And Atom was it's Name-O!
Voting closes today on the name for the new syndication spec and it looks like a landslide victory for Atom. This is at least the third time there was a vote for this bad boy, but this time I think the people have decided. Thank goodness!
The problem with Wikis is that I still can't figure out what the hell happened to the first few votes. It's so easy for someone to hijack the development process on a wiki - just change a page and the majority of the people think that someone else must know better and it's done. Even though Atom initially had a lot of support, somehow it was just erased and ignored and not included in the list for a new name until Morbis Iff finally brought some sanity back into the process.
Now, let's hope someone does the same for the spec itself.
It is in my humble opinion that open processes like this *need* a dictator to spur forward momentum. Linux has Linus, Python has Guido, etc. There are reasons we elect leaders and the Atom effort is showing what happens in a too-open process. Someone needs to make final decisions or call quorums or simply kick some ass when its needed. The Atom spec has been more or less the same for months. A leader (Sam) needs to be given authority, the wiki needs to be locked down and the spec needs to be published already - even if it's just a .1 release. We need a schedule of releases just like any other OSS project and then it just needs to happen.
Nice to see the process moving again, though.
-Russ