High-end art. Low-brow diversions. The Internet has it all. Yet web developers Stephanie Carter and Rich Freeman insist the global communication system has a strict code of conduct.

"Web standards are a set of rules which determine how information on web pages should be formatted and displayed," explains Freeman. "The standards are set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), founded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet."

The husband-wife team, who operate In Front of the Net, a Barrie-based web and software development company, build all their client sites according to the W3C guidelines to ensure consistency in appearance, effectiveness, as well as savings in time and money.

"A lot of developers still don't know them, or don't know how to incorporate web standards," Freeman adds. "And they don't have the software tools to build web sites that encourage the use of standards in site construction."

"The Web Design and Development post-graduate program at Georgian College is one of the few that teaches Web Standards," says Carter, who was introduced to the concept as a student in the program's first class six years ago.

She is now one of its teachers and promotes the use of subscribing to the worldwide protocol.

She is well-qualified for the position.

The couple, who first met while students at the University of Western Ontario pursuing society (her) and political science (him), went on to focus their education in computers. Carter received her MBA in Information Technology from McMaster University and further refined her knowledge at Georgian.

Freeman took the intensive leading-edge post-graduate program at the Information Technology Institute and began working for a Toronto firm that specialized in software and Internet development. When she was pregnant with their first daughter Alex, now 5 (Erica is currently 3), they moved their young family to Barrie (Carter's hometown) where they were determined to work from home to keep overhead costs down and spend more time with their children.

She started the company and he joined when the company he was working for closed down.

Their first project was an order-tracking custom software program for the trucking company Chantler Transport, also a new venture at the time. The program continues to provide an essential sales and operations management tool.

They were later contracted to build an e-learning platform for the Catholic Principals' Council of Ontario to assist in teacher training and principal certification.

In addition to software development, they focus on creating custom-content Internet management systems that "allow clients to manage their own website content," says Carter, of the sites they not only develop, but host as well. "We create a web site that's customized to their needs, but allows for clients to do their own updating if desired. They can then manage change faster and more inexpensively."

"And we always include web standards," she adds. Since 1994, W3C has published more than 90 standards and guidelines, called W3C Recommendations.

"In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together," says the organization's website. "W3C refers to this goal as 'Web interoperability'. By publishing open (non-proprietary) standards, for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation."

Freeman and Carter believe in this mission.

"Incorporating the W3C standards offers a number of benefits to web site owners, internet developers and site visitors," Freeman promises. "These include confidence that sites will appear the same, regardless of the web browser being used; and the reduction of development time, since different versions for different browsers are no longer necessary.

But the list doesn't stop there.

"It also allows faster download speeds for visitors," he continues, "reduces bandwidth costs; improved search-engine optimization and allows faster and simpler site redesigns. "It also provides greater accessibility for devices such as screen readers for the visually-impaired, PDAs and cell phones."

Through its new website auditing service, In Front of the Net's Carter and Freeman offer a free site examination.

For more, visit infrontofthenet.com.