By James Craig of WaSP

Microformats are a great idea. They allow the embedding of parsable, semantic data (like contact information and event details) into regular pages. With the right plug-in, that information can be saved directly to your calendar program or address book. Like Microformats, a portion of web accessibility is about making pages more machine-readable, and by doing so, making them more usable to human beings.

Most of the time, Microformats and the principles of accessibility coexist harmoniously.

Continue reading hAccessibility

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By Drew McLellan | December 20th, 2006

Since taking over the reins of the Web Standards Project from Steve Champeon in early 2004, Molly Holzschlag has led the group though an important phase of its life. Through the development of our successful Task Forces, Molly has helped steer the Project through a significant course change. The close relationships our Task Forces have developed with browser vendors such as Opera and Microsoft are a strong example of our shift from mostly adversarial campaigning to a more consultative and collaborative role.

Molly has done great work as cat herder in chief, and were immensely proud of her and grateful for everything shes done to date. All good things come to an end, however, and in the old showbiz tradition of leaving them wanting more, Molly has decided that now would be a good time to step down from the Group Lead role and focus her efforts within the Task Forces she holds such passion for. We do, of course, support Molly in this decision, and would like to publicly recognize the things shes helped the Project achieve during her tenure as Group Lead.

Looking forward, long-standing WaSP members Kimberly Blessing and Drew McLellan are taking on the roles of group leadership into 2007.

From me : I think Molly did a great job and have no doubt that Kimberly and Drew are going to just as well if not better if that is even possible. Look forward to another great year of standards based postsand news.

W3C to Pursue Improved Web Access in Developing Countries

“19 September 2006 — Today, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) invites experts to participate in the “Mobile Web in Developing Countries” Workshop in Bangalore, India, on 5-6 December 2006. Participants will discuss the challenges, requirements, and use cases for mobile Web access in developing countries. The Workshop will bring together experts in mobile Web technologies and specialists on emerging countries and the digital divide. To participate in the Workshop, please submit a position paper by email before 1 November 2006.

“While in some countries, mobile Web access is the latest must-have for executives, it is increasingly clear that it may play an important role in the development of some communities,” said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. “We must ensure that the Web is designed to meet the needs of sparser populations and of those whose only access to the Web may be on their phone. I look forward to hearing a wide range of views about requirements on Web technology particular to developing countries.”

This public Workshop is part of W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative, which aims to identify and resolve challenges and issues of accessing the Web when on the move. W3C thanks the Workshop host, Jataayu Software, one of the Mobile Web Initiative sponsors. Additional sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Mobile Web Seen as Means to Bridge Digital Divide

One important step in bridging the “digital divide” — the lack of access and ability to use information services by a portion of society — is the deployment of mobile networks around the world. According to the World Bank, more than two billion people own a mobile phone and 80% of the world’s population has access to GSM service. With one million new subscribers every day, almost four billion people will have a mobile phone by the end of 2010.

Although access to phone service is fundamental, W3C considers access to Internet services such as email and the Web vital for education, commerce, and communication. High speed mobile data networks and more affordable Web-enabled phones are helping to make this access possible in the developing world. For some, telephones may be the primary, or even sole, means to access the Web. In order to deliver Web standards that enable access for all, W3C is organizing this Workshop to learn more about the specific needs, expectations, and challenges faced by people in developing countries.

Help Sponsor Global Participation in the Workshop

W3C invites your support for this Workshop through a three-tier sponsorship program designed to support participation by people or organizations who might otherwise not have the financial means to attend the meeting. Benefits of the Sponsorship program include public recognition of your commitment to the W3C mission. Sponsors reach those who are making decisions about the future of the Web, as well as those in the public who have come to rely on the Web as critical infrastructure for development.”

Last Call: CSS3 Paged Media

The CSS Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of CSS3 Module: Paged Media, a part of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3. Built on the box model, the page module adds functionality for pagination, margins, size and orientation, headers and footers, widows and orphans, image orientation and page numbering. Comments are welcome through 3 November.Visit the CSS Homepage

Last Call: Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0

The Device Independence Working Group released the DISelect specification in three parts. Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0 and Delivery Context: XPath Access Functions 1.0 are Last Call Working Drafts. Comments are welcome through 7 November. Content Selection Primer 1.0 is a First Public Working Draft. DISelect supports the creation of Web sites that can be used from diverse devices. Visit the device independance home page

WordPress 2.0.4, the latest stable release in our Duke series, is available for immediate download. This release contains several important security fixes, so it highly recommended for all users. Weve also rolled in a number of bug fixes (over 50!), so its a pretty solid release across the board.

Upgrading is fairly simple, just overwrite your old files with the latest from the download. If youd like more thorough instructions, the Codex is always the best spot.

Since this is a security release, if you have any friends with blogs make sure to remind them to upgrade and lend a hand if they are not too savvy. Were all in this together.

By Matt

Thanks for releasing the patch so quickly. Was getting worried someone might mess with my blog via the security breach

Google labs is a place where Google is testing out new things alot has been coming out of the labs lately so I wanted to spotlight some of the great things Google has coming out that I saw

Google Reader
Use Google’s web-based feed reader to keep up with what’s important to you

Google Page Creator
Create your own web pages, quickly and easily

Accessible Search
Web search for the visually Impaired

Google Trends
See what the world is searching for

Google Spreadsheets
Create, store and share spreadsheets on the web

So let me know what is your favorite new Google feature and why, even if I did not list it.

Web Standards member Molly E. Holzschlag has announced that Firefox has just released a beta verision of FireFox 2

Some of the features mentioned include:

Better feed support
Default open link in new tab rather than new window
Inline spellcheck for form fields
Microsummaries for bookmarks
Support for JavaScript 1.7
Improved security for plugins and extensions
Client-side session and persistent storage
Support for SVG text using svg:textPath

So, lets give it a whirl, folks, and express your thoughts in comments. The good folks at Mozilla will want to know what you think

By Ian Lloyd

This has an interesting list of ten things to do and a piece on trustworthy trustmarks make sure ot click thur and check out the web standards post on this great subject.

Now, all 80-odd “links for light reading” [1] posts are available online.

Future “links for light reading” will still be posted to the WSG mail
list
but also archived on the Max Design site [2].

[1] http://www.maxdesign.com.au/category/light-reading/
[2] http://www.maxdesign.com.au /

A big thanks to Russ for all the great links!

Tantek writes “A couple of months ago the WaSP invited me to join their Steering Committee. As readers know it’s been a very busy past couple of months, so it has taken me some time to carefully consider the offer and come to a decision.

Effective today, I am publicly accepting the WaSP’s most honorable offer to join up and help fight the good fight for standards that ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.”

Congratulations on joining the WaSP Team Tantek I think you made the right choice in joining !

Microsoft has announced that they will cease all support for IE/Mac as of December 31, 2005 and will cease all distribution of the software on January 31, 2006.

While IE/Mac has become something of a red-headed stepchild in the past couple years, it has a proud history of standards-related achievements, most of which were the result of now-WaSP, then Microsoftie Tantek Çelik.

This milestone doesn’t actually mean much for working web developers — how much effort to put into supporting a given browser is best determined by audience share, not whether the browser is currently ‘supported’ or not. Nevertheless, it’s a bittersweet reminder of the creeping obsolescence of what was arguably the single piece of software most responsible for kicking off the CSS layout revolution.

So wanted to know what you all thought about it! And if someone wanted to start a list of great sites that one must visit to learn web standards.

* Provide web developers and designers with a forum to discuss issues and share knowledge (via our discussion list and regular meetings)
* Provide web standards information and assistance to developers
* Promote “web standards” within the development community

We currently have 2816 members from 99 countries.