Web Standards Advocacy Finds A New Home at hesketh.com/inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Raleigh, NC. (Nov. 1, 2000)
The online tabernacle of the WEB STANDARDS PROJECT (WaSP) has found a new home with hesketh.com. WaSP is an international coalition of Web developers and users with a mission to stop the fragmentation of the Web by persuading browser makers that standards compliance is in everyone's best interest.
hesketh.com is providing free of charge a server and support for what has been a wave-tossed organization in recent months. And this newly established stability will enable WaSP to continue pursuing its mission.
Members of WaSP unite in their frustration over the time and money wasted in Web development costs due to a lack of standards compliance. They point to the incompatibilities faced by millions of people who daily access information on the Web. , a WaSP founder, says that Web surfers regularly confront pages that won't display properly or even work on their particular browsers if a site's developer has not performed all the necessary workarounds.
The introduction of Netscape 6 this past week has magnified the need for a loud and unified voice on this important topic -- even within the developer community. Jeffrey Zeldman states, "Netscape 6 shocked people we hoped knew better. Too many of our peers were shocked, shocked to discover their DHTML sites no longer work in a standards-compliant browser. And these are some of the top people developing sites professionally. After two years of constant announcements about standards, they were taken by surprise. Clearly we have to do a better job of getting the message out to developers as well as browser makers."
The Web Standards Project, founded in 1998, has devoted itself to raising public and media awareness of the issues, and encouraging browser vendors to "finish the job" of standards implementation.
Steven Champeon, hesketh.com Vice President and CTO, says, "Although there has been significant progress in recent months -- we are now seeing browsers that do provide significant support for fundamental standards, like HTML 4.0, the first Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) recommendation, the W3C Document Object Model, and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), it's clear that more can be done. Some of these standards are going on four years old, but still cannot be used reliably by Web developers due to partial or buggy support in current and older browsers."
Zeldman expresses gratitude to hesketh.com, "Since we're stuck with this task for the foreseeable future, it's nice to have found a permanent home at hesketh.com. Heather Hesketh and Steve Champeon of hesketh.com are old friends, and Steve is a tireless defender of common standards and common sense in an environment that too often lacks both."
The WaSP Web site was previously hosted by Project Cool. DevX purchased Project Cool earlier this year, and webstandards.org was left in limbo. Steven Champeon came forward to offer a server to the organization, administered by hesketh.com.
Champeon says, "Now, more than ever, there needs to be an independent voice taking the browser vendors to task for failing to live up to their promises and their own specifications. Hosting the site at hesketh.com will provide a stable home for WaSP and give us the ability to continue to pursue our mission."
WaSP has tens of thousand of members worldwide. Visit http://www.webstandards.org for more information.
ABOUT hesketh.com/inc.
hesketh.com is a leading Web services firm that punctuates the fast-paced dotcom sphere with distinctive design and development solutions, specializing in vibrant online communities, dynamic dotcom businesses, and high impact corporate sites. A hesketh.com design makes the most appropriate use of Internet technology, from its integration with corporate marketing strategies, to strategic site design and information architecture, as well as cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility. http://www.hesketh.com
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