[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: XUL Standardization: Lessons from the RSS Civil War
Perhaps, but not by natural selection. Think it through. Dave's position is now prey. He worked in the open and he shared. Whatever his tactical issues were, however hard he has tried to keep control of the process of evolving RSS, whatever things he did or said to make people "unwilling", his strategic blunder was to assume he could work openly without being under the protection of the policies of an organization that would assume ownership of the product even if that organization was his own: therefore, to patent and proprietarize. I don't think others will make that mistake as often now. Self-interest is not selfishness. Had smarter heads not prevailed and left out the normative references to ISO 8879 in the W3C subset specifications, the same could be said of XML. Smarter heads did prevail and the relationship of users to originators, and standards to specified subsets remained proper. Whatever Tim thinks of Charles, regardless of however many agreed, Charles was the ISO chair and that was ISO property. And it still is. The fact that 99% of the development of a subset of that is now under control of a different group does not alter that condition. That is healthy. If you take RSS, claim it, rename it, but are essentially still building over it, it is piracy. No one can stop you from doing it now because the owner of the ship left the holds unlocked, shared his decks, and in effect, gave you the access... just as the ethos of the open source/web culture said he should to succeed. I have to question both that culture and that success if we urge others to take advantage of him and call it community. A community of what? Pirates? I suggest that those who really do have community interest at heart stop to consider the good of the few or the one, and then work as long and hard as it takes to craft a relationship with RSS and its originator that is to the mutual benefit of all. I sincerely doubt a reasonable individual will not work with an honorable group to mutual benefit. Take a deep breath and trust that better results can be obtained by that tactic. Tim's article regardless of how experienced and how well meant put a knife to Dave's throat. I don't think that is a good precedent even if it is an effective means of persuasion. The prey usually reacts badly. I would really like to hear Dave's position on all of this. len From: Danny Ayers [mailto:danny666@v...] You are the very model of a modern Major-General... > -----Original Message----- > From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@i...] > Sent: 27 June 2003 16:16 > To: 'danny666@v...'; xml-dev@l... > Subject: RE: XUL Standardization: Lessons from the RSS Civil > War > > > A crew is arriving at your house tonight > to take anything that you haven't polished, used, > or otherwise shared with your neighbors. If you > object, we won't cut you in on the spoils and we > may burn down your house leaving; if you > help us, we will let your house stand, but we > will own your silver for the good of the commons. > > To the true inventors: if you have a valuable idea or > innovation and the moxie to build it, PATENT IT > AND KEEP IT PROPRIETARY. That is the only > way the local laws will help you fight the > web pirates who are flying the flag of community > instead of the skull and crossbones. > > Queen Elizabeth I decorated her buccaneers until > the winds of world politics shifted. Then she > tossed 'em in jail. > > len > > > From: Danny Ayers [mailto:danny666@v...] > > Anyhow, I only wanted to say that there wasn't only Tim's > veteran's-eye view > of the situation (which is a big plus for the project), there was also the > emerging view of the group, and that the two didn't entirely coincide. The > biggest deviation so far is in an area that to an outsider might look > trivial - the non-use of the name RSS (the current working name is now > Echo). But the naming issue has probably been the biggest single fan of > flames in the RSS fork inferno, and there were many that would > only support > a New Format if the name (and its political baggage) were dropped. > > Using a different name also brings a great > psychological/practical gain - it > feels ok to tear things up and start again. Has XUL really > reached the point > where that is the only clear route forward? > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> >
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