It seems there is a stirring among the web designer/developer community at the moment, a little unease with those folks over at the W3C. For a good number of years now, the web standard hippies have changed the way the web is viewed, they have even managed to change the habits of those dusty old people over at Microsoft and (a bit) better standards introduced in their browsers was the result.  How have they done this? Through violent uprisings, dirty protests, chaining themselves to trees? No. Through peace not war..... Man.

It could be easy to say that the love in is coming to an end, but that would be entirely dramatic and not to mention completely wrong.  It is clear though that a few respected names have displayed their frustrations about the job that the W3C are doing and how this is affecting the motion of web standards.

I have just read the Where are the web designers and developers that Jeff Croft posted on his blog about his take on the situation, some of which I agree with.  Most notably, the pace that the organization is setting on the development of standards.  I don’t really agree that the organisation should have some well known designers, who also have to do a days work, pulling the levers of the W3C.  I do think that they should have an advisory capacity both designers and developers to help balance the focus of the organisation.

Last week Jeffery Zeldman responded to some of the frustrations that have been brewing and the godfather of web standards called for calm among the troops, don’t panic don’t panic called Mr Jones. The standards aint broken so what’s the crisis? He also states that the slow pace that the W3C have set enabled people to transition into the use of CSS and learn the standards and also for browser makers to have the time to implement standards in their software.

I guess that things are being blown out of proportion a little. Frustration about some of the things that the W3C are doing or the time that they take to do it does not constitute a crisis, in my opinion.  The slow start that the W3C have gotten off to has enabled me for one, the time to learn CSS techniques.  It is time though that they picked up the pace and started to implement the things that are needed for designers and developers to do their job.  The internet has been for a long time, designers and developers having to work to use technologies that where not meant for that purpose. Slowly that has been changed and we are starting to get the tools needed to build the web sites we want, the last thing that is needed is for fragmentation of that thinking and for all that good work to be undone.

The onus is on those well known and highly regarded web designers and developers to put pressure on the W3C to work for them and a little unrest will hopefully light the fires under their chairs.