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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] W3C openness, participation, innovation, etc. (was re: Web Philosophy)
 We go through this debate about twice a year. I'm sure that I've said everything below at least once before, but: - The W3C is a consortium of competitors trying to decide on an optimum level of interoperability ... it's about co-opetition, not cooperation. They are not REALLY working for the good of humanity.... don't hold them to that standard. On the other hand, humanity is a lot better off with them than without them, at least until some other organization comes along and does it better. - If you really want to participate in W3C activities, there are all sorts of opportunities even for non-members: participate in the public mailing lists, wordsmith the prose in the Working Drafts, implement the specs in code and tell the working group what you learned. If you do become an "expert" in some area by your work outside the W3C, you probably *will* be asked to become an "invited expert." 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. Participation now is very hard, detail-oriented work. You won't be able to profoundly shape the evolution of even one spec unless you can devote full-time to the Activity... and probably not even then unless you are simultaneously a good designer, implementer, politician, AND writer. Or maybe if you can channel the ghost of Leonardo da Vinci :~) - If you want to innovate rather than co-opetate, just DO it. Spin off a little group of your own. SAX, RDDL, and Examplatron are perfect examples of something that a person or small group can do quickly that the W3C would take years to do. Good ideas will still find a home (and, someday, a W3C Activity) if they prove themselves in the real world. Look at XML-RPC->SOAP->[XMLP, UDDI, WSDL, .NET, Hailstorm ..., ad infinitum]; I don't recall the early developers of XML-RPC complaining about the W3C process or its lack of interest in their vision... they just went out and did what had to be done to make it real... Microsoft (and others) picked up the idea, and now the W3C is using its heavy machinery to smooth out the bumps and get it connected with the rest of the world. 
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