Entries Tagged 'standards' ↓

This blog, I mean

The history of Zombiecoder is thus: I started blogging on my original personal web site, http://kay.smoljak.com/. After the MXDU conference in 2003, I got added to the Fullasagoog aggregator in the ColdFusion category, and eventually to Macromedia/Adobe’s MXNA.

The great thing about aggregators is that they bring you a lot of traffic that you wouldn’t otherwise get. The problem with aggregators is that really, you need to stay on topic as much as possible because the people subscribing to that aggregated feed don’t want just any old rubbish. It’s entirely different from having your own individual subscribers.

I was getting pretty involved in the Web Standards Group and AWIA and our local Perth Port80 chapter and it seemed that web standards, CSS, accessibility and other such topics didn’t fit in so well with the code-focus of a ColdFusion blog - so zombiecoder was born.

However, things have changed. While I’m still involved with the various activities of AWIA and Port80, I just don’t have enough time to devote to the WSG. And since 2003, the general CF community has become more and more interested in the wider web - to the point where web standards and accessibility are not considered off-topic anymore.

Another shift that has occurred is more to do with the web standards community: there just seems to be less web standards blogging going on in general. Some people have different thoughts as to why that’s occurred - me, I think that we’re getting to saturation point. The people who are listening already get it. Specifications move slowly - there’s been nothing new in HTML or CSS for a long time. There’s just nothing much to write about. 

So… here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking I will import the posts from this blog into kay.smoljak.com. I will set up redirects so no links get broken. Essentially, merge the two blogs into one: a meta-blog, if you will, but rather than calling it a web standards blog or a ColdFusion blog I’ll call it my web development blog and post about topics related to all facets of web development as I see fit.

So… thoughts? Does anyone agree, or disagree? Think it’s a good or bad idea? Like it, hate it, don’t give a toss either way? Let me know in the comments if I’m doing the right thing - cos I think I am, but I’m not sure.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of presenting (virtually) to the New Zealand ColdFusion User Group on CSS and web standards. David Harris runs the meetings with both physical attendees in Auckland and virtual attendees through Adobe Connect.

The recording of that presentation (with slides) is now available. It sounds a little scratchy, unfortunately - no doubt a combination of my not-great headset and the extreme distance. The presentation covers how, as a ColdFusion developer, I came to be involved in web standards, what the term actually means, why I think they are important and why I think web standards could be more of interest to back end developers then they perhaps realise. I also include a couple of basic examples.

Web Standards for Developers - Adobe Connect presentation recording

There’s been some posts circulating lately about HTML email, and the horrible things that email clients do to display them, and the need for standards. Many people in the web standards community, while supporting the idea of standards for everything, have a distinct dislike of HTML email.

I can understand where they are coming from. HTML email, when used for ordinary email exchanges, is horrible. They are larger - even without images, we’re talking 7 - 10KB for a small message versus 1 or 2KB for the plain text equivalent, which over time adds up when you save everything. Then there’s the issue of overuse of fonts, and garish, hard to read colours, and “email stationary”, and hideous tiling background images, and even (please, god, no, make it stop) animated GIFs.

However, there is one kind of HTML email that I do like to get: HTML email newsletters. The Freshview team have elevated these to an art form through their excellent (and heartily recommended) products Campaign Monitor and MailBuild. A well-crafted, professional email newsletter can be a joy to receive.

Yes, the company could put that information into an RSS feed. Yes, we could get it from there instead. But for those of us suffering information overload, or not yet ready to explain RSS to our parents, varying the format and making it interesting with some nice design can mix it up a bit. For some sites, we don’t need to know about what’s new the second it happens - and a monthly or quarterly digest is a good alternative. From a marketing perspective, HTML email can also be very effective, so it’s a good thing for our clients.

Regardless of which particular view you subscribe too, it’s generally accepted that HTML email is here to stay, so some standards would be nice. A couple of weeks ago, Dave Greiner from Freshview answered the question of why we need standards support in HTML email, then followed up with ”a call to arms”: Help us form a baseline for standards support. Apparently the response from the community was good, and a web site dedicated to the “movement” will be launched soon.

The outcome will certainly be interesting: this issue is one to watch. But I still wish that individuals would switch to plain text for their everyday conversational email!

The Perth Festival web site is a nominee in the events category of the 11th Annual Webby Awards.

The 2007 Perth International Arts Festival web site has been nominated for a Webby Award. As part of the awards programme, the site is also up for a Webby People’s Voice award, nominated by members of the public. You can help us win by signing up to vote in the Websites > Living > Events category - but be quick, voting closes this Friday, the 27th of April.

So, why do I think you should vote for us? Well, the Festival site has been my pet project for the past 5 years, and I love it to death! But apart from that, it’s a site that has been built with love and care, and most importantly, lots of web standards. I won’t say that every page definitely validates without warnings - but the templates and structure are all sound. Which is more than can be said about the other sites in the same category - while they all look great, two are completely Flash based and the other two use layout tables and much crufty, deprecated markup. Ewww!

I was lucky enough to work with a very talented bunch of people to pull the 2007 Perth International Arts Festival web site together - especially Isabel at Block Branding, who did the gorgeous design, Ben Kroll, who coded the “My Festival Planner”, both CF/Fusebox back end and Ajax-enhanced front end, and Georgia Malone from the Festival (now at PICA) who managed all the content and drove the marketing efforts. In 2006, Georgia stamped her foot and said “I want to win a Webby!” She then set about making sure that the 2007 Festival web site was amazing in every last detail - and this nomination shows that she was right on track.

So get voting, and remember - a vote for the Festival is a vote for web standards!

Forums: some people love ‘em, some people don’t.

The debate - mailing list or forum - has come up at one time or another on almost every mailing list and/or forum i’ve ever participated in. Some people love one, some love the other. Some use both (that group would include me).

In the spirit of diversity, the Web Standards Group - traditionally in the mailing list camp - have launched a forum for discussing web standards and related issues, in web-based forum format for those who prefer that style. The site was launched in December, but with the Christmas/New Year/holiday period traditionally letting people switch off their PCs for a while, it’s only now that posts are starting to pick up.

Being the Web Standards Group, the standards compliance of the forum solution was a major concern, and so Vanilla was selected. Matt Magain from SitePoint did most of the work getting the forum set up and skinned to match the WSG site - and he’s done a great job. I wasn’t too sure about Vanilla as it turns the traditional forum metaphor a little on it’s head - no forums per se, but categories instead and a very different navigation system from the norm. But over the weeks it has been running I’m slowly getting used to it, and while I don’t yet prefer it to a more traditional forum style ala phpBB, I don’t hate it anymore!
Membership of the forum is independent of mailing list/WSG membership, so if you’d like to give it a try please pop on in and say hello.