Content Management Matters ™

Some code and functionality used in web development may not be available to all users, especially those who rely on screen readers, or cannot use a mouse. The W3C addresses these accessibility challenges.

An updated Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Working Draft, published by W3C, is designed to make web content and web applications more accessible to users with disabilities.

At the SharePoint Conference 2008, Bill Gates shared some interesting news in his opening keynote. Of course he has lots to brag about when it comes to the great SharePoint machine -- it reached 100 million licenses sold and surpassed sales of USD $1 billion this year.

So of course Microsoft would be planning even more solutions and capabilities that will encourage people to buy into the world of SharePoint. And it is becoming a world all on its own -- just look at the number of vendors who are partnering to provide integrated solutions (2,250 to be exact).

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) realizes that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) discouragement of Javascript does not work for developing accessible Rich Internet Applications. They do recognize the need to provide technologies to map controls, AJAX live regions, and events to accessibility APIs.

As a result, the Protocols and Formats Working Group has released the first set of Working Drafts of the ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications suite.

In a move expected to garner applause from web developers and skepticism from analysts, Adobe announced they will release portions of the next version of the Flex SDK under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).

Adobe Flash has enjoyed a place in the spotlight for awhile now, and Microsoft hopes to shake that up. Yesterday at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference they unleashed Microsoft Silverlight, a new plug-in that promises to deliver "the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web."

And with Brightcove Inc., Major League Baseball and Netflix already in their corner, we say game on.

If you are noob to the AJAX scene but wanna be leet, or if you just want to rub elbows with the masters of Asynchronous JS, buy your ticket now to THE AJAX gathering of 2007.

AJAXWorld Conference and Expo runs March 19th through 21st at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.