The "Wiindow of Standardization" (was Re: [xml-dev] XPath/XSLT 2.0 concerns)

10/2/2002 11:31:54 AM, Norman Walsh <> wrote:

>
>So, if you're lucky, you get a relatively small working group with
>strong technical leadership doing something with a relatively narrow
>scope that no one particularly cares about before it's finished.
>
>If you're not lucky, you get a large working group containing lots of
>people with competing agendas, no single clear technical vision,
>working in an area that lots of people assert is desperately
>important.
>
>If you know how to solve these problems, I see the Nobel Price for
>Peace in your future.

Yup.   I'll repost my favorite URL on this subject:
James Gosling's tongue-in-cheek mathematical treatment
of the problem (written about 12 years ago!)
http://java.sun.com/people/jag/StandardsPhases/

"For a standard to be usefully formed, the technology
 needs to be understood: technological interest needs 
to be waning. But if political interest in a standard 
becomes too large, the various parties have too much 
at stake in their own vested interest to be flexible 
enough to accommodate the unified view that a standard requires."