In This Issue...

• Introduction
• HTML5 Working Group Rejects Open Media Formats
• Opera's Antitrust Complaint: Microsoft Must Support Standards
• Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded
• New Technical Articles
• Techy Forum Threads
• More Techy Blog Entries

Private Label Reseller Web Hosting!

Do you have clients that can benefit from web hosting?

With features like WebHostManager, which allows you to create your own web hosting packages to WHMCS which makes automatic billing a breeze; you have all the resources and tools to add a new revenue stream through your existing clients.

Becoming a Reseller allows you to:

• Host your own Web Sites
• Create your own Packages
• Set your own Prices
• WHM, cPanel, WHMCS
• SiteBuilder for All Accounts

Sign Up Now and Receive the first month Free!
Coupon: SNOWMAN Expires: 01/01/2008

Introduction

As most of the western world prepares for its holiday break, standards advocates are squaring off in passionate debate all over the Web. At the center of all the shouting are web standards and the W3C, the continued relevance of which in shaping the future of the Web has been called into question.

First up, after selecting Ogg Vorbis audio and Ogg Theora video as the standard formats for multimedia in HTML5, the HTML Working Group backed down under pressure from Apple and Nokia, removing these formats from the spec. Faced with the prospect of yet another version of HTML with no clear standard for including multimedia content, developers were up in arms.

Then, while all our backs were turned, Opera filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft with the European Commission over the company's tying of Internet Explorer to Windows, and its persistent failure to support web standards in IE. Instantly, pundits began trading theories over whether the complaint had merit, or was simply an irresponsible publicity stunt from Opera.

Designer Andy Clarke took the Opera complaint as his cue to call for the immediate dissolution of the W3C CSS Working Group, in which he is an invited expert. Not everyone agrees with his reasoning, but with all the big names in web design now sharing their own thoughts on the mounting irrelevance of the W3C, the venerable standards body's continued silence on these matters is not an encouraging sign.

HTML5 Working Group Rejects Open Media Formats

The HTML5 spec looks set to introduce new audio and video capabilities into the language, but the HTML5 working group has become embroiled in a debate over the codecs that browsers should support for them.

Nokia and Apple have succeeded in removing Ogg Vorbis and Theora from the current draft, citing patent uncertainties (read: a reluctance to back a standard that has no provision for including DRM).

Manuel Amador has detailed why he believes the decision to omit these open formats to be an “outrageous disaster:”

"(Given) the fact that there are widely available patent-free implementations of Ogg technology, there is really no excuse for Apple and Nokia to say that they couldn’t in good faith implement HTML5 as previously formulated."

And Ian Hickson from the WHATWG has responded with his own version of why it doesn’t make sense for Ogg Vorbis or Theora to be included (primarily, because Nokia and Apple are supposedly worried about being sued for using the format).

Regardless of the true motivations, it feels like this is a step backwards for HTML and for digital media in general.

Read the blog entry:

Web Tech Blog: Technically Speaking by Matt Magain HTML5 Working Group Rejects Open Media Formats (10 comments)

Opera's Antitrust Complaint: Microsoft Must Support Standards

Opera has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, alleging that Microsoft has illegally stifled competition in the browser market by tying Internet Explorer to Windows and by failing to support web standards.

According to Opera’s press release, in September the European Court of First Instance ruled that Microsoft has illegally tied Windows Media Player to Windows, despite the ability to override the program’s file associations, and despite the availability in Europe of Microsoft’s special "N" editions of Windows, which don't include Windows Media Player, as required by a 2005 European Commission decision.

Off the back of this latest ruling, Opera is seeking to have the Commission apply the very same logic to Internet Explorer, and force Microsoft to distribute Windows either without Internet Explorer (something that Microsoft has consistently maintained is impossible in practice), or with alternative browsers bundled in.

On top of the bundling issue, Opera’s complaint also seeks to require Microsoft to implement support for web standards in Internet Explorer. This will be a much tougher one to prove. Although Internet Explorer is certainly the least standards-compliant of the major browsers today, each and every release of Internet Explorer has included improved standards support. It seems that Opera is saying that Microsoft’s slowness to develop Internet Explorer is in itself an illegal and anti-competitive act.

So what do you think? Is Microsoft doing enough to enable users to choose alternative browsers in Windows? And should browser makers be legally required to support web standards, whether they have the programming resources to devote to doing so or not?

Leave your comment on the blog entry:

Web Tech Blog: Technically Speaking by Kevin Yank Opera's Antitrust Complaint: Microsoft Must Support Standards (32 comments)

Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded

Having recently announced the CSS Eleven initiative to provide designer feedback and input into the W3C's CSS Working Group, Andy Clarke has responded to the Opera-Microsoft antitrust action (above) by calling for the Group to be dissolved entirely and rebuilt without browser vendors in a controlling role.

He considers this necessary not only because he doubts that the representatives of Opera and Microsoft can collaborate on CSS3 while locked in a legal battle, but also because he feels it's time the future of web standards was led by those of us who will eventually use them in our daily work, not those who hope to make money by making browsers.

Clarke's indictment of Opera's legal action has been echoed by many in the web design community. CSS expert Eric Meyer considers the Opera move to be bad timing, coming right when Microsoft was showing promise with IE7 and the upcoming IE8:

"It’s the wrong move at the wrong time, sending precisely the wrong signal to Microsoft about the importance of participating in development and support of open standards, and I can only hope that it comes to a quiet and unheralded end."

But few seem to agree with Clarke's proposal to restructure the CSS Working Group. Many believe the group has life in it yet, while others are calling for the wholesale abandonment of the W3C process.

The voice of reason in all this seems to be Alex Russell of the Dojo Toolkit. In his article, The W3C Cannot Save Us, he explains that what is really holding the Web back is our fanatical devotion to web standards, and the expectation that they can dictate what new features should be added to web browsers.

"Put simply, Zeldman is hurting you and only you can make it stop. Neither the CSS WG nor the HTML 5 WG nor, indeed, any W3C working group can define the future. They can only round off the sharp edges once the future becomes the past and that’s all we should ever expect of them. As much as they tell us (and themselves) that they can, and as much as they really would like to, the W3C cannot save us."

Long-time Tech Times readers will not be surprised that I agree with Alex. His opinion is pretty much what I said in the Tech Times #137, way back in April 2006:

"In my mind, it shouldn't be the W3C's job to develop new standards from scratch, nor should the W3C be responsible for championing new features in individual browsers. Those are the jobs of the innovators and early adopters, who push the boundaries of the possible, producing early implementations that blaze trails for future standards to pave."

The one sticking point that Alex doesn't mention is software patents. If browsers go out and patent every innovative feature they develop, these features will not be freely available for the W3C to standardize for adoption by the other browsers. But perhaps that's a smaller problem than the ones we're faced with currently.

In any case, the W3C needs to stop looking towards the future; until they do, the rest of us will be stuck in the past. The W3C is eminently capable of writing solid specs that describe what browsers do today. They should stick to that (it's a big job!), and let the world know that adding nonstandard features to web browsers is not a crime.

The future is not built by consensus in a working group; it's built by visionaries trying stuff out and making mistakes.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know by commenting on the blog post:

JavaScript & CSS Blog: Stylish Scripting by Kevin Yank Clarke Calls for CSS Working Group to be Disbanded

SitePoint HQ is shutting down for the holidays next week, but the Tech Times will be back first thing in 2008 to keep you on top of the latest in web tech.

See you then!

Kevin Yank
techtimes@sitepoint.com
Editor, The SitePoint Tech Times

Make Money through Your Site Today with the NeverblueAds Affiliate Network

• Ads that compliment your site's design.
• A rep to help you find the best fit for your audience.
• An Easy to use tracking system.
• Payouts on time every month.

Click here to find out more

Help Your Friends Out

People you care about can benefit from the wealth of information on new and maturing technologies available on the Internet. Help them learn how to do it by forwarding them this issue of the Tech Times!