IEEE fails again!

Posted January 25, 2006 at 8:16 PM | Tagged as: Web Standards | 2 Comments

Fer cryin’ out loud!

The IEEE has failed again… this time it’s the newly redesigned IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology Web site.

Clearly the IEEE’s on a mission to update all of their Web content. Assuming they’re using the same (lack of) standards for all of their projects, we’ll probably see more of these failed redesign posts in the future. Which, in my opinion, is really sad… I just can’t understand how a standards body could choose to ignore Web standards.

In the case of SSIT, it looks like Macromedia Dreamweaver was used to generate code (hello MM JavaScript functions!). However someone clearly updated the HTML 4.01 Transitional template by hand, to add the various META elements (all closed, à la XHTML) in the document header. (The IEEE site, on the other hand, appears to be entirely hand-coded and does use some CSS, yet still lacks semantic markup, uses nested tables for layout, and lacks a DOCTYPE.)

Why am I so upset by this? The IEEE is a technical society and standards body. Its members brand themselves as professionals, seeking to advance technology by fostering technological innovation. (Does this look like technology advancement or technological innovation to you?) The IEEE mission states:

The IEEE promotes the engineering process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing, and applying knowledge about electro and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession.

These recent IEEE Web site redesign fail to live up to the IEEE mission. In light of this, how can any IEEE member be proud of their membership in such an organization? I’m sure as heck not… and that’s why I’m speaking up. Answers and code changes are what I want to see.

Oh the irony! IEEE site not standards-compliant

Posted January 23, 2006 at 4:43 PM | Tagged as: Industry Events, Web Standards | Just 1 Comment

Oh the irony — that a standards body should ignore standards in creating their new Web site!

As a member of the IEEE, I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that the new IEEE Web site redesign was announced in an e-mail newsletter… along with another entry titled “Let’s Not Overlook Standards”. Since their previous site didn’t make use of Web standards, I had hopes that this one would… but on viewing source of the new site, those hopes were quickly dashed.

What does this say to users and to Web professionals when a technical standards body completely ignores Web standards? The term “unprofessional” doesn’t even seem to go far enough.

As a Web professional and as a member of the IEEE, I’m ashamed and I’m insulted. You should be too. Contact the IEEE and let them know how you feel.