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Blogs ยป Archive for August 3rd, 2007
Have Microformats finally arrived?
I must admit, when the concept of Microformats first starting frothing on the conference circuit, I was a little bit underwhelmed. Sure, I can see the potential value in the idea — making it easy transfer useful data (event times, contact details, etc) from the web to other devices. Sounds peachy.
Incorporating them into a site was never a big issue. The markup does tend towards the mind-numbing, but all the most popular formats now have push button generators (hCard, hCalendar, hReview) that do most of the grunt work for you.
No, for me the question was ‘Great! But what have they done for me lately?’
Mostly this was met with an extended ‘Well…….once upon a time, in a galaxy, far, far away…’ and some concentrated carpet scuffing. While I spent some time coding microformats into my pages, for me it felt a bit like buying carbon offset credits — the ‘honorable’ thing to do, but part of me couldn’t shake the idea I was getting scammed.
Perhaps that’s beginning to change.
Google Maps this week joined Yahoo Maps in natively reading and writing the hCard microformat — the microformat dedicated to describing people and organizations. …
What is a community?
And what does it take to make one? Is it like-minded people, who share ideals, beliefs or some other common values? Does it take a certain number of people to make a community?
If the people around you encourage and support you, even when you’re full of it, are they being a good community? If you aspire to join a clique or elite, and that clique decides to accept you, are you then a part of a community?
I believe that community is nothing but mutual respect. People can form a community without having common beliefs, without having shared identity or defining themselves in terms of each other. Numbers are irrelevant; ideals and desires are irrelevant; even the extent of mutual support and patronage is largely irrelevant. Community is a state of mind. It’s a sense of belonging that springs from feeling other people accept you despite, not because, of who you are.
When I came to Australia I did so for personal reasons; I didn’t come for my career, or the crowd, or the sense of belonging. I came here because my heart told me to, even though the reasons were wrong. And I never tried to rationalise that away. …
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