W3C's 'Moral Majesty'

[Len Bullard]

David Megginson wrote:
> 
> Business and technical people used to need a lot of face-to-face
> contact, but there is a new generation (the under 45's) that's very
> comfortable with e-mail and telecommuting, and e-mail is a great
> equalizer -- you can pick up mail for a whole group of people just by
> setting up an old 286 to dial a local ISP once a day (of course, many
> people in the world don't have electricity or phone, much less an old
> 286, but at least the circle is a little wider).

Without the ageism, the important characteristic is Practice.  Those 
who encourage list communities as a vital aspect of standards and 
specifications design note that the lists must practice and understand 
the process of editorial work.  The disappointing aspect of this 
discussion is that this list community has as members some of the 
best minds in the industry with regards to both the design and the use 
of the technology created to enable distributed enterprise.  That they 
cannot see that the need to apply the technology to this issue of 
disenfranchisement means that both vested interest and fear now 
dominate their actions.

Lame, folks.  Really lame.

> As a case in point, SAX 1.0 was designed and implemented on XML-Dev in
> a few weeks without a single F2F meeting.

QED, David.  It can be done.  You do not have to submit to the 
authority of a single individual in all decisions unless you 
believe you have to.  The idea that the W3C represents some 
kind of moral majesty is both repugnant and the proof that 
Tim Berners-Lee and the W3C have failed to produce anything 
resembling a moral solution.

Len Bullard


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