A Blog Not Limited

to web design, standards & semantics

Semantics

Microformats, schema.org & Freelancing with The Non-Breaking Space Show
03/12/2012
There's a new podcast in town, The Non-Breaking Space Show! Hosted by Christopher Schmitt and Dave McFarland — with the editing and production talent of Chris Enns — the show features interviews with “best and brightest on the web.” Already the show has talked with such great and talented guests as Ethan Marcotte, Paul Irish and Chris Coyier. And the third episode is an interview with me!
Transition to HTML5 with the Newest Web Standards Sherpa (Me!)
08/22/2011
I love markup. Always have. Suspect I always will. With HTML5, my love affair has reached new levels … markup + semantics = swoon. And HTML5 is now my "flavor" of choice. In fact, I've been using the doctype and new structural elements for over two years now! With no issues or problems … just happy clients and interesting, challenging projects. So, when I joined the Web Standards Sherpa crew, I knew that I wanted to write about HTML5 at…
Microformats vs. Schemas
06/03/2011
Yesterday, the three major search engines announced full support of a new "standard" for semantic, structured markup: Schema.org. Now, as a microformats lover and semantic dork, this was big news for me. Big, exciting news. Of course I should write a blog post … Unfortunately, I'm busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest these days. So, since I already wasted a few hours of time chatting and Twittering (twatting?) with folks yesterday about the topic, I'm going to…
Guest Co-hosting with Web Weekly
05/28/2011
Web Weekly is a podcast from my friend Kevin Dees and his co-host, the ever-snarky, Jonas Flint. And I guess since I tend to go well with snark, Kevin and Jonas have twice asked me to join the podcast as a guest co-host.
Microformats, HTML5 & Microdata
11/10/2010
As I mentioned a while back, I'm honored to be writing for the new ScriptJunkie. My latest efforts have focused on microformats: Simple Semantics with Microformats, Part 1 introduces microformats and looks at XFN Simple Semantics with Microformats, Part 2 covers hCard Simple Semantics with Microformats, Part 3 details hCalendar Simple Semantics with Microformats, Part 4 focuses on combining microfoformats The last in the series, part 4, also introduces a topic I've never talked or written about (even in my…
The Beauty of Semantic Markup, Part 3: Headings
11/07/2010
I always find myself drawn to fundamental concepts, because they can be deceptively simple. Headings are like that. You know, <h1>-<h6>. They seem simple until you take time to think … think about structure, semantics, accessibility, search engines and, now, HTML5's sectioning model. And I have, indeed, been thinking about headings lately, especially as I dive into HTML5 and (re?)consider the approaches I've taken in the past. So this series now shifts focus to <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5> and…
The Beauty of Semantic Markup, Part 2: <strong>, <b>, <em>, <i>
08/06/2010
So, I had planned to focus the second installment of this series on markup for images with captions. The topic was a request from my friend Ian and his birthday was coming up. However, his birthday has passed, and I'm just now writing. Plus, I've been thinking a lot lately about something more fundamental: bold and italicized text. This may seem a trivial thing to be consuming my "markup mind," but after Tantek Çelik's HTML5 presentation, it's been bugging me.…
Voices That Matter Presentation & Interview
07/20/2010
Last month, I was honored to speak at the Voices That Matter Web Design conference in San Francisco. My "Practical Microformats" presentation went well, although talking about microformats in less than 30 minutes (plus leaving time for questions) was quite a challenge. You can check out my slide deck on Slideshare, if you'd like a taste of what I covered: The deck includes tons of links to resources, as well as some DIY demos you can try to see the…
The Beauty of Semantic Markup, Part 1: Quotes & Citations
07/15/2010
As I mentioned in my introduction, this series is going to take a close look at the fundamentals of semantic markup. In this first installment, I'm focusing on quotes and citations. Before we get started, if you'd like to know more about semantic markup — what it is, why you should develop your sites with it — check out my article, Meaningful Markup: POSH and Beyond. Now, let's get to it!
The Beauty of Semantic Markup, Introduction
07/15/2010
Ever since I started writing Microformats Made Simple, I've been distracted … from this blog, from my career goals, from my personal life. And even though the book is long since finished, I'm still distracted. It is getting better, though. I'm gaining a bit more focus each day. I quit my job to pursue freelance work in hopes of reconnecting with what I love about my career: making great web sites. I'm letting go of some of my responsibilities with…
Feeling #00f
11/30/2009
It's that time of year again. When web geeks get even more geeky. When standardistas pat ourselves on the backs. When I take to my all–too–comfortable soapbox to preach the good word about web standards. It's the 3rd annual International Blue Beanie Day to promote web standards and accessibility!
Useful Tweets 28
11/10/2009
It has been months and months, and I'm finally returning to this series. Fortunately and not surprisingly, my tweeting was significantly less while writing the book, especially tweets with "useful" links. So you haven't really missed out on much … not that you would anyways. I promise I won't make you wait so long next time, but this won't be returning to a weekly series. Maybe bi-monthly; likely monthly. It all depends on my Twitter behavior. But if you need…
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 8: Value Class Pattern
06/02/2009
Update: 2009-10-20 Tantek Çelik requested that I add inline examples of the value-class pattern markup in this article, so people working on applications to parse uses of the pattern can reference this article as a live example. I finally obliged, and you will see those inline examples below, each of which is indicated as an update. No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. It's another installment of my Getting Semantic With Microformats series (with a special thanks to Ben Ward for…
Webuquerque: Standards & Accessibility With Dreamweaver
05/12/2009
Last Wednesday, Webuquerque hosted "Standards & Accessibility With Dreamweaver," presented by Virginia DeBolt and Emily Lewis (that's me!). The presentation had a great turnout with over 20 attendees and, once again, several folks from Santa Fe. If you weren't able to join us, here's what you missed.
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 7: Themes & Issues
11/20/2008
According to what I planned when I introduced this series, we are at the end of this thrilling and exciting journey into the world of microformats. And after spending all this time reviewing specific implementations of microformats on A Blog Not Limited, I didn't want to just end the series without some sort of conclusion. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I'm not ready to conclude this series. There are still more microformats that…
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 6: hResume
11/10/2008
I began this series a little over two months ago. I wanted to share my love of microformats and detail how I've implemented them, in hopes of encouraging more people to embrace them. So far, I've covered a lot: Rel-based microformats in Part 1 XFN in Part 2 hCard in Part 3 hCalendar in Part 4 hAtom in Part 5 And now, as I conclude this series, it is time to talk about the hResume microformat which is used to…
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 5: hAtom
10/15/2008
Over the course of this series, I've discussed the various microformats I've implemented on A Blog Not Limited: rel-based, XFN, hCard and hCalendar. Now, it's time to talk about the hAtom microformat, which adds semantics and structure to web content that could be syndicated, such as blog posts or news articles.
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 4: hCalendar
10/01/2008
Here we are again, delving into the exciting (for me, at least) world of microformats. Based on what I planned at the outset, this article is about mid-way through the series. So far, I've discussed three implementations of microformats on A Blog Not Limited: Specifying link-based relationships using the rel attribute in Part 1 Giving a "human face" to links using the XFN microformat in Part 2 Describing people, companies and places with the hCard microformat in Part 3 Not…
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 3: hCard
09/22/2008
I began this series by detailing the microformats for link-based relationships using the rel attribute in Part 1. I then followed up in Part 2 with a discussion about extending the rel attribute with XFN values to connote social relationships on the web. Both XFN and the rel-based microformats are relatively simple, requiring only the addition of the rel attribute to links (<a>) and the proper value(s) to provide semantic context. Now it is time to take this microformats discussion…
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 2: XFN
09/17/2008
In Part 1 of this series, I explained various implementations of the rel microformat on A Blog Not Limited. While explaining rel-me, I briefly touched on the XFN microformat. It's now time to spend some more time on this very cool microformat, which was one of the first.
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 1: rel
09/09/2008
As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, I'm a freak for microformats. I love the semantics, the structure, the simplicity and the potential. I decided I must share this love with the world (or at least my four readers) by detailing how I've used various microformats on A Blog Not Limited. This first installment of the series focuses on microformats for link-based relationships using the rel attribute. Let's get started, shall we?
Getting Semantic With Microformats, Introduction
09/05/2008
I'm an organizer with a sometimes frustrating need to pay attention to the smallest details. It shows itself in my home: my DVD collection of over 500 is organized alphabetically, as is what's left of my CD collection. I spend hours in iTunes assigning genres (because the defaults just aren't good enough for me) and creating playlists for over 10k songs. My books are organized by genre. My dresser drawers and closets are pristine. It is just me. This personality…

The Coolest Person I Know

Emily Lewis

Yeah, that would be me: .

I'm a freelance web designer of the standardista variety, which means I get excited about things like valid POSH, microformats and accessibility. I ply my trade from my one-person design studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106 USA.

A Blog Not Limited is my personal blog where I pontificate about web design, web standards, semantics and whatever else strikes my fancy. Head on over to Emily Lewis Design if you'd like to see my work or, even better, hire me.

More

I Tweet, Therefore I Am

Follow @emilylewis on Twitter!