The pole axing ISO took during the early days of 
the web before the Ten Small Truths of Web outed. 

The Ten Small Truths:

1) It isn't that one organization is better than 
another.  In fact, that is precisely the point. 
They aren't.  It comes down to politics and 
those choices are simple: what's in it for me.  

2) One would think we would search for the best design. 
We don't; we search for the best selling author 
because he or she will provide the easiest read.

3) If the customer doesn't know, the vendor doesn't 
have to care.

4) Do the Right Thing: the right thing means the 
MBAs make their numbers.  Certainty is a warm spreadsheet.

5) The web is too much like Canada: it needs 
a strong leader to offset the difficulty of managing 
a weak government.

6) The web isn't the easiest platform; it is the 
hardest by a factor of five.  We've gotten used to 
slow strangulation by the accretion of hacks.  Worse is 
better and we actually believe that.

7) To know that a better universe existed, you have 
to be old enough to remember it.  For the web, that 
means you have to be at least 50 years old.  That 
means you are in a distinct minority among active 
developers.  Minorities don't matter even if they 
are right.  Socialism works only when minorities don't 
matter.  See Truth 1.

8) If the press says it, it must be wrong.  If 
anyone else says it, the press must be right.

9) A day in the library is a waste of time that 
could be better spent updating a wiki.

10) A day spent updating a wiki is a better day  
because now one's opinions about things one knows 
not nearly enough about will really matter.

So we have come to the place predicted by the 
Federalists, where the great unwashed masses 
have inflicted the maximum damage they can inflict 
and now want the damaged to repair them.  
Unfortunately, that is exactly what will happen.

sigh.. whimper... whine...

len


From: G. Ken Holman [mailto:gkholman@C...]

So what is holding vendors back from ISO-developed standards?