Remembering Yuri Rubinsky
2006 marks the 10 Year Anniversery of the paranirvana of Yuri Rubinsky.
XML Podcast has a great multimedia podcast with audio of folks who know Yuri and worked with him.
I have never met him, was only vaugely aware of standards when he passed in 1996, but I often wonder what the Web would be like without him, as he was so instrumental in helping with SGML and Accessibility on the Web.
XML Podcast Tribute to Yuri Rubinsky
Memories of Yuri Rubinsky, with Eulogies
Perhaps were in not for Yuri getting Charles Goldfarb’s SGML handbook edited, it would have been even more confusing and difficult to adopt. And his championing of getting standardization, people together, and the unfortunate “Holy Grail” (due to lack of awareness, methods), Accessibility.
No SGML, NO HTML.
No Web as it is today, without Yuri.