A couple weeks ago, Minnick Web Services sponsored the Sacramento HTML5 meetup, where we hosted two representatives from Adobe and the W3C. They came out to talk about two very important initiatives that are critical to the future of HTML5: testing the standards, and creating documentation for the web.
Test the Web Forward
The testing presentation was given by Rebecca Hauck, who is a steward of the Test the Web Forward program. The purpose of Test the Web Forward is to design tests for web browser compatibility with HTML5 through hackathons all over the world and the efforts of contributing individuals and companies.
Over 15,000 tests need to be created before HTML5 can become a full-blown standard. Once these tests are done, browser makers will be able to make sure that their implementation of HTML5 is exactly the same as every other web browser. What this means for you (the web developer or user of the web) is that this is a real path to a world where it doesn’t matter what browser you use:websites will work the same in every one of them.
If you’ve ever built or used a website, you know that this would be a very big deal.
WebPlatform.org
The second talk was from Julee Burdekin, who talked about WebPlatform.org. WebPlatform.org is a joint effort by pretty much all of the big shots on the web — including Google, Adobe, Facebook, Microsoft, HP, Mozilla, Intel, Opera, and Nokia — to write or compile the definitive source of documentation for the web and web standards. Again, this is a massive undertaking requiring a massive amount of community involvement, but the web will be a better place for it.
If you’re interested in learning more about these efforts, and how you can use them to gain some very valuable skills while helping to improve the web for all of us, visit the links above or get in touch with me. I’m hoping to help organize events around these two efforts in the Sacramento area if I get enough interest from the community.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Chris Minnick