Articles like this: To Hell with WCAG 2 and this: W3C and the Overton window (which is where I found the first link) scare me a bit. I get the impression that a lot of the Web Standard gurus are leaving the W3C after disagreements, etc and there seem to be emerging 'competitors' to W3C such as Microformats as a result.
But where does this leave the plebs like me, who don't understand the finer points that people are disagreeing on, or indeed care to understand those disagreements, but would at least like to do their little bit in trying to produce a site to some kind of standard?
Are we just screwed? If the big guns aren't behind a standard, then to me it's no longer a standard (or even a recommendation, which is what it really is anyway). Who are we to look to or follow? Personally, I'd prefer it if people didn't abandon things over disagreements, but instead stick at it and get it right at the next revision, etc. Perhaps these folk are a little to use to the Open Source lifestyle where at first sign of disagreement it seems you fork off (f**k off!) into your own thing. That's great for creativity and choice, but shite for standards where you don't want as much choice (leads to confusion and mistakes) or creativity (tried and tested wins the game).