Browser Wars: Episode II The Attack of the DOMs February 28, 2007
Sunnyvale, California CA
Silicon Valley Web Builder
Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
VS
Browser Wars: Episode II Attack of the DOMs
Star Wars is a science fantasy saga and fictional galaxy created by writer/producer/director George Lucas during 1970s. Star Wars is a highly gross box office movie that makes millions of dollars while Browser Wars costs internet companies millions of dollars in Development and Quality Assurance. Browser Wars refers to the intense struggle between Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator (NE) during the late 1990s, as in Browser Wars: Episode I. Beginning of 2004, growing threat from Mozilla Firefox (FF) and uprising of Opera (0) put Internet Explorer (IE) in another Browser Wars. We name this second Browser Wars: Episode II as WWWII in the internet world.
WWW has 5 years of peace after IE wins over Netscape and decides not to release any version after IE6. During these five short peaceful years, web developers begin to understand the Javascript better and further explore the technique AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML).
Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform- and language-neutral interface that will allow programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. DOM, Javascript and CSS are critical components of AJAX that responsible for improved user experience in Web 2.0 Applications.
Attack of the DOMs is very relevant in this Browser Wars Episode II as Web 2.0 increasingly utilizes AJAX in interface design, functionality and web applications. Each browser implements its supported DOM. IE7 is known to suffer in performance from memory leaks that are related to its inherited DOM architectural design. Firefox quickly gains popularity with its DOM strategy among Web 2.0 communities with faster loading time. DOM Level 2 CSS allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and of style sheets documents. No designers can deny the importance of the interaction between CSS and DOM in rendering site design properly across browsers.
Internet Future is as foggy as San Francisco Fog. What would DOM Level 3, CSS2, CSS3, Acid Test 2, Acid Test 3, Microformat, Microbrowser advancement bring to Web 2.0 communities? Joy or Sorrow? Excitement or Pain? Our browser expert, aka Yoda Master, Douglas Crockford from Yahoo, will be leading this WWW-shaking discussion with the world-renowned browser experts, Chris Wilson from IE, Mike Shaver from FireFox, and Håkon Wium Lie from Opera. These experts, aka Jedi Masters of its kind, will be calling their cards on the poker table. Would any of them accidentally fall off the table and fall into the Dark Side? We'll find out very soon.
A world-famous movie like Star Wars can't survive in history without a soundtrack. A world wide web event like Browser Wars won't shine without a theme song. Our theme song is the soundtrack from the movie High School Musical - We're All In This Together.
This song is chosen to express the fact that Web Builders and Browsers must work together to make innovations for the future.
What: Browser Wars: Episode II Attack of the DOMs
When: Feb 28, 2007 Wed 6:00pm
Where: Yahoo Building C, 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale , California 94089
Who: Douglas Crockford, Architect at Yahoo & Founder of JSON (Moderator & Host)
Chris Wilson, Group Program Manager of the Internet Explorer Platform at Microsoft
Mike Shaver, Director of Ecosystem Development at Mozilla Corporation
Håkon Wium Lie, CTO at Opera & Founder of CSS
Lou Gervais, Founder of Silicon Valley Webguild & Technical Development SIG (MC)
Required Registration: http://browserwarii.eventbrite.com
Our Theme Song:
We're All In This Together from High School Musical Movie Soundtrack
6:00pm Registration/Complimentary Refreshments
Exhibits/Networking
7:00pm Session I - Technical Presentations
Chris Wilson - IE
Mike Shaver - FireFox
Håkon Wium Lie - Opera
7:30pm Session II - Browser Wars Discussion
9:00pm Q&A/Giveaways
9:30pm Time to go home
Host - Yahoo, Inc.
Complimentary Refreshments - Sponsored by Yahoo, Inc.
Promotional Gifts - Sponsored by Yahoo, Inc.
Giveaways: Sponsored by Microsoft IE
Exhibits: Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Center
Opera Community
Official Website: http://www.svwebbuilder.com
Added by Websig on December 22, 2006
Comments
tantek
Heh. Nicely done with the copy/pasting of Chris Wilson's bio with and tags in the clear which then styled the remainder of the description. Nicely done. :)
Websig
Notes:
HTML 4.01
XHTML 1.1
CSS2
Javascript 1.6 (ECMA-262 Edition 3)
DOM Level 2
Underdevelopment
XHTML 2.0 - W3C working Draft
CSS3 - W3C working Draft
DOM Level 3 - W3C working Draft
HTML 5 - Under WHATWG proposal
veeliam
If anyone were to talk about Web Applications 1.0, http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/, that'd be even more fantastic!
Websig
Hi Veeliam,
I will mention to our speakers about your suggestion about WHATWG. Definitely it is important to developers and UI engineers.
Any other suggestions?
Websig
References:
Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG)
"The goal of the Web Hypertext Applications Technology Working Group is to address the need for one coherent development environment for Web applications, through the creation of technical specifications that are intended to be implemented in mass-market Web browsers.
The expected deliverables include:
Web Forms 2.0: An incremental improvement of HTML4.01's forms.
Web Applications 1.0: Features for Application Development in HTML.
Web Controls 1.0: A specification describing mechanisms for creating new widgets that can be used with the Web Forms and Web Applications technologies.
CSS Rendering Object Model: A specification for defining access to the CSS rendering tree so that applications can access, e.g., the active selection, and rendered ::before and ::after content."
Websig
More reasons to understand browser...
Big News about Browser.
Even Walmart has problems with browser.
"This is what Walmart’s brand new video site looks like in the Firefox browser. It works fine in Internet Explorer, but the CSS is not loading properly in Firefox."
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/06/nice-one-walmart/#comments
Websig
Another Browser News:
"Walmart isn’t the only stupid big company. Salesgenie.com ran a Super Bowl ad and their website also has CSS problems in FireFox. They paid $2.5M for a commercial and they couldn’t spend $100 on an outsourced web designer?"
http://www.xobni.com/blog/2007/02/05/salesgenie-why-big-companies-suck-and-startups-should-beat-them/
Websig
Is it fair to say it is not just a developer or designer's headache on browser as it is happening on much bigger companies in well-prepared launches.
Websig
Summary from our meeting Back To The Future:
Our expert speakers seems to see our future moving towards to "Web Anywhere", aka pervasive Internet. Web communities and applications will be emerging to mobile and other internet-enabled ambient display with RFID and Ubiquitous data interchange.
Websig
Yahoo! JavaScript Architect Douglas Crockford (“Advanced JavaScript” and “An Inconvenient API: The Theory of the Dom”).
http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/24/video-crockford-tjpl/
Websig
Yeah! We receive over 90 registrations.
Team, we have to work harder. Our VIP speaker is spending over 22 hours flying from Norway just to speak for us for 2-3 hours. Opera even lists our event on their corporate site as their official tour. I check the airfare from Norway to San Jose. It costs $3,000 to $9,000 for a round trip ticket on this International flight.
Håkon Wium Lie proposed CSS in October 1994. In 2005 he proposed the Acid2 test. He is actively working on CSS2/3 and Acide Test 2/3 with W3C, web standard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A5kon_Wium_Lie
Websig
Reference from ajaxian.com
http://ajaxian.com/archives/douglas-crockford-video-advanced-javascript
"Douglas Crockford is “Yoda of lambda programming and JavaScript” (according to Brendan Eich), and he shows it in his presentations on all things JavaScript.
The Yahoo! UI team video-taped his Advanced JavaScript talk (which he gave at The Ajax Experience)"
On the other hand, we see our Moderator Douglas Crockford as our Yoda Master in our Browser Wars II.
The funny girl who comes up with this crazy idea of getting these Browser Jedi together and naming this whole thing as Browser Wars: Episode II Attack of the DOMs, sees herself as R2-D2. She will be running around on the background and will only make noises when there are troubles.
lhl
No Safari/Webkit representative?
Websig
Our moderator, speakers and myself have been working very hard to invite Safari from Apple for weeks. Our Safari expert is traveling outside US and Apple couldn't locate any other speaker.
If Google is hearing from Aaron Stanton at http://www.cangooglehearme.com, will we get the same chance with Apple?
Apple, Apple, Apple! Can You Hear Me?
Websig
Reference:
http://blogs.zoho.com/general/zoho-on-safari/
"Zoho on Safari — No we dont officially support Safari yet, but if you still want to use Zoho apps in Safari, there is a way to do it. — Download the latest Webkit from Webkit.org and use Safari that comes with it. "
From what I have been gathering in Web 2.0 circles, Zoho is not the only startup facing technical challenges on Safari. Any Web 2.0 application with heavy AJAX like Office 2.0 and Wikis will see funny things on Safari.
Websig
Mike Shaver is the most technical and respected expert in FireFox, second to Brendan Eich, JavaScript's creator and Mozilla's CTO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Shaver
It is sad that Brendan can't attend due to his traveling but we are very happy that Mike Shaver is coming to speak for FireFox.
Websig
Chris Wilson is NOT Chris Wilson the drummer for Good Charlotte.
Chris joined the IE team shortly before Microsoft shipped IE 2.0 in 1995, and worked in various releases for every major release from then until IE 6.0’s release in 2001. During his tenure on the IE team, he has frequently been Microsoft’s representative on various standards working groups in the W3C – CSS, HTML, Document Object Model, even the XSL and Internationalization groups for a while.
Don't let his title fool you. He is the most technical brain in IE team.
IE team is busy with their world traveling schedule and they decide to invest in us - Browser Wars. We are so excited to have IE on board.
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/03/09/391362.aspx
Websig
Molly E. Holzschlag is working with IE team on the behalf of desigers and developers to address Web Standard issues on IE. This is a good development on IE camp.
Reference:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/01/30/working-together-for-a-better-web.aspx
"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..."
"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"
Molly E. Holzschlag
Standards & Interoperability Education and Outreach
Web Platform and Tools, Microsoft
Websig
We have received 128 registrations. Please help us to fill more chairs! This event is open for public and FREE.
Websig
Who should attend:
- Designers who frustrate with workaround on CSS
- UI Engineers who use a lot of AJAX can't get their app to run faster
- Developers write extra hundred lines of code to handle multiple DOMs
- Founders don't have sufficient funding to cover QA
- VP of Marketing and Product Manager can't increase user base due to unsupported browsers in Safari, FireFox or IE
- Entrepreneurs hire additional coders to handle browser support and releases
- VCs are nervous about their startups running out of funds without a stable product release
- Startups didn't budget funding to cover browser version support and development on their 2nd round funding
- Site owners receive customer complaints on not able to view the site and run the app on certain browsers
Websig
We have received 150 registrations.
Less than 7 days.
Guys, Power of 3. Let's exercise the Power of 3 in the next 6 days. We can do it!
Go Silicon Valley! Go SV! GO GO GO!
Websig
Good news for Widget Builders!
Reference:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/21/netvibes-promises-cross-platform-widget-compatibility/
"The W3C has a working draft of a 1.0 Widget specification, which if adopted would make life easier for developers by requiring some standardization. However, the best solution for everyone would be a world where a widget works on every platform, no matter where it was originally created."
"A single javascript embed code will add the widget to any of the supported platforms. The code will recognize the platform and run the appropriate code for that platform within the widget."
http://www.w3.org/TR/widgets/
Websig
Is it possible that Safari can gain more usage shares? Problems: Safari is friendly to old sites, leaving many web developers from Web 2.0 sites and apps scratching their heads with not much work-around fixes.
Reference:
Firefox loses browser share, Safari gains
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9011619&intsrc=hm_list
Websig
Dozens of guests ask why Safari wouldn't come to our Browser Wars. I don't have a good explaination.
Apple Apple Apple! Can you hear me?
I have contacted the Museum. You will be left out on the history piece as "Missing" Apple.
5 day left to change the internet history. Mark Malone has my email contact.
Websig
Dear loyal supporters,
We feel very fortunate to have our dear friend and respected leader, Lou Gervais, accepted our invitation to attend our Browser Wars, emerged from his retirement.
I learned my way as I served Speaker Chair under Lou Gervais's leadership for many years. This is a good time to show him my report card. I hope I can get an "A".
This Browser Wars will mark our biggest Executive Board member reunion as we have gathered our past Officers, Chairs and SIG Leaders in the local area.
I hope our past speakers, sponsors and friends from Silicon Valley would join us to welcome Lou Gervais.
Websig
Like Oscar night, I wouldn't be able to thank everyone in a short "thank you" speech. I am going to do some "thank you" here.
I like to thank William Grosso for his coming. William is the board member of SD Forum. Without his vocal support, I wouldn't have enough courage to spearhead this "W" mission.
I said I would be "slow" in moving things as I didn't expect that I have to step up to fill in the leadership role. "Slow" are including handling my family member's death and funeral and going offline to locate all the past Officers, Chairs and SIG leaders.
Thank you William again for believing in me. Thank SD Forum board for standing by us.
I like to thank SD Forum for recognizing us and including our events in your calendar. We will continue to support the web community.
aplatti
What's up with Safari not being there? Do they not care about the web developers? Lame.
Websig
Report:
We have received 169 registration excluding 83 upcoming.org. I have turned off the "guest" feature on our online registration to obtain a more accurate counts on this event.
Statistically we have hit our paper target. In reality we have to work on the "no show" or "skip the FREE event" factors.
I am praying that everyone's is healthy, recovering from cold/flu and no one get lost not able to find the building. Or going to the wrong building.
5 Days... Keep going...
Websig
Report:
We have received 180 registration excluding 88 upcoming.org. 18 guests are outside bay area.
Team:
Do not stop! Keep promoting until last day and last hour. We do not have chair issue this time.
Websig
To: SVWB Officers
From: Bess
Subject: SWVB Official Group Photo Plus "W" Reunion Photo
I put my note here in case your email filter won't let my email pass through.
I would dress sharp in all black. You are aware of the fact I am inspired by "The Matrix" that computer programmers can transform into unbeatable warriors to do the "impossible" and fight the evil machine. We stand for next generation of web builders to explore technology and free ourselves to dream of innovation.
I would like to have our officers to wear as much black as possible for our offical photo, so we look very sharp. 2 Purposes: 1) It is easy for our speakers and guests to identify us 2) If the photos look good, we will give it to Museum and integrate it into our future Marketing pieces.
Velvet Pink Ribbon - Speakers
Silk Pink Ribbon - SVWB
Websig
******************
Press Members
******************
Our IE speaker will not accept any unscheduled interview. If you like to interview IE team, you must register online and email your request at thewebsig@gmail.com OR contact Pete LePage directly.
Websig
With all the news surrounding females today, this bring up the perfect time for me to thank my female partnering leaders Susan J. Duggan and Iris Lei.
Dr. Susan J. Duggan is the CEO & Co-founder of Silicon Valley World Internet Center (WIC). Iris Lei is the President of Silicon Valley Information Business Alliance (SVIBA). Of course I represent Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB).
Three of us are the very few female leaders holding chief leadership position for public non-gender-specific tech organization in Silicon Valley. Our joint-event celebrated our launch to promote the wiki technology last year. Thank you for your support.
References:
The Old Boys Club is for Losers
http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/02/23/the_old_boys_cl
Computing award goes to female for first time
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/02/22/computing.award.ap/
Websig
Usage Shares in the US and around the World are not the same.
Reference:
Internet Explorer loses ground to Firefox, Safari in US; holds its ground worldwide
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070222-8908.html
Websig
You can see Jakob Nielsen's comments on his thoughts on browser. Jakob is Web site usability expert.
Browser Wars II is not quite the same as the last wars. Browser is moving into developer platform. Developers can use web scripting to build offline applications. Some may argue Mozilla language is so easy to pick up. Mozilla's usage share is relatively small, around 10-14%, compared to Adobe Flash Player, at 97.3%.
http://www.answers.com/topic/adobe-flash
SVWB has been watching closely on Adobe Flash, Flex and Apollo. Adobe is giving developers and designers a new dimension to use existing web programming skills and experience to build applications across browser and even OS. Adobe has donated their codes to Mozilla Nov 2006.
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6133052.html
SVWB even invited Adobe Flex No. 1 expert to speak last Nov with first hand information on Flex detail that is not revealed in big conference.
Reference:
Mozilla rising
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/09/10/browser_wars/index.html
"Microsoft has no reason to radically change Internet Explorer. The product doesn't make the company any money, and it's already overwhelmingly popular. With neither Netscape, nor Mozilla, nor the Norwegian browser offering, Opera, mounting any kind of significant challenge to Microsoft's dominance, the company would be foolish to spend more resources than it has to on the program.
"And that is the tragedy," says Nielsen. "They don't have an incentive to rock the boat. And if there's one company in the don't-rock-the-boat business, it's Microsoft."
"Scores of developers are now talking about using Mozilla as a "platform" -- that is, using Mozilla's underlying code to build non-browser applications, like calendar programs and e-mail programs and even Linux desktops. You don't need to download Mozilla to use these apps, as some are distributed with their own stripped-down version of Mozilla's engine -- which, if you think about it, is exactly the kind of thing Microsoft was trying to prevent when it launched its war against Netscape. It didn't want Netscape around, because Netscape was becoming a platform. "
Websig
Reference:
Which New Browser Is Best: Firefox 2, Internet Explorer 7, or Opera 9?
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1990859,00.asp
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1990854,00.asp
Why Browser War 2.0 Will Heat Up in 2007
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/browser_war_2007.php
Lessons from the Browser Wars
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5288.html
Safari on the iPhone: Congratulations, WebKit!
http://blogs.s60.com/browser/2007/01/safari_on_the_iphone_congratul_1.html
Websig
Reference:
Browser Wars
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-TBPekxc1dLNy5DOloPfzVvFIVOWMB0li?p=651
Thanks!
Websig
Reference:
Factoring China into the Browser wars
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/8A183E41-C057-42AA-A525-A8416F761D06/
Wii Opera browser a free download worldwide until June 2007
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2006/09/26/wii-opera-browser-a-free-download-worldwide-until-june-2007.htm
Websig
The Browser Wars: Round II
http://business2.blogs.com/business2blog/2006/05/the_browser_war.html
Websig
The artwork "Browser Wars: Episode II Attack of the DOMs" above is created entirely by me and I have no intention to get Creative Common License. I create this image with 15-20 min. This is not good work but it is good enough for volunteered work with given the time, deadlines and my work load.
Feel free to use "Browser Wars" image on your blogs or sites as long as you credit or mention Silicon Valley Web Builder.
PS: The Font Type I used is exactly the same font type used in Star Wars. I match everything nicely.
Bess
Founder of SVWB
Websig
Lego is releasing their new lego system on Star Wars: Episode II. Just in time for our Browser Wars: Episode II. You do have to wait until summer to get them. It would be "hot" collecting items.
Websig
Report:
Yeah! We have received 203 registrations (1,113 page views) excluding 92 from upcoming.org signup.
2 Day Left...
Apple went to Oscars for their iPhone Ad. Hello! Hello! Hello! Can Apple hear us?
We are waiting for Miracle for the "missing" apple on our discussion panel. We like to find out how to make web apps run properly and functional on Safari like iPhone, Apple TV etc.
Websig
Jeopardy questions:
Why IE's usage share will never go below 20%?
Why IE6 will be here to stay for a very long time?
My browser prediction (short version):
Safari, Mozilla and Opera will gradually increase their usage share while overall IE will lose some over time. Continue to use heavy AJAX will require more work. Flex may becomes our hero.
Flex has weaknesses. It requires good sensibility to incorporate Flex without losing indexing, web accessibility, traffic tracking.
Websig
Report:
228 registrations + 94 from upcoming.org
before Feb 27 1pm
I am so excited! It seems like we are making Feb 28 Wed as a Historical Day. The other 2 events at Stanford and SJSU are discussing Future - Solving problems about SV and the World. It is rare that they are making those events FREE for a change. They are addressing the business side while SVWB are gathering the TOP Talents from Silicon Valley addressing our WWW with the smartest, brightest, and brainy.
It is a true "Web Stars" night!
We can't really get higher than this. Wow!
Websig
Note: Stanford event is ending at 6pm. There is enough time to hop over to Sunnyvale from Palo Alto to attend ours at 7pm. We have blanketed well at Stanford that the visitors should aware of our event here. SJSU event is sort of like a last minute event from what I have gathered.
Websig
To Chinese Folks:
I hope our event didn't send the wrong message. There is no need to get panic about Silicon Valley. We are gathering our talents to work for a better future for Silicon Valley.
We do not see any slowdown here in the web space. In fact we see there are a lot more technologies to be explored.
Websig
I am very excited about Microsoft putting investment in healthcare technology. It is a good example of putting technology into good use, saving lifes. We will be happy to give any suggestions on usability to make your products better for our society.
Adobe demonstrates their strengths in building support for developers and designers. We will be happy to try out your beta.
Websig
Sorry: I have accidentally left the limit on "Professional Member" registration too low as I didn't see the coming traffic going that fast.
Fixed: There should be no LIMIT, no SOLD out on "Professional Member" for tonight.
Please tell your friends if they can't get into that category. Our event is open for public.
267 Registration plus 96 upcoming.org.
Websig
To Chinese Folks in China:
I repeat again. There is no need to get panic about Silicon Valley. We do not see any slowdown here in the web space. We are working with WWW leaders to make a better tomorrow.
To Our Goverment:
We hope to see our governement to give more support for Tech Community like other foreign countries.
Websig
Going offline:
Last count at PST 4:30pm
292 registration plus 96 upcoming
30 are Outside Bay Area guests
Mission Accomplished...
See you all tonight. It is a dream come true - making history.
For historical record, I did secure a singing team to perform our theme song "We're All In This Together" in the last 10 days on short notice. We nail it down on our "to-do-list". Due to tight schedule, we have to postpone it.
Websig
Thank you Yahoo!
Yahoo is officially hosting our Browser Wars meeting at Building C.
Now we don't have to play musical chair and fight for chair. We will have enough chairs, standing spaces, and extra spaces for possible performance.
Yahoo is saving me from breaking someone's heart! I don't have the heart to turn attendees away on this historical event. Please register online now so we can manage space wisely with better planning.
Last year I have received a fan wanting to drive from Utah just to attend our Halloween wiki meeting. I just can't predict how far these geeks will travel to come. One thing for sure is our Opera speaker is booking an international flight as soon as he learns about Browser Wars. We capture his heart with our theme - Attack of the DOMs (AJAX).
Yahooooo... How can we live without you?
Founder of SVWB