There is really nothing I can say that really expresses how amazing I find this move.
By putting the specification under an Attribution/Share Alike Creative Commons license, Dave has essentially manage to make the rights on this specification very clear. This should put an end to any discussion related to how much control Userland exerts on the specification.
The creation of an advisory board is also a move in the right direction. If there is one thing I would recommend, however, it is the election of two extra members that would be voted on by the community. This might be to consider in the future but my congratulations go to all members of the current advisory board. It is a tough job but one that I’m sure you will all do well.
Once again, Dave, thanks for this great gift to the community. This, to me, has to be the most important announcement in the syndication space in several years and will ensure that the specification will move forward, hopefully putting behind us a lot of the personal attacks that have mired the standard recently. 10-20-30 years from now, people will look back and see this moment as equivalent to the first time Tim Berners-Lee typed “http://” and the first time a ping packet was sent.
This is the greatest gift made to the online community since Tim Berners-Lee decided that he was going to give every components of the web to all of us.