Re: Design Principles

Hi David,

> Yes, indeed! It is nice to see my own opposition (which fell just short, alas, of a formal objection)
>  preserved for posterity. I do wish I would have been a bit more eloquent

You were quite eloquent when you voted no and predicted,

"While it has been argued that these Design Principles may serve to
present needless reiteration of previous discussions, I have not seen
any evidence that they do. I have merely observed a large amount of
time spent debating them (reiteratively), absent final "consensus" (to
use the vernacular sense of the term), in the end. I have seen, on
several occasions, design principles misused (even prior to their
"approval") to quash dissent, and fear the same being done again. I
strongly feel that, if recommended by the W3C, they are in need of a
very strong disclaimer about their limitations, the presence of
strongly felt dissent, the potential impossibility of consistent
implementation of them, examples of proper and improper applications
of them, and a need for a periodic and systematic review of the
principles as well as the methodology for their debate and approval.
In the long run, the tyranny of the majority, that the climate
surrounding their debate fostered, had a chilling effect on the group
overall. The humor with which I raised my original objections has
largely vanished, but my opposition to them has not. It is not so much
the individual principles (which I chose not to vote on for various
reasons in October) but the whole package that troubles me.
Collectively, they seem rather like the Galactic Federation posting a
note on a nearby planet that your own planet is soon to be destroyed.
But then, I can be a pessimist at times."
http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/40318/wdhdp/results

Best Regards,
Laura
-- 
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Friday, 22 May 2009 13:59:04 UTC