Web is big, very big, beyond the capacity of a single person to comprehend.
Started out as a simple document sharing platform,
it rapidly became the communication standard for the world.
Static content was replaced by dynamic content.
What once were simple websites, are now complex web applications.
Web is not one single technology;
it is a mix of hardware, networks, protocols and much more.
However, one aspect of web did not receive the attention as it should have -
the User Interface Engineering.
Other than handful of computer engineers,
web is being used by billions of people without having any formal knowledge of computer science.
For these users, web is one black box that does things magically.
All they have is access to a simple interface in the form of websites and web applications.
Simplicity is hard to achieve. Simple things are harder to build.
The web front-end abstracts extreme level of complexity behind its simple face.
And yet, as an engineering discipline, it never got the due respect, especially in project planning.
There were few who gave their energy and efforts to keep the front-end revolution moving.
And we are starting <web/F> as one such effort that is non-profit;
so that you can enjoy the unbiased technology views.
Side note: <web/F> started as non-profit and non-sponsored.
But very soon we learned that we will need sponsors if we wish to scale WebF.
Without sponsors, it is not possible to arrange big events and workshops.
We take sponsorship but we have limited it to reserved seats and banners only.
We do dot promote any sort of sponsor agenda.
We focus only on the front-end part of the web. That is why 'web-slash-f' or simply <web/F>. It is our fundamental belief that building an user interface is not as easy as it is generally assumed to be. Just like any other software development faculty, building a quality user interface is a complex software engineering process. It needs a discipline, clear thought, future vision and a caring attitude towards application users. That is why we call it "Front-end Engineering".
<web/F> is here to highlight the need for specialization in User Interface Development, including the front-end design in the project planning, to spread the awareness about un-parallel challenges this stream carries and more importantly, building the much deserved respect for Front-end Engineering in the world of Software Development.
Basic idea of <web/F> was conceptualized by Harshal, Kumar, Niloy and Saurabh.