Thursday 11 December 2008

W3C Validators in Jeopardy

As many folks who follow the W3C are aware, financial and bureaucratic issues have challenged the organization for many years. But one thing the W3C has held steady with is its validators, which are regularly and freely utilized by Web designers and developers world over.

It’s come to pass that the funding necessary to maintain and grow validation services at the W3C has become overwhelming to the W3C’s operational budget. As such, the validators are in jeopardy.

But there are ways to help, and this post is a call to action to do just that.

We’ve set up a donation system to allow for a number of different donations concepts: Donor, Sponsored, Community Fundraising, and in the spirit of open source and standards, plenty of opportunity to give of your time and knowledge to assist with the work.

It works like this:

• Donor: A donor is anyone interested in donating money to the cause. A micropayment of 1.00 USD if the validator “saves your day” can be very helpful!
• Sponsor: A sponsor is a company or organization that donates to the W3C
• Community Fundraising: There are two badges available at the W3C that link to the fundraising page. If you support the validator, encourage others by placing a badge on your site and blogging about the topic
• Time Not Money: If you cannot or do not wish to donate money, your time is as or even more valuable. There are opportunities to help the W3C maintain and grow validation services.

That we’ve had the use of validation tools via the W3C for so long and without cost has been a significant component in the teaching and evangelism surrounding Web standards and best practices. To lose these tools would impact that message, not to mention take a certain amount of quality assurance away from the process.

For more information about the validator services concern or to become involved, please visit the W3C Validator Donation Program page.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:37 | Comments (85)

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Registration for January HTML Course Open

The HTML 4.01 Foundations course is available in a new format for January!

Read all about it and get signed up at WebWithMolly. If you have any questions or concerns you can ask them here or at the email provided on the sign-up page.

New year, new fun 🙂

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 14:03 | Comments (30)

Monday 8 December 2008

Ooh, Look, Standards ROI at Microsoft!

Here’s a little ditty I whipped up for the fab folks at MIX for your non-standard awareness enjoyment. A nice quick read and something to take to the boss, too!

Check out “Where the ROI is” and leave a nice note to Microsoft and MIX for not just wanting this sort of material, but actually asking for it.

Maybe, just maybe I left a little mark on the Microsoft wall as I tumbled out the door in June?

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 14:51 | Comments (17)

Sunday 7 December 2008

Web Courses Update: Minor Model Change

Just to let folks know we’ve had a small group of people for the first class testing the system.

I’ve decided to make some changes that will allow more people access to the classes and live support by modifying the model slightly as follows:

• Students will be able to self-study any time
• I will have live discussion groups three days a week at diverse times to accommodate international student time concerns and so on.

The other advantage of this is there can be more courses going on at once too. The costs will remain the same for typical courses.

More info soon!

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 12:26 | Comments Off on Web Courses Update: Minor Model Change