W3C Turns 25, I Make it about Me

In 1994 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) formed to help wrangle the web into a standards-based platform. The W3C has persisted and created piles of material for web developers. Pulling from its anniversary post:

Some of the Web Consortium’s most important contributions to the Web include:

  • Hundreds of open technologies that support search engines, social media, trillions of dollars of online commerce, and more than a billion Web sites;
  • Technologies and guidelines that enable people with disabilities to access the Web;
  • Built-in support for communication in many of the world’s languages;
  • A Patent Policy that helps guarantee that W3C standards may be used by developers without payment of royalty.

While the W3C has had some mis-steps (think XHTML2 and XForms before it came around to work on HTML5 after the WHATWG spun up), it has proven to be a valuable organization for the last quarter century. Between wrangling patent policies, random developers, and vendors, it has been a net positive force.

Today W3C asked people to share their own earliest efforts on the web:

That was just enough motivation for me to put off some project work and start spelunking in the Wayback Machine. Sadly, my earliest stuff (~1993) is not there, but I was able to find some 1996-era awesomeness. While not captured in Netscape Navigator, I did at least capture it at 800×600, just to show out of touch I was with people used between 1994 and 1996. I had gotten much better by 1999.

Jolt Cola

I made a fan page for Jolt Cola. The original version was listed in the first version of Yahoo! and enjoyed some notoriety. Some. By 1996 I had updated it to use <frame>s, primarily because it was my place to experiment with new elements. It may have been over the top.

Jolt Cola page in a frameset with links to links, info, an animated GIF of a spinning Jolt Cola can, and a curious rendered aardvark head with a Jolt Cola logo texture map.
View the Jolt Cola page.

University Union Activities Board (UUAB)

I lifted the Jolt Cola layout as the basis for my UUAB (a division of Sub-Board I, Inc.) page. The stock imagery was mine — I had purchased a set of CDs to use in my design classes.

UUAB home page in a frameset with links to coffee house, films, concerts, and social events.
View the UUAB page.

Pulse

Pulse was the entertainment section of Generation magazine (a division of Sub-Board I, Inc.). I had tried to make an overall Generation page, but without a way for the editors to easily maintain it, it died on the vine. The Pulse page never went past what I posted here, and it only got this far because I was motivated by the content.

Pulse home page linking to reviews, articles, and interviews.
View the Pulse page and read that sweet KMFDM interview.

Research Institute on Addictions (RIA)

By 1996 I had a full-time job as a webmaster. The updated and redesigned site rolled out in the fall of 1996, also without a content management system behind it. Just me, Windows Notepad, WS_FTP, and emailed instructions (via Pegasus Mail).

Research Institute on Addictions home page with links to all the main sections of the site.
View the RIA page.

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