At WikiSym 2005, we had a BoF on Wiki Standards, organized by Stephan Schmidt, coauthor of SnipSnap. Discussion was spirited, as you might expect, but I think we accomplished a great deal. (JY4)
We began by reviewing a list of things that could be standardized, which was old hat for a lot of folks who’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while. We quickly decided to move on, because we weren’t going to come to agreement in any short period of time. So we decided to agree on a Neutral Space where we could have the discussion. (JY5)
That discussion was more controversial than I expected. MeatballWiki has been the primary forum for the Wiki community to talk about interoperability, and I and others didn’t see any reason for that to change. Some folks felt very strongly about WikiSym being more neutral, and so we ultimately decided to have our standardization discussions there. My guess is that a lot of innovation will continue to happen on Meatball and other places, while the drafting and discussion of standards will happen at WikiSym. (JY6)
So here’s the deal. If you’re interested in Wiki Standards — and that should be everyone in the Wiki community — subscribe to the wiki-standards mailing list. There’s already been some excellent discussion, and I think we’re going to see some real specs soon. (JY7)