Microformats has introduced a new pattern - the value-class pattern to tackle accessibility and localization problems. The value-class pattern lets you two things - break value of a microformat property into multiple sub-values, and mark specific relevant data using a special class name value. So, now you have multiple options to design your markup for datetime values and keep it accessible and machine readable, as Jeremy Keith illustrates.
We have already started to see the worst of living with more than one standard to do the exact same thing. Excel 2007 SP2’s ODF support has degraded, because it is no longer interoperable. Microsoft, a company, which values backward compatibility over anything else, does not worry about interoperability when implementing ODF support. [Continue]
Stephen Colebourne has a thoughtful post about one of the biggest possible changes in the Java landscape. Java SE will not be a open standard any more?. This seems completely in contrast to the spirit that is seen in efforts like Project Coin. [Continue]
Microsoft seems to be hell bent on making the standards secondary in the name of compatibility. Not a while back, Microsoft had agreed to use the standards mode by default for IE8 after many had opposed the degradation. If enough users vote a site into IE7 compatibility mode, it will be displayed using that, even if it was built using the standards. [Continue]
Google too steps towards supporting OpenID now. However, nowadays supporting OpenID has started to take different meanings. Most of the new supporters are providing OpenID, none of them accepting it. [Continue]
You will soon have your Windows Live ID work as an OpenID. Though many have supported OpenID, it is commendable that the Windows Live team has announced the commitment and has invited feedback. As a provider, this is one of the best things you can do, involve the user in making the system more usable. [Continue]
The content management world got proposal for a new standard, CMIS, backed by the three giants in this domain. The introduction reminded me something of the Java world, that was supposed to take the content management world by storm. It has progressed to the next version, but it has not become exactly popular. [Continue]
Molly Holzschlag has been known to hold a different view of standards in the community. She makes it clear in her interview. She says Web Standards are more of recommendations and specifications than enforced standards, and it is quite refreshing to read this amidst the continuous tussle between businesses, developers and people. [Continue]
ISO and IEC have give the go ahead for OOXML to be published as a standard, refered to as ISO/IEC DIS 29500. There were some appeals against OOXML, however they have been rejected by the standards bodies. Andy Updegrove has the voting results and their intepretation. [Continue]
BBC is doing away with microformats. Michael Smethurst explains the reasons, and at the root of all of them is the inaccessibility because of the abbr design pattern. BBC is going to try out RDFa as an alternative. [Continue]