WebPlatform.org Backed By IT Giants For Developer Support

As web development becomes increasingly complex and confusing, a number of IT giants have banded together to back Webplatform – a centralised Wiki repository for developer documentation.

WebPlatform.org has been formed to act as a developer support hub that will provide information, documentation and support for HTML5, CSS, Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and other platforms. It also offers help with video, audio and file APIs.

Heavyweight Backing

The idea is that all the disparate information and support materials scattered across the Internet and housed within internal company databases, will instead be gathered into one centralised and open Wiki, so as to assist developers with getting to grips with these technologies, as standards change and different browsers add further complexity.

The initiative has the backing of the likes of Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Facebook, W3C, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Opera and Adobe.

Apple is a notable absentee however.

“The companies have come together to provide developers with a single source of all the latest, quality and relevant information about HTML5, CSS3, WebGL, SVG and other Web standards.,” said a blog posting announcing the reasons for WebPlatform.org. “The platform will also offer tips and best practices on web development as well as web technologies. “We are an open community of developers building resources for a better web, regardless of brand, browser or platform.”

“For years, web developers have had to rely on multiple sites to help them learn web programming or design, each with one piece of the puzzle,” said WebPlatform.org. “Great sites appear, covering one or two subjects, but too often fail to keep up with the rapid pace of changes to the web platform. This may have been good enough when the web was just simple HTML, basic CSS, and maybe a little JavaScript, but that was a long time ago. Today’s web is more than just documents, it’s applications and multimedia, and it’s changing at a breakneck pace.”

A Youtube video (embedded below)  further explains the concept of WebPlatform.org.

“It is a new community driven site that aims to become a comprehensive source for web developer documentation. It is also an open community, which means you can contribute and share your experiences,” explained Paul Irish, developer advocate.

And the initiative has gained the backing of the father of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

“Join in the conversation to make this website the best. Make it exactly just what you and I need to build a web page,” said Sir Berners-Lee.

Open Community

“Google has always believed that an open, standards-based community is best suited to drive the web forward,” said Linus Upson, VP Engineering at Google. “We support Web Platform Docs because it builds upon the long tradition of cooperation that has helped make the web what it is today. It’s one step forward for the web and a huge step forward for web developers.”

“Microsoft fully supports the launch of W3C Web Platform Docs as a place where members of the web community can easily access resources, collaborate on ideas and share knowledge,” said Jean Paoli, President of Microsoft Open Technologies. “By committing more than 3,200 topics, we understand the value of collectively building a strong future for what’s next in web development, furthering the goal of web platform interoperability and same markup.”

WebPlatform.org is an alpha release at the moment, but aims to host “accurate, up-to-date, comprehensive references and tutorials for every part of client-side development and design, with quirks and bugs revealed and explained.”

It will also offer discussions and script libraries, and also boasts a chat channel and Q&A forums, and a blog.

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