| Company type | Project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Information technology |
| Founded | 1998; 28 years ago (1998) |
| Founder | George Olsen |
| Defunct | 2013 |
| Fate | Dissolution |
Key people | Jeffrey Zeldman,Tim Bray,Glenn Davis, Steven Champeon,Eric Meyer,Tantek Çelik,Matt Mullenweg,Molly Holzschlag,Simon Willison,[1]Dave Shea,Christopher Schmitt |
| Website | www |
TheWeb Standards Project (WaSP) was a group of professional web developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of theweb standards recommended by theWorld Wide Web Consortium, along with other groups and standards bodies, with a primary focus on web clients (web browsers).
Founded in 1998, The Web Standards Project campaigned for standards that reduced the cost and complexity of development while increasing theaccessibility and long-term viability of any document published on the Web. WaSP worked with browser companies, authoring tool makers, and peers to encourage them to use these standards, since they "are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users".[2] The group dissolved in 2013.
The Web Standards Project began as agrassroots coalition "fighting for standards in our [web] browsers" founded by George Olsen,Glenn Davis, andJeffrey Zeldman in August 1998.[3] By 2001, the group had achieved its primary goal of persuadingMicrosoft,Netscape,Opera, and other browser makers to accurately and completely supportHTML 4.01/XHTML 1.0,CSS1, andECMAScript. Had browser makers not been persuaded to do so, the Web would likely have fractured into pockets of incompatible content, with various websites available only to people who possessed the right browser. In addition to streamlining web development and significantly lowering its cost, support for common web standards enabled the development of the semantic web. By marking up content in semantic (X)HTML, front-end developers make a site's content more available to search engines, more accessible to people with disabilities, and more available to the world beyond the desktop (e.g. mobile).
The project re-launched in June 2002 with new members, a redesigned website, new site features, and a redefined mission focused on developer education and standards compliance in authoring tools as well as browsers.[4]
Project leaders were:
There were members that were invited to work on ad hoc initiatives, theBuzz Blog and other content areas of the site.
The group announced its dissolution on March 1, 2013.[5]
The Web Standards Project hosted projects focused on bringing relevant organizations closer to standards-compliance, dubbed Task Forces.
Browse Happy is awebsite urging users to upgrade theirweb browsers. The site was initially created by the Web Standards Project in August 2004 to convince users to switch to a web browser other thanMicrosoft'sInternet Explorer.[9] It focused onsecurity issues in Internet Explorer and suggested four alternatives:Mozilla Firefox,Opera,Safari andGoogle Chrome. The core of the site was a collection of testimonials by people who had switched from Internet Explorer to alternative web browsers.[10]
In June 2005, the Web Standards Project decided that an anti-Internet Explorer campaign did not fit with their mission, and they handed the site over toMatt Mullenweg.[11] Since then, the site has been maintained byWordPress.com[12] with collaboration fromHTML5 Boilerplate team members.
