Microformats exploded in popularity throughout 2005 [http://microformats.org/blog/2006/01/04/2005-year-in-review/] and will likely continue to grow in 2006. While the ideas behind microformats are not new (there are similar proposals regarding semantic XHTML going back to 2000), the Web appears to have grown up to the point where using semantic markup is now feasible.

Technologically, Microformats is about structured, semantic, idiomatic (X)HTML. There are formats for personal and corporate contact information [http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard], events [http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar], reviews [http://microformats.org/wiki/hreview], and voting [http://microformats.org/wiki/vote-links] (among others) and work on formats for citations, syndication [http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom] and tagging [http://microformats.org/wiki/xfolk].

In this tutorial we will walk attendees through the specifics of microformats, from the most basic to more complex formats (hCard, hCalendar, hReview, xFolk). Along the way, we’ll explain the principles of microformats, the concepts of Semantic (X)HTML and ideas for the future of the web. Discuss the design patterns and principles that inform the creation of microformats, which we have discovered through experience in the 2 years that we’ve been developing microformats.

By the end of the tutorial, participants will be knowledgeable enough to implement and publish microformats in their own applications, sites and content management systems and will hopefully be inspired to contribute to the community of web developers who are shaping the future of microformats.