Standards, but what’s the point?

Tammy — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:04:51 +0000

Masters of IT hardware standards Taiwan may be, but this has not translated into noteworthy capabilities in the softer side of information technology. No where is this more true than in web development in Taiwan and especially web development standards as defined and mandated by the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission. The RDEC, as it is known, is the government agency in Taiwan responsible for deciding and promoting web standards (including web accessibility standards), but also “bilingual environment” standards, which apply to the presentation of Chinese-English in all public contexts, including, yes, government websites. Because Pristine specializes in developing bilingual and multilingual websites for public institutions, we have had the dubious honor of having to deal with the RDEC on many occasions.

I will be posting over the next few weeks on the strange world of meeting RDEC web and bilingual communication standards (and gov’t web projects in general). For those who have attempted to glean useful information on government websites or use their online services, after reading my posts you should have better understanding of why things are the way they are. And, the good news is, yes things seem to be getting better, but still a far cry from the level of competence demonstrated in the field of IT hardware.

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Standards, but what’s the point?