Browser company unveils complete curriculum for Web standards-based design
and development
Oslo, Norway – July 8, 2008 – Opera today launched a sweeping education
initiative aimed at supporting and enhancing Web standards education and
training in secondary schools, colleges, universities and businesses
worldwide. The first planned step in this initiative is the Opera Web
Standards Curriculum, a complete curriculum of learning material to provide
a thorough understanding of client-side Web design and development from the
ground up. These materials are available completely free under a Creative
Commons license from http://www.opera.com/wsc/
Aimed at both educational institutions and Web developers, these materials
cover CSS, HTML, and background concepts thoroughly, provide good
instruction on Web design theory (including typography, color, and
information architecture), and deliver enough introductory information
about JavaScript for the reader to be able to work with JavaScript when it
is encountered, including debugging and writing simple scripts.
So far 23 articles have been published, with more than 50 planned in total.
Authors contributing to this project include well-known Web developers such
as Christian Heilmann and Mark Norman “Norm” Francis of Yahoo!, Peter-Paul
Koch of quirksmode.org, Jonathan Lane, Linda Goin, Paul Haine, Roger
Johansson of 456bereastreet, and Jen Hanen.
“Industry best practice demands standards-based Web development, but
there’s very little foundation-level information available for students,”
said Ben Buchanan, a prominent Web developer and speaker. “The average
beginner tutorial is out of date and most standards-based articles are
beyond beginner level. Opera’s new curriculum aims to fill that gap, with a
set of articles showing how to build standards-compliant Web sites from the
ground up.”
The Opera Web Standards Curriculum is also an ideal training course for
businesses who want to promote good coding practices as well as enjoy the
bandwidth savings, easier maintenance and enhanced innovation Web standards
provide.
“As one of the world’s premier Web technology companies, Yahoo! prides
itself on following best practices and building the Web the right way to
enable us to become the starting point on the Internet for our consumers,”
said Sophie Major, Manager, Yahoo! Developer Network International.
“Therefore Yahoo! insists its employees be competent in their knowledge of
Web standards. The Opera Web Standards Curriculum delivers exactly the
spread of knowledge Yahoo! would expect a front-end developer to know.”
Educators and universities stand in support of the initiative:
“Web development and design are ever evolving professions. Anyone teaching
these subjects must ask themselves if they are equipping their students
with best practices or burdening them with impractical methodologies, said
Glenda Sims, Senior Systems Analyst, TeamWeb – Information Technology
Services University of Texas. “The Opera Web Standards Curriculum,
developed by top industry professionals, is an excellent rubric for
educators to review, affirm and enhance their current instruction. Indeed,
all of us in this field can benefit from this resource and use it as a
catalyst to further the W3C vision of ‘Web for Everyone. Web on
Everything.'”
“The School of Computing, University of Dundee gives its full support to
the Web standards curriculum from Opera. This will be an invaluable
resource for the teaching of Web standards at all levels and will fill an
important gap in the available resources about this important subject,”
said Andrew Cobley, Lecturer in Internet Programming, Dundee University.
“Opera’s choice of industry leaders for preparing course material
emphasizes the importance of the material. This course will help students
to learn the right way to implement Web design and will increase their
understanding of the importance of Web standards for creating valid Web
resources. University-level students will find the wealth of material in
the course allows them to brush up on current knowledge, find new ways of
doing old tasks and discover new technologies for implementing Web design.
Dundee University intends to use material from the course in our
undergraduate teaching to emphasize the right, modern way of doing Web
design.”
“Opera has always fought to bring Web standards to a global audience,” said
Håkon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera. “The new Web Standards Curriculum will reach
many Web developers who are new to Web standards, arming them with the
tools and information they need to deploy Web standards easily and
efficiently. I’m proud that Opera can play an even greater role in
spreading Web standards to developers all over the globe.”
Get Involved
Our developer community, http://dev.opera.com/ , is a central hub to learn
about Web standards, advanced Web development techniques and connect with
developers worldwide. The Opera Web Standards Curriculum needs your support
to help prepare the next generation of Web developers. If you would like to
develop new articles or translate existing content to reach a global
audience, we welcome your input. Visit http://dev.opera.com/ and
http://www.opera.com/wsc to learn more.
Opera Education
Opera’s Web Standards Curriculum is part of Opera Education, a
comprehensive initiative to promote Web standards and choice on the Web as
a force for good. Opera Education encompasses university tours, lectures
and materials for system administrators, students and educators at
institutions of higher learning worldwide. Visit
http://www.opera.com/education/ to learn more.
About Opera Software ASA
Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and
other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is
renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while
giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera
Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world.
The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol
OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com