Note that OP (Robin Berjon) works for Filecoin, a crypto project that raised a huge ICO and has never really delivered on all of the promised hype. His full-time role is to get Filecoin's projects more embedded into standards like those the w3c oversees. And they obviously have specific opinions about how they'd like to see the w3c run.

I would take a skeptical view of his take on what's happening. The w3c is a very dysfunctional organization and there has been a lot of turmoil internally. Jeff Jaffe who had been CEO for more than a decade quit in November. There are power plays behind the scenes to fill this vacuum.

These kinds of threads are always so hard to decipher. Without disclosing the terms and details MIT is allegedly providing, you just have to assume the one side complaining is telling the truth when there's almost certainly two sides to this problem.

That said, don't get me wrong, I'm always down for a quick pitch fork roast on the internet.

Easier Thread to read than Twitter: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1603834995830816769.html

This is interesting.

MIT is playing hardball with people's jobs and W3C assets.

W3C is playing hardball MIT's reputation.

I think the fact it's reached the point they're publically talking about this means they're is very little chance MIT is going to be backing down. The real question for me is would US officals allow W3C to move aboard. Could they prevent it? I have a feeling MIT's lawyers have thought alot of this out already.

What does the w3c do that actually requires money? Are standard editors actually paid? I always assumed that they were volunteering their time on behalf of whatever company they worked for.

For that matter, what liabilities are we talking about here? Hosting a website? Maybe i am just naive, but what else is there?

Man MIT seems to really be losing its clout (PR capital) especially in the last decade or so. (And I am not usually one to participate in the “dumping on prestigious institutions” meme that’s grown in popularity as well.)

This is obviously one sided, but assuming most of this is factual… not good.

Looks like the long time CEO of the W3C resigned in November, 2022. Hmm ....

W3C members list at https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List and team https://www.w3.org/People

What would be the impact of the USA part of the team shutting down? The big USA companies will still be there and will keep advancing their agendas. What the rest of the world can do?

My understanding is that ivy league schools have impossibly huge coffers, and this seems to boil down to money.

Or perhaps MIT is offering a bad deal on purpose to sink negotiations?

Interesting that inside the thread above are threats against MIT, drama claims of MIT costing jobs during holiday season, and even threats to transfer contracts / IP to China.

Seems like not a neutral thread, but posturing and propaganda in its own right from the W3C.