I don’t remember exactly when it was that Jeffrey Zeldman dropped me a line and asked if I’d join the Web Standards Project to help form their first task force. I guess it was some time in 2001 – I’d need to dig a lot of mail out of the archives to find exactly when. Together with Rachel Andrew we formed the Dreamweaver Task Force and began working more closely with Macromedia on improving their product’s support for web standards.
A couple of years later, wanting to get a bit more involved with core activity, I took on the vacant ‘press’ role, wrote some ridiculous press releases, helped launch Browse Happy and eventually found out (almost by accident) that I’d been opted on to the Steering Committee. A year on and I took on the role of Strategy Lead.
This week, along with the wonderful Kimberly Blessing, I took over from Molly and became Group Lead of the Web Standards Project. Yikes. It’s been five years or so, but it feels like it’s all happened rather quickly. No matter.
As a Project, I think we have some work to do. A lot of our activity of late has been behind closed doors and under NDA with one company or another. Let’s not forget that this is critically important work and great things have been achieved. Really seriously fantastic things. But the public-facing stuff is important too. Developer education and awareness is key, and we have a big initiative to launch in the New Year which we hope will create some impact in that area.
Sometimes it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the web standards war is already won because the blogs we read and other developers we interact with socially are all on the same page as us. The reality is rather different. Brand new, professional sites are still being churned out using tables for layout. Educational institutions across the globe are teaching out-dated techniques, and in some cases only accepting those techniques for credit. Walk into your local bookstore or library and you’ll find a number of their web design titles are still partying like it’s 1999. Accessibility is either a dirty word or a completely unknown issue for many.
We have a way to go, but we’re good at this stuff so it shouldn’t be too hard. The biggest danger is being unaware of the problem.
Comments
Good luck Drew. I think all standards aware designers / developers have appreciated the efforts WaSP have gone to in the past and are looking forward to a productive future :-)
Congrats Drew – I think you (and Kimberly) will do amazing things. Absolutely looking forward to 2007 and seeing what you guys come up with.
Wow – that’s some role you’ve landed yourself there. No pressure. But you’re right – there are far more people using web standards and modern methods of client-side code (ie CSS) than a few years ago, but still we see old-school markup being churned out by so-called professionals. The worst culprits are software engineers who end up having to produce some HTML – many neither know nor care about web standards. Often is the case when we’ve handed over templates for integration into software, only for the developers to start sticking in their own tables and other such yuk.
congratulations indeed – I think you’re an excellent choice for this role and I’m truly anxious to see what ideas you’ll have. Watching this with great interest!
Good luck and congratulations Drew.
Lots to do, but that’s what new years are for. Second the problem with working with more traditional software developers transitioning to the web – although sometimes this is the tools providing an abstractions and hiding the problem from those same developers.
Congrats and good luck!! Really glad to see the renewed focus on making a difference at educational institutions and at individual designer/developer level. Personally I think that’s where the war may well be won.
The shortcomings of web design curricula taught in the educational institutions of the world is indeed a major issue, and perhaps the best way to make a significant change in the way people think about web design and development. There are, however, many schools that are teaching web standards, accessibility, usability, and the myriad of other mission critical topics the W3C and WaSP have been advocating. I am a faculty member in the Interactive Media Design department at The Art Institute of Atlanta, and we are one such institution that has been teaching Web Standards for 5 years. Our students then in turn teach their employers at major companies here in Atlanta about the virtues of adopting Web Standards development techniques.
My question is, how do educators band together or get involved with WaSP, W3C, or other organizations to share teaching resources with other schools and evangelize Web Standards? Does WaSP have any outreach committee to work with educational institutions? If not, are there plans to create such a committee? How can I get involved?
Kick ass!
Congrats Drew – I think you (and Kimberly) will do amazing things. Absolutely looking forward to 2007 and seeing what you guys come up with.