LYNX-DEV Political Correctness re Standards Politics

[Al Gilman]

Politically correct is pro-Lynx in this case; please watch your language.

  From: address@hidden (Larry W. Virden, x2487)
  Subject: LYNX-DEV HTML 3.2 now a W3C recommendation

  See <URL:http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Press/HTML32-REC-PR.html> for
  the press release endorsing HTML 3.2 as a recommendation.  The
  recommendation is basically W3C's way of 'releasing a new standard'.

While there is a lot of weight behind the recommendations of the
W3C, preserving the distinction between a W3C recommendation and
a "standard" is probably worth the trouble, and in Lynx's
interest.

The W3C represents organized money.  The relative importance of
money vs. people in the W3C is higher than it is in the IETF.  In
fact the organizers of the W3C were politically sensitive enough
not to call their releases "standards" precisely because of
sensitivity among 'Net veterans to the closed nature of the W3C
process.

The Lynx community is relatively rich in individuals and poor in 
aggregated, monetarized capital.  So Lynx has an interest in 
preserving the talking line that the W3C doesn't decide standards.

You still have to be verrry careful when you wrestle with an
eleven-ton gorilla, regardless.

Al Gilman

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