The Web Standards Project http://www.webstandards.org Working together for standards Mon, 05 May 2008 16:06:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.12-alpha en W3C Offers Online Training Course: Mobile Best Practices http://www.webstandards.org/2008/05/04/w3c-offers-online-training-course-mobile-best-practices/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/05/04/w3c-offers-online-training-course-mobile-best-practices/#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 17:43:34 +0000 hmkoltz W3C/Standards Documentation Web Standards (general) Training Design Mobile Education General http://www.webstandards.org/2008/05/04/w3c-offers-online-training-course-mobile-best-practices/ The W3C Mobile Web Initiative is offering the online training course: An Introduction to W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices from May 26 - June 20, 2008. The course is free, registration is open, but limited.

]]> This course is aimed at experienced Web developers and designers who are interested in learning to develop content for mobile Web access using W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices.

Participants will have access to lectures and assignments providing hands-on practical experience with using W3C’s mobile Web Best Practices. They will have direct access to W3C experts on this topic who are the instructors for this course. Participants will also be able to discuss and share experiences with their peers who are faced with the challenges of mobile Web design.

For more information about the course, instructors, topics, and to view a free sample course, visit Online Training Course: An Introduction to W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices

Thanks also go to Henny Swan for posting an entry about this on her site at Want to Get Your Content Mobile.

Update: Registration is full and now closed.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/05/04/w3c-offers-online-training-course-mobile-best-practices/feed/ WCAG 2 now “candidate recommendation” http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/30/wcag-2-now-candidate-recommendation/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/30/wcag-2-now-candidate-recommendation/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:19:39 +0000 blawson Accessibility TF Accessibility W3C/Standards Documentation General http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/30/wcag-2-now-candidate-recommendation/ The W3C announced today that WCAG2 is now a candidate recommendation and is likely to be “live” by the end of the year.

The W3C says

Candidate Recommendation means that we think the technical content is stable and we want developers and designers to start using WCAG 2.0, to test it out in every-day situations.

It’s a while since I looked at it and it’s changed a lot since then (for the better), so I’ll be starting from the comparison of WCAG 1.0 checkpoints to WCAG 2.0 and the customisable quick reference How to Meet WCAG 2.0.

The W3C is looking for help, too:

What’s important now is that we need your help moving WCAG 2.0 to the next stage. In order to advance WCAG 2.0, we need to demonstrate that it can be implemented in different types of Web content, in a variety of human languages, and using a variety of technologies[…]

We welcome WCAG 2.0 implementation experience from a wide range of environments, including e-commerce, government, education, blogs, etc.

Note that there are a few success criteria that are at risk of becoming advisory if we don’t get at least two implementations of them. Here is a special appeal for implementations of those at risk success criteria.

To be a part of this stage of WCAG 2.0 implementation experience, check out WCAG 2.0 Candidate Recommendation Implementation Information.

We urge anyone who can help the W3C to do so: it makes for a better set of guidelines for us all.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/30/wcag-2-now-candidate-recommendation/feed/ This is your mobile device on Acid http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/16/mobiletestsuite/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/16/mobiletestsuite/#comments Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:22:47 +0000 adactio Browsers W3C/Standards Documentation Mobile General http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/16/mobiletestsuite/ The W3C’s Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group have just announced a new suite of tests for mobile devices. In the spirit of the Acid tests, the test results are returned in an easily grokable visual manner—the green squares are desirable, the red squares mean a feature isn’t yet supported.

The URL you need to point your mobile device to is: http://dev.w3.org/2008/mobile-test/test.html.

That’s a bit of a fingerful so there’s also this short version: http://tinyurl.com/37e33p.

But if that’s too hard to remember, i maded u a url: http://icanhaz.com/wt (let’s say it stands for “web test” but really I chose those letters because it’s short and they’re the first letters on the 9 and 8 keys of a T9 keyboard).

Or if your phone can read , give your fingers a rest and point your phonecam at this image.

Once you’ve tested your device, you can send a picture of the results to www-archive@w3.org and it will be added to the screenshot gallery. If you have any feedback on the test itself, join in the discussion on the group list: public-mwts@w3.org. Be sure to read the test documentation first though.

On your marks, get set, test!

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/16/mobiletestsuite/feed/ Showing Off My <body> and Loving It http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/showing-off-my-body-and-loving-it/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/showing-off-my-body-and-loving-it/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:40:41 +0000 cschmitt CSS Outreach http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/showing-off-my-body-and-loving-it/ Naked Day? Now you have my full attention]]> The third CSS Naked Day will be held on Wednesday, April 9. This annual event is intended to promote the POSH portion of the Web Standards trinity by having designers and developers remove all CSS from a Web site — thereby stripping it of its design and thus underscoring the concept of separation of presentation and content.

To get involved, just delete or comment any references to CSS on your Web site during Wednesday.

Exhibitionists can even advertise their page’s nakedness on the official event site. Also included on the site is a PHP function to automatically remove CSS references from your site for the big day.

Why won’t WaSP get naked?

The Web Standards Project Web site gets a lot of traffic each day from curious folks who are new to Web Standards and may not yet understand concepts like POSH and progressive enhancement. We want them to see a styled site on each and every visit so they can witness these practices in action. And as one might suspect, it’s hard to teach with your drawers showing, much less off your <body>.

That said, many popular Web developer tools (including the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar and the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox/Flock and Seamonkey) give a user the ability to easily disable CSS, thus rendering the same unstyled experience whenever you want and not just on one day.

So, please give these tools a try to see how WaSP structures its sting and be sure to enjoy CSS Naked Day this Wednesday.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/showing-off-my-body-and-loving-it/feed/ Acid3 Passed in 23 Days! http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/acid3-passed-in-23-days/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/acid3-passed-in-23-days/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 06:19:28 +0000 kblessing Browsers Acid3 http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/acid3-passed-in-23-days/ Just over a month ago, WaSP announced the Acid3 Browser Test. At the time, we knew that some of the browser development teams were aggressively working to pass the test. What we didn’t know was how long it would take for a browser to pass the test.

“When we released Acid2, the first browser passed it in about a fortnight. Acid3 is orders of magnitude more complicated. I really didn’t expect to see passing browsers this side of August, let alone within a month,” wrote Ian Hickson, the architect of the test, on his blog.

Well, now we know: It took under a month for not one but two browsers to pass the test. On March 26, the WebKit team announced that their public build produced a 100/100 result; Opera announced that they had an internal build which passed on the same day and they released the build on March 28. Congratulations to both teams!

In the past month we’ve received plenty of about the test. Thanks to the help of readers and browser developers, some bugs were identified and resolved. To learn more about the changes that were made as a result, read Ian’s post which lists the major changes.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/07/acid3-passed-in-23-days/feed/ New Initiative in Hyper-Localized Social Tagging http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/01/new-initiative-in-hyper-localized-social-tagging/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/01/new-initiative-in-hyper-localized-social-tagging/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:00:37 +0000 porter WaSP Announcement April Fools http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/01/new-initiative-in-hyper-localized-social-tagging/ Following on the heels of the highly successful Street Team bookmark initiative, The Web Standards Project is pleased to announce a new opportunity for you to spread the good word of Web standards to the people around you. It occurs to us that books don’t build crappy Web sites; people who read crappy books build crappy Web sites. While marking books was a great first step, we need to move beyond that to get at the root cause of the problems in our industry.

Now, leveraging the very latest in hyper-localized social tagging, you can help alert others to the people around you who are hurting the Web. Simply download the official WaSP Warning Labels, print them out, and you will be ready to tag the people around you who have yet to see the light. Whether it’s the stuffed shirt in your project meetings who keeps putting off talking about accessibility because, “No blind people use our site,” or that developer who still refers to a dog-eared copy of Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML 3.2 in 14 Days, you’ll be able to tag them all.

Download now! (100KB PDF, Avery #3261 Large Label format)

Photos of your tags in action can be posted to our Flickr group.

The Web Standards Project accepts no responsibility for what users of these labels might choose to affix them to, or the ramifications — monetary, physical, or otherwise — resulting therefrom.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/04/01/new-initiative-in-hyper-localized-social-tagging/feed/ Announcing the Adobe Task Force http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/10/announcing-the-adobe-task-force/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/10/announcing-the-adobe-task-force/#comments Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:27:58 +0000 ssullivan Dreamweaver TF Authoring Tools WaSP Announcement Outreach Adobe TF http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/10/announcing-the-adobe-task-force/ The Web Standards Project Dreamweaver Task Force was created in 2001 to accomplish two tasks: to work with Macromedia (later Adobe) to improve the standards compliance and accessibility of Web pages produced with Dreamweaver and to communicate effectively within the online Dreamweaver community.

Having successfully completed its initial goals, WaSP announces that the Dreamweaver Task Force will be renamed the Adobe Task Force to reflect a widened scope. The Adobe Task Force will collaborate with Adobe on all of the company’s products that output code or content to the Web, and will continue to advocate compliance with Web Standards and accessibility guidelines by those who use Adobe’s products to design and build Web sites and applications.

Read the press release to learn more.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/10/announcing-the-adobe-task-force/feed/ Annual Public WaSP Meeting at SXSW http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/09/annual-public-wasp-meeting-at-sxsw/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/09/annual-public-wasp-meeting-at-sxsw/#comments Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:29:29 +0000 kblessing Outreach General http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/09/annual-public-wasp-meeting-at-sxsw/ All SXSW Interactive attendees are welcome to attend WaSP’s annual public meeting which will be held tomorrow, Monday, March 10. The session runs from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm (Central Daylight Time) and will be held in room 19AB (Level 4). Everyone is welcome to join our Meebo chat as well.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Web Standards Project, which was formed to fight for an open, interoperable, and accessible Web. Come hear about our successes, struggles and goals. We’re also interested in hearing your thoughts on what WaSP should be doing today — please leave your comments on this thread and we’ll discuss them during the meeting.

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/09/annual-public-wasp-meeting-at-sxsw/feed/ Street Team: Make Your Mark http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/08/street-team-make-your-mark/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/08/street-team-make-your-mark/#comments Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:06:28 +0000 goodwitch Web Standards (general) Training Outreach General Street Team http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/08/street-team-make-your-mark/ Warning! This Book Could Be Hazardous to the Web!

How many outdated web design and development books are lurking in your local library, school or college, waiting to corrupt an innocent mind? Want to warn the unsuspecting of these hazardous materials while encouraging librarians to update their shelves? Join the WaSP Street Team by downloading and printing copies of these bookmarks (PDF 3.4MB). Then place these bookmarks in harmfully outdated books.

We’d love to see the bookmarks in action and hear what you have been up to - upload your photos to Flickr and add them to the WaSP Street Team Bookmarks group, tag any photos or blog posts with waspstreetteam.

Your mission,
should you decide to accept it,
will be to track down and identify
dangerously outdated web resources
and expose them as
the misleading charlatans
they truly are.

Common Crimes Against the Web:

  • Using table layout (rather than CSS layout)
  • Abusing (X)HTML markup (rather than using semantic markup)
  • Building inaccessible sites (rather than insuring that all content and functionality are available to people with disabilities)
  • Creating pages that only work in non-standards compliant browsers (rather than coding to web standards then hacking back for deviant browsers)

Caution: As much as these books need to be removed from public circulation and replaced with good books, you should never attempt to harm or destroy outdated books. Please treat these inaccurate tomes as ancient museum relics. Remember, that in addition to providing free access to knowledge, libraries are charged with maintaining history. All we are trying to accomplish here is to move these relics over to the outdated archives, you know, next to the “world is flat” and “pluto is a planet” sections.

So, what are you waiting for? Go make your mark!

Leave a comment on the Street Team website

]]> http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/08/street-team-make-your-mark/feed/ Microsoft releases the first IE8 Beta http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/05/microsoft-releases-the-first-ie8-beta/ http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/05/microsoft-releases-the-first-ie8-beta/#comments Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:44:53 +0000 agustafson Browsers Microsoft http://www.webstandards.org/2008/03/05/microsoft-releases-the-first-ie8-beta/ Microsoft released its first beta of Internet Explorer 8 today. They have also relaunched the Internet Explorer Developer Center and submitted a ton of tests in their CSS 2.1 test suite to the W3C for use in their test suite.

Chris Wilson’s talk introducing IE8 (and passing ACID2 live) should be up on the Mix08 site within 24 hours.

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