[uf-discuss] Comments from IBM/Lotus rep about Microformats

Benjamin West bewest at gmail.com
Wed Dec 6 23:47:18 PST 2006


> Benjamin West wrote:
> >> Talk of general microformats doesn't make sense.  Talk of microformats as
> technique also does not make sense.
> If that is true, then having Microformat Design Patterns[1] doesn't make
> sense.  Which is it?

I'm not sure what you mean.  A design pattern is a technique, which is
separate from what a microformat is.  A microformat is an application
of several techniques to a specific end.  When some techniques prove
successful, they become patterns.  The techniques are means for
generalized extensions, while a microformat is a specific application
of those techniques for a specific extension.  Microformats exhibit
emergent characteristics from wide usage on the web; this
characteristic means that these formats only exist because they have
already scaled  --even before they were borne.  So I guess I'm not
sure what the concern for scaling is.

Ben


More information about the microformats-discuss mailing list