To be honest, I wasn't happy when I first heard about the W3C being formed.
Up until that point, discussion about specs like HTML was done out in the open and even though I was just a lurker, I could at least be on the mailing list.
The W3C formation felt like I was being shut out because, unless I worked for a "member" organization of the W3C, I could no longer be involved. I was jealous of the people that would get to work with Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly and others on defining HTML and other technologies.
But I was still determined to be the local expert.