HTML Writers Guild 1998 Election
Candidate Listing

Gerald Oskoboiny (gerald(at)impressive.net)

Statement of Vision

Over three years ago, I became involved in the HTML Writers Guild. I was frustrated with the current state of the Web, and wanted to help make it better. I decided that one good area to concentrate my efforts is in education -- if we teach Web authors better ways to do what they do, the Web will improve as a result.

Since then, many volunteers and other active members have accomplished a lot. We have succeeded in creating a virtual community where new authors can learn from those with more experience, and those with experience can learn more from each other through open discussion and debate. We have a lot to be proud of.

But we can do more!

Some of the areas in which I would like to see the Guild expand its efforts in the coming years are:

• Become financially strong enough to hire a full-time staff to ensure the Guild's ongoing needs are addressed.

  By this time next year we will have over 100,000 members and many exciting new programs that will need support -- it will be difficult to do this while relying on volunteer labor as we have been in the past.

  We can accomplish this goal in part by soliticing more sponsorship from the corporate sector, and by continuing to improve the value added services we offer to paid membership categories, increasing the incentive to join as a paid member.

• Create regional chapters of members that meet face-to-face.

  Our online services are excellent and continue to get better, but there is only so much you can do in an online environment! Sometimes face-to-face meetings are just more productive.

  We should create regional chapters of members in various geographical areas all over the world. They can be led and organized mainly by local members, with core Guild staff responsible only for overseeing the overall operation of each chapter and providing guidelines for them to follow.

• Create special interest groups.

  Our mailing list program has seen a progression towards creating forums which are increasingly specialized; we should continue this trend by creating forums (e-mail based or otherwise) which are very narrowly focused and targeted to smaller audiences that have exceptional interest in a specific area of Web technology.

• Focus on quality.

  Anyone can create a Web page! Guild members should be recognizable from other Web authors as being those who excel in what they do.

  We can accomplish this goal by encouraging our members to do things right, and by setting an example with our own Web site. We should have the best Web site in the world, and it should be obvious to anyone who visits that our organization is associated with quality.

• Consider creating a certification program for Web authors.

  This has been suggested numerous times in the past, and has usually been rejected due to the numerous political/legal issues that are associated with it.

  If creating a true certification program proves to be too difficult, we could at least publish a list of guidelines which our members could use to rate themselves, providing potential employers with a well-known system they can use to learn the skill or experience level of a member.

  For example, the System Administrators' Guild publishes a document called Job Descriptions for SysAdmins.

Qualifications

I bring to the Governing Board extremely thorough knowledge of the protocols, technology, and people that make the Web work. I am an expert Web server administrator, CGI programmer, and HTML author. My personal Web sites attract millions of hits per month, and have appeared on TV and radio programs and in Internet-related magazines including Wired, c|net's news.com, Internet World, The Net, and Internet User magazine. I am the creator of the popular Kinder, Gentler HTML Validator, and more recently the W3C HTML Validation Service.

During the day I work for the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organization responsible for the ongoing evolution of the Web. I report to Tim Berners-Lee, Director of W3C and creator of the Web. My position at W3C gives me direct access to the people and technologies that continue to shape the Web's future. This allows me to keep extremely up to date on many areas of Web technology as they are still in development.

Regarding my history in the Guild, I have been involved in many aspects of Guild operations since the earliest days of the Guild in January 1995 -- more than three years ago! I created and continue to maintain the Guild's Mailing List Archives (90,000+ messages), have been the Guild's primary System Administrator for years, and have served on the Governing Board since June 1995 (known then as the Steering Committee.)

My commitment to the Guild is clear -- no other current volunteer has served the Guild as long as I have. I care about the Guild and want to help it achieve the goals outlined in my vision statement and those agreed upon in the future by my fellow board members.

Thanks for your vote; I look forward to serving you in the months and years to come.

Note: The information posted here is that received from the candidate. The Nomination Committee only added the appropriate HTML coding.)

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