Hitchhiker's Guide to Web Standards

Brian Kardell will be presenting.

The Web is amazing. The scale of interoperability, the amount of information that can be shared, and the new opportunities for everything from self-expression to new enterprises that it has created are unparalleled. But if you work on the Web, you know that new features and techniques come along all the time. How do we manage to keep up with the change and stay relevant? How do we use them to make our lives easier? Then, why is it that we are often are we excited for an upcoming new feature only to be ultimately unimpressed and a little disappointed when we finally get to use it? Where do these features even come from and why are we constantly left wanting?

More importantly: Can we do better? The answer is "yes" and the standards bodies and organizations around the world are making it possible: Now it's up to us to show them that it's workable. In this talk, I'll explain how we hope to help shape the future of the Web and the potentially important role that Pittsburgh has in it all.