- From: Joshua Prowse <joshprow@hotmail.com>
- Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 15:59:35 -0400
- To: <www-patentpolicy-comment@w3.org>
It seems to have been established that there is no need for patents at this point in time. It also remains to be seen whether web standards will ever become so very complex that patented technologies are required for the development of future standards. At the very least, it is obvious that RAND is jumping the gun and has not fully explored patent-free alternatives. It seems to have been established that this is a policy being spearheaded by some of the largest corporations in America. It is evident that this policy will serve those large corporations to the necessary exclusion of smaller businesses and individual users. It seems to have been established that business has an undue amount of influence over the W3C. Therefore, I call for a thorough examination of the current status of the W3C: - Could a more open organization be viable in today's climate? From my understanding of the IETF, it appears that a more open organization can satisfy the needs of very large corporations (Cisco) and ordinary users (Anyone can sign up). I realize that the function of the W3C is inherently different. However, some aspects of the W3C could become more open. For example, read-only access could be granted during the development stages of W3C proposals - stages that are now closed to public observation. - Is this cause for discarding the W3C and setting up a secondary, less corporate, organization to take its place? Yes, in some cases. I have lost faith in the ability of the W3C to represent the interests of users and small developers. As such, I will no longer display any of the W3C logos like that for the WAI, or the valid CSS/XHTML buttons. In addition to attempting to distance myself from the organization itself as much as possible, I will also re-evaluate my commitment to producing pages based on W3C standards and instead look to producing pages that work on the largest number of existing browsers. I have lost faith in the W3C, an organization that I once trusted implicitly. I believe that visions such as that for the Semantic Web have been dishonoured and that the stated goals of the W3C have now been compromised. Oh, and did I mention that I'm a high school student? Did I mention that I've been teaching fellow students about how to make standards-compliant web sites? Well, even at my age, I've become disillusioned with this organization. They have lost my support. But more importantly, TBL has last my respect.
Received on Sunday, 30 September 2001 15:59:58 UTC