KuraFire Network

Time flies by when you are having fun/busy like crazy - or both! So November's here already, which means that Refresh Orlando is just around the corner. After that, Christmas and the New Year are soon upon us, leading us to 2007 - another fine year for web conferences no doubt. It starts off with South By South West, but even before that - in February - we have Web Directions North with a fantastic line-up. If this is to reflect how the rest of the year will be, it's going to be a great 2007!

So what's been going on on the Web, huh? Well, Tim Berners-Lee speaks up on HTML and the Web but as Thomas van der Wal said to me and some others, it feels more like we're being hit with the stupid stick. As usual, Joe Clark's criticism is sharp as a nail and I fully share myself behind his point of view. HTML pretty much works - not great, but it works. The way forward is not by focusing even more on what has essentially been a braindead standard for years, but rather improving the areas that need work and are more promising, in terms of value for what they can do for the Web as a medium: XHTML, Accessibility, CSS 3, browser-support for new(er) standards.

I have a lot more to say on this issue but I'm saving it for a mcuh bigger and more focused article that I hope to write up on my upcoming 11-hour flight to San Francisco. 11 hours of non-stop flying - should provide ample time for some writing, don't you think?

For the time being, I'm going to ignore the problems surrounding the Web itself, and instead focus on conferences that I'm looking forward to. Obviously, Refresh is only a week and a half away and I can't wait! It'll be good to hang out with Superfluous Dan, Patrick !Sausage and so many others again. If anyone's up for a game of Foosball with me and Patrick, let us know!

After Orlando, though, I will have to get back to finishing up my Web …Zen proposal and present it to some people. Yes, it's still alive, and yes, there is a very good reason why I've put three dots in place of the first syllable there. You might have noticed that I've also removed that term from my site (in combination with the word "Web" anyway), but I can assure you it's all from being dead in the water. In fact, the reason I've done so is because it might become much, much bigger than I had even planned it to be, but it's put me in legal waters - new territory for me - and until things are sorted out, I'm being careful. In the meantime, my ideas will be presented as Web …Zen, and hopefully I'll also be presenting them to an audience soon.

I'm going to leave it at that for now - Steve Marshall's picking me up any moment now for a Guy Fawkes-celebration. Ahh, the joys of being in England, eh?

Written at: Ealing, UK.

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