This has evolved into an interesting topic! I started my working life as an apprentice carpenter (some time ago now!). I attended a tech college as part of the apprenticeship learning the skills needed to be a carpenter, and also the regulations and building codes that I would eventually have to build to and comply with. Construction is much like web development in that the standards, methods and tools change quite frequently. At no point was I ever taught to out of date standards/regulations - that would have constituted malpractice on the part of the educators.
The difference, as far as I can see, is that other industries have their standards rigidly applied. If you build something sub-standard in construction it goes through several approval stages, so might not even make it to completion. If it does get through this process undetected, and is later found out, then the persons responsible are liable to fines and in some cases imprisonment. Now I'm not saying we should police web design and development in quite the same way - it would be almost impossible to do, and would serve little purpose. The point is, no matter what standards are formulated and pushed by groups like this, they are only going to be best practice recommendations. And so their implementation and promotion can only be achieved by active promotion to _higher_bodies_ responsible for the eduction of future developers, and to key personnel in government and major businesses and industries. Once these people have taken on board the need for compliance with the standards, the message and methods filter down. Businesses will request and expect contracts be completed to standards, educators will teach to standards. Current developers will be forced to code to standards if businesses request so. This is my 0.005c (times are hard!) Regards Scott Swabey Lafinboy Productions www.lafinboy.com ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
