Re: W3C Invitation

[Michael Champion <mc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On May 14, 2004, at 4:05 PM, Tim Bray wrote:

> On May 14, 2004, at 12:01 PM, Micone, Andrew (Manpower Contract) wrote:
>
> > Michael (Champion) wrote:
> > "Finding anyone insane enough to chair this hornets nest  ...

> Non-issue; both Sam and I have willingness to take it on and sign-off 
> from our employers, wherever it is.

I stand corrected :-)  I'm getting the impression that there has been 
coordination between some Atom people and W3C that was not obvious to 
outsiders such as myself, and this would presumably alleviate a number 
of my concerns.

Basically, standards stuff is excruciatingly hard, but important work.  
RSS/Atom appears to have the all-important critical mass of real-world 
experience that distinguishes effective standardization efforts from 
the design by committee stuff that goes on forever and gets 
politicized.  It may not matter much whether the work gets done at IETF 
or W3C so long as people go into it with the right attitudes.    But if 
you go to W3C, remember the "front loading the pain" bit -- the first 
stages are painful and no fun for techies, but if you get the charter 
and procedures right and stick to them when the going gets ugly, it 
will help down the road, or else give you early warning that meaningful 
consensus is impossible.