A new HTML5 rift? Not quite

Nobody ever said it was easy having two groups writing the same standard for building Web pages.
But what looked like new divergence between the two groups that create the HTML standard surfaced last week probably shouldn't be taken as evidence of new problems in the process.
HTML standard editor and Google employee Ian "Hixie" Hickson sent ripples across the Web standards world when he described an HTML standard "fork" that involves new separation between the versions of HTML maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and by the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group (WHATWG). Specifically, where Hickson previously was editor of both organizations' version of the standard, he's now just editor of the WHATWG version, he said.
The changes mean "we are now independent of the W3C HTML Working Group again, while still maintaining a working relationship with the W3C," Hickson said.
Browser makers Opera and Mozilla founded WHATWG years ago when the W3C concluded HTML wasn't worth further development; the W3C got involved again after its alternative, XHTML 2.0, failed to catch on. The fruit of this work is HTML5, which technically refers to a new version of the Hypertext Markup Language that governs how programmers describe Web pages but which in practice also embraces a variety of other HTML and other Web standards.
The W3C is focused on producing a "snapshot" of HTML5, a polished and formal version that a wide variety browser makers (that includes companies that manufacture everything from smartphones to TVs these days) can count on for stability and compatibility. But Hickson and the WHATWG, reflecting the more fluid state of affairs that prevails in Web development circles, are aiming for a "living standard" approach to HTML, in which the standard is a constant work in progress.
"My hope is that the net effect of all this will be that work on the HTML Living Standard will accelerate again, resuming the pace it had before we started working with the W3C working group," Hickson said.
The divergent priorities run the risk of incompatible versions of the HTML standard, with Web programmer confusion about how to create a Web page and browser confusion about how to interpret it. That's why the word "fork" is such a loaded term in the Web standards world: nobody wants a Web that works for some but is broken for others.
But now probably isn't the time to get agitated.
For one thing, many of the same people are actually involved at both organizations, so there's a lot of overlap. And Hickson specifically remains formally involved through a WHAT Community Group within the W3C and through participation in the W3C's HTML.next project, said W3C spokesman and HTML4 editor Ian Jacobs.
Second, Hickson's announcement last week was about tracking bugs rather than setting policy. The W3C actually announced an effort to find new HTML editors in April. "As W3C proceeds with its work on follow-ons to HTML5, W3C and the WHATWG plan to continue their partnership in developing the right features for the future Web," the W3C's HTML Working Group leaders said. The real philosophical rift between W3C and WHATWG is much older, and Hickson's e-mail just reflected that difference.
Clearly a cultural divide remains, for example illustrated by former Opera standards guru Anne van Kesteren's complaint that that the W3C's HTML Working Group is about "governance and process" rather than the technology itself. "Technical discussions were rare and the tone not very pleasant," he said.
But the W3C still believes it's important to take its snapshot, even if that process requires something besides technical discussion. Jacobs said the organization has settled on candidates to lead HTML5 standardization work -- and that it's got new funding to pay employees to work on it.
"The W3C management team is announcing it's gotten support from Adobe and Google and Microsoft to hire staff to help finish the HTML5 standard," Jacobs said.