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<entry-title>Introduction to Microformats</entry-title>  | |||
__TOC__  | |||
== What are Microformats? ==  | |||
Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined.  | |||
More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "[[POSH]]") with a set of common [[class-names]] and "[[rel]]" values. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use.  | |||
== Why Microformats ==  | |||
Why did we come up with microformats?  | |||
In short, microformats are the convergence of a number of trends:  | |||
# a logical next step in the evolution of web design and information architecture  | |||
# a way for people and organisations to publish richer information themselves, without having to rely upon centralized services  | |||
# an acknowledgement that (outside of speci<span class="notspam">alist</span> areas) "traditional" metadata efforts have either failed or taken so long to garner any adoption, that a new approach was necessary  | |||
# a way to use [[(X)HTML]] for data.  | |||
The   | == The Appeal to Simplicity ==  | ||
* Microformats are a simple effort which has appealed to many frustrated with previous complex efforts. One parallel that can be drawn is to REST in the web services world - for more on REST see [[suggested-reading#REST|suggested reading on REST]].  | |||
* See: [http://www.justinleavesley.com/journal/2005/7/28/web-services-and-the-innovators-dilemma.html Web Services and the Innovators Dilemma] by Justin Leavesley  | |||
==See also==  | |||
* A list of [[notable-users|some notable users]].  | |||
* Recent [[press]] interviews and [[articles]] are also a good introduction.  | |||
* See microformat [[presentations]] for more background and introductory material on [[microformats]].  | |||
* Listen to [[podcasts]] about microformats.  | |||
* Read the [[faq|FAQs]] for general microformat queries.  | |||
* More [[suggested-reading|suggested reading]]  | |||
* [[implement|So you want to implement microformats?]]  | |||
* [[presentations]]  | |||
* [[podcasts]]  | |||
* [[testimonials]]  | |||
== external ==  | |||
* Sitepoint has a nice introductory tutorial: [http://reference.sitepoint.com/html/microformats Microformats - Plugging the Gaps in HTML]  | |||
* Premasagar has written up [http://premasagar.com/microformats/compound/ some nice microformats examples with source].  | |||
== Translations ==  | |||
* [[introduction-pt-br]] (see also [[introduction-pt-br-2]])  | |||
* ...  | |||
Revision as of 09:53, 20 January 2011
<entry-title>Introduction to Microformats</entry-title>
What are Microformats?
Microformats are a way of adding simple markup to human-readable data items such as events, contact details or locations, on web pages, so that the information in them can be extracted by software and indexed, searched for, saved, cross-referenced or combined.
More technically, they are items of semantic markup, using just standard "plain old semantic (X)HTML" (i.e. "POSH") with a set of common class-names and "rel" values. They are open and available, freely, for anyone to use.
Why Microformats
Why did we come up with microformats?
In short, microformats are the convergence of a number of trends:
- a logical next step in the evolution of web design and information architecture
 - a way for people and organisations to publish richer information themselves, without having to rely upon centralized services
 - an acknowledgement that (outside of specialist areas) "traditional" metadata efforts have either failed or taken so long to garner any adoption, that a new approach was necessary
 - a way to use (X)HTML for data.
 
The Appeal to Simplicity
- Microformats are a simple effort which has appealed to many frustrated with previous complex efforts. One parallel that can be drawn is to REST in the web services world - for more on REST see suggested reading on REST.
 - See: Web Services and the Innovators Dilemma by Justin Leavesley
 
See also
- A list of some notable users.
 - Recent press interviews and articles are also a good introduction.
 - See microformat presentations for more background and introductory material on microformats.
 - Listen to podcasts about microformats.
 - Read the FAQs for general microformat queries.
 - More suggested reading
 - So you want to implement microformats?
 - presentations
 - podcasts
 - testimonials
 
external
- Sitepoint has a nice introductory tutorial: Microformats - Plugging the Gaps in HTML
 - Premasagar has written up some nice microformats examples with source.
 
Translations
- introduction-pt-br (see also introduction-pt-br-2)
 - ...