With the W3C working on HTML 5, many times I have wondered how I could get more involved. Do I want to get work to add me to the working group and get the 1000 emails a month? Should I start reading the spec and post about it on my blog? Reading the HTML 5 draft spec by myself interests me about as much as trying to read War & Peace. (I think they’re about the same size.)
What about HTML 5 reading parties? We could really do it for any of the W3C Specifications like WCAG 2.0 or CSS 2.1. We could get 5 to 10 people together with a couple cases of beer or nice bottles of wine. If people didn’t want to drink alcohol, we could meet at a coffee shop. We’d each take part of the spec and start reading it.
It’d be a fun and whole lot less intimidating way of jumping head first into the future development of the lingua franca of the Web, HTML.
At the end, we could have some collective notes that we could post on our blogs or maybe one big blog.
So… any of you interested? I’d buy the wine or the first round of coffees.
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 
Justin –
I’d be up for this, if I was in the area.
It might be a hard sell for my wife, though: “No, sweetie, I’d love to go to a movie with you. It’s just that there are these guys … and they’re getting together to talk about future web specs. I *know* my parents are babysitting, but when’s the next chance I’ll have to do this?”
I’ll keep an eye on DC Tech Events Weekly, in case this idea manifests. Be warned, though: I might need to sleep on your couch that night.
dood! love the energy behind this. I am down, and im down to help with webdesign/branding
Justin –
I think that sounds like a really good time. I’d be happy to contribute however you could use — I’ll gladly write, and I’ve got way more hosting and space than I’ll ever know what to do with.
Justin –
That sounds like a really good time. I know I’d appreciate the effort, and I’d be happy to contribute however you could use — I’ll gladly write, and I’ve got way more hosting and space than I’ll ever know what to do with.