Someone asked, off-topic-ly in one of my other blog posts, what I thought about Opera's new Web standards curriculum. My answer is pretty short and I don't think that even those predisposed to finding insults where none were intended will be able to complain:
I think it's a wonderful project and I hope they're wildly successful.
I suspect there's little or no disagreement among the major browser teams (even, the I.E. team,) about the value of well-defined Web standards that can be easily implemented in a cross-browser way. Where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, is in what those browser teams actually do to go beyond agreeing about that value and actually doing something to promoting the value. It appears that all browser teams are working on improving client technologies with respect to Web standards. At Mozilla, we're going beyond just implementing those standards and actively evangelizing them.
I'm pleased to see Opera also putting resources into raising awareness and educating Web developers. Opera's the only and largest "dedicated Web browser developer company in the world" (as their CEO likes to say in his presentations,) and I think it's a great move for them. If they will actually put a good chunk of their substantial resources behind it, it could have some real impact.
Of course, not everyone agrees about what kind of impact Opera can have.
Rob Enderle, an analyst at Enderle Group in San Jose, said the project is timely, but he noted that Opera isn't one of the major players in the Web browser marketplace. "I think it's a good idea, but for a small player, and Opera's a small player, it's hard to drive a change like this"
I'd say that's completely up to Opera.
While their browser market share is indeed quite small, less than 1% globally, their resources aren't. Opera Software has well over 500 full-time employees and non-trivial revenue streams. They're quite large, and if they want to make a serious effort to educate people about Web standards, and they're willing to put a big enough chunk of their substantial resources into that effort in terms of money and people, I think they could definitely move the needle.
Go Opera!
