I think thats very well said. Even if there were a deluge of feed back,
the compilers of the standard would be free to ignore it.
I can think of no legitimate reason for secrecy.
Even if the member-developers did want an edge on non-member developers,
(assuming that that's a legimitate reason, which is debateable) if they need
that kind of edge they have real problems and are not going to last very
long!!
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kay <M.H.Kay@eng.icl.co.uk>
To: xml-dev <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 8:21 AM
Subject: Re: Open standards processes
>>Here are some more thoughts about open standards processes:
>>
>To add my tuppenceworth, I've been involved in the past in
>both de jure and consortium standards-making processes,
>though all before the days of the web.
>
>To get a successful standard you need a core team who work
>hard, who are technically highly competent, and who
>understand the needs of the users as well as (a more common
>reason for failure) the needs of potential vendors. You need
>a consensus on the general principles and objectives, an
>aversion to introducing unproven innovations, and an absence
>of people with an interest in obstructing the process. You
>don't need consultation or democracy or legal authority;
>these can sometimes help to achieve the necessary consensus
>but can also slow things down or send things off in the
>wrong direction.
>
>But I don't think it serves any purpose to be secretive. I
>have certainly always believed that the more people knew
>what was going on, the greater the chance of success.
>Publishing work in progress will enable the user and vendor
>community to respond more rapidly when the thing is finally
>published, and will harness the resources of a wider group
>of people to spot the errors. I find it a little
>disappointing, now that there is no cost argument to prevent
>open dissemination, that W3C should (apparently) have a
>policy of secrecy which goes beyond anything I ever
>encountered in ISO or ANSI or X/Open or OMG committees.
>Perhaps the problem is that they would be deluged by
>feedback, but I doubt it.
>
>Michael Kay
>
>
>xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
>Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
>To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
>(un)subscribe xml-dev
>To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following
message;
>subscribe xml-dev-digest
>List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)
>
>