Infrequently Noted

Alex Russell on browsers, standards, and the process of progress.

Effective Standards Work

Many folks imagine that browsers will adopt a feature because it is a standard. This is exactly backwards. This series explores the ways that all parties can continue to make forward progress in a world without immaculate working group conception of new features.

Effective Standards Work, Part 2: Threading the Needle

It's attractive to think that design can (or should) happen within a formal Working Group. A well-functioning WG should include both developers and implementers, after all. Those groups often have face-to-face meetings, and the path toward standardisation is shortest in those venues! But it doesn't work; not often enough to be useful, anyway.