This is a parody by David Hammond. It is based on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous I Have a Dream speech. I have a lot of respect for the man and I am not in any way trying to undermine the original speech or its purpose. I just thought there were too many paralells here (although of quite different severity!) to let this parody go unwritten.
Thirteen years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand formed the World Wide Web Consortium. This momentous action came as a great beacon light of hope to hundreds of web developers who had been seared in the flames of withering proprietary. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But thirteen years later, we must face the tragic fact that the web is still not standardized.
Thirteen years later, the life of the web developer is still sadly crippled by the manacles of Internet Explorer and the chains of proprietary technology. Thirteen years later, the standards-compliant web browser lives on a lonely island of techies in the midst of a vast ocean of Internet users. Thirteen years later, the web developer is still languishing in the world of hacks and finds himself an exile in his own land.
So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. We have come to the Internet's doorstep to make a website. When the architects of the World Wide Web wrote the magnificent specifications of the Consortium, they were forming the standards which every website and every web browser was to follow.
These standards were a promise that all websites would be guaranteed uniform accessibility in all web browsers. It is obvious today that Internet Explorer has defaulted on the Internet insofar as the standards are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Microsoft has given the web developer a bad browser with lack of standards supports due to “insufficient time and resources.” But we refuse to believe that Microsoft is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient resources in the great vaults of opportunity of this Internet.
So we have come to make a website — a website that will demand the riches of standards and the security of interoperability. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind Microsoft of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of proprietary to the sunlit path of standards-compliance. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of the Web's users. Now is the time to lift the Internet from the quicksands of browser-specific development to the solid rock of standards-compliance.
It would be fatal for Microsoft to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the web developer. This sweltering summer of the web developer's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of open standards. Two thousand six is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the web developer needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if Microsoft returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility on the Internet until the web developer is granted his specified tools.
The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of Microsoft until the bright day of standards-compliance emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful tools we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for standards by drinking from another browser's cup of proprietary features.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into browser-specific development. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting proprietary features with standardized features.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the web development community must not lead us to distrust of all Microsoft's developers, for many of our Microsoft brothers, as evidenced by their involvement with the W3C and the WaSP team, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their success is inextricably bound to our success.
We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of standards, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our webpages, written in compliance with the web standards, are displayed differently from one browser to another. We cannot be satisfied as long as the web developer's basic mobility is from nasty hacks to better ones. We can never be satisfied as long as a web surfer in Mississippi cannot use a standards-compliant web browser and a web surfer in New York believes he has no reason for which to use one. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until standards-compliance rolls down like waters and interoperability like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from forced-upon browser detection mechanisms. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for standards-compliance left you battered by the storms of profit motive and staggered by the winds of manager inconsideration. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to mezzoblue, go back to A List Apart, go back to QuirksMode, go back to Position Is Everything, go back to the books and tutorials and hack guides, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the Web's dream.
I have a dream that one day the Internet will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these standards to be absolute: that all webpages are treated equal.” I have a dream that one day, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the Microsoft homepage, a mess of proprietary code, failing in every browser except Internet Explorer, will be transformed into an oasis of standards compliance. I have a dream that my children will one day live in a Web where HTML is written not based on color and layout but on the content of the document. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day U.S. government websites, whose code is presently dripping with ActiveX and other proprietary technology, will be transformed into a situation where open source web browsers and closed source web browsers receive the same level of functionality. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Consortium shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to web development. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of the Internet into a beautiful symphony of interoperability. With this faith we will be able to work together, to develop together, to struggle together, to address clients together, to stand up for standards together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of the Internet's users will be able to fully appreciate the W3C's mission statement, “To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.” And if the Internet is to become the great information superhighway it was invisioned to be, the standards must be followed. So let standards reign from the prodigious Internet Explorer browser. Let standards reign from the mighty Firefox browser. Let standards reign from the heightening Opera browser! Let standards reign from the great Safari browser! Let standards reign from the powerful Konqueror browser! But not only that; let standards reign from the university websites! Let standards reign from the government websites! Let standards reign from every dotcom and personal website. From every application, let standards reign.
When we let standards reign, when we let it reign from every search engine and every news portal, from every desktop web browser and every mobile phone, we will be able to speed up that day when all of the Internet's users, businessmen and gamers, techies and casual surfers, web developers and users, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old web developer spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank Tim Berners-Lee, we are free at last!”