I'm not optimistic for this effort succeeding, but it's doing the right things to make sure that success happens eventually. Instead of having a big get-the-corporations-to-work-with-us feel, this very much had the "screw it, let's do this shit" feel. It doesn't guarantee success, but no technical project ever succeeded by having people sit around talking.
"Get the corporations work with us" didn't work so far, I don't think it will magically start working from now on.
It's my opinion (which is somewhat "backed" by a load of tech and economical news; I know that's not an evidence for anything) that the corporations are just fine with the situation right now; if anything, they fight to centralize even more services.
It's true that projects like "the next web" (or however we word it) don't succeed with people sitting around talking, but the way you worded it is really cynical. How do you think ARPANet was born? Surely not through a crowd telepathic effort, right? People sat and talked. A lot.
What I meant was talking about design ideas endlessly won't get much done. You get an idea out there, you build the thing, and than you standardize. Sure, talking to people is necessary and incredibly important, but don't overdesign and than wait to get everybody's permission. If you want to change the world, getting a working, if unpolished, version of your idea made is your first order of buisiness.
Yes, you're correct. Trouble is, the people who can make this run much faster in terms of adoption and being end-user-friendly, are senior devs and maintainers and have zilch amount of time for this. :(
The game is mostly rigged but some of us still find the time and motivation to try and apply some forced evolution. ;)
