NEWS P.R. PRESS CONTACTS CALENDAR
Articles
Some material that should be on this page was lost during "the troubles" of Summer 2000. Fortunately, it's not all that important. (Who cares about old press? Most of these links are probably dead anyway. Go away, go away.)
2 October A profile of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, invokes the WaSP's viewpoint on the cost of incompatibility. Berners-Lee generally agrees, though he warns that the W3C "cannot play Web police." (The article incorrectly implies that the WaSP "would like the W3C to enforce stricter rules.")
17 September In IT Manager's Journal, Rod Amis (see 18 August, below) interviews WaSP group leader George Olsen on the cost of Web incompatibilities for corporate IT managers.
18 August Rod Amis of The Andover News Network promotes the Standards Now! campaign. We appreciate his support - check out the first mention of us in his column.
15 August Internet News has a feature on the Standards Now! petition.
11 August As part of its Standards Now! drive, the WaSP initiated a letter-writing campaign, and issued two press releases. Getitright.txt explains the letter-writing campaign, while petition.txt tells of 1,000 designers and developers for Fortune 500 companies, who signed the petition at Web Design '99 in Atlanta and Web Design World '99 in Seattle.
9 August
News.com questions the notion of standards in Why Open Standards Are a Myth.
19 July
In this month's High Five, WaSP Zeldman discusses the future of the Web as it relates to creativity, authorship, and standards.
25 June
Eric Meyer's CSS: If Not Now, When? in Web Review cites the WaSP's efforts while making a case for standards that is impassioned, profound, and grounded in common sense.
Fear of Style Sheets 2 in A List Apart offers browser bug workarounds in keeping with the spirit of W3C recommendations.
22 June
Web Review offers a clear, concise
introduction to cross-browser DHTML using the W3C DOM,
complete with a working example that creates, modifies, and destroys a
table.
18 June
Netscape's bold move gets a beauty treatment in A List Apart's Netscape Bites Bullet.
14 June
More good news! C|Net reports on Netscape's decision to to fully support DOM1, CSS1, and HTML 4.0 in the upcoming version 5.0 of Communicator. Includes comments from our own George Olsen.
11 June
Wired News's Web Publishing the Microsoft Way includes comments from WaSPs George Olsen and Tim Bray, along with WaSP co-founder Ann Navarro (representing the HTML Writers Guild) on concerns about the standards-friendliness, or lack thereof, of the Web Publishing features built into Microsoft Office 2000.
And Publish Magazine offers an interview with WaSP leader George Olsen on the state of the Web and other subjects.
3 June
Standardization Hasn't Unified Scripting Approaches, Internet World finds (with help from WaSP George Olsen).
1 May
The Web Standards Project was voted second place in Builder.com's Web Innovator of the Year Awards, after Mozilla.org.
14April
Sounds like good news for standards: Opera Software has hired Håkon Lie, principle architect of the Cascading Style Sheets Standard. Wired News has the story.
13 April
In Hotwired's Webmonkey: Gecko Lays Out the Future. The article finds that the Gecko preview fully and accurately supports even the most fiendishly complex CSS (e.g., the the WaSP's CSS Samurai Box Acid Test), and asks when (and how) we can expect this browser to enter the mainstream.
JavaPro Magazine has a hard-hitting editorial evangelizing standards, bemoaning iniquities, and referring frequently to the WaSP.
7 April The Web Standards Project issued its State of the Web Address.
6 April
The good word from Hotwired Webmonkey.
1 April
An article in the New York Times' Cybertimes section takes a somewhat optimistic view of Mozilla, following the resignation by Jamie Zawinski. ("I was the 20th person hired at Mosaic Communications Corporation ... and ... only five remain. The company I helped build has been gone for quite some time.")
30 March
Publish.com continues to explore the trilogy of IE5, Standards, and The
WaSP: IE5 Hits the Web; Developers Speak Out.
23 March
CNET Builder.com's Web Innovators of the Year lists the WaSP among its nominees.
19-22 March
More mentions of the WaSP and IE5 in the press:
Developer Group
Chides Microsoft On Standards Adoption at Internet Week;
Internet
Explorer gets mixed user reviews at Computerworld;
and Asia-Link
s.Com's publication of our recent press release about IE5.
18-19 March
A bit of WaSP coverage in articles regarding Microsoft's release of IE 5:
Explorer
5.0 doesn't follow Web standards 100%, some developers
complain, at Computerworld; Designers:
IE 5 a lost opportunity at ZDNet, and IE 5.0
improves on earlier releases but complicates Web builders' lives at
CNET Builder.Com. The WSP press release is also
available for viewing.
5-6 February 1999
Articles relating to the WaSP's questioning of the
Microsoft patent on style sheets include: Microsoft Awarded Style Sheet Patent and Who Owns the Patent to Style Sheets?, both from
Webreview.com; MS Wins Patent for Web Standard from Wired News; and Microsoft
Questioned Over Web Patent, from Newsbytes. And don't miss our press release at
IDM.
16 December 1998
Minor mention of WaSP at Builder.com.
7 December 1998
Netscape's Next Move: "The new browser engine Gecko
promises open-source, standards-based development for faster, slicker Web
sites and apps."
Netscape's new engine available: "Can Gecko deliver
'Write once, browse anywhere' technology for developers?"
The article includes this comment:
Netscape has abandoned its earlier strategy of promoting proprietary
HTML extensions, and instead it's fervently latching onto open standards
maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. Microsoft is doing the
same, though Netscape says its competitor sometimes violates the spirit
of the standards process by rolling out new features while submitting
wholly new proposals – effectively creating proprietary extensions and
then foisting them on the standards committees.
As the article says, this was Netscape's
own strategy for years....
6 December 1998
An article from News.com covers upcoming Navigator 5.0, and
gives a nod to the WaSP for helping persuade Netscape to move up the
shipping date of its standards-compliant, new-generation rendering engine,
NGLayout.
1 December 1998
Feel the Love! CNET wrote up the WaSP's joint appearance with Netscape and
Microsoft at the SF AIP. A web-radio broadcast accompanies the story.
16 November 1998
Heavy WaSP mention in eMedia Weekly's analysis of 5.0 browsers. Unfortunately, a few quotes
were oversimplified; however, the WaSP's viewpoint set the tone for the
article.
Minor WSP mention in iw.com's
NGLayout story. Also of interest, an update on
W3C's vector graphics group.
In another arena: it seems we're not the only ones fed up
with
incompatabilities:
Group forms to end systems chaos
"An impressive IT industry force is assembling to launch an ambitious quest
for the holy grail of true interoperability and open systems."
And in the uncanny humor department, one of us found this on Freshmeat
today:
The WASP 0.8a
The WASP is an OpenSource platform (library)
for developing
complex web applications. It is written in Java and runs under any system which
will support the Java Servlet API. The WASP parses .wasp files which consist of
standard HTML and some additional XML tags that are used to control the
behavior of the WASP. All .wasp files should be consistent with XML syntax. The
WASP allows you to add new tags and functionality easily.
5 November 1998
The WaSP's IE Top 10 is getting plenty of media
attention.
We like this story from the German press and this feature from News.com. "Adherence to W3C recommendations has been a
thorn in the side of both Microsoft and Netscape, as developers agitate for
more standards
compliance" says News.com. (A thorn? Or a stinger?)
Mac Central starts their coverage with the observation "Microsoft just
isn't having a good week." (The article, formerly at
www.maccentral.com/news/9811/nov05.shtml, is now offline.) Wired News
offers a related piece on web developers' demand for standards, with a brief mention of the WaSP's
IE effort toward the end of the tome.
28 October 1998
Coverage of NGLayout and The WaSP continues in this fine story from News.com, and this one from InternetNews.com. There's even a RealAudio clip, though by tomorrow it will have been
replaced by another.
Yet more on the same subject from Computerworld and Newsbytes.
27 October 1998
Wired News covers Netscape's decision to implement
NGLayout in Navigator 5, but soft-pedals the Web Standards Project's role
in forcing Netscape's hand. Meanwhile, this German news story gets it right.
CNET also gets it right in their updated coverage.
26 October 1998
Good press from Jesse Bert's Anchor Desk.
More great stuff from Webmonkey and Builder.com.
14 October 1998
ComputerWire
ran an interesting (and password-protected) article crediting The WaSP with
forcing Microsoft to sing a standards tune. They conclude, in part: "
Little wonder, then, that the early marketing of IE 5 concentrates on W3C
standards implementation, practically to the exclusion of all else." Sounds
good to us.
More good and interesting WaSP press from Developer.com.
9 October 1998
Infoworld ran a feature story on our collaboration with The Open Group.
6 October 1998
A collaboration between The Web Standards Project and The Open Group made
headline news at C|Net today.
ComputerWorld also covered the story, choosing it as
the lead in their Fall Internet World roundup.
1 October 1998
Webserver.cpg.com ran an interesting article, archived here, on the theme, "web developers of the
world, unite." It's pro-WaSP without being anti-browser company.
29 September 1998
The Web Standards Project was
named Supercool Site of the Day by Joek.com.
24 September 1998
As predicted on 31 August, Germany's iX Magazine devoted its monthly
editorial to The Web Standards Project. The magazine is a sister
publication to ct.
20 September 1998
Anchor published a nifty pre-Web 98 interview with
WaSPs George Olsen, Steven Champeon, and Jeffrey Zeldman.
14 September 1998
The WaSP made today's eMedia Weekly in
Joanna Pearlstein's column about Microsoft's
Chromeffects.
Onlinepress.com
ran a chatty interview with our Project Leader, George Olsen.
11 September 1998
The book Time & Bits: Managing Digital Continuity lists the Web
Standards Project in its directory of Internet Resources. Time Bits
is an offshoot of a conference on long-term digital cultural preservation.
Participants included Stewart Brand, Danny Hillis, and Brian Eno. The
publication will be distributed free of charge.
10 September 1998
Nate Zelnick's followup piece on the WaSP ran in Internet World.
4 September 1998
Jeffrey Zeldman's lecture at the Bilism
Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, sponsored by the daily newspaper
Yeniyuzyil, was covered by that paper and its competitors, and was
discussed extensively throughout the week in Hasan Yalcinkaya's Chat
Kapi, Istanbul's only daily internet column.
4 September 1998
Interesting editorial support from Design
Space, a new and beautifully designed resource for web builders.
2 September 1998
Techsightings cited the WaSP.
Taylor's article on Mozilla NGlayout for Hotwired is of
interest. (Our 8/21 Word From The WaSP column
encouraged WaSP members to help the browser maker code up right.)
1 September 1998
A message in support of the project was posted to National Public Radio's
All Things Considered and Your Turn today.
31 August 1998
ct
Magazine, Germany's most-read computer periodical, ran Detlef Beyer's
feature on the WaSP. We hear that iX Magazine, ct's alphageek sister pub,
will devote next month's editorial to The Web Standards Project.
The Allaire HomeSite discussion group received a message in support of WaSP
from marketing director Larry Concannon.
It's not exactly hard news, but the WaSP site received a CoolSTOP Best of the
Cool Award today for its "great graphics, easy navigation and unique,
interesting and entertaining content." Entertaining content? If they say
so.
30 August 1998
Emedia Weekly (the publication formerly known as Macweek) ran a
brief piece on the WaSP. (Formerly at
www.emediaweekly.com/980824/browsers.html, the piece is now offline.)
28 August 1998
The Association of Internet Professionals board voted to officially support
the WaSP, and appointed Dan Shafer as liaison between WaSP and AIP. A
related press release may be viewed on our P.R.
page.
27 August 1998
Computer Weekly (UK) Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information Ltd.
TECHNOLOGY Section, Pg. 28
SITESEEING – Glyn Moody
As Getting Wired has frequently reported, the following of official
standards - despite all the fine words from the major players - remains
more a pious hope than a reality. For example, in implementing the
World-Wide Web Consortium's recommendations, Microsoft's and Netscape's
browsers differ substantially.
One major category of users that suffers as a result is Web developers,
who have to plump for one camp, work to common features or produce two
versions of everything. Now, a group of them have set up the Web Standards
Project (at www.webstandards.org/) with the aim of "fighting for standards
in our browsers". Their goals are spelled out more fully in the press
release at www.webstandards.org/WSP_release_MAIN.txt.
When Web developers get together for a high-profile cause such as this,
their own Web site will be scrutinised closely. Fortunately, the Web
Standards Project pages are exemplary. The HTML code comes complete with
DTD, <META> tags, comments and plenty of cascading stylesheets
(CSS). Colour and design are simple but effective. However, there is not
much content there yet.
The Action section (www.webstandards.org/action.html) has some nice
banners and links to articles (www.webstandards.org/press.html). Mission
(www.webstandards.org/mission.html) gives more details on what the group is
hoping to achieve, while Members (www. webstandards.org/members.html) has
information on the people behind the movement. One name that may be
familiar to Getting Wired readers is Glenn Davis, whose Project Cool
(www.projectcool.com/) and DevSearch (www.devsearch. com/) sites have been
discussed before.
By far the richest part of the site is Resources (www.
webstandards.org/resources.html) which offers links to sites with similar
aims, or information to help those grappling with conflicting browser
technologies. For example, for one of the most important areas that needs
sorting out, CSS, there is a link to a browser comparison table at
http:/style.webreview.com/mastergrid.html, and workarounds at
http:/css.nu/pointers/bugs.htm.
And if you are wondering about the latter's unusual .nu domain, it belongs
to the Polynesian island of Niue - visit www.newnames.nu/visitniue/ for a
different kind of sightseeing.
www.computerweekly.co.uk
24 August 1998
Stating The Obvious ran a feature on "The Veteran of a
Thousand Browser Wars" penned by WasP member
Steven Champeon.
Sausage
Software, makers of Hot Dog HTML web editor, have come out in support
of The WaSP.
23 August 1998
Internet World ran a feature story on The WaSP.
22 August 1998
ZDF (Zweites Deutsches
Fernsehen), a German affiliate of MSNBC, has a feature story on The
WaSP. (Formerly at www.zdf.msnbc.de/news/20707.asp, the original article is
now offline.)
20 August 1998
I-Advertising (i-advertising guava.ease.lsoft.com), a mailing list reaching
over 10,000 internet advertising professionals, announced the formation of
WaSP in a special press release sent to all members.
18 August 1998
We're a USA Today HotSite today.
The WaSP is a hit on Dutch radio too. Dutch speakers, crank up your
Realplayer and listen at 28.8 or ISDN speed. The radio interview features Mark Bruitsman, a top
notch
web developer of the firm Twinspark, near The Hague, speaking at length on
The Web Standards Project.
A translated transcription of
this interview is now available, courtesy of WaSP Tomas Caspers.
More international coverage from Nordwest.net, though this was later
bumped in deference to "Hillary Clinton steht zu ihrem Mann."
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