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Interview: Todd Sieling

Late in November we had a chance to talk with Todd Sieling of Ma.gnolia. He attended last year’s inaugural edition of Web Directions North and was one of the first to register this year.

WDN: Your company created ma.gnolia.com, a fantastic social bookmarking service. Are you the bottle-washer, cook or janitor? What do you actually *do*?

TS: Hah — I wear a few hats and also share a couple with Larry Halff, who founded and runs Ma.gnolia. My main role is to manage the user experience, design interfaces and be available to our community and make sure we’re hearing what they need us to know. I share project management and partner relations with Larry, but we really all contribute where we have to as we’re a small team.

WDN: You came to the first edition of Web Directions North in January 2007. What parts of the conference itself were the most memorable or valuable for you?

TS: Well, I live in Vancouver where the conference was held, so there’s a personal satisfaction in seeing people coming in from all around the world. There’s a lot of web development going on here, and seeing the local community that I know mixing with both speakers and attendees from many different places was great.Inside, the Accessibility workshop that Derek Featherstone ran was particularly valuable to me — I walked away with lessons that I’m still able to use a year later as guidelines, so I remember that quite a lot. While the sessions on the conference days were certainly productive, it seemed like things were taken care of and timed just right to make connecting with other attendees very easy. Again, a year later, I’m getting a lot out of the meetings that happened those days.

WDN: It is great to see that so many people want to come back again, because it means we’ve managed to create an experience that people who are passionate about the web really love. So what brings you back this year?

TS: There are definitely some people that I’m eager to meet up with, some of them for the first time and some to renew friendships. That includes Ma.gnolia members, naturally, of which we met quite a few at the last Web Directions. On top of that, I’m looking for what is really the test of any conference: I want to learn things I don’t know but should, to have assumptions tested, and to get an idea of the stuff coming over the horizon in web development.

WDN: We do our best finding a diverse and exciting group of speakers, and aim for that to be true this coming year too. Any sessions you’re just aching to see?

TS: Top of my list is the Government 2.0 talk by Tara Hunt, and though he’s not listed (WDN: he is now!) I think Chris Messina is participating as well. After hearing about the strong reception in other countries, it’s great to see Tara bringing her ideas home to Canada. Jeffrey Zeldman’s keynote is up there as well, and I’m pretty sure it will be packed so I’ll have to be there early. I’ve also decided I have to see Boris Mann’s talk on Dynamic Systems, and beyond that I’m still weighing my options.

WDN: Thanks again for this — looking forward to seeing you there in January!

TS: Likewise! It’ll be a great kickoff to ‘08.

Posted by maxine on 9/12/07 at 3:46 pm