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Given that the principle advantage of open source is shared development costs and risks, shared research costs and risks should be attractive. At least it proves a specification and it is much closer to the running code and rough consensus philosophy. My only quibble will be if a standard is announced prior to market acceptance. I think that's a higher non-technical barrier but one that has to be crossed. <rant excuse="It's Friday"> People fear the BigCos and the DeepPockets. If the Internet era teaches one lesson it is that these guys don't always win. VRML is a good example. All of the BigCos and DeepPockets efforts died regardless of the fuel. The VRML junkyard dogs just keep keeping on and no amount of "We will crush you" (MS), or "We can ignore you" (Shockwave) or "We'll take all your members and go play our own game" (Intel U3D) or Clay Shirky's "VRML is dead. Good riddance.." has worked. X3D/VRML is still standing and gaining ground. Nothing is better than dedicated persistence and values. It may not go as fast but it always wins. While that contradicts accepted marketing wisdom, it is demonstrably true. That is the one indisputable evolutionary effect of the World Wide Web on choices of choices. In aggregate and given a choice, the humans bet on the good guys and somehow know who they are. The incubation of human spirit is an awesome process. </rant> len
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