Tim Berners-Lee Blog

News from the ever so informed Anne van Kesteren is that 'The Father of the World Wide Web Internet', Sir Tim Berners-Lee, now has a Blog.

I apologize to the DIG people and possibly to Ryan Lee for contributing to the 'Slash Dot Effect'. Good luck guys and thanks to the crew there at DIG. I hope that they do not have problems.

Access Keys

Access Keys have once again found its way onto the GAWDS mailing list, as it does at least once a year , and surprisingly John Foliot has not thrown his hat into the ring. John, co-founder of WATS.ca, is one of the most vocal proponents against implementing accesskeys in their current state of support in modern browsers and I do agree with him, but I do see the value in their use in a limited manner. John is also very against the W3C's XHTML 2.0 specification's (a work in progress) implementation of the Key attribute which, when used together with Access element, will basically implement the Accesskey again as it is now - a designer specified key combination. This is a problem that really needs to be addressed. Email the W3C (www-html@w3.org) and leave your thoughts about this and let them know that the Key attribute is not acceptable and needs to be removed from the specification. For the real specifics of the issue see his article: ACCESS + KEY still = ACCESSKEY - The XHTML Role Access Module still flawed.

The XHTML 2.0 specification provides for the @role attribute which will result in a better implementation allowing user control over the keys that are assigned to roles (and not the site author) allowing key combinations that are intuitive to the user (because they will be able to be user defined). One of the current problems with access keys and the Access+Key features of the XHTML 2.0 specification is that they will most likely be different on each and every site that implements them because they will be defined by the site's designers. There will be some that will be the same, but I think that they might be the exception and not the rule. For these technologies to be really usable for web users at large they need to be standardized (as some Roles will be) and user defined. Anything other than that will generate usability and accessibility issues.

Working with Access Keys

The discussion brought up some interesting ways to allow the Accesskeys to be user defined. A few client side Javascript based solutions were offered (Accessify.com and a Juicy Studio Experiment), but the problem, of course, is that these will not work if javacript is disabled or not available on the accessing user agent. The preferred solution, I believe, is a server side solution, that way its functionality is not dependent on client side technology.

Related Links

Following are a list of links related to this topic so that you can make the decision to use or not to use Access Keys yourself! These may be a little biased but take it as you will. =)

WATS.Ca Links

• ACCESS + KEY still = ACCESSKEY - The XHTML Role Access Module still flawed
• Accesskeys and Reserved Keystroke Combinations
• Using Accesskeys - Is it worth it?
• More reasons why we don't use accesskeys
• Link Relationships as an Alternative to Accesskeys
• The Future of Accesskeys

Other Access Key Links

• Day 15: Defining keyboard shortcuts: Dive Into Accessibility
• Access Key Companion:: Juicy Studio
• Usage of the Link Element::FreeXenon

World Wide Web Consortium's Related Specifications

• HTML 4.0 Specification for Access Keys
• XHTML 2.0 Role Access Module

Wikis and Dreamhost

Wikipedia is a great resouce that I use all of the time and a post on ArsTechnica got me thinking about uses for Wikis. I am thinking of recommending the use of one where I work. We are the MIS department for a County Government and shared resources, fixes and information may be useful if stored and maintained via a Wiki instead of a Lotus Notes Database.

What are your experieces using Wikis and what type of information do you use them for? Were they useful?

Following are some of the metioned Wiki software or services that they liked:

• Tidy Wiki
• Instiki
• Central Desktop
• PBWiki

Dreamhost

As a side note I hae seen a lot of people mention and use Dreamhost as their webhost. As I have taken a cursory look at it it looks... well.. for a lack of a better word... awesome. They do not however support ASP or JSP which are what I primarily work in. They have extensive support for PHP and MySQL. It looks like a good time to start picking up PHP.