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RE: Has XML run its course?

• From: "Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@S...>
• To: xml-dev@l...
• Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 19:22:50 -0400

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Bray [mailto:tbray@t...]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 4:46 PM
> To: xml-dev@l...
> Subject: Re:  Has XML run its course?
> 
> 
> At 12:18 PM 26/09/01 -0700, Tom Bradford wrote:
> > But the W3C *has* outlived its usefulness,
> >and it's time that another, more responsible, entity took over the
> >future of XML's evolution.
> 
> What kind of entity would be appropriate?  Something
> existing, or is time to start with something new? -Tim

Speaking of deja vu ... the SGML/HTML worlds must have faced a somewhat
similar situation in 1993-1994 as SGML looked powerful and interesting but
the ISO process seemed inadequate for a world appearing to operate in
"internet time", and HTML looked simple and promising but was rapidly
becoming ad-hoc and proprietary.  It was an awfully good idea to establish
something like the W3C as a "treaty organization" where vendors (rather than
national standards organizations, like the ISO ... or all sorts of random
individuals, like the IETF) could get together and work out where they
wished to cooperate, and where they wished to compete.  In retrospect, the
W3C did serve that purpose quite well for awhile, even if (arguably) both
the world and the organization have since moved on.

How did the W3C come about to fill the niche that needed to be filled?  I'll
guess that it couldn't have happened without the enormous credibility that
Tim Berners-Lee brought to the party.  Any ol' timers out there remember
those days well enough to provide us with the lessons of history?

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