history-of-microformats

This page is for documenting the history of microformats, both conceptually, and by name.

For other uses, see: history-disambiguation

2000

data in HTML concept

• 2000-03-21 Dan Connolly proposed that XHTML be used as the source of data (as opposed to databases, RDF, random XML etc.).

  We all know that we have to produce a human-readable version
  of the thing... why not use that as the primary source?

  While no-one who created/founded XFN or microformats was on that list or saw it until years after the fact, it's the earliest reference found so far for the concept of preferring HTML for the primary source of data.

2003

first use of HTML rel extensions for formalized shared semantic conventions: XFN

• 2003-03-11 rel="friend" on blogroll hyperlinks to people proposed by Tantek at the SXSW Interactive "Beyond the Blog" session during Q&A while sitting next to future GMPG co-founder Matthew Mullenweg.
• 2003-03-14 Vote Links proposed by Kevin Marks; invalid HTML
• XFN beta test
• 2003-12-?? XOXO discussions on #joiito by Kevin Marks, Tantek Çelik, Mark Pilgrim
• 2003-12-15 XFN 1.0 launched by Tantek Çelik[1], Eric Meyer[2], Matthew Mullenweg[3]

2004

first use of HTML class names for formalized shared semantic conventions for data: hCard

• 2004-01-04 XOXO draft spec published by Kevin Marks, Tantek Çelik, Mark Pilgrim, Morten W. Petersen
• 2004-02-11 11:08-0800 term 'lowercase semantic web' publicly introduced and defined by Tantek Çelik (possibly as early as 2004-01. checking for earlier references...)
• 2004-02-11 Vote Links (16:36-0800), spec published
• 2004-02-11 22:00-0800 "real world semantics" presentation at the O'Reilly Emerging Technologies (ETech) conference (ETCon) by Tantek Çelik and Kevin Marks which
  • introduced and defined the term 'microformat'
    • rel-license first widespread public introduction (as part of that 'real world semantics' presentation).
  • see development of RealWorldSemantics on O'Reilly ETech wiki
• 2004-02-25 blog post: creative commons supports rel="license" - longer more detailed explanation of how rel-license works and the principles/thinking behind its invention 2+ weeks beforehand (as publicly proposed/presented 2004-02-11 at ETech).

• 2004-08-16 XFN 1.1 specified by Tantek Çelik, Eric Meyer, and Matt Mullenweg[4]

• 2004-09-10..11 FOO Camp 2004 sessions
  • 2004-09-10 hCard conceived, introduced, and later blogged on the 30th. See hCard history for more.
  • 2004-09-11 hCalendar also conceived, introduced, and later blogged on the 30th. hCard history has links relating to it as well.

2005

microformats.org launches, additional microformats are developed

• hReview (CFP, examples, draft. 0.1, 0.2)
• 2005-05: Microformats Track at WWW2005 Dev-Day
• 2005-06-20: microformats.org launched at Supernova workshop.

• 2005-08-21: FOO Camp 2005 Microformats Lab

2006

• many more microformats proposed
• ...

2007

((stub))

2008

((stub))

2009

((stub))

2010

((stub))

• 2010-05-02: microformats2 proposed and conceptually explored during a discussion session at FOO East 2010.
• microformats.org at 5: 2 billion pages with hCards, 94% of rich snippets
  • based on microformats-turns-5

How to add things

The history is chronologically (not reverse) ordered (earliest first).

The history is greatly in need of further documentation with specific dates. Please contribute what you can find and cite/hyperlink sources!

Here are some sources to mine for historical facts related to microformats:

• presentations for a list of presentations / sessions on microformats which themselves often contain quite a bit of historical information.
• GMPG history for GMPG specific events.
• The "history" tab (in between "edit" and "protect" in the MediaWiki UI at the top) of each microformats specification is a useful place to find datetimes for when specific significant implementations and examples in the wild were launched/published (or references to when they were lauched/published).
• The Technorati Developer's wiki Microformats page is useful for wiki edit histories before 2005-06-20.

Things to document in the history record

• Terms. When was a term first introduced, by whom, etc.
• Microformats. When was each microformat first proposed (e.g. hCard, hCalendar etc.)
• Specs. When a "solid" version for a microformat was published/announced (and follow-ups, e.g. hReview 0.1, 0.2, 0.3), when were microformats specifications first introduced.
• Presentations. When each live (in-person) presentation occured (yes I realize this will thus become a superset of the presentations page, that's ok.)
• Papers/Posters. When each formal paper/poster on microformats was published (e.g. XFN at 2004 ACM HyperText, XMDP at WWW2005, Microformats at WWW2006 etc.)
• Print articles. When each *print* article on microformats was published. Please provide full Chicago Manual of Style citation info.

Things better documented elsewhere

This page is for the history of microformats and is thus scoped to just that. Microformats are of course built upon many other technologies and concepts, but let's avoid diluting this page with items which are not specific to microformats, even if they are related. I've moved some content to the following pages which folks are free to add more to if they wish.

• history-of-the-web
• history-of-markup