Web Performance Daybook Volume 2

Foreword

Steve Souders

In your hands is the largest collection of web performance articles ever published. It includes performance topics such as open source tools, caching, mobile networks and applications, automation, improving the user experience, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, metrics, ROI, and network protocols. The collection of authors is diverse including employees of the world’s largest web companies to independent consultants. At least seven web performance startups are represented among the contributors: Blaze, CloudFlare, Log Normal, Strangeloop, Torbit, Turbobytes, and Zoompf. The range of topics and contributors is impressive. But what really impresses me is that, in addition to their day jobs, every contributor also runs one or more open source projects, blogs, writes books, speaks at conferences, organizes meetups, or runs a non-profit. Some do all of these. After a full day of taming JavaScript across a dozen major browsers or tracking down the regression that made page load times spike, what compels these people to contribute back to the web performance community during their “spare time”? Here are some of the responses I’ve received when asking this question:

Lack of Formal Training

Many of us working on the Web learned our craft on the job. Web stuff either wasn’t in our college curriculum or what we did learn isn’t applicable to what we do now. This on the job training is a long process involving a lot of trial and error. Sharing best practices raises the group IQ and ...