Web Development Live

The company behind the Opera Web browser has released a free online curriculum to encourage student and professional Web developers to create standards-based Web sites.

In an announcement yesterday, Opera Software ASA said it launched the effort to help set the pace of Web standards education and training in secondary schools, colleges, universities and businesses.

“This is essentially a curriculum for teaching standards-based Web design,” Ford said. Many existing materials on the subject are out of date or incomplete, he said, so Chris Mills, developer relations manager at Opera, created the company’s own version of a training course. “We wanted something that was easy to understand. Chris saw a lack of good standards-based design materials,” Ford said.

By using Web browsers that are standards-based, users aren’t locked into a browser from any specific vendor, and content is rendered properly online, Ford said. “It’s really about opening up the Web,” he said.

Anyone can use the class materials for free as long as they don’t try to resell them, he said.

The articles are being written by a range of notable Web developers and experts, including Christian Heilmann and Mark Norman “Norm” Francis of Yahoo Inc., Peter-Paul Koch of Quirksmode.org, Jonathan Lane, Linda Goin, Paul Haine, Roger Johansson of 456bereastreet, and Jen Hanen, according to Opera. “We hope the community gets behind this and they see the value in it and they help us promote it.”

In an interview, Mills said he created the course to make it easier for Web developers to get the skills they need for standards-based Web design. There are other such sites available, he said, including W3schools.com, but “none of them really cover the whole story of what you need.”

Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group in San Jose, said the project is timely, but he noted that Opera isn’t one of the major players in the Web browser marketplace. “I think it’s a good idea, but for a small player, and Opera’s a small player, it’s hard to drive a change like this,” Enderle said. “Opera’s advantage has always been that they keep the product simple and it’s fast.”

The move by Microsoft to make the upcoming IE8 browser standards-based “should help” drive the effort toward standardization, he said.

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The Economic Development Committee is looking to go high-tech in its quest to attract new businesses to town.

The committee last night met with Louis Gudema, president of Magic Hour Communications, to discuss creating an economic development Web site that Community Planning and Economic Development Director Steve Costello said would be separate from, but linked to, the town’s Web site.

Costello said the committee has already met with another Web site developer to gather as much information as possible before making a recommendation to selectmen.

The site would allow prospective business owners access to a wealth of information about the town and hopefully attract them to Norwood.

“Web sites, beyond any doubt, today are the most important form of communication there is,” said Gudema.

He said his business offers a three-pronged approach. First is to develop an overall strategy and decide what information the committee wants to convey.

The second is the actual design of the site and determining what information should be prominently displayed. The final step is developing technological aspects of the site, including Internet search engine optimization.

Committee member Jeanne Babel said Norwood would promote the town’s low commercial tax base as an incentive for businesses to locate in town.

“The site has to communicate not only what Norwood is today, but what you want it to become,” Gudema said.

Costello said that amount is generally what he is looking to budget for the enterprise. He said there is enough money in the Economic Development Fund to pay for the service if the committee and selectmen approve.

The Economic Development Committee was formed in 2002 as an advisory group to the Board of Selectmen charged with trying to expand the commercial tax base in town.

Costello said his plan is to ask selectmen for permission to develop a Web site and put out a request for bids possibly in the early fall.

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Jaduka has expanded its enterprise, voice and transaction services team with the appointment of telecommunications and Internet industry veteran Patrick Murphy as Vice President of Business Development.

Mr. Murphy has eighteen years of business development, sales, and management experience in the telecommunications and Internet industries. In 2007, he co-founded and served as chief operating officer at The Thomas Howe Company, the industry’s first voice mash-up consultancy. At Thomas Howe, Murphy advised clients on the integration of real-time communications technologies into business processes. During his tenure, Thomas Howe was recognized as one of the most influential voices in the VoIP industry.

Jaduka President Jack Rynes said, “Jaduka technology innovation, network reliability and telecom experience are driving rapid adoption of our voice and transaction services. Patrick Murphy brings those same qualities innovation, reliability and experience to our business development team. We’re delighted to welcome him to Jaduka.”

Jaduka Vice President of Business Development Patrick Murphy added, “I’m delighted to be working at Jaduka. Their APIs and carrier-grade telco infrastructure, in my view, represent the defacto standard for integrating voice mash-ups and communications enabled business processes (CEBP) into enterprise applications.”

Mr. Murphy shares his expertise through blogs and speaks at industry events on topics including voice mash-ups, CEBP, and enterprise 2.0. He also serves on the Boards of several companies.

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