RE: experts

[Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@ebt.com>]

> If we gave Web developers a seat at the table, and listened to them, we'd
> have a much more useful Web.

So who do you think the "experts" represent? I'm sure that
IBM et al. have a few web developers in their back pocket.

> Here's one example. A few years back I asked for an <include> element in
> HTML.
> 
> A trivial thing to implement, it would have allowed the same kind of
> inclusion you get with <img> for arbitrary HTML text snippets.

How would text selection work with this? How about searching
across the page? Should the area be scollable individually?
Perhaps it should have been called <embed> or <object> 
instead?

> Experts tend to conceive earthquakes when tweaks would do much 
> more for us.

Again, I think the mark of a true expert is knowing how much is
just enough. It usually means having a good understanding of
the issues, which all too often is lacking.

Think of the "user" that decided that allowing

  <i>This <b>is a</i> hack</b>

would be a good thing. Trivial to implement, and with huge 
ramifications that I'm sure the "user" didn't understand.
  
> You know we have a group of pragmatic Web developers 
> ready to review our ideas, we just have to invite them 
> in. It's called WSP, the Web Standards Process. I'd 
> show something to Jeffrey Zeldman and if he gets it, I'd say
> it's a good thing to do. If he jumps up and down I'd do it immediately.

So are those guys also experts?