Am I the only one saddened by the fact that it's been over four years since Microsoft and IBM co-submitted the XInclude NOTE and the spec is still just a Candidate Recommendation? How about the fact that the W3C Query Languages workshop which led to the creation of the XQuery working group was held almost six years ago and the XQuery specification is still a Working Draft which means it is still a year or two from being done.

This lateness in delivering specs in combination with the unnecessary complexity yet lack of features of other W3C technologies such as XML Schema makes me feel more and more that the W3C is more of a hinderance to the world of XML development than a boon at this point.

Many feel that there isn't any alternative but grinning and bearing it. I wonder if that is truly the case and whether individual or community based innovation such as has happened with technologies like RSS or EXSLT isn't the way forward.