The Web Standards Project

The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.


Task Forces' Latest

Education TF

The Education Task Force works with educational institutions to promote instruction of Web standards and standards-compliant public sites.

Announcing the WaSP Curriculum Framework

Since March 2008, the WaSP Education Task Force has begun working on the WaSP Curriculum Framework, a collection of tools aiming to identify skill sets and competencies that aspiring Web professionals need to acquire to prepare them for their chosen careers, as well as resources that will help both educators and students.

By Steph Troeth | July 31st, 2008

Accessibility TF

The Accessibility Task Force works with accessibility organizations, technology vendors and others to help promote Web accessibility.

British Standard for accessibility

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has invited two members of the WaSP, Bruce Lawson and Patrick Lauke, to join the drafting committee for the first British Standard for Web Accessiblity. Two years ago, the BSI was sponsored by ...

By Bruce Lawson | July 11th, 2008

Acid3

Acid3 is a test of dynamic browser capabilities which exists to encourage browser vendors to focus on interoperability.

Acid3 Passed in 23 Days!

On March 3, the Web Standards Project launched the Acid3 Browser Test. On March 26, two browser teams reported that their builds passed.

By Kimberly Blessing | April 7th, 2008

Dreamweaver TF

The Dreamweaver Task Force works with Macromedia's engineers to improve standards compliance and accessibility in Dreamweaver.

Announcing the Adobe Task Force

Today WaSP announced that the Dreamweaver Task Force will be renamed the Adobe Task Force to reflect a widened scope.

By Stephanie Sullivan | March 10th, 2008

Street Team

The WaSP Street Team runs community projects to get the message about Web standards out everywhere.

Street Team: Make Your Mark

The WaSP Street Team launches its first community project: bookmarks which you can place in libraries, schools, and bookstores to help signal to readers that the material is out of date.

By Glenda Sims | March 8th, 2008

Microsoft TF

WaSP and Microsoft work collaboratively on issues related to Web standards support in Microsoft products, including Internet Explorer.

Microsoft rethinks IE8’s default behavior

Perhaps it was our complaining or perhaps it was a reconsideration of its own interoperability principles, but Microsoft has decided to change its course on IE8 and will opt-in to its new standards mode by default.

By Aaron Gustafson | March 3rd, 2008

The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.

Recent Buzz

Announcing the WaSP Curriculum Framework

By Steph Troeth | July 31st, 2008

Since March 2008, the WaSP Education Task Force has begun working on the WaSP Curriculum Framework, a collection of tools aiming to identify skill sets and competencies that aspiring Web professionals need to acquire to prepare them for their chosen careers, as well as resources that will help both educators and students.

In parallel to the wonderful work that Chris Mills and team are doing on the Opera Web Standards Curriculum, the Education Task Force has begun efforts since March this year on a complementary project: the WaSP Curriculum Framework. Our framework aims to identify the skill sets and competencies that aspiring Web professionals need to acquire to prepare them for their chosen careers.

In order to help educational institutions to identify and include material for these competencies, we are creating a set of foundation courses that can be readily adapted into an existing program at a college, school or university.

The framework will include a collection of tools:

  • Course overviews
  • Recommended course dependencies indicating what students will need to know before beginning each course
  • Learning competencies describing what students must master in order to receive a passing grade
  • Ideas for assignments and test questions that allow educators to measure a student’s mastery of each competency
  • Recommended textbooks and readings, including articles from the Opera Web Standards Curriculum and other reputable sources
  • A list of helpful resources, tools, and utilities specific to each course that will help both educators and students

Why is it called a framework? Given the velocity at which Web technology unravels, we recognize that required skill sets can change rapidly, and that the best way to keep this material useful is for the education community to enrich it with their expertise and experiences. In this way, the WaSP Curriculum Framework will be a “living curriculum” that we hope would be a knowledge base of required skills.

The framework will include guidelines to help educators around the world develop assignments and learning modules that address issues specific to their classrooms. These independently developed teaching materials can then be submitted back to the WaSP Curriculum Framework for review and potential inclusion in the project.

We are also actively working on connecting with other organizations and institutions to create as comprehensive a curriculum framework as possible.

We encourage everyone to get involved by contributing content to the framework upon its initial release in March 2009. In the meantime, join the WaSP Edu Facebook group to share your insights and participate in the discussion. Of course, there is always the WaSP EduTF public discussion list if Facebook isn’t your thing.

Filed in Curriculum, Education, Education TF, General, Outreach, Web Standards (general) | Comments (9)

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British Standard for accessibility Bruce Lawson

All of the entries posted in WaSP Buzz express the opinions of their individual authors. They do not necessarily reflect the plans or positions of the Web Standards Project as a group.

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