Blog Surfer

Future of web standards (my take)
Stuart Landridge sums up the ongoing debate about the future of CSS. My thoughts on this are that we should: 1. Let browser makers run loose with implementing new features, based on feedback from web developers. 2. Have a standard body (or some other group) that look at those existing features and see how they can be […]

Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded
Having recently announced the CSS Eleven initiative to provide designer feedback and input into the W3C’s CSS Working Group, Andy Clarke has responded to the Opera-Microsoft antitrust action by calling for the Group to be dissolved entirely and rebuilt without browser vendors in a controlling role. He considers this necessary not only […]

Having recently announced the CSS Eleven initiative to provide designer feedback and input into the W3C’s CSS Working Group, Andy Clarke has responded to the Opera-Microsoft antitrust action by calling for the Group to be dissolved entirely and rebuilt without browser vendors in a controlling role.

He considers this necessary not only because he doubts that the representatives of Opera and Microsoft can collaborate on CSS3 while locked in a legal battle, but also because he feels it’s time the future of web standards was led by those of us who will eventually use them in our daily work, not those who hope to make money by making browsers.

Clarke’s indictment of Opera’s legal action has been echoed by many in the web design community. CSS expert Eric Meyer considers the Opera move to be bad timing, coming right when Microsoft was showing promise with IE7 and the upcoming IE8:

It’s the wrong move at the wrong time, sending precisely the wrong signal to Microsoft about the importance of participating in development and support of open standards, and I can only hope that it comes to a quiet and unheralded end.

But few seem to agree with Clarke’s proposal to restructure the CSS Working Group. Many believe the group has life in it yet, while others are calling for the wholesale abandonment of the W3C process.

The voice of reason in all this seems to be Alex Russell of the Dojo Toolkit. In his article, The W3C Cannot Save Us, he explains that what is really holding the Web back is our fanatical devotion to web standards, and the expectation that they can dictate what new features should be added to web browsers.

Put simply, Zeldman is hurting you and only you can make it stop. Neither the CSS WG nor the HTML 5 WG nor, indeed, any W3C working group can define the future. They can only round off the sharp edges once the future becomes the past and that’s all we should ever expect of them. As much as they tell us (and themselves) that they can, and as much as they really would like to, the W3C cannot save us.

Long-time Tech Times readers will not be surprised that I agree with Alex. His opinion is pretty much what I said in the Tech Times #137, way back in April 2006:

In my mind, it shouldn’t be the W3C’s job to develop new standards from scratch, nor should the W3C be responsible for championing new features in individual browsers. Those are the jobs of the innovators and early adopters, who push the boundaries of the possible, producing early implementations that blaze trails for future standards to pave.

The one sticking point that Alex doesn’t mention is software patents. If browsers go out and patent every innovative feature they develop, these features will not be freely available for the W3C to standardize for adoption by the other browsers. But perhaps that’s a smaller problem than the ones we’re faced with currently.

In any case, the W3C needs to stop looking towards the future; until they do, the rest of us will be stuck in the past. The W3C is eminently capable of writing solid specs that describe what browsers do today. They should stick to that (it’s a big job!), and let the world know that adding nonstandard features to web browsers is not a crime.

The future is not built by consensus in a working group; it’s built by visionaries trying stuff out and making mistakes.

This article provided by sitepoint.com.

IE8 renders the acid 2 test
I’m not sure why I don’t see that many people talking about the fact that IE8 renders the acid 2 test perfectly now. It really seems Microsoft is starting to move forward again, after starting to feel some pressure from the open source world. Will they be able to pick up the speed needed to […]

The future of friendlybit.com
It’s vacation time and you’re allowed to lean back and just relax. A blog it’s always there though, you post to it on your spare time, and as soon as you have some a little glitch in your schedule you need to consider blogging. It’s a full time job. Current situation I use Friendly Bit as […]

Monday Inspiration: Creative Workplaces

Your workplace and the atmosphere surrounding you determine the way you work and explore your imagination. The more inspirational your workplace is, the easier it is to break the creativity block and discover new ideas. And apparently there is a number of things you can do to improve your personal workflow.

As a part of our Monday Inspiration series we present a dozen of creative and unusual workplaces; in the end of the post you’ll also find references to related resources, among them office design galleries and Flickr pools. They can serve as an inspiration once you’ve decided to spice up your work environment.

You can also click on the images — they lead to the sites from which the screenshots have been taken.

Your workplace and the atmosphere surrounding you determine the way you work and explore your imagination. The more inspirational your workplace is, the easier it is to break the creativity block and discover new ideas. And apparently there is a number of things you can do to improve your personal workflow.

As a part of our Monday Inspiration series we present a dozen of creative and unusual workplaces; in the end of the post you’ll also find references to related resources, among them office design galleries and Flickr pools. They can serve as an inspiration once you’ve decided to spice up your work environment.

You can also click on the images — they lead to the sites from which the screenshots have been taken.

Inspirational Workplaces

The Milk desk: a design to match Apple gear; with white surface and rounded edges. As Alexander Kjerulf states, “it lowers and raises electrically, it has ways to hide the cable clutter, and it also has four compartments at one end that can be configured for storage, trash or, em, as an aquarium.”

Pixar’s workplace: designers are allowed to design their workplace as they wish.

Google offers its engineers and developers full freedom. Not only bicycles can be found in the offices; also cats and dogs are quite usual.

References and Further Resources

• Flickr Pool: Inspiring Workplaces
• Pimp Your Office Flickrset
  Some cool ways to spruce up your office environment.
• Creative Work Environments
• Office Design Gallery
  Inspiration from the best of office design.
• On My Desk
  Artists, illustrators, designers and creative folk share the stuff on their desks.
• 10 Seeriously Cool Workplaces
• 12 Ways To Pimp Your Office
  Here are some ways to spruce up a workplace that may actually inject some color and fun into your work environment.
• Creativity in the workplace
  Veerle Pieters discusses ways how to decorate your personal space and improve your workflow.
• Cool Workspaces
  An overview of ways people decorate their workplaces: some good, some bad, some cluttered, some clean.

Quick Accessibility Testing
A recent project of mine required me to do a quick review of the accessibility level of a site. Nothing serious, just to show what was possible to test and where the site scored right now. I managed to assemble a small list of tools that I believe did a rather good job. This article […]