Re: Right Tools RE: Promotion of XHTML

Francis wrote:
> I suppose it comes down to whether the W3C want to be seen as just a
> standards organisation who solely write the standards for the WWW and
> who rely on third parties such as WaSP to work with companies like
> Macromedia. Or do they want to actively work with and get their name on
> such high profile products?  
> [...]
> If the W3C just want to write the standards and rely on evangalism to
> spread the message then, IMHO, there's a limited amount that they can
> expect in return.  It's relying on the passion and dedication of people
> who know and understand the reasons why it's important to write XHTML.

I am not sure this is really a correct or good standpoint to adopt.
We shouldn't really be thinking in terms of what the W3C wants
or not - it should be what we as a web development community wants
to achieve - and what we should to for ourselves in order to push
things the right way. WASP is group of Web designers/developers,
MACCAWS is a similar group with a specific goal.

While I'm rather simplifying it by saying this, the W3C works with 
various other companies and organisations to establish recommendations
with the aim to ensure a sensible evolution of the Web, but they
are not by any means a reinforcement authority. I would rather think
that we developers who are passionate about growing the Web in a sensible 
manner have every reason to say this is /what we want/, not what the
W3C or any other organisation wants.

However, it could be good to have an independent certification authority, 
much like for ISO certification, which is not actually part of the standards
body itself. This authority can certify if a company's websites are compliant 
and are of a particular level of quality, for example, or as what Francis 
suggested, put labels on software boxes as a sign of a "quality product".

> But apart from giving us badges to put on our sites, there's not a huge
> amount we can do to really reach the masses.  Sure, we can publsih
> articles online about this very subject, but who apart from the
> "nerdly-inclined" will read them?

There is plenty we can do to reach the masses. Education begins in
small steps. Education in universities, colleges, education of
management in companies who are developing or renovating websites, 
education of designers - establishing where designers are learning their
"tricks" from. The toughest audience I have found, in fact, are
programmers and developers. 

The world doesn't get changed in a day (or at least not by humans)
- it's a matter of patience and persistance.

regards,
-steph

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Received on Wednesday, 1 January 2003 15:25:17 UTC