Re: Question on abbreviations (fwd)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Pemberton" <apembert@crosslink.net>
> You are correct. I am not considering any "dangers" in the 30 whatabytes
> of IBM content that have to be run thru ed IBM has brainpower beyond mine
> to solve this <grin>... That isn't my primary concern on this issue ...
the
> concern is with delivering content to the user ...

The harder you make it for content providers to refine their content to be
accessible, the fewer will do so. Never mind the brainpower. It's not solely
an issue of throwing it over the wall at the brainiacs when you say the
content itself needs to be changed. The feasibility of such an effort, in
terms of both technology and labor, is out of the reach of most. By
contrast, handling dictionary lookups at a browser level is nowhere near as
complex (I could probably write a dictionary sidebar tab for Mozilla in an
afternoon... and I know they've got smart people at Microsoft...;), and
would go even _further_ to aid accessibility, by allowing users to select
their dictionaries and look up not only abbreviations and acronyms, but
plain old words as well. The cost to the user and the content provider is
zero. I cannot fathom how this would not be a better approach.

> It may be that news sources (AP style or cavalier!) will
> discover/invent a new "style" system to use on the web ...

That's all well and good, but I don't think creating a style guide is within
our charter, nor should it be.

Received on Thursday, 28 December 2000 20:52:14 UTC