Don't Click It

Exactly. Standards are the building blocks we should use for our innovations.

I've been trying to innovate ever since I started programming. I never settled for standards. Then I learnt the hard way. Standards are there for a reason. They are the bit of information you know you can relly on and you can use as a basis to build on.

Without standards, one guy can innovate as much as he wants, but it just won't stick.

I honestly believe it's the other way around: innovations lead on to standards being developed, otherwise where did those standards come from.

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Pete.

It's a valid argument both ways you look at it...
Very interesting topic though... (best post I've put through in ages, LOL)

I suppose as long as we keep progressing then it doesn't matter what our opinions are: 2 people with different ideals often arrive unwittingly at the same place, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Sure is interesting though,

Pete.

I believe that is called using your imagination. The web will continue evolving just like everything else that has been created. You want an example...The good old US of A. Brillant experiment on the part of the founding fathers, Nobody promised it was perfect or it would work. But over the years it has evolved. Not always in a straight path and not always the way we would like, but it has never stopped evolving and changing to fit the times. And that is what the web is doing. An innovative idea developes standards that allows the most people to use it successfully. I have been around long enough to remember when the computer was limited to only a few specially trained people. And I remember when they decided that perhaps everyone could use it. I was in a pilot project when by former employer first brought computers into the job I was doing. They wanted to test if it could work and how well people learned how to use them. I remember them bringing in people from other parts of the company to see how well it worked and how much we enjoyed working with them.