In a network, simple & open standards always win. This is true at all levels of the stack - from protocols to data architectures to data formats. This is the lesson. We are learning it.
telos says
This is as true for communications protocols and file formats as it is for railway widths (cf. expensive adjustable wheel carriages), metro diameters (cf. the disaster that is the London tube), units of measurement (cf. the Mars NASA mission disaster) and countless other examples.
An open standard, even if inferior, is better than a closed one (cf. token ring vs. ethernet). A closed standard is only better for its copyright/patent/specifications holder. It is worse for everyone else (cf. Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft Microsoft...).
Good things: OpenDocument, the Metric system, the Euro, the Internet Protocol stack, web service APIs, Vorbis formats, WebKit, XML, PDF, UTF-8, POSIX, EFF, my baby cactus.
Bad things: Microsoft Office file formats, Flash (with exceptions), Windows Media file formats, all DRM, software patents, NTFS, the EU's needlessly bloated bureaucracy.
anil says
Tell me about the EU's bloated bureaucracy - it's taken us about 3 weeks of negotiations, lawyers and paperwork, not to mention about £1,000+ to reserve an EU domain name. Not simple. Not open. Totally Brussels.