An off-key note in e-Government workshop

At the end of the first presentation by Ivan Herman (W3C Netherlands), a few questions.  Ivan was talking, about the importance of standards, and in particular, the importance of Open Standards (at least from a W3C perspective).  There was also some discussion of the issue of patents and W3C's patent policy.
A guy standing at the back referred to open standards only coming about as a result of proprietary standards being developed first, and stated that we'd still be back in the stone age if it hadn't been for commercial companies being willing to stick their neck out and develop proprietary standards and technologies.  He invited Ivan to comment.  Another guy, grinning, said he was going to be addressing these issues in the afternoon session, and so asked Ivan not to answer.  The guy at the back laughed with everyone else, but said that he asked Ivan and he wanted Ivan to answer.  Ivan declined and workshop chairman invited guy at the back to attend the session in the afternoon.  Guy at the back said something like "I see. I thought I could get an answer to a question here. I thought this was an open forum.", and walked out!  Clearly someone with a sense of grievance - just wish I knew what it was and who he was.  Will need to see if I can find out.