W3C

Well, this weeks topic is W3C. What is it? Who is it? What does it do?

W3C stands for World Wide Web Consortium, an international consortium working to develop Web standards. Founded in 1994, their mission, according to the website is:

"To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the web."

The goal of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative, launched in 2005, is to make Web access from any kind of device as simple, easy and convenient as Web access from a desktop.

In February of 1997 W3C launched their Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). WAI develops strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

Some highlights are:

• sites and applications that people with disabilities can perceibe, understand, navigaterm and interact with
• browsers and media players that can be used effectively by peopled wiht disabilities and that work well with assistive technologies
• authoring tools and evolving technologies that support production of accessible web content and sites, and can be used effectively by those with disabilities

These disabilities include, but are not limited to:

• Visual
• Hearing
• Physical, Speech
• Cognitive, Nerological

This all sounds really good and I believe the need for these things to be taken into consideration is paramount.

The WAI Online Overview in html slides can be found at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wai-overview-slides


* * *

Who knows, maybe web-surfing fridges are going to be all the rage for our children or grandchildren. A little too much if you ask me but then I guess I am a bit of a traditionalist.
I am a bit quiet today as I don't really have anything to say. So I guess I'll say 'Goodbye'.


"Masterpieces are no more than the shipwrecked flotsam of great minds" - Marcel Proust

Pages 37-73

I have to comment momentarily regarding my last post - the page I was on was actually his bio page and not the home page. Frankly though, I do not find the home page that much better however must admit it is better organized. There is no mention of who Mr. Neilsen is or why the site was created but here again are a lot of links - 71 in all!!

Anyway, back to the text book - pages 49- 51 are talking about bulleted lists - and guess what? most of what the text says to do Mr. Neilsen does not do. Page 51 in particular states that bulleted lists should be short - definitely not Mr. Neilsen's way of doing it, he has a HUGE bulleted list on the 'Alertbox' page that must contain at least 50 bullets!!

Mr. Neilsen does not defy the text when it comes to language level things such as simple sentences, strong verbs and active voice - only because he has minimal text on most pages and a number of pages have notext at all!

Now I have combined two assignments into one post - clever eh?

'It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.' - Gustave Flaubert

Jakob Nielsen

Well this time we are looking at Jakob Nielsen, the "guru of internet usability", so the claim goes. I went to his site ( www.useit.com) and oddly enough I find his website does not hold up to all the hype. I don't like that I have to scroll down quite a ways and there are so many links on the page that it makes up the greater part of the site.

While there is a small bio for the man, there is much more about what people call him and what his professional background is. There is nothing on this main page that gives me a sense of who the man is. There are no particular reasons given as to why one should abide by his statements - you have to read through a plethora of linked articles etc to find out anything. I find this to go against what we are being taught in class. There is no real reason given as to why I should look at the links other than because our class instructor said so (almost reminds me of my Mom many years ago!)

TaTa for now

'Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure only death can stop it.' - Ernest Hemingway

Vulcan Text?

I am finding much of this text to be logical common sense. Does that mean I am a Vulcan? I hope not, pointy ears don't look good on me.

The need for websites to be 'user-freindly' is something that many web authors forget. They do not take readers needs into consideration when designing websites. Simple links with simple explanations work wonders for the general population and I definatly agree with his statements regarding the amount of text on a single page - less is more!

I remember when I was creating the website for my writing group (now defunct) - keeping critical elements the same throughout and making each page easy to get to and easy to read were of the highest priority. I created the original website with Front Page and did not know much about HTML (I still don't but that is a whole other story!). I used animations but only on the home page - before you actually entered the site and I am not sure if this is something that I would do today.

The website for Quill & Quire (http://www.quillandquire.com/) is a good example of many things Killian discusses in the text. The banner tells about the site and navigation buttons are located on the left side of the page. They use the short 'blurb' style followed by a link to the full article.

I also really like the way the POD publisher LULU (http://www.lulu.com/) has their site set up. Links are easy to follow and are quite extensive. If you want a tour of the publishing process you just click on the link for it and then each section is linked individually or you can take the complete tour.

'Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.' - Cyril Connolly

In my last 'Writing for the web' class we we discussing the merits of the following article:
www.useit.com/alertbox/9695.html . The article looks at 10 areas of websites that tend to get visitors out of sorts. Some of my comments as to the causes of bad searches regarded meta tags that weren't specific enough and/or did not allow for misspellings and bad page titles which do not clearly reflect the actual page content etc.

Some of my current peeves with websites are: pop ups, banner ads, flashing icons, animations, broken links and bad writing. Especially pop ups! Those dang things drive me absolutely crazy - especially if they are the ones that keep taking you to some disgusting porno site!! Thank the web gods for Pop Up Blockers!!

Watched "An Inconvenient Truth" the other day. I am not too sure I agree with everything but I DO agree that global warming is a problem that has been ignored for much too long. Scientists have been warning us of the problem for many years; it is too bad that so many politicians and policy makers ignored them. Maybe the problem would not be quite so dire if they had have listened all those years ago and started to work on better policies then. Ahh well, I am just one small voice in the maelstrom of propaganda. I wonder if enough small voices could, together, drown out the wild yammering of industry crying the blues over imagined lost revenue.

That's it for today

‘The blog is certainly another tool for writers out there to break their way in. But being a blogger does not make you a great writer.' - Julie Powell

My First Post

As a creative writer I an always interested in anything which will help me improve and develop new skills. I received my Creative Writing Diploma from Surrey Continuing Ed in 2000 and am currently a member of Print Futures: Professional Writing's 2007 graduating class. This is a two year program at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C. Canada. We have studied Communications, Language Studies, Interpersonal Communications, Research, Technical Manuals, Editing, Copy-editing & Proofreading, Writing for Magazines and the Web, DreamWeaver, and Adobe InDesign.

I would recommend the Print Futures program to anyone with an interest in a professional writing career. The skills developed will serve in good stead for those looking to enter almost any communication field other than actual journalism (most papers still require a Jounalism degree). Graduating students are well prepared for employment in communications departments (government/corporate/non-profit) magazine layout and publishing and public relations.The program includes a 180 hour practicum between the second an third semesters, lots of hands-on instruction and a 87% employment rate within three months of graduation.

I hope to add some samples of my writing within the next couple of weeks.


'The only reason for being a professional writer is that you just can't help it.' - Leo Rosten