W3C and Web Standards Attitude
Standards are important to have in any development language and technology. Without strict standards in web development the task of cross browser and cross platform design is almost impossible. Leaving standards up to the early competing browsers by Microsoft and Netscape resulted in the downfall of many innovative companies including Communities.com (Electric Communities), which I had the pleasure of working for in 2000 just in time to see them follow the countless other Internet ventures that couldn't survive the bursting bubble. Had standards been more like they are today then perhaps a poor business model would have still lead to that company's demise but the goal of a highly interactive, dynamic and cross platform community site would have been fully realized.
Today we are fortunate to have the World Wide Web Consortium (w3.org) leading the way to better standards for HTML, XHTML, XML, XSLT and other tag languages and file formats that are regularly used on the Internet. They create many tools such as validation services that not only tell us when we are complying with current standards but also work well to help troubleshoot layout problems that are often the result of overlooking minor typos or missing delimiters. Moving forward into the future, Internet standards will become even more important allowing new mobile media to offer up the same content without having to manage duplicate copy.
Web standards have brought us very far in recent years but it is important that the playing field experience a few more shakedowns in the years to come. Currently over 90% of the Internet is using non-standards compliant browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 and with huge strides being made in Microsoft's next version of their popular browser we will still be developing for standards that are in need of improvements. This adds a very important task for any web developer to always stay current with what browsers, versions and operating systems are being used, as well as staying on top of evolving web standards.
My overall opinion of W3C and standards is that they are always important to use as a base, however my definition of innovation is the force that changes standards. A balance needs to be made at all times when considering the goals of each web site created, the business goals that drive them and the audience that will receive the final product.