The web today is filled with user created content, with millions of content-creating individuals ensuring a continuous stream. The problems appear when these users begin dabbling in creating HTML content. Sites like MySpace allow users to create their own profile page, adding any elements they like. It’s a nice idea, but in practice the wealth of possibilities results in thousands of invalid or incorrectly written HTML pages.

So what steps can be taken to ensure that what website visitors see is valid HTML? Developers have been creating more accessible content management systems geared toward Web 2.0 users, in order to tackle the issue. Popular packages like Wordpress allow users to create a blog simply and without having advanced knowledge of this system. These packages are frequently easy to extend and personalize, with Wordpress being an example of this. There exist hundreds of ‘themes’ for Wordpress, which handle the design aspect of a blog for its owner, leaving them with only their content to worry about. Some social networking sites like Bebo have found ways to restrict users to more acceptable and valid HTML. Other sites like YouTube have put in place strict ground rules which considerably reduce problems.

As developers seek to limit the choices Web 2.0 users can make in order to prevent errors the W3C is busy expanding to different dimensions. It continues to work on recommendations to create better and more extensible technologies to deal with the changing nature of the Internet. As the recommendations develop they are focusing on technologies that generalize, and can be adapted for other as-yet-unforeseen uses (and I suppose some unforeseeable ones).

The evolution of the web from its simple text-with-links foundations to a fully interactive system with a large focus on contribution is startling. As users demand more interactivity foundations like the W3C are actively working to extend the very possibilities of the Internet. Developers make use of the technology that stems from this to allow everyday users access to the tools they need to make great, and correctly coded, websites.

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