The Next Version of XHTML May Be HTML 5

An independent group, WHAT-WG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group), has been working outside of the official W3C since 2004 towards a new "version" of HTML. In March 2007 the W3C announced a new official HTML Working Group that is expected to build on and extend WHAT-WG's efforts.

According to the W3C HTML Working Group's charter, their charge is to recommend a new standard that combines HTML and XHTML:

"This group will maintain and produce incremental revisions to the HTML specification, which includes the series of specifications previously published as XHTML version 1. Both XML and 'classic HTML' syntaxes will be produced."

An initial Working Draft is due June 2007 and should make for some interesting reading! The process will take several years -- the Recommendation is due 2010. The new W3C HTML Working Group is to plan incremental changes to HTML and XHTML together.

Tim Berners-Lee shares his perspective of the reinvention of HTML at his blog. He stated,

"The attempt to get the world to switch to XML, including quotes around attribute values and slashes in empty tags and namespaces all at once didn't work."

Another area that the W3C HTML Working Group will address is extensions to HTML forms. According to Berners-Lee,

"A goal would be to have an HTML forms language which is a superset of the existing HTML language, and a subset of a XForms language with added HTML compatibility."

There is a plan for a separate group to continue the XHTML 2.0 work, although Berners-Lee indicated that there would be no dependency of HTML work on the XHTML 2.0 work. The diagram below depicts the relationship between these markup languages:


According to the W3C's architectural vision, -- the deployment strategy and expected field of use for the new HTML and for XHTML 2.0 are expected to be different -- with new HTML for use by typical Web pages and web applications such as content management systems and the non-backward compatible XHTML 2.0 designed to meet "enterprise-strength" needs.

It seems that Web developers who transitioned from HTML to XHTML will need to be flexible again as they look forward to a new version of HTML.

For additional perspectives and more information, see
HTML5 Versus XHTML 2
HTML 5 or XHTML 2?
Ajaxian Editorial
On the Road to XHTML 2 and HTML 5
The Future of HTML, Part 1:WHATWG
The Future of HTML, Part 2:XHTML 2.0
How not to fix HTML
Annotated WHAT-WG Working Draft
HTML5, XHTML2, and the Future of the Web

The World, Technology, Education, and the Future

What are the implications of this video to you, your family, your education, your career, your future?

At one time even books were a "new" technology

A look at Web 2.0

Play the video below for an enlightening perspective of the impact of Web 2.0.


The video was created by Michael Wesch.

The Big Three Search Engines Agree!

Google's SiteMap XML protocol provides a method for a web developer to publish a map of a site and submit it to Google. The purpose is to describe pages to be listed in the search engine. It's designed to let organizations guide Google's crawlers and should help get pages indexed more quickly and thoroughly. The big news is that now Microsoft and Yahoo! have agreed to also use this protocol! Visit http://sitemaps.org for information about using this XML protocol.

EV SSL Certificates

Verisign has issued the first Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificate to overstock.com. EV SSL is a new standardized validation process created by CA/Browser Forum, a voluntary organization of leading certification authorities and vendors of Internet browser software and other applications.

EV SSL Certificates maximize consumer confidence when visiting Web sites by providing another visual cue (in addition to the lock icon) that these sites are who they claim to be and that their online transactions are secured by encryption. Certificate Authorities perform much more stringent checks to than currently take place for SSL certificates. These checks include: verifing an applicant owns the domain, works for the organization, has authority to update the website, and that the organization is a valid, recognized place of business. Internet Explorer 7.0 will be updated in early 2007 to indicate when an EV SSL Certificate is in place.

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Released

Mozilla recently announced the release of Firefox 2.0. Visit http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ for a free download. New features include improved tabbed browsing, session restore, "Live Titles", and more....

Internet Explorer 7 Released!

Microsoft recently released a new version of its popular browser. Check out the at CNET review of IE7.

browsershots.org

When testing your website it's a great idea to test in as many browsers and platforms as you can. Visit http://www.browsershots.org and submit your URL -- selecting the browsers and platforms for testing. Your request is placed in a queue and the (eventual) response will be a collection of browser screen shots. View a sample browsershots results page.

Just for fun: Popular URLs

Visit http://www.popurls.com to explore links to a collection of popular content from a variety of sites including Digg, Furl, YouTube, Slashdot, Yahoo News, Flickr, Spurl, Del, etc. Have fun!

Enlightening Web Design Review

Check out the article at Digital Web Magazine by McClurg-Genevese. The author analyzes various designs at CSS Zen Garden and discusses how the principles and elements of design were used to create these innovative and imaginative Web design compositions.

Firefox Browser 14% US Market Share

A recent report by OneStat.com shows the Firefox Browser with a 14.07% market share in the US and an 11.51% global market share. Read the detailed report.

Treehouse -- new e-zine for web developers

The first issue was just released. Treehouse is a PDF-based web development magazine. Find the free download at http://particletree.com/treehouse/ .

New Fireworks Tutorial Available

An introductory Fireworks 8 Tutorial is now available at http://www.webdevfoundations.net/fireworks8. This tutorial walks you through creating a logo banner and buttons for a website.

Macromedia Studio 8 Released

See http://www.macromedia.com/software/ for free trial downloads of the Macromedia Studio 8 applications. Enjoy!

Student CD Materials Available Online

The Second Edition Student CD is now available online!
See http://www.aw-bc.com/cssupport/FelkeMorris.html for free download.

New Release of Macromedia Web Authoring Tools

Macromedia announced a new release of Macromedia Studio. View this article for information on new features in Macromedia Dreamweaver 8.

E-Commerce Web Site Design

Want to know what annoys visitors most about e-commerce web sites?
Visit http://itw.itworld.com/GoNow/a14724a132265a76234924a0 to review results from a recent survey by Hostway.

Choosing a Web Host

The text contains a handy checklist to help you compare web host features and pricing. But that's just the beginning in researching a web host, see the Chapter 8 Resource Page for tips on researching potential web hosts.

Corporate Blogging!

Backbone Media's Corporate Blogging Survey 2005 reports that "corporate blogs are giving established corporations and obscure brands the ability to connect with their audiences on a personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback... at the same time benefiting in ways that are tangible to the sales and marketing side of the business." They share a list of lessons learned, including comments, trackbacks, and common mistakes.