Who We Are:

The CWSA is an organization grounded on the premise of sharing information in a relaxed atmosphere. We hold monthly gatherings that include presentations on best practices in web development. The gatherings are open to any person interested in web design/development, no matter what their current skill level is.

In our quest for world domination, we’ve chosen to start in our own backyard, Cleveland, OH - USA. The purpose of this association is to provide practical instruction and techniques that will elevate the level of quality and functionality of web design and development coming out of Cleveland firms and free agents. In short, we’re making Cleveland suck less, one website at a time.

Members of the CWSA have agreed that we need a website for the association. What is the point of being a web standards association if we aren’t going to have a web presence? We need a place to put our money where our mouth is. We need a repository to illustrate the best practices that we preach.

Our Goals:

The idealistic goals for the site include, but are not limited to:

  • Using and/or developing best practices for website development.
  • Creating a site that fits our current needs.
  • Allowing the site to accommodate growth as needs change.
  • Providing resources as they relate to “standards” in varying areas of web development.
  • Maintaining open source access with regard to anything developed for use in the association website.

The practical goals for the site include:

  • Thorough documentation
  • Backend elements: MySQL, PHP
  • Frontend elements: HTML, CSS, Microformats, Javascript
  • Optional elements: Ruby, Flash
  • Use of APIs from popular Web 2.0 sites, rather than reinventing the wheel
  • Inviting CWSA members to have their blogs aggregated into the CWSA site, if they so desire

Treatment:

The CWSA’s desire is that the site reflect the personality of the association. The association, thus far, is filled with good humored, good natured people willing to share what they know, admit what they don’t know, and are open to learning from the rest of the group. Therefore, the site should have an inviting feel and provide helpful information—with plenty of humor sprinkled throughout.

The CWSA has also been about building contacts and relationships. The more time we spend together, the more we are becoming friends…not just colleagues. As such, we have plans to make use of APIs from various existing sites such as Flickr, Virb and Upcoming in order to share our slam dunks, belly flops and availability to rendezvous over many beers.

The use of a framework in site implementation is likely to be developed by the CWSA. We solemnly believe that frameworks are wonderful things, but in order to understand one and use it well, it is important to know the code upon which the framework was built. So, while CakePHP and Ruby on Rails are the shiznit and we tip our hats to the fine people who created them, we want this process to be an educational one for all involved. As such, we don’t have an expectation that the website is going to be all things to all people at the initial launch. Rather, we expect that the website is going to be a dynamic, organically incremental beast tended to lovingly by the association members.

There is an expectation by association members that the site will develop in phases and that it will be viewed “in the open.” Meaning—watch us grow!