11 All about money

It strikes me that money is a driving factor in this discussion. If we the web design community want to have the power to affect change we need to fund that process in the same way lobbying groups do in politics. We need to provide funding for independent individuals to sit on the W3C and lobby browser developers to implement standards correctly. In essence we need to put our money where our mouth is.

I for one would be happy to contribute to such a cause. It is certainly not an unusual arrangement. We see factory workers paying to be apart of a trade union to campaign for its rights. Why cannot we have a similar thing?

Whether we pay membership fees individually or web design agencies pay a larger fee to be ‘affiliated with’ something like WaSP is up for debate. However, I do believe we need to inject some cash into this problem so we have people working on it full time rather than fitting it in between client work!

posted at 04:57 pm on September 23, 2008 by Paul Boag

12 Are we all overlooking something?

Great article Molly, we need to shed light on these groups and processes in order to find the ways to repair them. Perhaps we should look to the methods and systems in place that govern the underlying technology the Web has been built upon like ICANN and IEEE. These organizations and agencies have successfully navigated commercial interests, patent issues, and demands from communities and other private entities to create standards we all use transparently everyday.

We should also look into how other industries deal with these issues. Television, telco, aviation, and even transportation systems all have systems that at one time were just as fragmented and chaotic as our beloved Web.

I think the solution lies in the histories of these organizations and industries if we just care to look for it.

posted at 04:57 pm on September 23, 2008 by J. Cornelius

13 Untitled

It will not happen. Too much has been/was lost at the onset by dilution of the natural filtration of cost. The only method may be with the World Wide Web Foundation and its merchandising ability provided that it gets quickly funded with a hundred million dollars. This business, in all probability, will face legislation that will end up dictating and directing these issues.

posted at 05:03 pm on September 23, 2008 by . thacker

14 Mistake

Very high risk of becoming mono-cultural, led by a single person or small group with the majority of people going along with the idea because it’s the “right” thing to do

A precise description of the W3C, XHTML and The Web Standards movement over the past few years. But you appear to have accidentally listed it as a WHATWG “con”

posted at 05:34 pm on September 23, 2008 by M Attur

15 All about the money 2.0

I am in agreement with Paul, a lack of funding certainly has contributed to the slowness of the process, as well as the ability of the larger companies to push specs around to suite their needs.

The problem with introducing funding into a sort of lobbyist group is that it can becomes a breeding ground for peoples own agendas and schemes. You run the risk of corrupting the process even further.

I am not saying that this isn’t a possible route, just that it has its own set of risks and problems that it could bring to the table if not well thought out and properly monitored.

posted at 06:30 pm on September 23, 2008 by Matthew Munsey

16 response to: Missing Element: Inertia

Jim, I’m only a little less pessimistic, because I think if there is something else created which they want to use (more) or they feel left out, they will move. But I don’t see it happening any time soon.

posted at 06:52 pm on September 23, 2008 by Leen Besselink

17 Response to: Are we all overlooking something?

Have you ever looked closely at ICANN ? I would not call it those things you call it.

posted at 07:01 pm on September 23, 2008 by Leen Besselink

18 Response to: 3 circle of hell

I think that we, as web developers, can make this changes. We can educate our clients to web standards. It’s futile to complain about this.. Choosing to leave support to older browser is the way, and we can do it. By support I mean not pixel-to-pixel rendering, but still usable.

posted at 08:06 pm on September 23, 2008 by Giustino Borzacchiello

19 Untitled

#12 – The IEEE is actually much like / an inspiration to the W3C – very slow to move, and very determined not to do anything less than technically ‘perfect’.

I do think that the foundation approach is a good one – the likes of Google, Apple, Mozilla (i.e. the WHATWG backers) should be able to see the benefits in speeding up the existing standardisation process.

As for web standards generally – dare I say that mobile browsing (phones, Netbooks, etc) are going to push the last remaining hold-outs to adjust or be effectively ‘off the web’ – it’s only going to be the Intranet world that’s IE6.
(Does IE8’s ‘compatibility mode’ button remember sites/domains??)

posted at 09:00 pm on September 23, 2008 by Julian Lawton

20 Money is the key

Angry customers might be the saviour. Let’s assume for a second that Google succeeds in penetrating Microsoft’s IE dominance by a large margin and that more and more people start to complain at their banks that they cannot get to their online accounts anymore for whatever reason.

I think most banks and other coprorations are pretty fed up now by having to support so many varieties of browsers, that they might become the choir of discontent.

As long as browser inconsistencies hurt developers more than customers, the current deadlock remains in place. It is that same deadlock that prevents us from moving forward with HTML 5 or CSS3. As long as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Adobe and maybe some other big names don’t feel the pressure of customers they don’t have an incentive to cooperate in the W3C or any other group. It has to hurt them in the bottom-line figures to get some cooperation, or laws and regulations have to do it. But I guess that’s a direction no one wants to turn to.

posted at 09:04 pm on September 23, 2008 by Martijn ten Napel

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