Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

Monday, November 30, 2009 is the 3rd annual Blue Beanie Day. Started by Doug Vos, Blue Beanie Day is a way to show support for web standards and accessibility.

Excerpt from the 3rd Annual Blue Beanie Day Event Page:

It’s easy to show your support for web design done right. Beg, borrow, or buy a Blue Beanie (or Blue Toque in Canada) and snap a photo of your mug wearing the blue. (Or get creative with Photoshop). Then on November 30, switch your profile picture in Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, (and any other social network) and post your photo to the Flickr Blue Beanie Day 2009 group.

Want to help with planning the 3rd Annual Blue Beanie Day? Planning a meetup or tweetup in your hometown? Organizing a group photo in your city? You might qualify to win a free copy of Zeldman and Marcotte’s (brand new) Designing With Web Standards 3rd edition. Contact Douglas Vos.

Kevin Cornell makes it even easier for us this year by providing an illustrated blue beanie photoshop file.

So don a blue beanie, spread the word and keep working towards a truly open web.

Your Replies

#1 On November 25th, 2009 9:23 pm Brady J. Frey replied:

All of us our designers & marketers here… we all get this is lame, right? I’ve been an advocate and taught standards for years, I live it, sure, but never a parrot for the sake of it, and I’ve been around enough in the industry from print and up to never suggest such a trend to my clients. We’re not that out of touch, are we?

#2 On November 26th, 2009 12:31 pm Vectorpedia(Rick) replied:

We are supporting Web Standards by wearing our Blue Beanie’s………in addition, our group will be posting our photos on Flickr and encourage others to do the same.

#3 On November 26th, 2009 2:07 pm Micah replied:

Sounds like a great tradition and I will no doubt go get my blue beanie baby and photo and add it to my blog Micah Burkette

#4 On November 30th, 2009 12:01 pm WaSP Member ccasciano replied:

I’ve joined the chorus of those getting my blue beanie on today — have you?

#5 On December 1st, 2009 10:53 am Michael replied:

Enjoyed the event and switched my profile. My friends were quite amazed …

#6 On December 2nd, 2009 5:12 am Pariuri replied:

Once again hunting for a blue beanie. Thought it was also important to let folks know about this simple twitter petition that they can be involved in to encourage Google to be more standards compliant – http://act.ly/nh

#7 On December 2nd, 2009 7:50 am Memokasten replied:

That is a good tradition which many support should, but I saw somehow few with a blue beanie.

#8 On December 3rd, 2009 5:19 pm Gutscheine replied:

Yes I have :) Pretty cool flickr stream. Very international Beanie wearers

#9 On December 4th, 2009 9:59 am Glenda Sims replied:

Brady, I don’t think of Web Standards as a trend…I think of it as oxygen. But you may be referring to “Blue Beanie Day” (BBD) as the trend. If that is the case…no problem if you don’t want to don a Blue Beanie…but I chose to do so.

I mean, if the man (Zeldman) who inspired so many to become web standards advocates encourages us to put on the blue…I’ll be standing right next to him and wearing my blue beanie with pride.

You may choose to promote web standards in a different way. And that is totally cool. I just think of BBD as a fun way to raise awareness. What really matters is actually using web standards so that we open the web for everyone.

#10 On December 15th, 2009 5:44 pm Brady J. Frey replied:

Yes Glenda, I was talking about the Blue Beanie as a trend, standards are a large part of my life if you take a look at my site and as I noted above.

This just isn’t… good marketing. Most of us know better – but to each their own, I’ll be happy to watch on the sidelines:)

#11 On December 21st, 2009 9:18 am Leon replied:

What we need here is an online Blue Beanie generator: upload your pic, choose your hat and download the composition. Actually, that could be a fun side project… I might have a go.

#12 On December 26th, 2009 12:17 pm Steve replied:

I’m a massive believer in this initiative and so are my colleagues here in ‘a government department’ :)

#13 On December 31st, 2009 12:36 pm 5 into 150 replied:

I have my beanie ready and am planning an event for this coming year! Stay blue!

#14 On January 16th, 2010 4:10 pm Strategiespiele replied:

I´m believe in this initiative and planning to show my friends the post. They like it also i think. I have a beannie ready and will add it on my blog – kostenlose-Strategiespiele

#15 On January 17th, 2010 6:39 am Eifel replied:

Please tell us how we can support you?

#16 On January 17th, 2010 1:30 pm Chris replied:

@ Pariuri

Web Standards are an important thing imo, but trying to get Google to follow might be mission impossible. By using code that is shorter (just compare to ) it saves them costly bandwidth.

#17 On January 25th, 2010 4:40 pm Bernd Berlin replied:

@ Leon

looking forward testing your online Blue Beanie generato :-)

#18 On January 30th, 2010 12:49 pm Randy Davis replied:

With search engines vying for market share, how is it possible to establish a uniform standards whereby all designers, optimizers, and search engines to follow. I dream of such time and will be glad when it finally happens. As of now, there are so many different “expert sources” that it’s hard to understand the best practices to implement into my Video Production Company in Charlotte

#19 On February 3rd, 2010 10:52 am HMT replied:

How else can I support your project besides putting on a dashing blue top hat?

#20 On February 14th, 2010 2:42 pm برنامج replied:

What we need here is an online Blue Beanie generator: upload your pic, choose your hat and download the composition. Actually, that could be a fun side project… I might have a go.

#21 On February 16th, 2010 5:00 am Yoga replied:

Having web standard compliant pages is the safe bet for assuring the pages work well across a wide range of browsers.

@Chris
The people at Google may care about standards, but Google the-company shows no serious commitment.

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