> Joe, *what* have you been smoking? > > HTML has gotten the web where it is because it is the only > game in town. > > And standards??? W3C? There is only one thing that will drive > market acceptance and that is market dominance; not a > committee of any sort. Ever. Macromedia has gotten > themselves installed on everybody's browser. Because of > that, they are the standard. Because they've also got the > mindshare at this point, they'll keep the lead. > > Unless of course they screw up somehow. > > And barring a Microsoft version of Flash (lets call it Flush) > getting installed on every desktop as part of the next > version of Windows. > > But either way, the process will be driven by market > dynamics... Not a cabal of academics.
That's not fair and I think that you may know it. These "academics" are not sitting in an ivory tower making proclomations: the W3C members are, for the most part, representatives from those companies and organizations that drive web technology. A list of current members (including Macromedia) is here: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List Forgetting HTML, how many products are currently using XML? XML is a W3C standard. How about HTTP? That's a W3C standard as well. I agree that market factors can and do drive technology adoption, but a basic foundation must be in place first - and the W3C has given, and continues to give, us that foundation. It's not always on target (for example neither PNG or SMIL have particularly taken off) but what is? Flash may have achieved market dominance via pure market forces, but HTML, HTTP, CSS, SOAP, and XML have achieved market dominance via the work of the W3C. Niether force can be discounted or marginalized. The W3C is also, I believe, the only organization that can bring about the promises of the Semantic Web, common Ontologies and many other foundational technologies. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=4 FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
