RasterWeb!

The May 2006 Web Design Meetup was fun, but a few folks mentioned that having a bit more focus might be nice, so I’ve volunteered to talk about Microformats at the meeting on June 8th, 2006.

If you’re not familiar with Microformats, I’ll try to cover the basics. Here’s a simple definition from microformats.org:

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards.

Basically, Microformats allow you to markup pages so people and computers can easily get information from them. Come with questions and I’ll try to supply answers.

Last summer I wanted to start a worm farm, thinking it would be a fun project for the kids, and a way to have worms available for fishing, but we never actually got around to building the farm. Well this year, we have…

We are now worm farmers.

I had a few pages I bookmarked on how to build a worm farm, though most of them focused on the composting/recycling aspect rather than “worms for fishing” which is the kind my Dad and I built when I was a kid. Anyway, I sort of did things my own way, based on what I read, and the farm is now operational.

I took my old van box, cut it into two pieces that were stackable, drilled holes, added a screen, wet newspaper, egg shells, asparagus, dirt, and worms… and it’s now in the basement. We added about two dozen redworms and probably 20 to 30 “regular” worms from the garden out back. As this is our first attempt, it’s pretty experimental, so all we can do is hope for the best. Expect an update soon…

I’ve started videoblogging one year ago at tinkernet and so far I’ve really been enjoying it.

I’ve posted 70 videos since May of 2005, and I’m sure I’ll post more in the future. I’m not sure if anyone else enjoys the videos I create, but I do, and that’s all that matters. I’m not trying to catapult “citizen journalism” into the public eye, or document any significant events, I’m just “showing moments” as Jay says…

I’ve also met (virtually) a lot of really cool and creative people who have great ideas about video on the web, and how to better the whole experience. If you’re interested, check out the Yahoo! Videoblogging Group.

I’m sorry to say I’ll be missing Vloggercon. If you get a chance to attend, I highly recommend it. If you miss it, don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of video from the event online…

Tantek talks about the Microformats Search that Techorati just released. This is totally cool! Microformats are just gonna explode on the web in the next year.

I’ve been (silently) trying to introduce Microformats to many of the sites I’m involved with, including ocono.com. I was also able to add it to the last large project I worked on for a b2b company as well. It’s not hard, as it’s really just adding CSS class names appropriately.

Microformats have had a bit of the chicken/egg problem, why bother using them if there are not (many) tools that can consume them? My suggestion is to start using Microformats today, because it’s so damn easy, and if you’re lucky (which you will be) the payoff will happen later as more and more tools support them. Small costs upfront yielding large returns later. It’s a win-win situation.

So use Microformats, tell Pingerati, and then sit back and wait…

My rebuttal to Top 13 reasons to CONSIDER the Microsoft platform for Web 2.0 development.

1. Free Developer Tools.

   I develop using Linux and Mac OS X. Microsoft developer tools are typically Windows-only… Has this changed?

2. Free Database

   Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition runs only on Windows and has limitations as to how you can use it. Why limit yourself with the constraints? I’ve used Microsoft SQL Server and I did not care for it. MySQL or PostgreSQL are more to my liking.

3. Microsoft Atlas makes AJAX easier.

   Somehow I just don’t believe it. There are plenty of (good) open Javascript libraries out there to handle with Ajaxy stuff, is Microsoft’s better?

4. Microsoft doesn’t HAVE to get ALL of your business.

   Microsoft still wants all of your business, but they’ll take what they can get. I’ve tried to implement non-Microsoft stuff with Microsoft stuff in the past, and it wasn’t always fun.

5. Microsoft solutions can scale.

   I’ve yet to see this on the projects I’ve been involved with. Well, I suppose if the projects I worked on had 100 times the budget to throw more and more hardware at the problems, then perhaps I would have seen Microsoft solutions scale.

6. Microsoft pricing is flexible.

   You can pay them a whole lot of money, or you can pay them a ton of money. Oh, and the prices will most likely go up in the future, that is, if the products you license still exist at that point.

7. Ray Ozzie

   I still wish Ray Ozzie had not gone to Microsoft…

8. Robert Scoble

   Ok, this might be the only reason to consider Microsoft…

9. Being based on the Microsoft platform doesn’t limit your acquisition options.

   Building to flip is a losing strategy…

10. Microsoft wants to be a part of the community

    The open-source community? The Linux community? The Microsoft community!

11. Microsoft employees aren’t evil.

    I’d agree that Microsoft employee’s are not evil, but they believe that they do no evil, and with that I am not sure I agree… And Microsoft, well, it’s most likely evil…

12. Microsoft has good development resources

    Whew, that’s good to know, because in the past it’s been impossible to find things on microsoft.com, since they seem to move pages around, and occasionally just delete things. I’m sure learn2asp.net isn’t just some campaign to get people to switch to ASP or something…

13. Microsoft speeds web application development

    Is speeding development really the best idea? What’s the old saying? Fast, Good, Cheap… Pick two.

Now I don’t mean to suggest you shouldn’t consider the Microsoft platform for your own use, but based on my past experiences, I doubt that I will.