Ian Forrester wrote:
Seeing how everyone's so vocal about the BBC recently, I thought it was worth
turning our attention to the W3C (yeah it wasn't as slick a transition as it
should have been)
Mark Pilgrim outlines the friction which is building up between developers in
the field and the tall towers of the W3C?
http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/08/23/overton-window
In recent weeks I’ve noticed a burst of chatter about certain W3C standards,
the working groups that define them, and the W3C itself. I have followed (and
occasionally participated in) web standards discussions for several years, and
I’ve been trying put this recent flurry of activity in context. I believe it
can best be explained in terms of the Overton window.
----
Someone on the list already suggested Backstage should be more involved in the
W3C standard process. And I agree...
But I was wondering what everyone else thinks?
I think http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/166 should be on the
reading list here.
My brief take: now is the time for W3C to move out of the industry
consortium / browser wars mode of operation, and to catch up with the
ways of working popularised by the opensource movement: most importantly
- publically visible, bloggable, google-able archives for all
technical discussion. This is happening, but too slowly. Also there's a
need for a participation model that allows greater involvement for the
vast mass of humanity who happen not to be employed by one of the few
hundred organisations that pay annual membership fees to the W3C. W3C is
my favourite standards organisation, and not just 'cos I was on W3C
staff for 6 years! There are some brilliant people and fantastic works
in the W3C community. But it is really being held back, and increasingly
damaged, by its membership and participation model, which forces it to
conflate the 'evolution of the Web' with 'the creation and update of
formal Web standards'. The promise of exciting new standards shaped by
W3C membership is the engine that keeps membership fees rolling in. But
we've reached a point I fear where yet more standards are damaging, and
what is needed instead is integration, integration, integration. Not
such an exciting driver for those considering paying W3C member fees.
But sorely needed...
imho etc.,
Dan
--
http://danbri.org/
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