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urza9814 writes:

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.)

Original Submission