Working Together for a Better Web

Hi Everyone!

I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Molly E. Holzschlag, and I’m excited to announce that I’ve signed on with the Internet Explorer team on a contract basis to work on standards and interoperability issues. Many readers of the IEBlog will be familiar with the Web Standards Project (WaSP). As the departing Group Lead for WaSP and as an invited expert to the W3C, my work has in the past focused on the creation and evangelism  of Web standards. In an effort to develop proactive, cooperative relationships with Microsoft as development teams ramped up for IE7 and the new Expression Web, I began working closely with the Web Platform and Tools team via the WaSP / Microsoft Task Force.

The Web, as envisioned by its creator Tim Berners-Lee, was always meant to be an interoperable platform. That was the entire heart and soul of its emergence: To provide people a means of sharing information across the world without regard to the computer platform or browser in use. Due to the browser “wars” and what I prefer to think of as the early evolutionary stages of the Web, just how we were going to keep that vision in such a fast-moving environment became a serious concern.

One way to address that concern has been through standards advocacy and evangelism. Another way is to identify the problems in all browsers and tools, prioritize them, and work toward creating a stable baseline of compatibility from the side of software as well as education. I spent a lot of my career working on the first, but now I’m convinced it’s the action and education that’s going to make the long-term difference, not evangelism on its own.

With that, I’m very excited to announce that I will be working to advance standards and interoperability education and outreach. The goal is essentially two fold:

• To provide resources to Web designers and developers (including internal developers at Microsoft) as they work toward a more standards-oriented goal - no matter which tools and technologies are being used. To achieve this, our group will be publishing educational material for designers and developers from such noted industry experts as Eric Meyer, Christopher Schmitt and Aaron Gustafson. We’re choosing people who represent the Web professional’s community at large and who are subject matter experts in the technologies about which they’ll be writing.  We’ll also be doing hands-on tutorials, continuing with our chat series, and I’ll be blogging a column called “The Daily Molly” which will provide short news, tips and tricks, and items of interest to the community
  
  
• To work with Microsoft as well as all browser  and tools vendors. It is my desire that persistence coupled with diplomacy will assist us all in moving to a time where interoperability becomes the heart of the Web again

Pete LePage, a Product Manager at Microsoft Web Platform and Tools, offers these words:

“I’m very excited to work more closely with Molly, as she excels in creating content for web designers and developers.  Her track record of achievements in community outreach initiatives, her independence, as well as her high standards, is impressive and this strength will be of great value to both the designer/developer community and to Microsoft.  Molly’s unique capabilities are ideal for this position and I know she will be successful in connecting the web community with us.”

I look forward to this challenging, exciting opportunity!  I’m grateful to all the wonderful people at Microsoft, Opera, Mozilla, Apple, the Web Standards Project, the W3C and countless other companies and groups around the world who are working so very hard to advance this evolutionary and wonderful tool we share that is the World Wide Web.

With warm regards,

Molly

Molly E. Holzschlag
Standards & Interoperability Education and Outreach
Web Platform and Tools, Microsoft

Edit: Added link and word edit to first sentence