Re: color: NCSA Mosaic, Netscape, and HTML3

Terry Allen (terry@ora.com)
Fri, 21 Jul 1995 08:23:10 -0700

Kit Blake:

| This process is already way out of control. The only thing the Academy can
| do is take (some) action, one which considers the present state of the Web.
| There are tens of thousands of users out there who are looking forward to
| Netscape's next release, to see what new <kOOl>! things they can do. If the
| Academy doesn't make some decisions, and announcements, they'll have more
| muck-ups on their hands. Talk to Netscape. Talk to the world. Make some
| decisions. </grumble>

There isn't any Academy (a group with limits on membership). There's a
totally open process in which Netscape, and everyone else, is
welcome to participate. They know how to do it if and when they give
up trying to acheive a proprietary advantage by adding new markup without
even asking whether their designs for the markup are well considered.
Don't tell us to talk to Netscape, tell Netscape to discuss its plans
in public: with, among others, the users who will be stuck with its
decisions.

Notice that Netscape's press releases tend to avoid mention of the IETF as
a standards body:

http://home.netscape.com/newsref/pr/

And ask yourself, do these guys have any coherent plan for these
extensions? How are they going to avoid painting themselves into
a corner if they add markup on an ad hoc basis?

Regards,

-- 
Terry Allen  (terry@ora.com)   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
Editor, Digital Media Group    101 Morris St.
			       Sebastopol, Calif., 95472

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