was Re: an unfilled need)
 > I disagree on both counts. Firstly, W3C does not control XML to the > extent that they can control other syntaxes, because XML is SGML. > Secondly, I think that if Microsoft made a successor to XML, it is quite > possible it could be better than XML is, learning from experience. If > Microsoft cares to give me a million dollars, I am prepared to develop > such a thing! Just to be clear, the XML recommendation in itself is a fantastic piece of work, especially considering the tightrope that had to be walked between SGML traditionalists and HTML mainstreamers. Could it be better? Sure, and if anyone catches me drinking in a hotel lobby and wants to hear a long unfocused rant about how much I hate external entity references, I'm always amenable. The point is that for what XML tries to do (and I refer here only to the Feb98 recommendation) it is more than good enough. I can't imagine Microsoft or anyone else wanting to redo all this work for the sake of some marginal benefit. On the other hand, XML is incomplete. There seems to be a quite strong consensus (at least in this list, which I assume is somewhat representative) that the following aspects still need treatment if XML is going to live up to all the promises we have been proclaiming from the rooftops (universal data exchange, data perennity, application interoperability, world peace, etc.): 1) A better schema language than DTDs 2) Some means of finding out what semantics are associated with a document I thought I was going to type a long list, but it seems to me that this would actually be sufficient. There seems to be agreement that other important issues (like stylesheets and namespaces) are solved or at least well on their way. This might not seem clear in the case of namespaces, but most of the objections to the current spec are really just hankering for 2) in disguise. So the question is, would we rather see these things come about through some open process or by dictate from some corporate titan focused on its own self-interest? I don't want to sound like a starry-eyed idealist, but as XML folks we all understand the value of freely available information. Can't we leverage the network infrastructure provided by the Internet to reform the standards process into something more appropriate for this day and age? The argument that "it's a hell of a lot better than ISO" is not entirely satisfying. (No offense to any ISOers out there; I have no experience with this myself but I've heard a lot of people who do make this statement.) I read Lauren's post on this issue with interest and she makes a very sensible argument. I hadn't seen things from exactly this perspective, so I was glad to be exposed to this viewpoint. But I'm still not convinced. The press no longer controls the public's access to information. Open access to working group proceedings would presumably make it harder for journalists to misrepresent what went on between company A and company B, not easier, since anyone with a Web browser could surf over to the W3C and check it out themselves. If this forces companies to be more aware of how their actions could affect the way the public perceives them, isn't this an unambiguously good thing for everyone except for a handful of large and/or well-connected companies (and in the aggregate, probably for them too)? The word "political" keeps coming up in this context, and yes, we need to accept political realities. What I was trying to argue in my original post is that the choice is not between closed (i.e. non-publicly accessible) development of further XML-related standards (favored by larger companies and insiders) or open processes (favored by the unorganized masses). If this were the case, the political reality would be that the processes are going to stay the way there are. Actually, the W3C may well fail to provide for XML developer's needs in the areas I mentioned above and be preempted by some proprietary approach. This means that even those with a vested interest in maintaining the W3C confidentiality policy (and the power to make this happen) need to think twice about whether this is really in their interests. Taking a "direct democracy" approach where the public at large votes on major decisions in the XML standards process is politically unrealistic and not obviously desirable. We now have the technical means to do the same in the "real" political arena, but it is likely that people will decide to have knowledgeable representatives continue to do the vast majority of this work for them. But providing completely open access to all about what is going on inside the W3C's various groups would bring a ton of benefits, clearing away a lot of bad feelings and misunderstandings, opening critical and tricky decisions to widespread debate, enabling W3C members to participate more freely in outside discussions instead of brushing off interested and justified enquiries, etc., etc. Sure, there would be a couple of additional risks to watch out for, but the conclusion that these are of overriding importance is far from obvious. Matthew xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...) 
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