I was wrong. While Atom may be going to the IETF, now that they've approved the creation of the Working Group, it will certainly not be without further discussion. Over the weekend, there has been a flurry of discussion on the subject--people questioning whether a clear consensus has emerged from the community, people suggesting we take a vote, people saying no vote is needed, people suggesting that Tim Bray and Sam Ruby will decide (a few more names are sometimes added to that list), etc. It's clear that some people feel slighted--that they didn't get a fair shake at promoting the W3C. While I still think that the general consensus is behind the IETF, that consensus may not be as broad as I had thought.

It seems to me that a non-trivial proportion of the people who are campaigning for going to the W3C (though certainly not all) are people who became active on the mail list only after the W3C offered to take Atom on. This is not a criticism--just an observation that the opinion of the community, the "general consensus", can shift dramatically as a result of an event like this. If a few people interested in getting some particular technology added to Atom were to get active on the mail list tomorrow, would the community see a sudden influx of new members from the community surrounding that technology? I expect so. And the community would make another more or less dramatic shift. Interesting stuff to observe.

I for one don't know why having a vote would hurt, but then I wasn't around the last time a vote was held, to choose between a number of proposed names for Atom. There are those who considered that vote a disaster. Of course, if we do have a vote, it's difficult to say how fairly it could be done. Who should get to vote? People who've posted a message on the mail list or edited the wiki in the past 90 days (BEFORE the vote was announced)? Anyone who wants to, including people who've never been involved, but were recruited to come in and vote? Anyone, as many times as they want under a variety of assumed names? I'm not sure this is a contentious enough issue that people would go that far, but I wouldn't go into shock if I found out that someone had either.

The drama continues. Maybe someday when Atom becomes the main method of communication on the internet ;-) there will be a movie about its dubious beginnings and the shady players who shifted the course of history by their machinations on such issues.