> Netscape has developed ways to create on-screen content
> by pioneering new uses of HTML, the language of the
> Internet. But its willingness to commercialize new HTML
> uses has angered some in the World Wide Web Consortium
> at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a group of
> companies that set Web standards. For example, Netscape
> bulled ahead with HTML innovations to let people create
> multiple columns of text and blank spaces in Web pages
> even though the consortium was working on open standards
> to do the same thing. In a note on a consortium bulletin
> board, Microsoft's Thomas Reardon accused Netscape of
> trying "to torpedo an existing standards effort so that
> Netscape can own the syntax for Web documents."
>
> Netscape's chief technologist, Marc Andreessen, says
> Netscape intends to support open standards. But "it can
> take two or three years for a standard to be ratified,"
> he says. "We're not going to wait around." He accuses
> Microsoft of a campaign to discredit Netscape. "Their
> culture is so predatory." Yet he recently extended an
> olive branch. He and his fiancee e-mailed Gates an
> invitation to a housewarming party. Gates replied that
> he couldn't come but would consider attending the next
> one.
Again, we are letting others define our agenda for us. And we should get our
members to stop accusing us of being MIT-based!
http://www.usatoday.com/money/bcovmon.htm
Rohit Khare
--- Rohit Khare -- World Wide Web Consortium -- Technical Staff w: 617/253-5884 -- f: 617/258-5999 -- h: 617/491-5030 NE43-354, MIT LCS, 545 Tech Square, Cambridge, MA 02139