- From: Andrew Thackrah <andrew@opengroup.org>
- Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 10:30:28 +0000
- To: www-qa@w3c.org
Some thoughts on brands and their relation to conformance. The W3C currently promotes the use of an online HTML validator. If a page is sucessfully validated the author is invited to display a small 'conformance' graphic on the page. This is a form of branding. What is the thinking behind this service? What is the W3C hoping to achieve by this? The QA group will have to evaluate the thinking behind such services before we can come to a conclusion not only on the nature of conformance procedures but also our attitudes to conformance and certification. The conformance graphic itself is a brand. However it carries no legal power (AFAIK) and the certification system behind it is simple and free. (yes ! it is a certification system, and the graphic is the certificate) Does the promotion of this brand lead to small vendor lock-out? I suspect not. Is it useful as a quality assurance for buyers? possibly not. I think it promotes the visibility of the W3C as a standards organisation. It promotes the idea that there is a correct way to do HTML. One problem it may have is the kind of negative 'halo effect' that would come from a broken browser rendering a conformant page badly. The page, although technically correct, would look broken. If every page bearing a W3C brand looked broken (in that browser), there is the danger of creating a bad association with W3C. This is a case where we have to think about the relationship between the quality of the standards (validating chunk of HTML) and the products that implemement them (validating a browser) Andrew
Received on Wednesday, 10 October 2001 06:27:06 UTC