Most likely, but Microsoft has gotten a lot better with MSN Search, Visual Studio.NET etc, so I think it seems to be going in the right direction.

I really like the sound of this!
We’ll see what this will all lead to then.

Who would set that constitution together, to give it the necessary credibility and respect?

I think it should be done by WaSP or in association with WaSP.

Which people would take part of it, so everyone else would accept their contribution as unbiased?

Acceptance of the charter does not have to be unanimous, and like any endeavor, there is going to be bias. For example, W3C’s specs are biased because the organization represents the interests of its members who pay a lot of money to be members. That’s okay, so long as there are benefits to the Internet community as a whole. As far as who should write the charter or play an advisory role, I suggest the blog postings ask for nominations.

How would we convince the high-profile names to follow it and communicate it?

High profile individuals became high profile because of their interest in representing and shaping the Web standards community. If there is strong interest in the charter from the community, then high profile individuals will participate as well.

Sounds like a great idea!

Just some ponderings about it:

• Who would set that constitution together, to give it the necessary credibility and respect?
• Which people would take part of it, so everyone else would accept their contribution as unbiased?
• How would we convince the high-profile names to follow it and communicate it?

One way we can achieve a common, unified message is to have a charter/constitution whose clarity of focus will encourage Web designers, IT managers and tool vendors to adopt standards with confidence.

The charter would clearly spell out the long-term goals and a single path to get there. This document will be a compromise for most advocates, but it will have the strength of a single, unified voice. Working with a single set of rules gives confidence to Web designers, IT managers and tool vendors and helps all of them succeed in their projects.

First, I’m happy to see you here!

Very, very good and thoughtful comment.

I would say that many people do fight for the same things, but that they express themselves differently, or, more important, prioritizes differently from each other about what and how it should be communicated.

I guess all (read: most) would agree on that we need valid and semantic code, with at least some effort gone into accessibility.

But the key part is that you wrote: how do we provide a unified message about this?

I really don’t know, and part of me says that it will be hard because some people find it more important to stand out than to express their standpoint together with others. I guess the future will show if we succeed in this or if it goes on the way it has been…

As advocates of Web standards, we have strength in numbers, but we need to speak with one voice for our message to be clearly understood, and to give others the confidence to join us.

Can you believe that I used to work at Zooma?

Ha ha! You did, did you?

And yeah, good job on su.se!

Good work!

It’s not my design but mostly my CSS, there is alot of fixes just waiting to be released. Especially for MSIE-Mac, Safari and Konqueror.

Thanks for the trackback.

Mats,

When it comes to salmingsports.com, I just hate it when there’s a script that resizes the web browser window. Then the web developers have a mindset that says:

The user isn’t qualified enough to choose his/her own prefered window size: let’s do it for them.

And I have to say that, after a quick glance, http://www.su.se looks really nice. Your work?
However, I really wish that writing in just su.se would lead to the same page…

Rob,

Sounds like a really good approach! I don’t know how many companies I’ve worked for that have produced/sold their own portals, CMS etc but just refused to use it themselves internally.

Most project managers and decision makers aren’t blind, and few have to use the products they produce. They fail to realize how hard it is to use a site because they never use it. Requiring their participation in the usability testing (if only for 15 minutes) can sometimes help them understand the need for easy-to-use and accessible web sites.

Considering that http://www.salmingsports.com was voted “Outstanding Website” we still have a way to go! :S

Oh well, be sure to check out http://www.su.se tomorrow, it might lift your spirits a bit.

The gist of this article applies to a lot of different areas.

You… lost me…? *sniffles*

Seriosuly, though, it’s good to hear that web standards helped to bring order for you when it comes to the web interface development chaos.

Martin definitely is right: there’s a huge need to reach out to people who aren’t listening right now.

But I think Martin is right, the why web standards message needs massaging for those who do not find the current arguments compelling.

Thanks for the compliment!

A friend of mine recently did some work at DN.se, but there were some circumstances that led to that he couldn’t take it all the way.

Martin Janner is a very nice and competent person, we’ve met once. I think Eniro.se will be very pleased with him.

maybe WE need to re-think how we’re spreading information?

This is a very good question. I’ve been thinking about writing a semi-related post to this question in the near future. Stay tuned!