Yeah, but that's why I chose media types in the Vendor Tree (application/vnd.) as examples - as far as I can tell, they do not need to be registered with IANA. And I'm sure they don't have to be reviewed, even if you do register them:
public exposure and review of media types to be
registered in the vendor tree is not required
The way I see it, defining types in a JSON format to help with type-marshalling until that format is successful and thus merits standardization is far more effective at promoting innovation than starting with submission to a standards body so that everyone can comment on (i.e. bikeshed) about a format until it gains acceptance.
Sure, but it doesn't have to be a standard to have its own mimetype. Just put it after your company's name (application/vnd.COMPANY.FORMAT) and forget about registration, imho.
Sure, a standard would be better, but this is still way better than having to use an hack like that.
Yeah, it'd be awesome if we could all consume APIs with standard interfaces using Content-Types, however I don't think the current solution is realistic or even good for innovation.
Having to define a Content-Type like "application/vnd.my-service+json" and submit it to a standards body and then approved like described in Amundsen's book is hardly practical or desirable.
The standards process today sucks (see the CSS prefix debate for a prime example) (and, I'm not claiming I can do better, just making an observation)
The way I see it, defining types in a JSON format to help with type-marshalling until that format is successful and thus merits standardization is far more effective at promoting innovation than starting with submission to a standards body so that everyone can comment on (i.e. bikeshed) about a format until it gains acceptance.
There is a an interesting dynamic between pragmatism and academics, but I think it would be best for the academics to actively move the pragmatics towards the ideal instead of staying in an ivory tower and letting the pragmatics take twice as long to discover the "pure" solution.
RESTish solutions should become RESTful through standardization into a proper media type. Maybe the RESTful solution is derived from the coordinated cooperation of several participants with RESTish solutions.
Acknowledging and adopting the human element is likely to move things forward far faster than a steadfast insistence on being pure. We could probably have far more useful media types if we assumed that formats eventually become a media type once they become popular enough. Pave the cowpaths.
Anyways, not arguing with your comment. I agree with most of what you said and ot was enlightening. Just saying, that it'd be great if people actively considered the fact that human beings are involved when discussing ideas. Ideas are great, but they mean nothing if you can't humans to go along with them.