science

Web Standards Project

Web Standards Project is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Web Standards Project rather than just read about it. In short: The Web Standards Project (WaSP) was a group of professional web developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of the web standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium, along with other groups and standards bodies, with a primary focus on web clients (web browsers). Founded in 1998, The Web Standards Project campaigned for standards that reduced the cost and complexity of development while i…

Key takeaways

Web Standards Project belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Web Standards Project to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Web Standards Project from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Web Standards Project (WaSP) was a group of professional web developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of the web standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium, along with other groups and standards bodies, with a primary focus on web clients (web browsers). Founded in 1998, The Web Standards Project campaigned for standards that reduced the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any document published on the Web. WaSP worked with browser companies, authoring tool makers, and peers to encourage them to use these standards, since they "are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users". The group dissolved in 2013.

Organization The Web Standards Project began as a grassroots coalition "fighting for standards in our [web] browsers" founded by George Olsen, Glenn Davis, and Jeffrey Zeldman in August 1998. By 2001, the group had achieved its primary goal of persuading Microsoft, Netscape, Opera, and other browser makers to accurately and completely support HTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0, CSS1, and ECMAScript. Had browser makers not been persuaded to do so, the Web would likely have fractured into pockets of incompatible content, with various websites available only to people who possessed the right browser. In addition to streamlining web development and significantly lowering its cost, support for common web standards enabled the development of the semantic web. By marking up content in semantic (X)HTML, front-end developers make a site's content more available to search engines, more accessible to people with disabilities, and more available to the world beyond the desktop (e.g. mobile). The project re-launched in June 2002 with new members, a redesigned website, new site features, and a redefined mission focused on developer education and standards compliance in authoring tools as well as browsers. Project leaders were:

George Olsen (1998—1999) Jeffrey Zeldman (1999—2002) Steven Champeon (2002—2004) Molly Holzschlag (2004—2006) Kimberly Blessing and Drew McLellan (2006—2008) Derek Featherstone, Aaron Gustafson, and Glenda Sims (2008—2013) There were members that were invited to work on ad hoc initiatives, the Buzz Blog and other content areas of the site. The group announced its dissolution on March 1, 2013.

Task forces The Web Standards Project hosted projects focused on bringing relevant organizations closer to standards-compliance, dubbed Task Forces.

Adobe Task Force Focused on improving web standards compliance in products from Adobe Systems. Was named the Dreamweaver Task Force until 2008-03-10. Education Task Force Worked with institutions of higher education to promote instruction of Web standards and standards-compliant public sites. Microsoft Task Force Worked with the Internet Explorer and Web platform tools team. Accessibility Task Force Worked with organizations, vendors and others to promote Web accessibility. International Liaison Group A member was "an active advocate for Web standards and best practices either in their country of origin or domicile." The Street Team Organized community events to promote web standards. DOM Scripting Task Force Focused on interoperable client-side scripting, through explaining and promoting the DOM standards from W3C and the ECMAScript Standard, and concepts like progressive enhancement, graceful degradation, accessibility, standards-driven JavaScript. These best practice approaches have been called "DOM scripting" to differentiate them from earlier perceived bad uses of "Dynamic HTML". The task force became inactive before the group disbanded.

Activities The Acid1 test allows browsers and other rendering engines to test compliance with HTML 4 and CSS 1 specifications. The Acid2 test allows browsers and other rendering engines to test compliance with CSS 1 and 2 specifications. The Acid3 test allows browsers and other rendering engines to test compliance with CSS 2.1, DOM, and EcmaScript specifications. The Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers allows mobile browsers and other rendering engines to test for web page rendering issues.

Browse Happy Browse Happy is a website urging users to upgrade their web browsers. The site was initially created by the Web Standards Project in August 2004 to convince users to switch to a web browser other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It focused on security issues in Internet Explorer and suggested four alternatives: Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome. The core of the site was a collection of testimonials by people who had switched from Internet Explorer to alternative web browsers. In June 2005, the Web Standards Project decided that an anti-Internet Explorer campaign did not fit with their mission, and they handed the site over to Matt Mullenweg. Since then, the site has been maintained by WordPress.com with collaboration from HTML5 Boilerplate team members.

See also A List Apart WebPlatform CSS Zen Garden

References

External links Official website The Web Standards Project Education Task Force Archive: The Web Standards Project's baseline standards proposal Archive: The Web Standards Project's historical "goodbye" page Browse Happy

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Web Standards Project

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Web Standards Project claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Web Standards Project before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Web Standards Project ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Web Standards Project

In research: Web Standards Project appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Web Standards Project in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Web Standards Project is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Internet-related organizations, Organizations disestablished in 2013, Organizations established in 1998, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Web Standards Project outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Web Standards Project in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Web Standards Project means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Web Standards Project out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Web Standards Project in simple terms?

Why does Web Standards Project matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Web Standards Project?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Web Standards Project.