[microformats-discuss] FYI: Boyd on Microformats and Structured Blogging

[Danny Ayers]

On 10/11/05, Tantek Çelik <tantek at cs.stanford.edu> wrote:

> So I suppose people could drum up a conspiracy theory about Microsoft and
> Technorati working on open standards...

I seem to remember someone drummed up just such a theory about Atom,
based on the fact that a couple of the most active participants (i.e.
"leaders") worked for IBM. Also a recurring line from contributors who
had found their proposals rebuffed was that it wasn't really a
community affair, all decisions being made at the centre (I called
something similar out myself more than once, but was satisfied by the
chair). There was plenty of crit in the blogosphere along similar
lines, highlighting the cliqueyness of the group. But Atom had the
defence of being an IETF project, rough consensus and so on providing
some form of open credentials. Without such a defence, extra vigilance
in avoiding us vs. them confrontational stances might be needed to
avoid bad press. Even if y'all do know best ;-)

Cheers,
Danny.

--

http://dannyayers.com