[uf-discuss] wysiwyg editors and microformats

[Christian Heilmann]

> > vcard or throw a message that there is not enough data to convert this
> > into a meaningful vcard.
>
> Why do you seem to imply that a name is not already "meaningful"? If I
> vcard "Bill Clinton" or "The Pope" I'll know where to reach them when
> I need them. :-)
>
> In my view the need for a contact handle is not an absolute
> constraint; if I collect members on a forum board, I'm glad to be able
> to process a list of names of who participated, even if I'm not sure I
> can reach any of them anywhere else than on that board. You even have
> dead people in directories (think "your grand grand ma's buddies at
> school").
>
> I don't think the RFCs for vcard say that an address is a MUST.

Sure, but why do we do this: to help people re-use information or to
follow an RFC? The bigggest selling point for microformats to any
integrator right now is showing how you can use an hcard and add it as
a useful contact to your Outlook. Of course there are cases where the
name is enough, but these are rare and could be caught by clever
software, too. A converter can throw a warning that this hcard is only
a name and have a checkbox to tell it that this is enough for you.

Case in point: I made a screencast for the development team of a
toolbar that comes with the browser of an ISP. I wanted to show them
the usefulness of operator and how people can collect information with
the toolbar that can be re-used in their day to day office work. I had
to switch to a mac and only use pages I knew to have enough content as
the backnetwork of hackday for example gave me names but nothing else
and conversions of events to ics files with the technorati converter
gave me files Outlook didn't understand.

I know this is Outlook's fault, but to sell the idea of Microformats
to people in charge of IT companies right now, we have to find a way
to make this work in the current setups of those people which are
Outlook and Windows. Grassroots is awesome and we can spend a lot of
time telling each other how to do things, but I would for example like
to be able to have converted vcards of people in my council without
having to dig through 4 levels of navigation every time I need their
contact details.

-- 
Chris Heilmann
Book: http://www.beginningjavascript.com
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/