Dave Raggett
Dave Raggett | |
|---|---|
| Born | United Kingdom |
| Occupation(s) | Computer expert, web standards pioneer |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Known for | Contributions to HTTP, HTML, XHTML, MathML, XForms, VoiceXML; creator of HTML Tidy; Arena web browser |
Dave Raggett is a British computer expert who has played a pivotal role in shaping the World Wide Web since 1992. As a W3C Fellow from 1995 onward, he has been instrumental in the advancement of essential web protocols such as HTTP, HTML, XHTML, MathML, XForms, and VoiceXML. He is the creator of HTML Tidy and currently spearheads W3C’s initiatives on the Web of Things.
Career
Between 1981 and 1984, Raggett was employed at Research Machines, where he developed software enabling local networking for Z80 computers used in educational settings. In 1985, he transitioned to Hewlett-Packard’s Office Productivity Division, concentrating on solutions for remote printing.
During the period from 1985 to 2000, Raggett conducted research at Hewlett-Packard Labs in Bristol, UK. His work encompassed a broad range of technologies including expert systems, hypertext, networking infrastructure, web browsers and servers, embedded devices, and interactive voice response systems.
Raggett’s engagement with the World Wide Web began after meeting Tim Berners-Lee in 1992. The following year, he independently created the Arena browser to showcase emerging HTML standards. Despite Hewlett-Packard’s limited enthusiasm regarding the Web’s prospects, Raggett devoted considerable personal effort to advancing Arena.
In Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor, Berners-Lee acknowledged Raggett’s contributions to enhancing HTML by introducing capabilities for positioning text, images, tables, and other elements to enable richer web page layouts.
In 1994, Raggett presented Arena at prominent industry gatherings such as the First International Conference on the World-Wide Web in Geneva and the ISOC meeting in Prague. These demonstrations introduced features like text wrapping around images and HTML forms—concepts that later evolved into HTML+. Collaborating with CERN, he further refined Arena as a prototype browser incorporating advanced functionalities like resizable tables and support for HTML math.
That same year, Raggett convened a Birds of a Feather session focused on HTTP and went on to establish and chair the IETF HTTP working group. He played a leading role in early standardization efforts for HTML+, HTML 3.0, tables, and worked alongside NCSA on developing HTML forms.
From 1995 through 1997, he was assigned to MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science as part of his W3C Fellowship. In 1998, Raggett organized the W3C workshop titled Shaping the Future of HTML, aimed at directing the progression of web standards.
Between 2000 and 2003, Raggett held the position of technical manager at Openwave Systems, where he concentrated on W3C collaborations and VoiceXML-based unified messaging technologies. However, initiatives for mobile multimodal services were hindered by downturns within the telecommunications sector.
Following this period, from 2003 to 2006, he provided consultancy services to Canon on advancing multimodal interaction standards along with other W3C-related technologies. Between 2006 and 2007, Raggett served as principal researcher at Volantis, focusing on standards development pertinent to the Ubiquitous Web.
Raggett introduced the term Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) in a paper submitted to the First International Conference on the World-Wide Web in 1994. VRML was initially discussed during the WWW94 VRML Birds of a Feather session initiated by Berners-Lee, where demonstrations such as Labyrinth were showcased by Mark Pesce and Tony Parisi.
Software
Raggett was instrumental in creating essential software tools including:
Specifications/Protocols
His work extended to important standards and protocols, notably:
Awards
- Awarded the Talking Hands Award in January 2004
Publications
Key works authored by Raggett comprise:
- HTML 3 (1996, Addison Wesley)
- Raggett on HTML 4 (1998, Addison Wesley)
- Beginning XHTML (2000, Wrox Press)
- XHTML example by example (2002, Prentice-Hall)