BenevolentDictator

DaveWiner makes a case for his role of BD for RSS 2.0

GuidoVanRossum is one for PythonLanguage

For the first time, on reading this (I http://archive.scripting.com/2004/11/30#marcGetsOffTheCross) I) have some (little) sympathy for the Atom people. It's not that I disagree with DaveWiner. I think he's right. It's just that you can see the way his mind works : "OK, we need these extra things in RSS 2.0 / PodCasting. Here's how we can do them." Nobody else would be allowed to do that. Or rather, nobody else could conceive of themselves as having the right to do that, and it's likely there'd be very little community support if they did. Winer is a BenevolentDictator. And I can see that there are people who genuinely feel disempowered and agrieved by this imbalance of power. People who'd yearn for a process which formally guaranteed inclusivity and equal rights of access. People who think it's worth taking the risk of splitting the community and losing InterOp in favour of a more democratic process.

Having said this, I don't think it will work. BenevolentDictators are often very succesful (look at GuidoVanRossum or SteveJobs) at least for a start-up period. And I don't see that Winer's dictatorship is hurting RSS 2.0 or PodCasting at all.