all kidding aside, this is a good thing, right? I have completely lost track what this means and where things are heading.
The WHATWG represents the Browser Vendors more directly and is committed to an ongoing ever-evolving HTML standard rather than fixed release numbers. They also tend towards the more pragmatic side of things. They are probably the ones to watch.
(This is based on my limited understanding. I'm happy to be corrected here)
So you're saying there are two groups claiming to have the canonical HTML spec now?
see also: http://xkcd.com/927/