On Sep 27, 2004, at 10:46, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. <amitchell(_at_)isipp(_dot_)com>
wrote:
To me this made it sound like Microsoft and the Chairs of the MARID
group had been working together privately behind the scenes and even
before the group was shut down, and that Microsoft continues to
working with the Chairs (are they still chairs if the group no longer
exists?) and "key stakeholders" behind the scenes to advance
(something).
Can someone please clarify this for me?
sure. the wording is more conversational than precise, which is not
uncommon for press releases, interviews, and other "reporting".
working group chairs and ADs often have discussions with various
parties in order to better understand their positions, and to suggest
possible ways they might achieve a compromise with other various
parties.
nothing gets decided for the working group in such conversations.
for example, i seem to recall an interim meeting, a design team
meeting, and half-a-dozen conference calls with a whole gallery of
characters, in order to get some basis for consensus. several of these
meetings/calls led to various people suggesting different approaches on
the mailing list, for comment.
nothing particularly unusual or suspect about any of this.
independently, it became clear to the ADs and the WG chairs, solely on
the basis of the mailing list discussions that consensus wasn't
possible.
/mtr