On June 13, 2009 at Refresh Doylestown 9, I presented Introduction to microformats. The following article is the last in a series that summarizes that presentation.
Microformats arose partially as a reaction to the expensive and slow standards process of the W3C and other standards bodies. The microformats community formed to extend HTML by agreeing on a new process that would codify existing markup patterns on the web and solve specific problems that needed immediate solutions.
It is therefore no surprise that the microformats community is a primary resource to first learn microformats and later participate in the development process.
Microformats community
Microformats.org is the microformats community website, featuring a blog, event listings, FAQs, the official microformat specifications, code examples, and links to other resources. The site also links to and explains the primary communication channels: the wiki, the mailing lists, Twitter, and IRC.
The website and wiki are a community effort and have been criticized for not being user friendly (especially to beginners). Fortunately, microformats are a distributed effort, and you can find microformats resources all over the web.
Microformats tags
To find those resources, I recommend viewing or subscribing to microformats tags. For blog posts and other online resources, view the microformats tags on Technorati or Delicious. Find microformats photos on Flickr, and microformats events on Upcoming. Look for a microformats tag for each service you use (and please post them in the comments here) to follow the microformats conversation across the web.
My favorites
I also have a few favorite resources that I’d like to recommend.
Two early and influential books are Microformats by John Allsopp and Using Microformats (PDF only) by Brian Suda. Both are excellent resources that cover specific microformats as well as microformats principles and benefits. Both are excellent beginner’s guides, just be sure to catch up on the value-class-pattern, which was developed after each book was published.
Another great resource for microformats is Andy Clarke. Andy’s blog, For a beautiful web, is currently my favorite destination for web design advice and inspiration. I’ve been learning so much from Andy, including how to best mark up content and use microformats. I’m anxiously looking forward to Andy’s upcoming DVD, Designing with microformats.
Andy’s blog introduced me to Emily Lewis, an excellent writer and microformats advocate. Her Getting Semantic Series has become one of the most well known and recommended tutorials to learn particular microformats. Her clear explanations are particularly helpful for those trying to grasp microformat concepts for the first time. I’m also eagerly awaiting her upcoming microformats book.
Of course, if you are reading this, please consider me a microformats resource as well. Please use the comments below, or get in touch any time.