HAPPY COG PUBLISHES or significantly contributes to a number of independent sites. We do this to share knowledge and ideas with our peers in the web community, to encourage independent content and design, to promote authoring practices that comply with web standards, and because we can.
A List Apart Magazine
Happy Cog designs, edits, and publishes A List Apart, “for people who make websites.” Read by over 65,000 designers, developers, writers, site owners, and specialists, the site features opinions, insights, and nuts-and-bolts tutorials on everything “from pixels to prose, coding to content,” and frequently includes downloadable scripts, style sheets, and similar files to be used as the reader sees fit. For instance, the A List Apart Style Sheet Switcher developed by Paul Sowden has been adapted for use on hundreds of sites.
Contributing authors include some of the best-known names in web design and development, as well as those deserving wider recognition. Writing for A List Apart has served several authors as a gateway to traditional publishing, aka “book deals.” Many of A List Apart’s articles have found their way into professional and university curricula, and several have been translated into non-English languages.
In October 2003, Happy Cog relaunched and retooled A List Apart. ALA 3.0 features user-focused architecture powered by our custom publishing tools, CSS layout, and semantic markup. Mainly it offers great articles by and for the web design and development community.
The Web Standards Project
Co-founded in 1998 by Glenn Davis, George Olsen, Zeldman, and others, The Web Standards Project was formed to support core W3C standards and encourage browser makers to do the same, thereby ensuring simple, affordable access to web technologies for all. Happy Cog designed the original (1998) site, and Happy Cog’s Zeldman served as Group Leader from January 2000 until mid-2003.
The organization successfully lobbied Netscape and Microsoft to fully support the same standards in their browsers, resulting in a more usable and accessible web for everyone while reducing the cost and complexity of web design and development.
Independents Day
Co-founded by Sooz Kaup, Carole Guevin, and Happy Cog’s Zeldman and designed by Happy Cog, Independents Day was a worldwide project celebrating independent content and design on the web.
In 2002 and 2003, Independents Day led three panels at SXSW Interactive, a leading creative web conference. A relaunch of Independents Day is planned for 2004 under the direction of co-founder Carole Guevin.
More thinking
See Articles, Books, and the Colophon for more of Happy Cog’s thinking about the web.
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