Action Buzz Archive - The Web Standards Project

Prince, a program that converts XML documents styled with CSS into PDF files for printing, has passed the Acid2 test. While Prince isn't a browser per se — it's a file converter — it does join Konqueror and Apple's Safari as the first CSS & HTML implementations to pass the ...

By Chris Kaminski | December 10th, 2005

AJAX Mistakes

A good list of DOM Scripting mistakes.

By Chris Kaminski | December 6th, 2005

Tool for tracking IE memory leaks

Drip, the IE leak detector.

By Chris Kaminski | December 6th, 2005

When to use DOM Scripting (and When Not To)

Alex Bosworth has a thoughtful piece on what sorts of apps require DOM Scripting for optimal user experience, and what sorts of apps are better without.

By Chris Kaminski | December 4th, 2005

The W3C Web API Working Group

W3C announces the Web API group to develop specifications that enable improved client-side application development on the Web.

By Jeremy Keith | November 23rd, 2005

Beyond New Professionalism

In Molly's recent WaSP buzz, Web Standards and The New Professionalism she offers: Today, I want to express that I believe that this new professionalism means taking responsibility for the education of ourselves and each other, and ensuring that reversions like Disney Store UK never happen again. As part of the ...

By Holly Marie Koltz | November 16th, 2005

How to Create User-Friendly Pop-Under Ads

A pop-under ad that avoids the problem of blocking access to content.

By Christian Heilmann | November 7th, 2005

WaSP Microsoft Task Force Update: Upcoming Products, XAML, Acid2, SXSW, and IE7 Revealed

The WaSP Microsoft Task Force held another face-to-face meeting with available members on Tuesday. We met in a Starbucks along the waterfront in rainy Seattle. While the setting might have been a bit predictable, the conversation was unique and at times, very encouraging. WaSPs at the meeting were DL Byron ...

By Molly E. Holzschlag | November 2nd, 2005

We love to see you smile

Just ten days ago, Dean wrote here about Acid2: there has been no officially released browser that passes the test I'm thrilled to say that that's no longer the case — we have a winner! With today's release of Mac OS X 10.4.3, Apple's Safari RSS (version 2.0.2/416.12) is the first (publicly-released, ...

By Dori Smith | October 31st, 2005

moo.fx Makes it Easy to Add Transition Effects

A small JavaScript library to add powerpoint or flash-like transition effects to web sites: moo.fx.

By Christian Heilmann | October 31st, 2005

Debugging JavaScript with jsTrace

Aaron Gustafson gives us a very handy tool for debugging scripts: jsTrace.

By Jeremy Keith | October 27th, 2005

Spreading the Word

With the release of his new DOM Scripting book, I’ve been on a little talking spree around the Web.

By Jeremy Keith | October 24th, 2005

… And the Winner Is …

We have a winner for the addEvent() recoding contest!

By Peter-Paul Koch | October 18th, 2005

Build Your Own Standards Compliant Website Using Dreamweaver 8

If you're working with the new version of Dreamweaver, you may be interested in a new book from SitePoint aimed at those who wish to build standards compliant sites. Written by WaSP member Rachel Andrew of the Dreamweaver Task Force, and tech edited by Group Leader Molly E. Holzschlag, Build Your ...

By Drew McLellan | September 28th, 2005

WaSP Welcomes Sweden

The WaSP Education Task Force welcomes Lars Gunther as our liaison to Sweden. Lars is working with Skolverket (Swedish Language), Sweden's national agency for schools, to encourage the adoption of Web standards in their curriculum reform project for Gymnasium (Swedish Language) scheduled for launch in 2007. Gymnasium is similar to ...

By Holly Marie Koltz | September 10th, 2005

addEvent() Recoding Contest

Here's one for lovers of the language of the rhinos:- over on the WaSP DOM Scripting Task Force blog, PPK announces the launch of a JavaScript addEvent() recoding contest. Write your own version of addEvent() and removeEvent(), submit it by adding a comment to this page, and win JavaScript fame. Entries will ...

By Drew McLellan | September 10th, 2005

addEvent() Recoding Contest

Launching an addEvent() recoding contest.

By Peter-Paul Koch | September 8th, 2005

Harnessing the Power of User Groups

Web sites in a university environment are, more often than not, micro-managed within individual faculties, colleges and administrative units. It stands to reason; each department is often responsible for their own content. However, it is a common problem that resources are not evenly spread across the different areas of an academic ...

By Steph Troeth | September 6th, 2005

Unobtrusive Behaviour Layer

Steve Chipman presentation (audio and slides) covers all of the important aspects of modern-day JavaScript in a clear informative way.

By Jeremy Keith | September 3rd, 2005

A Heavy Onload to Carry

Solving the window.onload problem, Allesandro runs through the pros and cons of possible solutions.

By Jeremy Keith | August 29th, 2005

DWTF Announces New Members

The WaSP Dreamweaver Task Force is pleased to announce the addition of two new members to its ranks. Stephanie Sullivan and Jesse Rogers are both very active and knowledgable Dreamweaver users, who believe in the promotion of web standards. They share the Task Force's common goal of striving to see ...

By Drew McLellan | August 24th, 2005

IBM Donates DOM Scripting Accessibility Code to Firefox

IBM’s donation will help developers write accessible DOM Scripting applications, and make Firefox browser more accessible all-round.

By Chris Kaminski | August 16th, 2005

Frommelt: Pioneering Web Standards in Higher Ed

One of the common hurdles in converting university and college sites to Web standards is due to a decentralized system of Web development within the organization. Daniel Frommelt is the World Wide Web Coordinator for the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and has been instrumental in converting their Web site to XHTML. However, ...

By Steph Troeth | August 1st, 2005

Sortable Lists

Nifty demo of drag’n'drop sortable lists using JavaScript and CSS.

By Chris Kaminski | July 30th, 2005

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)

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

Working together for standards The Web Standards Project

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