Re: [xml-dev] Standards and Antitrust

On 11/16/13 5:31 PM, Michael Kay wrote:
> The theory has nothing to do with TimBL's personal status. There is a
> long history of voluntary trade associations making standards
> affecting their industry, and in some cases governments making
> compliance to these standards mandatory, without violation of
> anti-trust or competition law.
>
> IEEE offers guidance to members of standards activities here:
>
> http://standards.ieee.org/develop/policies/antitrust.pdf

Yes, but the W3C's structure goes way beyond the IEEE.  The IEEE is a 
not-for-profit corporation chartered in New York State.  The W3C is an 
agreement between its core institutions that supports a membership 
structure and employees.

In the end, it basically collapses down to TimBL for better or worse.

I've never thought that was an appealing approach, but then I've never 
found a standards organizations whose rules were worth the electrons or 
paper used to distribute them.

I asked a standards organizations panel at Balisage a few years ago why 
none of them could enforce the processes that theoretically justified 
their existence, and basically got back "it's complicated."  They just 
don't.

I get that on good days they create substantial value, but I'd be much 
happier to see them replaced by structures that enforce transparency and 
have teeth to deal with participants' constant efforts to game them.

Thanks,
-- 
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/