> I agree that market factors can and do drive technology > adoption, but a basic foundation must be in place first > - and the W3C has given, and continues to give, us that > foundation. It's not always on target (for example neither > PNG or SMIL have particularly taken off) but what is? > > Flash may have achieved market dominance via pure market > forces, but HTML, HTTP, CSS, SOAP, and XML have achieved > market dominance via the work of the W3C. Niether force > can be discounted or marginalized.
I think I can safely discount and marginalize the contributions of the W3C to a significant degree. They, like any other standards body, are typically on the trailing edge of technology, not the leading edge. The history of web technology could glibly be summarized as vendors adding new features, followed by the W3C adopting them into their standards. Vendors adopt standards when it suits their interests, and go their own ways when it doesn't. This seems to be changing a bit, now, as interoperability becomes more important to more people, but was especially true in the early days of the web, when Netscape and Microsoft were introducing new "HTML" tags in their browsers on what seemed like a weekly basis. > The W3C is also, I believe, the only organization that > can bring about the promises of the Semantic Web, common > Ontologies and many other foundational technologies. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for standardization. But the W3C can't bring about doodly-squat. All it can do is help vendors do what they want to do, if they want to do it. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ voice: (202) 797-5496 fax: (202) 797-5444 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
