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# More on standards
- URL: https://www.lorcandempsey.net/more-on-standards/
- Published: 2004-12-12T23:14:50.000Z
- Updated: 2004-12-12T23:14:50.000Z
- Author: Lorcan Dempsey
- Tags: Systems

Further to my [note on standards](https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/000507.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net) below, Jon Udell has some interesting remarks on standards of interest to us in a recent post. 

> I was reminded of the twin themes of this column — digital identity and the semantic web — when Sean McGrath [pointed](https://seanmcgrath.blogspot.com/2004%5F12%5F05%5Fseanmcgrath%5Farchive.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net#110234359224506563) to [John Sowa’s essay *The Law of Standards*](https://www.jfsowa.com/computer/standard.htm?ref=lorcandempsey.net) which states:

> *Whenever a major organization develops a new system as an official standard for X, the primary result is the widespread adoption of some simpler system as a de facto standard for X.* 

> My guess is that we’ll see a de facto alternative to the W3C’s proposed semantic-web standards — Web Ontology Language and RDF. Likewise, having spent more hours than I care to admit poring over specs and architecture diagrams from the Passport, Shibboleth, Liberty, and WS-Federation projects, I suspect (as does Doc Searls) that some other identity standard will prevail. \[[Jon’s Radio](https://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/?ref=lorcandempsey.net)\]