Omniversity of Manchester

I was a HTML virgin.

Yes indeed, immeasurable years in the IT business and I’d never learned to write HTML code by hand. I admit it, I used Frontpage and Frontpage extensions. I was responsible for putting bad non-compliant code on the web.

Brothers and sisters, I have seen the light, I have been converted and born again to the way of clean clear code and semantics. Can I get a hallelujah and a praise Tim Berners-Lee?

In all seriousness, last night was the first part of the brand new Web Design Foundationscourse organised by the Omniversity. The course was run by Chris Mills of Opera, and was pitched as an introduction to the Internet, HTTP and DNS, as well as HTML and CSS. Chris also runs the Standards>Next events at MadLab.

I was a bit of a ringer in that I knew a reasonable amount about how the web worked already, have set up domains and websites and hacked a bit of code. However, I’d only picked up the bits I needed to know to complete a particular job, and not the parts in between. The four Web
Foundations series (all of which I’m hoping to attend) takes the learner from having an understanding that the Internet exists and that you can access web pages, to being able to reach under the virtual hood, learn the basics of HTML and CSS, start to create their own HTML/CSS content and move onto advanced HTML and CSS development as the series progresses.

The laid back style of Chris’s presentation suited the course perfectly. Chris is a technical type for Opera (they of the web browser fame), so his technical credentials are solid. Chris talks to you in language you can understand. Many technical trainers can miss this and use jargon-laced language that’s hard to penetrate. Chris’s approach is to use the terminology sparingly, ensuring that the audience understands and are comfortable at every stage. The material was interspersed with real world anecdotes, with ample opportunities to ask questions and share insights.

The course lasted 4 hours, and was reasonably intense but you were not left feeling you had attempted to absorb too much. Given the course covered the history of the Internet, through werewolf taming to creating your own HTML/CSS webpage, that’s impressive. Equally so, the fact that I now know why clean code is important, and have an understanding of how (and why) it is important to write accessible HTML.

The highest accolade for the course came from @alt_chriscarter who came in knowing nothing of HTML, and left with the skills and confidence to be able to compose her first web site using nothing more than notepad.

I am already eagerly using my new found skills and very much looking forward to HTML Basics, part 2 on the 21st March. The next part sees Chris break HTML down into more detail, building on the knowledge gained already. I would highly recommend booking a place whilst they are still available!