[MPEG-OTSPEC] Proposal to discontinue the AdHoc Group

[Simon Cozens]

On 23/09/2020 23:21, Peter Constable wrote:
> Microsoft as owners and stewards of the OT spec have at times provided a 
> context in which MS and other industry collaborators could innovate on 
> the font format and feed those innovations into OFF. In those 
> situations, that context provided just the kind of buffer you describe. 
> Variations is an familiar example of that.

You seem to think of this as a good thing. I think it is terrible for a 
private company to act as a "buffer" on an open standard - particularly 
when the processes by which the "buffer" operates are unclear and 
opaque. Inviting contributions to go through that buffer in itself gives 
Microsoft de facto power, including veto power, over such contributions.

If Microsoft was genuinely and honestly committed to the OFF as an open 
specification, there would be no need for it to maintain OT as a 
separate "private" standard, and you would be calling for contributions 
here, not there. The fact that Microsoft both handed over OpenType for 
standardisation *and still kept it* speaks volumes about its commitment 
to the process.

S