Chris Croome wrote:

>Hi
>
>What do people think about Dave Winer's plan [1] to issue RSS 2.0
>[2] tomorrow?
>
>Is it just a matter of fixing the details as Ben Hammersley implies
>[3] (I could add internationalisation to that list...) or is there a
>far bigger _fundamental_ problem with the 'benevolent dictator'
>appoach to the production of web standards?
>
>
I hate to split semantic hairs, but RSS 0.9x and 2.0 are not web
standards, they are
proprietary formats of Userland. They were not developed in an open
fashion, nor are
they associated with any standards bodies. They are updated at one
persons whim.
They are not standards.

Now as far as the name RSS goes, that and the 0.9 spec were written by
Netscape and
then, ummm, taken over by Userland. Was that the right thing to do? Is
that nice behaviour?
It doesn't matter. Even if it did matter to someone that someone isn't
you unless you
work at Userland or Netscape, since the problem just ends up being a
tradename/trademark/copyright dispute between Userland and Netscape.
Just because Userland did that doesn't make it okay for everyone
to charge in and grab the RSS name. Now usually companies
will, after sheperding a format for a while, voluntarily turn over such
formats to
standards bodies to gain wider acceptance. Hell, even Microsoft has
submitted WSDL to
the W3C. Userland, as is their perogative, has decided not to do this.
It damages
the format but it is still their decision. So no, I don't care if
Userland issues
RSS 2.0 tomorrow, or RSS 3.0 next Thursday, or RSS 4.0 two years from
last Tuesday.

For the very same reasons I also do not consider RSS 1.0 a legitimate web
standard either. The rss-dev group took the name from Userland without
permission and
they are not associated with any standards group. Their claim to a
'standard' and the
RSS name are just as tenuous as Userlands.

My suggestion, just walk away from the name. We need to pick another
TLA, form a
new working group, get associated with a standards body, and never look
back.
But the most important thing is to pick a new TLA, might I suggest
Reader Documentation Format? ;-)

-joe

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