BenToWeb: Benchmarking Tools and Methods for the Web

Over the years, Web content accessibility has played a crucial role in the World Wide Web in the sense that it has become a determinant factor in the way the Web has evolved and progressed. A good number of organizations dedicated to the maintenance of the Web through common standards and guidelines had already been created and Web users are now finding the Web a lot more accessible and manageable than before. One project that had been born out of the idea of enhancing Web content accessibility was BenToWeb, a project from the Web Accessibility Benchmarking (WAB) Cluster. It was founded in order to support the European public and private sector in the application of the recommendations of the eEurope 2005 Action Plan. Though the project has ended on September 30, 2007, BenToWeb continues to offer benchmarking tools and methods that can help in creating a more accessible Web.

Web Standards

The World Wide Web may not have a distinguishable set of boundaries and limits in its realm, however, one still needs to have a working knowledge of formal standards that help clarify and describe the various aspects of the Web. The term “web standards” is used to refer to the formal standards, technical specifications, and the effective practices for developing web sites. Some web standards include recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium, requests for comments (RFC) documents from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), name and number registries from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Ecma International.

Knowing Website Design Styles

It would be helpful to familiarize ourselves with how websites differ from each other in terms of design and style, according to cultural and social factors, in order to see clearly how the Web has evolved over the years. Websites are also communities that is why we can observe that design and styles are dictated by what is deemed appropriate and appealing to a certain group of people. For example, websites from Mainland China have their distinctive pop-up windows which can be opened by using left-clicks, while Japanese websites are characterized by the use of bright colors and anime characters. There are other websites, such as those from the Netherlands and other Dutch-speaking online groups, which place emphasis on the use of flash and visual images to enhance the look of innovativeness.

What is Website Architecture?

How vast really is the Web? Do boundaries exist and if they do, will we ever know these limits? The answers to these questions are quite uncertain, if not completely unthinkable, for the Web is a world composed of millions and millions of information. Hence, with this huge amount of randomly uploaded data, the one thing that Web users should strive for is organization. Website architecture is a term that can be used to refer to the designing and planning of websites in order to organize its content, to enhance its usability, and to accelerate its effectiveness in terms of its place in the World Wide Web.

Do You Know Who Invented the World Wide Web?

Have you ever tried to picture how the Web was exactly created? Now, have you tried to imagine how a genius of a man had, one day, conceived of a plan to produce a tool which can effectively allow information sharing and updating? If not, then I guess it would be good for you to trace back the history of the Web to the ingenuity and creativity of Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

The idea behind the Web was rooted on the concept of hypertext and it was born out of the vision of Berners-Lee to combine hypertext with the Internet. Together with Robert Cailliau, they had successfully launched on December 25, 1990 the first communication between an HTTP client and server through the Internet.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

We all know how powerful the realm of the Web is and how one can get lost in the vastness of its many potentials and harms. When a group of people realized that it is time to safeguard the Web’s capacity through certain standards, an organization was created in order to promote web technologies and common guidelines for everyone using the Web. Founded by Web pioneer Tim Berners-Lee in 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium with a mission to “To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.” With organizations like W3C, we can be assured that the Web will constantly be improved for the advancement of society.

Source:
www.w3.org