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Journalist and Open Source advocate Bryan Lunduke has been reporting extensively on the W3C and the EME DRM controversy (discussed previously on Soylent) over the past months. Today, he has announced that he has submitted an application to join the W3C, and was approved. He will be attempting to crowdfund the application fees, and intends to act as a representative for the open source community and to push for greater transparency in the W3C process.
Transcript from the video (@3:30):
I've put in my application; my application this morning was accepted; and once I get all the signed paperwork back to them and pay them my membership fees I will be a member of the W3C, and I will begin to take part in various W3C planning activities and discussions. I feel like there is a real opportunity here for someone from the free and open source world -- I know there's already Open Source advocates internally at the W3C, but I feel like we need someone who purely represents the public, with no corporate backing whatsoever...in order to properly represent the needs of the people...who don't necessarily like the direction the W3C has gone in recent days (and months and years).
Does this matter? Can one guy with a crowdfunded membership and no corporate donors to please actually bring about change in an organization like the W3C? Or is this just throwing money at the people causing all the problems in the first place?
(Apologies for the YouTube links, but I can't find this information elsewhere at the moment.)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 01 2017, @07:00PM
The EFF was better positioned in every way to effect change, and they threw in the towel. Mr Lunduke is a powerless individual who can't even afford the $2250 application fee and appears to have only the most minimal grasp on the internal processes at the W3C. However, being able to list this on his resume will likely boost his career and open some more doors to him. Maybe keep that in mind before giving him your hard-earned cash. All he needs to do is push for more transparency, the key action item in his video, in order to deem the whole thing a success (regardless of results). And just in case the plan goes horribly wrong, he's given himself an easy out at 12m:48s in the video.
Actually, it seems like a pretty good plan. Well, good for Lunduke...