Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

Kazuhito Kidachi, the WaSP liaison in Japan, has started a new series of events dubbed the “WaSP Café”. It is a social gathering where people can chat about web standards and related topics while drinking a nice cup of coffee. As Kazuhito says, “Why coffee? Because to talk seriously, it’s much better than a glass of beer!”

The idea of a WaSP Café came to Kazuhito during the WaSP Annual Meeting held at SXSW Interactive in Austin, last month. Kazuhito felt a necessity of more grass roots activity in Japan, and the experience at our WaSP meeting made him plan and start the WaSP Café.

By now, the first WaSP Café has already taken place. Kazuhito reports:

About 20 people, web designers and developers alike, gathered from the Tokyo area for the very first WaSP Café held on April 22nd. There are some photos on Flickr taken during the event.

We enjoyed chatting about standards for about two and a half hours. Because it’s the very first time to be held, we experienced some trial aspects such as having no specific discussion theme; it was mostly just chatting. However, many of the attendees told me that they liked the idea and found the event to be quite helpful for them. It seemed to be an especially precious opportunity for people who work in an organization in which there are no standards-enthusiasts around him or her at all.

The WaSP Café in Tokyo will be held regularly in the future. If you want to join us next time, please e-mail me at [email protected]. I hope it’ll be a good place to share the problem and the worry about designing for the web, and to find solutions. Additionally, interesting points brought up during meetings will be reported back into WaSP as feedback from Japan. Also, I will open them to the public on the WaSP Buzz.

The WaSP Café started in Japan but will be a worldwide series of events. The next WaSP Café is currently being organized by myself and will be held on May 27th in the King Arthur Café in Utrecht, The Netherlands. It will start at 14:00. While not necessary, it is appreciated if you could let me know you’re attending.

Your Replies

#1 On April 25th, 2006 10:46 am Detritus (tentative) » The WaSP Café replied:

[...] 先週の土曜日に参加した WaSP Cafe について WaSP に記事が。それから、写真はこちら。 この集まりのぼくのフィードバックは、POP*SEMANTICA: WaSP Cafe Vol.1 – Feedback に。いろいろな方とお話した結果、「手段としての Web 標準」を考える切欠になったのは収穫でした。 [...]

#2 On April 25th, 2006 11:00 am Webstandards caf� » Il tuttlog di Tassoman replied:

[...] Webstandards caf� Gli standard web si incontrano davanti ad una tazza di caff�. [...]

#3 On April 25th, 2006 11:28 am Jeff Adams replied:

The Refreshing Cities movement has been going strong since about December of 2005 with a similar purpose.

It is amazing to see how passionate people are about web standards and the web in general. It’s great to see these grassroots groups getting together and spreading like wildfire.

I propose someone start “Refresh Tokyo” to compliment WaSP Café.

#4 On April 25th, 2006 3:43 pm Hayo Bethlehem replied:

Happyclog has been doing this for some time now in the Netherlands. Nice to see WASP taking an active interest to further these efforts. Keep up the good work!

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