Re: Would be really nice if...

>I tend to side toward those that wish to dissolve the group if only
>because I fail to see that they have brought any value to us. What
>they have standardized is so inconsequential that the cost and
>difficulty of moving between products is still a substantial barrier.

I think that is just more recent. I think standards groups have a life cycle like so many other things, and the first decade or so this one probably had a profound positive effect. The fact that in a commercial world there is going to be a strong economic motivation towards db balkanization really only took over in the latter '90s.

I don't really take a position one way or another on dissolution, but I would hope that at least trying for standards is better than unconstrained db lockin. And since Bill and Larry both seem to realize it's the applications over all, they have their own agendas which probably don't agree with ours. Of course, standards as a code word for oligopoly is a danger, too.

jg

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