On June 13, 2009 at Refresh Doylestown 9, I presented Introduction to microformats. The following article is the second in a series that summarizes that presentation.
Each microformat is researched, designed, and developed around a set of principles that is central to the microformats ideology. Microformats:
- Solve a specific problem.
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Microformats are not theoretical or philosophical. They exist to solve real world problems right now.
- Start as simple as possible.
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Solve simple problems first (with simple solutions). Use a small vocabulary. Microformats must be easy to author and won’t solve all problems. See also the Pareto principle (the 80-20 rule).
- Are designed for humans first, machines second.
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Don’t change the way we write and present content and data on the web. Keep it human readable. Keep data visible (don’t hide it in the document
heador with CSS). - Reuse building blocks from widely adopted standards.
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Use standards and conventions that are already in place (hCard properties, for example, are taken directly from the vCard standard).
- Are modular and ebeddable.
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Simpler (elemental) microformats can be used within more complex (compound) microformats.
- Enable and encourage decentralized development, content, and services.
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See part 1 for a thorough explanation of how microformats enable distributed services.