PayPal Redesign in beta

Posted June 26, 2007 at 10:28 AM | Tagged as: CSS, Web Standards, Work | 2 Comments

Head over to PayPal and check out the redesign beta! Only the main pages have been redesigned, but you can go through the whole site with a new header/footer for a feel of what’s to come.

Feedback on the code welcome here!

Making Me a Speaker

Posted June 14, 2007 at 1:03 AM | Tagged as: Industry Events, Meeeeeeee, Web Standards, Work | 2 Comments

I owe some thanks to colleagues and friends in the Web world for recent highlights and opportunities, so here goes…

Kudos to Meri Williams for setting up the Make Me a Speaker site and thanks for interviewing me for it! Meri set up this site after the topic of women speakers at conferences came up back in February. A lot of the hype has died down, but I hope that the information and resources on the site will continue to be useful for anyone seeking to start or improve their career as a speaker/presenter.

Kit Seeborg and I met at SXSW last year, and this year she invited me to speak at WebVisions in Portland. I was grateful for the opportunity to start speaking about how I’ve made process the driver behind integrating Web standards, but I was even more grateful for the chance to finally visit Portland (having heard so much about it from Ben Henick) and to meet some great people, like Erica O’Grady (yet another woman who does so much for the Web industry, and just so much in general!). Sadly, I didn’t get to spend any time with Kit, but Erica and I did have a good heart-to-heart while perusing the shelves at Powell’s Books. It was a great conference and a great weekend, and next time, Kit, we’re doing dinner — work be damned!

Then I was absolutely bowled over when Rob Dickerson invited me to give the closing keynote at the Penn State Web Conference. I’ll admit that, at first, I wasn’t sure how I’d translate my industry experience for an audience that was supporting academia… but then I realized that that’s how I started out, and academia actually helped prepare me for much of what I encountered in industry! I just hope that all of my ‘how to be an evangelist and advocate for processes and roles that support standards’ mumbo-jumbo translated well, and that attendees will find it useful. I was thoroughly impressed by the other presenters, most of whom were from the university system, and I had a great time at Quaker Steak and Lube (a restaurant… really!) with Jared Spool, Dan Frommelt, and company. And I got to have ice cream at the PSU Creamery! Mmmm!

Obligatory Pre-SXSW Post

Posted March 8, 2007 at 2:06 PM | Tagged as: Industry Events, SxSW, Technology, Travel, Web Standards, Web Stuff, Women! | Just 1 Comment

Alrighty folks, it’s SXSW time.

Come to the WaSP Annual Meeting where we’ll tell you what we’ve been up to, and where we’ll be Takin’ it to the Street on Monday, March 12 at 5 PM.

My AOL pals are doing another “How to Convince Your Company” panel, this time on embracing mashup culture. And Arun is also doing a browser wars panel, and I honestly can’t think of anyone else who’d be better at leading such a discussion.

I was surprised to learn that PayPal is also getting involved in SXSW, by sponsoring an evening event: the PayPal SXSW Showdown. I’m going to meet the organizer later today and find out what it’s all about. If you want to attend, be sure to RSVP!

Other stuff I’m looking forward to…

• Finally meeting fellow WaSP Steph Troeth
• Getting to room and geek out with Erica Rios (Xicanista) of the Anita Borg Institute
• Connecting with fellow Mawrter Sarah Tan, and
• Finding the perfect person to fill the Web Standards Evangelist position I have open at PayPal!

If you see me, stop me and say hello!

Standards Evangelist Wanted!

Posted December 8, 2006 at 2:08 AM | Tagged as: Web Standards, Work | Just 1 Comment

It was through Steve Ganz, whom I met at SXSW, that I learned PayPal was making the move to Web standards — entirely due to the great job he’d been doing evangelizing them! It was also because of Steve that I got hired at PayPal. I was excited that we’d be working together… but disappointed when, after just 10 days on the job, Steve resigned. (As Ducky would say, “Do I o-ffend?”)

Despite Steve’s departure, progress must continue to be made, and PayPal is in need of a standards evangelist! I’m out to find the best person for the job — someone with great knowledge, passion, and commitment. Is that you? Someone you know? The job description follows, along with instructions for applying. Contact me with questions, or just submit your resume!

The Web Development Platform team at PayPal seeks a senior-level Web developer to work across multiple projects and teams to drive the adoption of Web standards. The ideal candidate will have prior experience working as a senior developer on a high-profile site with a cross-functional team under tight deadlines. The ideal candidate will also be well-versed in Web standards (HTML/XHTML, XML, XSL, CSS, JavaScript/DOM scripting, accessibility) and protocols, coding for multiple browsers/platforms, and current JavaScript frameworks.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Standards evangelism: Requires extensive knowledge of Web standards, a passion for advocating their correct usage, excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and a high comfort level speaking to large crowds.
• Code analysis: Candidate should have experience with reviewing others’ code, delivering constructive criticism, assisting developers with making changes/fixes.
• Prototype coding: Based on user interface and visual design specifications, rapidly create necessary HTML, CSS, and DOM scripts to produce working model.
• Documentation and training: Create and deliver training materials to groups of developers.

Job Requirements

• 5+ years experience in Web development, including hand-coding of semantic HTML/XHTML, CSS-driven layouts.
• 3+ years experience of DOM scripting, including DHTML, Ajax, and JavaScript frameworks.
• 3+ years experience with XML/XSL or a content management system with template scripting capabilities.
• Expertise with cross-browser, cross-platform development practices.
• Experience developing accessible Web sites that conform to WCAG 1.0.
• Solid understanding of Web protocols.
• Knowledge of software design principles, OO concepts, and/or C++ or Java programming.
• Excellent time management, problem solving, teamwork, and communication skills.
• Experience in internationalization/localization a plus.

Education: Bachelors Degree or Equivalent

Interested parties should apply online at www.ebaycareers.com under Req #13672BR. Please provide at least 3 web site URLs that showcase your work.

Is IE6 the new NN4?

Posted October 30, 2006 at 5:09 PM | Tagged as: Just Sayin, Technology, Web Standards, Web Stuff | 3 Comments

There’s a interesting and fun post and comment thread about IE7 adoption over at WaSP, and it has me wondering… will IE6 linger like Netscape Navigator 4.x did?

Surely, no browser could take as long as NN4 to be purged from the systems of its dedicated users. Many WinXP SP2 users will be presented head-on with the option to upgrade via Windows Update very soon — and my guess is that most people will accept the upgrade, simply because they don’t know or care enough to learn about what they’re getting. I can already see members of my family just clicking “Yes” or “Accept” on whatever dialog box is displayed… they won’t even bother to call and ask me what they should do.

But if companies and ISPs are really suggesting to employees, clients, and users that they not upgrade to IE7, as one commenter suggests, will people listen? If companies and ISPs are making this recommendation, do they have any reason better than “we didn’t test our site in any of the IE7 release candidates and either we’re too stubborn to accommodate Microsoft or our developers don’t know how to fix the display problems in IE7″?

I only slightly jest in suggesting such an excuse — I’m sure there’s some company out there for which that is their reason. But how ridiculous! Ignorance on your part will only serve to frustrate and alienate users, not Microsoft. Not to mention how bad you, Company X, look for making such a statement.

No, I don’t really think IE6 will hang around as long as NN4. After the Windows Update, and then after the holidays, when many folks get new computers, we’ll see a big drop in its percentage. After that it will slowly decline, until Vista comes out. And by that point its share will probably be less than 20%, I would guess. I could be totally off — I haven’t worked tech support in a long time, but my gut has been right before, and this is what my gut tells me. Regardless, I don’t see IE6 CSS hacks going away, just as IE5 hacks haven’t totally disappeared. CSS is the new proprietary DOM, in that sense… and for a while longer we’ll have to keep forking code to handle specific browsers. IE7 doesn’t solve that problem…