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Monday 8 August 2005

It’s a World Wide Web After All

Put on your clogs and dance, because Happy Clog wants you to. Happy Clog, you say? Isn’t that Zeldman’s design company? No, no my friends. That would be Happy Cog.

Happy Clog is the pun-ny name coined for a new standards group emerging in the Netherlands. The goal of the group is not only to unite Dutch standards-based designers and developers, but to provide social outreach to anyone interested in standards – and more.

Faruk Ates of KuraFire.net and founder of the group says that Happy Clog has several goals in mind, not the least of which is to create a conference most likely to be held in Amsterdam. While still in the early planning stages, Ates revealed some of the group’s ideas as to how and why this conference will stand out:

“We have three target audiences in mind for the conference – all separate groups but closely related ones: business executives (those who decide), web developers (those who make) and college professors (those who teach).”

The conference would be held in English, with speakers from abroad as well as local to the Netherlands, much like the model first created by the Web Essentials conference in Syndey, and expanded upon by @media in London.

Ates describes ideas to ensure that there’s plenty of daytime networking and birds-of-a-feather sessions, something that is often missing from events yet is frequently cited as the most valuable part of a conference experience:

“One suggestion for that is to have parallel sessions, two at a time so that the third group can mingle and ask questions informally over some coffee and cake.”

Happy Clog’s current membership features accomplished standards developers and designers including Anne Van Kesteren, Egor Kloos, Mark Wubben, Rob Mientjes and WaSP DOM Scripting Task Force’s own Peter-Paul Koch.

Happy Clog is not the first national group to emerge out of standards. The Web Standards Group is doing great work in Australia with outreach to the rest of the world via its interviews, workshops and related resources. In Japan, Kazuhito Kidachi has been working tirelessly to promote Web standards and reports that there are hundreds of members signed up to his Web standards community on the mixi social networking site.

And of course there’s the Brit Pack who not only promote standards in Great Britain, but invaded the U.S. this year when significant representation came to SXSW and later extended its reach and inspiration to the world via @media2005.

The emergence of such groups with strong national identities yet a real desire to reach out and interact with other nations is a fascinating and, to my way of thinking, very powerful way of preserving and promoting national identity on a global scale. Transcending the standards issues, initiatives of this kind are truly serving to remind us that it is the World Wide Web after all.

Filed under:   general
Posted by:   Molly | 10:22 | Comments (34)

Comments (34)

  1. Ron van den Boogaard says Monday 8 August 2005 at 11:59

    It’s good to hear that something good comes out of the Netherlands. It strikes me as odd that this is happening in a time where we are growing more and more towards european/global community.
    Nevertheless I wish them all the possible success.
    Will be a tough act to beet the BritPack at beer-drinking.

  2. Hayo Bethlehem says Monday 8 August 2005 at 12:10

    Thanks Ron.

    And on the beer, well, we like a challenge 😉

  3. Mark Wubben says Monday 8 August 2005 at 12:31

    This was about web standards? I thought it was about the beer 😉

    (Yes, as you can see we are trying to prevent the meetings from becoming too serious…)

  4. Beth says Monday 8 August 2005 at 12:48

    Is there a site that lists upcoming conferences in one place?

  5. Matt Robin says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:19

    Ahhh…but it’s a group underscored by a secret desire to better the Brits in a beer-drinking frenzy (perhaps it’s main reason after the honourable ‘web standards’ tag?!)

    Well – ‘The Brit Pack’ are up for the challenge! (Maybe not just talking about the ale-quenching abilities too!)

    #Laughs #

    This might have sounded better coming from one of the true-‘Britpack’ of course…but…)
    Great of you to post about this Molly. I was just reading about it over on Kurafire (Hayo and that lens-cap blunder – it wil l live to haunt him eh?)

  6. Molly says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:21

    Beth: not to my knowledge. I’ve been asked that before though, but I really don’t have time myself to do that. I do try to announce things as I see them.

    A resource like that would be fantastic, though, no question.

  7. Matt Robin says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:26

    “John, Andy….Jon, Richard, Jeremy, (other) Andy, Colly? Where are you guys?”

    Am I the only Brit posting here just now or what? …..(Feeling a bit like an extra for ‘Dad’s Army’ right now!)

  8. Matt Robin says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:28

    AND Kevin! (Sorry Kevin – forgot you on that list!!! *winces*)
    Molly: Maybe you could edit this in to my previous post and I’ll just curl up into a tight ball somewhere? *Laughs*

  9. Hayo Bethlehem says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:32

    I am, nor ever was, part, or the subject of, any lenscap fiasco whatsoever.

    *mumbles something about that Faruk guy*

  10. Matt Robin says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:36

    *prods Hayo and points to imaginary ‘lens-cap on camera’ and need for removal!*

    #Laughs#

  11. Ron van den Boogaard says Monday 8 August 2005 at 13:38

    When the Anglo-Dutch beer challenge materializes, I will for once leave my global/european stance, get patriotic and volunteer for the Orange Corner.

  12. Molly says Monday 8 August 2005 at 14:37

    At the after-party during @media, I was told I drink like a Brit. Does that count? 🙂

  13. Matt Robin says Monday 8 August 2005 at 14:56

    Molly: Impressive! (We might need to disguise the accent, put you in a wig, and then have you run rings around the dutch css-posse….oh the look on their faces would be priceless!!) 🙂

  14. Sjors says Monday 8 August 2005 at 15:57

    Hayo: next time I won’t tell you that you still got your lenscap on.

  15. Faruk AteÅŸ says Monday 8 August 2005 at 16:28

    Ron,

    First things first, really. We can’t spread ourselves too thin and still hope to get as much accomplished.

    Our initiative is a pretty solid one, but only because the NL is a pretty small country. We only have a small foothold in the business world in this country; on a European scale, we have virtually no foothold. Any chance of getting a lot off the ground is greatly diminished for that.

    Once countries are getting more aware as a whole, then it’ll be time for us to join forces internationally. Still a long, long ways off, though.

  16. Ron van den Boogaard says Monday 8 August 2005 at 22:21

    Faruk,

    You are right. I stand corrected. Let’s hope that more local initiatives spring up because of this.

    My allergy towards national movements is more politically motivated then anything else. 😛

  17. Egor Kloos says Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 05:57

    We don’t see our little band of webheads as a national group of any kind. The fact that it is a Dutch group has more to do with the practicality of meeting up with each other then anything else. Happy Clog’s name derives from the one thing we have common, where we live and work. I mean, I’m half Irish afterall.

    Drinking wise I wouldn’t mind giving the britpack a run for their money. I practise with whisky, Guinness and Belgian trapists, so bring it on 😉

  18. Faruk AteÅŸ says Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 06:30

    Egor’s right. Also, I’m half Turkish. 🙂

  19. Beth says Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 08:13

    Molly –

    Will your CSS for Designers workshop be moving to the US at somepoint?

  20. Molly says Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 10:15

    Beth,

    Yes, it will. We don’t have dates just yet, but we will be doing workshops in the U.S. and possibly other international locations as well.

  21. Beth says Tuesday 9 August 2005 at 11:24

    Fantastic! I’ve been searching for conferences and workshops specifically for developers and designers that still work with tables. I’m trying to bring my other team members up to date on the wonders of CSS XHTML 🙂

  22. John Oxton says Wednesday 10 August 2005 at 11:11

    All I can think of is a headline:

    Brits clobber clogs in European drinking showdown.

  23. Keith Burgin says Wednesday 10 August 2005 at 13:53

    U.K. CSS/XHTML VIP’s K.O. Clogs! BYOB!

  24. Matt Robin says Wednesday 10 August 2005 at 17:50

    # Keith Burgin Says:
    August 10th, 2005 at 1:53 pm

    U.K. CSS/XHTML VIP’s K.O. Clogs! BYOB!

    There should be a ‘do CSS’ before AND after thing….(Before beer and then after beer!) *Laughs* Of course the Brit lads will be the last ones standing…but our CSS skills might be really screwed-up by that point!! 😉

  25. Faruk AteÅŸ says Friday 12 August 2005 at 16:16

    We shall PWN J00!

    Or something that kids these days scream and yell, anyway…

  26. Peter Firminger says Friday 12 August 2005 at 18:38

    Can I add that WSG also has regular meetings in New Zealand and there is an open offer for WSG members to start their own meeting groups in other countries. Being a WSG meeting organiser also makes you a WSG Core member.

    I’d be happy to list all the Web Standards conferences in one central place on the WSG site and we can also discuss adding regular meetings like Happy Clog to the meetings page on WSG.

    I think the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth WSG groups could each offer up a representative for an international Web Standards beer drinking contest at some stage as too.

  27. bio says Wednesday 16 November 2005 at 06:36

    heallo, i have a music site, can i place a link to your website from mine?

  28. Ashley Bowers says Monday 12 December 2005 at 05:41

    Thinking of starting a group or sub group if one already exsists here in America for web standards group members like me.This is no doubt a great idea they thought up!

  29. Denn says Wednesday 28 December 2005 at 08:03

    Our initiative is a pretty solid one, but only because the NL is a pretty small country. We only have a small foothold in the business world in this country; on a European scale, we have virtually no foothold. Any chance of getting a lot off the ground is greatly diminished for that.

  30. deano says Sunday 8 January 2006 at 04:38

    “It’s good to hear that something good comes out of the Netherlands.”

    Thats a bit harsh, lets not forget that the Dutch gave the world…… er…… clogs.

    Any more news on the new standards group Molly?

  31. Sindy says Monday 23 January 2006 at 00:58

    There should be a ‘do CSS’ before AND after thing….(Before beer and then after beer!) *Laughs* Of course the Brit lads will be the last ones standing…but our CSS skills might be really screwed-up by that point!!

  32. TechniCool says Saturday 29 July 2006 at 14:51

    Any more css conferences coming up in Sydney?

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