My opinion on the RAND proposal

My opinion on the RAND proposal

   I'm not a highly vocal advocate of open standards but this is something
I can not stand by and watch happen.  This proposal would undermine what
the W3C stands for, I found the following on your own website:

"The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability"

  I fear the choice to promote restricted standards would undermine many
of the greatest projects running today and greatly hinder future
development of innovative projects.  One of these is open source software
development (which has brought us such great applications as Apache).  I
believe with the backing of the W3C companies could gain validity for
their new restricted standards and then use them to drive competitors out
of the market place.  This will become increasing evident when you look at
Web Browser development by smaller companies or groups.  I believe the W3C
is coming under increasing pressure from companies who feel their
restricted standards should be adopted widely.  But the W3C was founded to
guide development of common protocols that offer as much interoperability
as possible.  This simply can not be achieved with restricted licenses on
the protocols.  I know as the internet becomes more and more a marketplace
the pressure on the W3C will increase to promote protocols and standards
that adhere to the ideas of larger corporations.  But the W3C was not put
in place to ensure the profitability of large corporation, and I hope
that's something that is still remembered by it's members. I hope you
think very carefully about the choice you make today, because it will have
massive long term effects on the development of the internet.

Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 15:24:26 UTC