Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> __/ [ [H]omer ] on Tuesday 01 May 2007 04:21 \__
>
>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>>> Cyberinfrastructure and the Public Interest
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | The fact that so many people are meeting in so many venues to
>>> | discuss standards in non-technical contexts demonstrates the
>>> | fact that something new and important is at work here. And the
>>> | fact that many of these conferences are taking place in
>>> | academic and government venues suggests that people are still
>>> | trying to figure out what it's all about.
>>> `----
>>>
>>>
> http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070430034335550
>>
>> I strongly believe that Microsoft is going to lose this battle. And I
>> don't mean "hope", I really do mean "believe". Too many people are aware
>> that, to Microsoft, a "standard" is just a freedom circumvention device.
>
> Microsoft does not distinguish between a protocol -- however closed and/or
> patent-encumbered -- and a standard.
>
You might not recall this, but Microsoft were the leading party in
destroying the once-powerful standards regime, whose decline started in
the 1990s. Microsoft made a specific presentation on this, with the
words, as best as I can remember them "Standards are de-facto and
de-facto is Windows". Pretty much everyone who didn't grasp what
standards were for went around saying that standards were dead from that
point on. It's been a long slog, but I think that they are re-emerging,
but in a newer and far more powerful form than previously.
As I've said many times, expressing ideas, particularly state-machines,
in source-code is far more precise and unambiguous than trying to do so
in English and other normally-spoken languages. Source-code has won the
standards battle, all we're watching now is the end-game. Microsoft
might think that they can play it to a stalemate, but I doubt even they
are that naive, rather, they're playing to maximise their remaining
pieces, and no more.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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