On Mon, Jun 27, 2011 at 5:10 PM, Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com> wrote:
In comparison, we have a couple of folks who keep an
eye on some of the W3C
/ WHATWG lists that are working on the HTML 5 specifications -- these are
mostly open lists which made it easier for particularly interested
individuals like Aryeh & Tim to pop on either for specific issues or just as
voracious list readers. ;)
Wikimedia could become a member of the W3C too if it liked:
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/join
It looks like it would cost $7,900 a year in dues, if I read right.
But the benefits in practice are pretty small:
* You get a seat on the Advisory Committee, which doesn't mean much
because it's already fairly large. Would be nice to have more
open-source-friendly organizations there, but one more wouldn't make a
big difference.
* Wikimedia employees can join W3C Working Groups. This doesn't
really matter because the specs that matter to the web (HTML, CSS,
SVG) are all developed in public anyway, and anyone can provide
feedback in some form, and members other than browser implementers
don't have much de facto control. It would only matter if someone
wanted to actually edit a spec or something.
So it's not a huge amount of money, but probably not worth it except
maybe for making a pro-standards statement.