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Aarron Walter

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My Book: Building Findable Websites

Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond
Aarron Walter
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Book's Companion Website
Companies waste fortunes seeking a magic bullet for Search Engine Optimization. But the keys to honest, effective web findability are appropriate writing and semantic markup. Aarron Walter’s wonderfully lucid and informative book tells everything you need to know to get your web content (or your client’s) in front of as many appreciative readers as possible.

- Jeffrey Zeldman, founder, Happy Cog Studios author, Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition

Now playing on my computer

Gnarls Barkley – Transformer Track | Artist
Frank Sinatra – You Make Me Feel So Young Track | Artist
Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost Track | Artist
B.T. Express – Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) Track | Artist
Rufus Wainwright – Harvester of Hearts Track | Artist
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Recent Photos From Flickr

Lincoln Balogna and Washinton Cheese, Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:58:15 -0800 George Washington Cheese, Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:55:09 -0800
Abe Lincoln Balogna, Sat, 2 Aug 2008 12:51:37 -0800 So many choices, Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:11:20 -0800
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Documenting Change in the Web Industry

17 Apr . 2007

I have been recording some of the stories of my students in the Interactive Media Design department at The Art Institute of Atlanta and how they are introducing their employers to Web Standards. The project is called The Web Standards Documentary Project. Our program has been teaching Web Standards since 2002. Throughout the curriculum students learn the benefits of separating formating from structure, building pages with semantic markup, and following Accessibility guidelines. Many of our students have made some significant changes in the industry, and in some cases have successfully converted their organizations to following Web Standards, sometimes teaching courses to their entire team.

It’s not always all smiles and giggles, though. Sometimes students make the case to their employers for using Web Standards, and they are met with significant opposition. I see the stories of failure as important as the stories of success, as it indicates to us what is really causing the slow adoption in the industry. In some situations, we can teach our students how to overcome the opposition by appealing to the business’s bottom line. There are some situations, though, where it’s very difficult to convince an employer that making the change is in their best interest, as the immediate financial costs may be prohibitive.

If you are one of my students, or an alumnus of our program and you have a story to share, positive, negative, or otherwise, please get in touch with me so I can record your story. If you are no longer in Atlanta, I can record you via Skype. If you are an educator teaching Web Standards at your school, I’d love to hear from you too. Perhaps this endeavor could become a larger repository of stories of change.

Listen to the Web Standards Documentary Project stories.

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