#25176
Guidelines: Responsible Conduct Regarding Scientific Communication
Scientific societies exist for many purposes, one of which is to establish guidelines for responsible conduct within the field that they represent. Over the years, the Society for Neuroscience has established many such guidelines, including a general policy on research ethics, as well as specific policies on sharing research materials, publishing DNA sequences, and the use of humans and other animals as subjects in neuroscience research.
Society for Neuroscience. Resources>Scientific Communication>Standards
#29318
Compared to GIF and JPEG, the PNG file format has a lot to offer: smaller file sizes, higher quality, and superb transparency. All you need are a few guidelines and techniques to expand your design toolbox.
Sawyer McFarland, Dave. Creative Pro (2007). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Standards
#30017
HERA: Accessibility Testing with Style
HERA is a tool to check the accessibility of Web pages accoridng to the specification Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). HERA performs a preliminary set of tests on the page and identifies any automatically detectable errors or checkpoints met, and which checkpoints need further manual verification.
#23384
Quality Systems (QS) have become essential for (inter-)national competition. Companies spend large amounts of money for 'measuring' quality defined by national and international standards. Quality, however, is a value, and like creeds and ideologies values cannot be measured with scientific exactness and are difficult to control. Total Quality Management (TQM) and other standardized concepts take that idealistic dimension into account. Certification according to ISO 9000, for instance, covers only about 50% of a TQM implementation.
Bock, Gabriele. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Project Management>Quality>Standards
#22567
Electronic Publishing magazine discusses the current activities related to standards development in the graphic arts. If you've been wanting to understand more, this is a great article to give you a background on standards development.
McDowell, David Q. PennWell (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Standards
#25254
The History and Future of SMTP: SMTP's Adaptations to a Hostile Internet
SMTP is an abbreviation for 'Simple Mail Transfer Protocol', and is the standard internet protocol for sending email from one system to another. Although the word 'simple' belies the inherent complexity of the protocol, SMTP has proved to be a remarkably robust, useful, and successful standard. The design decisions that made it so useful, though, have given spammers and infectious code an easy way to spread their unwanted messages. Its recent evolution reflects the tug-of-war between those unsavory players and the administrators who want to protect their systems and their users.
Strauser, Kirk. Free Software Magazine (2005). Articles>Communication>Standards>Email
#26428
How to Become a Technical Writer: A Guide for Canadian High School Students 
This article answers the following questions: (1) what is technical writing (2) what qualifications are needed to become a technical writer and (3) how does one get an entry level position as a technical writer.
Lightheart, David. David Lightheart Web Communications (2005). Design>Web Design>Standards
#25566
This site explains how to make basic web pages with plain old Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML.
Krause, Steven D. Eastern Michigan University (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML
#28712
Many web designers, myself included, come to the web with a background in the graphic arts. We think in pictures, not in code. When we first begin designing for the web, we'll use HTML and CSS crudely, as a means to an end--a method of arranging pretty boxes in space--without grasping the true nature of the box itself or what it contains. Altering that strictly visual mentality is the highest hurdle to overcome when a graphic designer first dives into semantics and web standards. For the visual designer, really understanding web standards means you'll have to change the way you think about design.
Cook, Craig. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS
#20234
Although they appear maddeningly incomprehensible at first, W3C specifications are actually great sources of information, once you understand their secrets. Learn how to read the specs.
Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>Specifications
#30660
While the intention of both HTML V5 and XHTML V2 is to improve on the existing versions, the approaches the developers chose to make those improvements is very different. And with differing philosophies come distinct results. For the first time in many years, the direction of upcoming browser versions is uncertain. Uncover the bigger picture behind the details of these two standards.
de Jonge, Adriaan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5
#30470
One of the great things about the current HTML 5 draft is that they give plenty of examples of how to specify alternate text for images, although a few of them are misguided. Alternate text should be concise, and a longer description provided with a longdesc attribute if necessary.
Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML5
#30476
Firefox 2.0.0.10 broke its implementation of the HTML5 canvas element and guess what, the world noticed. Actual websites started breaking because they relied on the canvas functionality to work. The point is that we expect implementations of HTML5 to happen way before the fifteen year mark. In fact, the fifteen year mark includes having all features at least implemented in two different (shipping) products in the same way with the additional requirement that they have a decent amount of market penetration. This means that when the specification finally makes it to W3C Recommendation it has already proven itself.
van Kesteren, Anne. annevankesteren.nl (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5
#29981
HTML Applications: Introducing the HTA File
The letters HTA are meant to stand for HTML Application. The technology was developed by Microsoft, so is a proprietary concept, and only works in conjunction with Internet Explorer (specifically version 5 and above).
HyperWrite (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Microsoft Windows
#21313
HTML's Time is Over. Let's Move On
As users and builders demand more and more richness from the Web, we need to re-evaluate the technology that 99% of it is built on. It seems no matter how sophisticated our back ends get, the front ends remain stagnant. What other options are there? What are the requirements that we as user experience designers face that newer technologies miss the boat on?
Heller, David. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML
#25764
Authoring HTML for international audiences.
#24449
Implementing SGML: The First Steps 
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is an accepted standard today. It promises to free many companies and industries from problems with document conversion, compatibility, and interoperability. Whether you’re curious about SGML’s benefits or actively planning to implement SGML, this workshop can help. As a participant, you will learn how to apply a life-cycle approach to implementing SGML. Through hands-on exercises, you will gain the knowledge to successfully plan and implement SGML solutions.
Holman, G. Ken and Ray N. Luoma. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Information Design>SGML>Standards
#30830
The Importance of Software Documentation Standards
The look and feel of a help system can differ greatly from one product to the next, as can the writing. So how can the technical writing community emphasize the importance of software documentation standards and create a more unified help experience that users can adapt to?
Helpscribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Software
#21113
In October of 1997, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated an effort to increase the visibility of software usability. Cooperating in the IUSR project are prominent suppliers of software and representatives from large consumer organizations.
#21095
Industry Usability Reporting and the Common Industry Format (ANSI-NCITS 354-2001)
The Common Industry Format (CIF) is a standard method for reporting usability test findings. The format is primarily for reporting results of formal usability tests in which quantitative measurements were collected and is particularly appropriate for summative/comparative testing. The CIF targets two audiences: usability professionals and stakeholders in an organization. Stakeholders can use the usability data to help make informed decisions concerning the release of software products or the procurement of such products. While the CIF is formally aimed for software products, it can be used for hardware usability as well.
Parush, Avi and Emile Morse. Usability Professionals Association (2003). Articles>Usability>Standards>Reports
#19536
Information Politics: The Story of an Emerging Metadata Standard
This is the story of how one commercial metadata standard — XBRL, or Extensible Business Reporting Language — has attracted the participation and support of some of the world’s most powerful public and private organizations. It begins with a look at the nature and use of financial information in today's Internet-enabled environment and discusses three information use patterns: Transaction, retrieval, and reporting. While numerous, sometimes competing standards have been developed for transaction information, XBRL alone has emerged to address reporting formats. Today, the XBRL specification has wide support across the accounting, financial, and regulatory communities. This has come about largely through the efforts of the standards’ governing board, which has pursued a strategy of careful definition of market scope, deliberate courtship of important allies, and establishment of a culture of aggressive outreach for members. The results are impressive. Members of the organization are now positioned to take greatest advantage of a number of new entrepreneurial opportunities that have been created by the organization. Additionally, some participants are now representing the XBRL metadata standard as a key tool for the restoration of public confidence in the scandal-rocked accounting and investment industries. This may create a serious problem for researchers and investors as unaudited financial statements formatted in XBRL proliferate on the Web sites of corporations anxious to demonstrate a commitment to what some are calling 'the new transparency.'
Starr, Joan. First Monday (2003). Design>Information Design>Standards>Metadata
#28452
Inheritance and Cascading in CSS
This is a guide to help people learning CSS to understand how a browser works out what styles to apply to a particular element. As we saw in the introduction to CSS, there are lots of ways you can apply styles to a particular element. When more than one of these methods applies, how do you know which styles will be applied? Fortunately, these rules are quite simple, once you know them. This article tries to explain all. Of course, the best way really to learn this stuff is to try stuff out and see what happens.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS
#21589
INTECOM's Code of Good Practice
To improve the standards of technical communication throughout the world, INTECOM has approved this code of good practice as a guideline for the professional technical communicator in his or her daily, highly important task.
INTECOM (2003). Articles>TC>Standards>Professionalism
#22938
Interview with DMXzone's Bruce Lawson
Find out why self-confessed non-techie Bruce Lawson has been winning friends and influencing people with his support for web standards and web accessibility.
Lawson, Bruce. Accessify (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards
#26194
Structured documentation is semantic, rather than presentational. Components have identifiable structure. HTML and Word are somewhat structured. DocBook is strictly structured.
Walsh, Norman. NWalsh.org (2001). Presentations>Documentation>Standards>DocBook
