It seems to me that if and only if the community is behind a standardization effort that it be driven by the community, for the community, etc…

The Data Interchange Standards Assocation (ref: www.disa.org) makes a living of representing the end-user in standards-setting environments - for example, ASC X12 is their client…

This shouldn’t be a business-led initiative but it should definitely involve them… My second choice would be IETF or W3C.

Individuals can join OASIS at a cost of $250 a year (I think it used to be $50 when we last looked at creating a technical committee).

I agree with you that a profile is what’s called for.

I didn’t know about OASIS and individuals - how did James Clark get RNG through? - he’s a confirmed independent if ever there was one.

If OASIS doesn’t work, IETF would be my 2nd choice.

That doesn’t sound right even though I see the same thing in the FAQ. Under TC Voting procedures (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#voting) it states clearly that every member of a TC has a vote so that should include individual members. The membership catagories state that the Individual member can fully participate but that their employer has no right to recognition or voting. Of course the process is open in that the general public has access to the mail lists and can post messages to the TC without needing to be a member. I’ve sent a question on this to the contact indicated on the membership page, I’ll let you know what I find out.

A few words to answer questions posed to me by Marc, and a bit of clarity to that posted above:

Individual Members of OASIS have full voting rights within the Technical Committee, and in an unlimited number of TCs. Work created within a TC is called an OASIS Technical Committee Specification.

Optionally, a TC can move their specification to the higher level of acceptance - OASIS Open Standard. It is at this level that only organizational members can vote.

The OASIS membership structure allows participation for Individuals at $250 annually (always been that price) and has organizational member categories that allow a wide range of companies to have equal infuence on OASIS Open Standards. Our goal in creating market driven standards is to allow the entire marketplace an equal vote. Therefore we have a non-profit contributor category that gives organizations like IEEE, IPTC, Holland XML/SGML Users Group and dozens of other similar orgs one vote where the largest software companies have one vote.

And yes, James Clark moved Relax NG through OASIS as an Individual member.

Hope this helps…