Message-ID: <4.1.19981111113559.00997350@198.62.158.133> Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:37:09 -0500 From: Riff Fullan <mailto:riff@BELLANET.ORG> Subject: Re: DML:XML for international Development To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Concerning Christopher Byrne's response to Sam Lanfranco on the DML initiative, I suggest we take the discussion to the dml list alone to avoid wasting bandwidth. I do have a couple of more general comments, though:Bellanet hired a consultant precisely to avoid being involved in the development of a DML-type initiative in competition with anything already underway. We may be guilty of not communicating our rationale precisely enough, but it is an extreme irony to find ourselves accused of a perpetrating a 'secret' scheme!
Christopher wrote: >fault for not visiting the bellanet site more often and seeing the
>information there. By the same token, I wonder how else people may have
>found out about it. If promotion of dialogues was the case, word should
>have been sent around long ago.
This is where you make an erroneous assumption about the originating group (i.e., Bellanet and others): any new initiative, if it is to develop in a coherent way, requires that the originating participants attempt to teach themselves a bit about the implications and possibilities of the envisioned work before running off and organising major discussions and inviting the world (or the development community in this case) to participate. It is the only sensible approach.
Thus, an attempt was first made to ensure the wheel was not about to be re-invented. Second, a PRELIMINARY specification of DML was commissioned so that all interested parties (both existing ones and those new to the table) would have something concrete and focused to discuss, but far from a finished product. This is where we now stand. This is why we are now asking for broader participation.
I will leave debate on the specifics of DML, metadata, and related issues for the dml list...
Regards,
______________________________________________________ Riff Fullan <mailto:rfullan@bellanet.org> Program Officer Bellanet International Secretariat <www.bellanet.org> Tel.: +1-613-236-6163 x.2021 Fax: +1-613-238-7230