On Tuesday, May 17, 2005, at 08:22 AM, Robert Sayre wrote:
XML namespaces create a middle road between the two--anyone can add elements to an XML document without fear of naming collisions because XML has a built-in coordination method. What possible advantage would there be to allowing just anyone to add elements to Atom's namespace, or any other namespace, for that matter? I can't think of any. In my opinion, alteration of a namespace by anyone other than the entity that created it, or someone authorized by its creator, would completely violate the nature of namespaces. I wouldn't think it would be necessary to spell that out explicitly, but since obviously not everyone agrees, we may as well do so.Do we have a situation similar to HTTP headers and methods, where you can extend it as needed, but you had better 'coordinate' if you want to make sure everyone interprets it the same way? That's fine. Or do we have an IETF-administered registry?
So I'd say we have an IETF-administered registry.