Buzz Archives for October 2002
DHTML Done Right
Dynamic HTML, web standards and accessibility need not be mutually exclusive, as Dave Lindquist demonstrates with these cool DHTML menus. Both the dropdown and expandable tree variations are simple lists built with 100% valid XHTML Strict. CSS and DOM scripting provide the functionality, while ACCESSKEY attributes make parts of ...
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in HTML/XHTML
- Dreamweaver and standards
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At Macromedia dot com: “Five Steps to More Professional Pages with Dreamweaver MX,” by Drew McLellan of the WaSP’s Dreamweaver Task Force will help designers who use DMX work with web standards and save their visitors bandwidth and time. Short, sweet, and recommended for the DMX users in the house.
By Jeffrey Zeldman | Filed in Authoring Tools
- All-CSS Site Repository
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CSS boring? CSS too restrictive? No way. Look, here's a collection of nearly 800 table-free CSS designs, courtesy of Meryl who is thankfully mirroring the original archive from webnouveau.net, which has gone sadly AWOL. Admire, view source, learn.
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in CSS
- Juggernauts Inept, Little People Adept
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Author and accessibility maven Joe Clark wonders aloud why large corporations that have the money and resources to produce valid HTML pages so often do not, while the humble, unpaid hobbyist weblogger has no such difficulty.
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in Accessibility
- More On Banks and So-Called Alternative Browsers
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The Register published a list this week of banks who do, and do not, support so-called "alternative browsers", namely, "anything but IE and Netscape Navigator 4.*". It appears to be an abbreviated list, compared to other lists of banks that reject browsers on baseless grounds; perhaps, given the notorious conservatism ...
By Steven Champeon | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- Accessibility Guidelines for Web Devices
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User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 is a W3C proposed recommendation that provides guidelines for designing Web browsing devices that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological). In addition, the Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Working Draft has been updated.
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in Accessibility
- New W3C HTML Validator
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The W3C has announced a beta version of their HTML Validator, with support for a long and varied list of XML and XHTML related markup, including SVG, MathML and the MIME type application/xhtml+xml. Go bang on it and let them know what you find wrong (or right!) with the new ...
By Steven Champeon | Filed in Validation
- Article: The Secret Life of Markup
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Webmonkey has published a new article by the WaSP's own Steven Champeon: The Secret Life of Markup. It's a must-read for any HTML author, and for anyone else who wants to better understand the craft of web development. And be sure to read to the end, or you'll miss what ...
By Eric Costello | Filed in HTML/XHTML, Web Standards (general)
- Wired Redesigns With CSS
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Wired has redesigned with an all-CSS design that looks fantastic. No tables for layout. Due to a few glitches in the markup, the page falls short of full validity as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. Seeing as how most of those glitches seem to come from tag soup-spewing ad servers, we'll go ...
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in CSS, Web Standards (general)
- W3C Rejects RAND
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The W3C Patent Policy Working Group has rejected the misguided RAND proposal that caused such a furor last year. More on what this means can be found on Slashdot, explained by Bruce Perens. Not a final victory, but a long step closer to a truly royalty-free Web.
By Steven Champeon | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- Danger! HipTop May Shred Your Design
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Reports are trickling in from the field that the long-awaited Danger T-Mobile Sidekick handheld Internet device happily mangles many web pages, including many built with valid XHTML and CSS to specifically cater to such devices. Sidekick owner Leonard Lin discovered that many sites are unreadable in the device. His workaround? ...
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in Web Standards (general)
- Microsoft: The Redesign
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Microsoft has redesigned. A review in two words. Invalid. Inaccessible [previously linked to Bobby]. Want more? Undecipherable in a text-only browser. One can only imagine how this site looks to a screen reader. You might think that Microsoft, an influential W3C member that drives the development of web ...
By Scott Andrew LePera | Filed in Web Standards (general)
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.
Recent Buzz
Our Work Here is Done
By Aaron Gustafson | March 1st, 2013
Thanks to the hard work of countless WaSP members and supporters (like you), Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the web as an open, accessible, and universal community is largely the reality.
When The Web Standards Project (WaSP) formed in 1998, the web was the battleground in an ever-escalating war between two browser makers—Netscape and Microsoft—who were each taking turns “advancing” HTML to the point of collapse. You see, in an effort to one-up each other, the two browsers introduced new elements and new ways of manipulating web documents; this escalated to the point where their respective 4.0 versions were largely incompatible.
Realizing that this fragmentation would inevitably drive up the cost of building websites and ran the risk of denying users access to content and services they needed, Glenn Davis, George Olsen, and Jeffrey Zeldman co-founded WaSP and rallied an amazing group of web designers and developers to help them push back. The WaSP’s primary goal was getting browser makers to support the standards set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
In 2001, with the browser wars largely over, WaSP began to shift its focus. While some members continued to work with browser vendors on improving their standards support, others began working closely with software makers like Macromedia to improve the quality of code being authored in tools such as Dreamweaver. And others began the hard slog of educating web designers and developers about the importance of using web standards, culminating in the creation of WaSP InterAct, a web curriculum framework which is now overseen by the W3C.
Thanks to the hard work of countless WaSP members and supporters (like you), Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the web as an open, accessible, and universal community is largely the reality. While there is still work to be done, the sting of the WaSP is no longer necessary. And so it is time for us to close down The Web Standards Project.
Many (if not all) of us are continuing to work in the world of web standards, but our work is now largely outside the umbrella of WaSP. If you are interested in continuing to work on web standards-related projects along with us, we humbly suggest you follow these projects:
- A List Apart – The magazine “for people who make websites” is run by WaSP founder Jeffrey Zeldman and is a consistent source of forward-thinking articles and tutorials.
- HTML5 Doctor – A solid resource and discussion forum on all things HTML5, brought to you by Bruce Lawson and his team.
- W3C Community Groups – If you have a passion for a specific web technology, you can help make it better by participating in one (or more) community groups. In particular, you might be interested in one of these: Core Mobile Web Platform, Responsive Images, Web Education, and Web Media Text Tracks.
- WebPlatform.org – A fantastic web standards resource, providing up-to-date documentation, Q&As, tutorials & more. Chris Mills, Doug Schepers, and a number of other standards advocates are involved in this project.
- Web Standards Sherpa – An educational resource founded by WaSP which continues to operate under the leadership of Chris Casciano, Virginia DeBolt, Aaron Gustafson, and Emily Lewis.
- Web Standards + Small Business – An outreach project started by WaSP that educates small businesses about why they should care about web standards. This project is overseen by Aaron Gustafson.
The job’s not over, but instead of being the work of a small activist group, it’s a job for tens of thousands of developers who care about ensuring that the web remains a free, open, interoperable, and accessible competitor to native apps and closed eco-systems. It’s your job now, and we look forward to working with you, and wish you much success.
Nota bene: In the near future, we will be making a permanent, static archive of webstandards.org and some of our other resources like WaSP Interact to preserve them as a resource and to provide a record of our 15-year mission to improve the web.
Bruce Lawson and Steph Troeth contributed to this post.
Filed in WaSP Announcement | Comments (89)
More Buzz articles
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| Call for action on Vendor Prefixes | Rachel Andrew |
| An End to Aging IE Installs | Aaron Gustafson |
| Beyond the Blue Beanie? | Stephanie (Sullivan) Rewis |
| The Sherpas are Here | Aaron Gustafson |