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Web standards in China

En plus des versions anglaise et chinoise, l'article est désormais également disponible en français. Merci Armony In early October I was lucky enough to spend some time in China talking to web professionals and students alike about web standards and their current status. It was an interesting couple of weeks that ...

By Henny Swan | November 24th, 2008

WaSP 宣布成立国际联络组(ILG)

在担任 Web Standards Project 组长的几年里,我总是有一股热情与期望,希望创建一个全球性的人际网络。毕竟这才是万维网,对吧?为了强化我们的使命,我认为保持包容的心态才是一个正确的选择,而不是排外的心态。 为了实现这个目标,我考虑为 WaSP 构建一种新的团队。这个团队并非是任务制(Task Force)或者委员制(Committee),而应是一种致力于分享全球资源的工作组。它的职责是提供本土化的翻译、人际联络、信息交换甚至在条件允许的情况下,进行面对面的交流。跟其他团队一样,这个工作组由不同人士组成,用于联系各国的相关组织,为全世界的开发者和设计者提供充足的专业资源。 考虑到我即将卸任,我有些犹豫是否应该提出这个想法,害怕在没有解决掉老问题的情况下,又给 WaSP 带来新的挑战。草根和一些志愿者组织是很难去管理的,例如,显而易见的是带薪工作和家庭对个人来说,它的优先级一定高于志愿者工作。但是,我仍然提出了这个想法,现在,我很高兴当时我做出了这个决定。 在我提出这个建议后,工作组开始逐渐壮大并呈现出民主的自我组织的形态。现在, ILG 正式由两位了不起的女士所带领—— Stephanie Troeth 和 Glenda Sims,她们对专业化的贡献和在此行业的表现都十分出众。工作组聚集了全世界不同地区的杰出人士,我们的使命与愿景正在伴随着我们的热情与感恩的心而不断向前。 因此,今天我怀着无比喜悦的心情荣幸的向大家介绍 Web Standards Project 国际联络组 (ILG)。 此致敬礼, Molly Molly E. Holzschlag Web Standards Project (WaSP) 前任领导人 — Shen Liu

By Molly E. Holzschlag | February 8th, 2007

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)

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