The World Wide Web Consortium, the Web’s ostensible standards body, came under fire last week from its own Advisory Council for being ineffective and detrimental to the future of the Web. The Consortium was criticized as being rudderless, purposeless and disorganized at a time when billions of dollars in Internet investments ride on its moves. It is said to have only accidentally hit upon its projects so far and to have no organized way of conducting itself and getting consensus. Its next output, after HyperText Mark-up Language 3.2, is unknown. It is unsure whether its mission is to invent technology or document it, and it has no controls in place to prevent companies from waylaying its workgroups. As a result, a Process Committee is being formed by members of the Advisory Council to map out a charter and way of working. It hopes to present its recommendations by the end of August if not before. It is believed to include Microsoft Corp, Netscape Communications Corp, Oracle Corp an d IBM Corp. Consortium chair-man Albert Vezza, said the organization is not chartered either to promote or not promote the Internet. Its charter is to maintain and enhance the Web toward the purposes that the Consortium members deem important. Vezza intends to rethink procedures while maintaining that allegations paint an exaggerated, negative and inaccurate picture of the Consortium.
