In what I predict will lead to an new round of old tactics, Microsoft has joined the W3C SVG Working Group.
[IE Blog Announcement] [CNet Story] [Slashdot]
The primary point of interest to me in this is the idea of Microsoft joining a Working Group for a technology that it has been pointedly ignoring for 11 years, and for which Microsoft can boast an industry leading 0.00% support for in its latest and greatest browser.
What exactly is Microsoft going to contribute here? What deep pool of SVG experience and credibility gets Microsoft a seat at the table?
Similar to the same deep pool of Open Source experience and credibility that it draws upon for the Microsoft Codeplex Foundation I guess.
They seem like similar situations to me: technologies that Microsoft has tried to supplant or kill have thrived despite Microsoft’s best efforts, so Microsoft decides to jump on board and pretend like it has always been about community and users all along.
And that’s the most chartiable interpretation – I don’t think it is unreasonble to be concerned that Microsoft’s influence and activities will be “nefarious”.
In any case, now the W3C will probably be burning calories proving Microsoft hasn’t corrupted the W3C ISO-OOXML style.
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