>
> well, i don't know berners-lee personally and i am not a technician,
> but it seems that he is the man who is keeping all that together
> and who made web standarts what they are today, probably not in the
> technical sense but definitely in the political sense. and he
> definitely has a vision. all the major browser makers are now
> struggling to comply to w3c standarts (as well as influencing the
> standarts to fit their platforms). no need for 'great technical
> accomplishments' to make things happen.
>
i dont question the value of the results you list. i am just not convinced tim-berners lee is the significant cause of them. the idea of standards based open technology is sort of built into the internet and standards groups such as the IETF and governing bodies like IESG or W3C are a logical outgrowth of that philosophy. i agree that w3c needs a leader and berners-lee is that leader and he does a good job. definitely w3c holds some influence in pushing standards but even there i am fairly pessimistic. if microsoft complies with the dictates of a standards body it is only so because they have not yet gained sufficient market share to set their own, or because they feel pressure from their customers. the latter, the requirements of enterprises that microsoft sells to, probably holds them back more so than anything else, and i can already see the rise of proprietary mechanisms whether it be the lock-in caused by microsoft exchange mail server technology or the growing number of web sites that use internet explorer specific features (it doesnt help that explorer is turning out to be a better browser than its closest rival from netscape, however true it may be that mozilla is more standards compliant).
i do agree with your last sentence. hence my question to the original poster (since i myself tend to get narrowly focused on the technicality of a solution).
--ravi