Tools & applications

“Learning Web Standards just got easier” – You can now learn to build a better web with Opera’s new Web Standards Curriculum. Providing a clear study path for learning web standards is something the industry has struggled with. The gap just got a bit smaller when Opera launched the site a couple of weeks ago. It already provides a good foundation with plans to expand on the currently 23 articles into other key areas, and being licensed under the Creative Commons license means it can be used in a range of ways. It will be useful to people who are new to learning web standards, or who are wanting to improve their understanding, and to teachers and team leaders to help train staff. The launch of this got me thinking about what resources I found most useful when learning web standards. So here’s a list

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a Twitter channel for the British Prime Minister called Downing Street after the famous residence, number 10 Downing Street. The PMs media people are using it to provide instant updates to the press and anyone else who's interested. This got me thinking about how Twitter could be used in Local Government.

If you want to offer RSS feeds on your website and you don’t have either the technology to provide them or the know-how to build them, then you might want to try Dapper.net Dapper helps you to create RSS feeds from content you select from your website. By following some simple step-by-step instructions you can select content from 1 or multiple pages that you want to include in the RSS feed.

I am part of a 2 person web team at the LGSA, and have the responsibility of supporting about 15 websites, requiring the use of numerous modules, custom features, databases, xml feeds, and other exciting things. This is nothing exceptional in the world of web support but as many of you will understand it means you get a fair share of jobs to attend to.