Microformats, the AK-47 of the web - WebDD

Had a great time at WebDD, my session “Microformats HTML to API” seemed to go down well. It’s always hard to tell what value people get from a talk when you’re giving it, but I had lots of people asking me questions for the rest of the day, which is a good sign.

I have created a PDF version of the slides for download /> /> MicroformatsHTMLtoAPI.pdf(1.4Mb)

Find out about microformats

• microformats.org
• microformatique.com
• whymicroformats.com

Building microformats

• Brain Suda cheatsheet
• hCard creator
• hCalendar creator
• hReview creator

Discovery and extraction of microformats

• Operator (Firefox extension)
• Tails Export (Firefox extension)
• Technorati’s hCard
• Technorati’s hCalendar

Development tools

• Brain Suda X2V
• Drew McLellan hKit parser and other tools

During the talk I glued a couple of Dan Cederholm phrases together “Oblivious development by planting seeds”. This seems to have helped crystallise the benefits of publishing Microformats, and was used in a lot conversations during the day. The term oblivious development is starting to see wider use in the community and now I understand its value in communicating this concept. The other fantastic quote I used was “Microformats, the AK-47 of the web” which I found on John Allsopp microformatique.com blog. I love the conceptual crossovers it implies “fit for purpose” product design, and utilitarianism

Microformats, the AK-47 of the web /> “I think history has shown us over and over again that the most successful “things” are those that are only as complex as they need to be. I can think of the AK-47 rifle, for example… With Web 2.0, we’re seeing that as well.”