Remarkup

The name “remarkup” just came to me this morning. I immediately thought it had a kind of catchy, marketable ring to it. But I ended up actually buying the domain name because it’s the kind of Colbert-ish, combine-o-word (sans the funny) that leads to multiple interpretations – all of which are applicable to this blog’s subject matter.

Interpretation #1 – re: markup

re: markup |ˈärˌˈēˌˈmärˌkəp|
Computing: on the subject of (regarding) assigning tags to elements of a text that indicate their structural or logical relation.

This blog mainly focuses on the code that powers the web: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, etc. I have long been a fan of many other blogs and sites that cover web dev topics. After many years of lurking on reading those other sites while practicing my craft, I feel I am now at a point where the amount of unique knowledge and experience that I’ll be able to contribute back to the web-producing community has reached a critical mass. I now have a strong desire to embody my industry’s tradition of giving back to the same community that has provided me with so much.

Interpretation 2 – re-markup

re-markup |ˈrēˌˈmärˌkəp|
Verb: the activity of assigning new tags to elements of a text that had previously been assigned tags of a different type or structure.

I have been creating and redesigning web sites since “GoLive” was a company (not the soon-to-be-phased-out product). I had the good fortune of surviving the web design industry’s transition from table-based page layout techniques to standards-compliant, CSS-driven strategies. During the course of all this, I have also changed IDEs several times, and over the years switched my main development machine from a G4 running Mac OS 7-9 to a series of Windows machines I put together myself; they’re mostly running as dev servers now. And now I’m on an Apple again – using a MacBook – and enjoying OS X very much.

All these transitions necessitated re-learning many of the tried-and-true processes and paradigms I applied in day-to-day work activities. They also meant re-coding a lot of outdated markup – my own and others’. Even before the peak of the Web Standards movement, the trend in the web design community had always been progression and innovation. If you show me how you do something, I could probably improve upon it, or find someone who would. (This is exactly why OSS is the future). New and better implementations are continually being created and discovered. The constant, iterative learning and reexamination – and being a part of the community that empower it – are my favorite aspects of being an IT/Web professional.

Interpretation 3 – “remark up”

remark up |rēˈmärkˌəp|
Verb: the activity or skill of communicating multiple thoughts and ideas as a comments or feedback on a considered body of text.

This last one focuses on the remark portion of the name and it’s all about you, the reader. I hope to use this site as a platform to share what I know. But collectively, the people visiting this site know much more than one person ever could. I welcome you to remark up the pages of this blog. I invite everyone to share their feedback and ideas on just about every post. I believe that when multiple individuals share their knowledge and experiences with each other, the power of the group’s conversation evolves into something greater than the sum their combined wisdom.

So, What do You Think about remarkup ?

If you have other ideas or additional interpretations of remarkup, or if you just want to spout an opinion, go ahead and leave a comment below.

Thanks for visiting!