Sidebar: Setting Web Standards

Computerworld - Tim Berners-Lee is the creator of the World Wide Web and founder and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in Cambridge, Mass. Berners-Lee is currently working on the Semantic Web, a framework for making Web content understandable by machines as well as people. In an interview conducted via e-mail with Robert L. Mitchell, he discussed the W3C and the challenges of developing standards.

Why did the world need the W3C -- yet another standards group? There was not a group that was ready to focus on the layers of technology above the protocols layer that could draw upon the right communities of users. W3C appeared at a time when some of the most serious concerns had to do with fragmentation of the basic Web technologies, namely HTML, and we had to find a way to bring the actors to the table for the greater good.

Prior to founding the W3C, you first took HTML to the IETF. Why didn't it work out? I did start by taking HTML to the IETF, as I had been involved with the IETF for Internet protocols. That didn't work out largely because the people with markup experience were a different set: They joined the later W3C HTML Working Group when it was formed, which was very successful in bringing the fragmented HTML versions back to a single standard.

Why are there so many consortia and vendor groups promoting their own standards today? Recognizing that standards are now what customers demand, we see more of these marketing initiatives launched under the name of "standard." And of course, it makes sense that vendors might want to ensure that they can exert as much control as possible over the development of a standard -- they're going to have to make products that conform. If a vendor group can control both the technical development and the marketing, then it's more appealing to the vendor -- but not necessarily to the customer.
If you look at the rate of creation of new fora of the type which are formed by a few controlling founders, then in fact this is not new -- it has been happening for a long time. Many of these are being formed as a marketing exercise, to build up some brand recognition. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, per se, except when it gets labeled a standard.

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and founder and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)