[uf-discuss] Mailing list debate moved & new proposal

[Mike Schinkel]

Andy Mabbett>> Why not create a new mailing list for each proposal, once
it's reached a certain stage? 

I tend to really like this proposal.  I've been thinking about if and how
Microformats can evolve and grow.
I can see Microformats being potentially much larger helping to create tags
in many different areas vertical  but the current process can't scale.

For example, if someone might want to create microformats to identify "auto
parts" but I'm sure there are thousands of other areas too.  How can we keep
up with them all?
It seems that having a central registry for approving subject areas and then
creating a list for that area could grow microformats exponentially.

Of course then the question becomes, how to avoid conflicts. I would suggest
that every microformat should have a unique name, and then within that
Microformat the subclasses would be free of namespace collisions.  And maybe
having a well-known prefix like "uf-" so that general microformats could be
referred to within other Microsformats:

<span class="auto-parts">
	<div class="sku">12345</div>   
	<div class="manufacturer">Mopar</div>
	<div class="description">Exhaust System</div>
	<div class="uf-money">
		<abbr class="symbol" title="USD">$</abbr>
		<span class="amount">199</span>
	</div>
</span>

This was just off the top of my head, but I wanted to get the discussion
started...

I will close with a quote from Tantek[1] quoting and commenting on Weaving
the Web by TBL:

	WTW Chapter 12 page 175

	   "We could allow a set of working groups that can be shown to form
a tight 
	    self-reliant cluster to secede and form a new peer "clone"
consortium. ... 
	    anyone could start a consortium, when the conditions were right,
by pushing 
	    a few buttons on the Web page of a virtual "consortium factory" 

	This is a fascinating set of ideas. But why a "peer" consortium? The
W3C did not start 
	as a peer to those that came before it. I think if anything, we'll
see the tiniest of 
	efforts, that start quite small, and perhaps stay small, or perhaps
slowly grow into 
	something that could be said to be a peer. 


-Mike

[1] (http://tantek.com/log/2003/0813t1158.html)