John | Web Directions - Part 4

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Early Bird for Melbourne and Canberra closes Thursday at midnight

• In: Blog
• By: John
• April 14, 2008

Just a couple of days to go now to take advantage of our early bird pricing of $100 off Web Directions Government and User Experience. So, to get to either of these conferences for just $495 (including GST), fully catered, with wonderful speakers like Andy Budd, Robert … Read more »

Web Standards group Melbourne next week

• In: Blog
• By: John
• April 13, 2008

Next week on the Wednesday the 23rd I have the pleasure and honour of speaking at the Melbourne Web Standards Group, along with Gerry Gaffney.

Gerry will be speaking on How users really search, while I’ll be presenting a variation on the session I did with Dave Shea at Web … Read more »

Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

• In: Blog
• By: John
• April 12, 2008

and cure cancer…

Despite newspaper sub-​​editors love hyperbole (hey you are reading this aren’t you) sometimes the sensationally headlined articles are worth reading.

In last year’s closing keynote presentation, the inspiring Mark Pesce mentioned the adoption of mobile phones in the fishing markets of Kerala in southern India, and how … Read more »

Image is everything

• In: Blog
• By: John
• April 7, 2008

One serious drawback of moving house in Australia is you’ll typically wait no small time to get your internet connection moved. For the last three weeks, I’ve been in this situation, and as connection is not an option, I’ve needed and alternative until someone could be bothered providing me with … Read more »

Aussie Barcamps galore in April

• In: Blog
• By: John
• March 24, 2008

By now, I suspect all of our readers will be familiar with the idea of a barcamp — “unconferences” which have no agenda, no invited speakers, little or no cost, and which encourage everyone who turns up to participate.

Australia has seen a number of these events in … Read more »

Vale Arthur C. Clarke

• In: Blog
• By: John
• March 18, 2008

Like many a young, science focussed geek growing up, science fiction as well as science fact became a very important part of my teenage years. Towering above the great names of mid century SciFi like Asimov and Robert A Henlien to my mind at least was Arthur C. … Read more »

Andy Budd — first time downunder

• In: Blog
• By: John
• March 17, 2008

It’s a fair bet that Andy Budd, author, web designer and developer, renowned blogger, and organiser of the d.construct conferences among many other things will be known to most people in the web industry. We are really excited to have him as our opening keynote speaker, as … Read more »

Two new one day Web Directions Conferences in May — Melbourne and Canberra

• In: Blog, news
• By: John
• March 13, 2008

Along with our brand new site, we are even more excited to announce two brand new, one day conferences for Canberra and Melbourne in May — in addition of course to Web Directions South, set down for September 23–25 in Sydney again at the Convention Centre.

First up, … Read more »

A new web site for Web Directions (well three actually)

• In: Blog, news
• By: John
• March 13, 2008

If you are reading this via RSS, you probably won’t notice that there have been some big changes to the site. Firstly, we’ve got a brand new, very streamlined look, and overhauled information architecture, courtesy of Ben Webster at Conversant. Their philosophy is “sophisticated simplicity” which is precisely what … Read more »

“How to listen to 21 Million Voices”

• In: Blog
• By: John
• February 19, 2008

Earlier this month, the recently elected Australian government announced the 2020 Summit — a chance for the “best and brightest brains” to map out a strategy for Australia’s long-​​term future in areas ranging from the economy and the environment to the arts and health.Which is of course a marvellous … Read more »

Web Directions Speakers in the press — Adrian Holovaty

• In: Blog
• By: John
• February 14, 2008

One of my favourite ever speakers at Web Directions, and favourite web folks ever, is the incredibly talented diversely interested (one of the first google maps mashups (pre api), Django founder, his Firefox extensions were the inspiration for Greasemonkey, and he is a very talented jazz guitarist) Adrian Holovaty. Recently … Read more »

Stay tuned

• In: Blog
• By: John
• February 13, 2008

Big changes and big announcements coming here in the not too distant future.

Pieces are falling into place. Hair is being torn out. Things are afoot.

Stay tuned!

Free Sydney Wireless

• In: Blog
• By: John
• February 11, 2008

On the frontpage of the Sydney Morning Herald (and in today’s Next tech liftout in the dead tree edition) right now you’ll find a story on Free Sydney Wireless, a grass roots effort to create a bottom-​​up mesh wifi network in Sydney. Now, not only is this … Read more »

2008

• In: Blog
• By: John
• January 24, 2008

Well, 2008 for Web Directions is about to kick off with version 2.0 (sorry, couldn’t resist) of Web Directions North in Vancouver next week. Great to see a few Aussie folks heading over — hopefully it’s not just the bumper season at Whistler?

But all those in the Southern Hemisphere, fear … Read more »

The Commons — folksonomy meets the Library of Congress

• In: Blog
• By: John
• January 16, 2008

One of our most popular speakers last year, George Oates of Flickr, writes in detail today about a collaboration between the Library of Congress (the US National Library), and Flickr to enable anyone to tag the Library’s photographic collection.

For now it’s a pilot project of about 1500 photos, but hopefully … Read more »

Web Directions Merchandise

• In: Blog
• By: John
• January 15, 2008

Can’t make it to Web Directions North? Heading there, but want to take a little reminder with you? We’ll, now you can get a range of clothing, mugs, mousepads and other gear featuring either the fantastic Happy Webbies bag design for WDN08, or Dave Shea’s fantastic Web Direction … Read more »

Mark Pesce on Stephen Conroy’s proposed Australian net censorship

• In: Blog
• By: John
• January 14, 2008

We were pretty disappointed over these parts to see that an early initiative of the new Australian Labor government was a continuation of the anti-​​technology, muddle headed thinking of the little lamented former Liberal government. The proposed legislation would require ISPs to block a black list of sites prepared by … Read more »

Ten things that will change your future

• In: Blog
• By: John
• December 31, 2007

No, not actually keeping your resolutions (though that might help), but the Sydney Morning Herald begins the year with a look forward to Ten things that will change your future. Well worth a glance, and featuring some quotes from and coverage of Web Directions speakers Adrian Holovaty, Mark Pesce, … Read more »

Web Directions North — extended early bird ends Friday

• In: Blog
• By: John
• December 5, 2007

To give folks a little more time to organize at this holiday time of the year, we’ve extended the early bird pricing (only $CDN795) for Web Direction North until this Friday only, December 7th at midnight (just before the 8th starts to be absolutely clear).

Web Directions in Desktop Magazine

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• November 27, 2007

During Web Directions South, Managing Editor of SitePoint, and long time Web Directions supporter Matt Magain interviews me about the conference, its goals, and so on, for Desktop Magazine. If you don’t have access to the magazine (issue 234!) then you can read it online now, thanks to … Read more »

Web Directions Speakers in the New: Mike Cannon-​​Brookes

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 21, 2007

Co-​​founder of Atlassian, Mike Cannon-​​Brookes, who spoke at WDS07, [slides online now, presentation podcast to come] this week announced that Atlassian is partnering with Microsoft to enable Atlassian’s enterprise wiki confluence to be integrated with Microsoft’s SharePoint. More details including an interview with fellow antipodean Richard McManus at … Read more »

A bit of co-​​working in Sydney?

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 21, 2007

Hard on the heals of Perths planned “Freelance Friday”, Sydney boys Tim Lucas, Cam Adams and Michael Koukoullis announce Sydney’s first ‘Jelly’ cow-​​working day, both on Friday 26th October. So head over to one of these places for some shared inspiration.

Web Directions at Builder AU

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 21, 2007

The fine folks at Builder AU, CNET’s great local developer site, have a great wrap up of Web Directions, including several video interviews with speakers Rashmi Sinha, Adrian Holovaty, Mike Cannon-​​Brookes and Chris Wilson, as well as in depth interviews with Andy Clarke, Scott Gledhill, Rob Manson and … Read more »

Web Directions Wrap up — the podcasts commence

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 16, 2007

With 28 presentations by over 30 presenters, getting the podcasts organized this year has been quite a task. There’s permissions to get from every author, CDs to rip and downsample (unless you want to download 60MB per presentation), the podcast RSS to create, site changes to make, and more.

This year, … Read more »

Come to Web Directions Free, from anywhere in the world!

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 16, 2007

This year some lucky person will get to go to Web Directions North for free, from anywhere in the world. Join our affiliates program and it could be you.

Here’s how it works. Get in touch with us and we’ll set you up as an affiliate. Use your affiliate link, … Read more »

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your mashups

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 15, 2007

Via Builder AU, we learn that the Australian Bureau of Statistics is planning to open up it’s data for mashups.

As part of an ongoing plan to make more of its data available in a variety of formats, the ABS is working to enable users to generate their own tables … Read more »

Web Directions North is launched

• In: news
• By: John
• October 15, 2007

Last year was a blast, so this year we are doing it all again, in Vancouver from January 28 to February 2nd. Along with web legends Dave Shea and Derek Featherstone, we’ve put together a programme of workshops and speakers featuring as always some of the leading web experts … Read more »

Web Directions Wrap up — the blogosphere

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 14, 2007

Over at Technorati you’ll find about 1000 in bound links to Web Directions — so we aren’t quite Engadget, but I think that’s pretty cool. Here’s some of the posts I found with wrapups, comments, suggestions and thoughts that you might be interested in. There are plenty more … Read more »

Freelance Friday/Work@Jelly

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 14, 2007

Work from home, and sometimes like to mix it with folks like you? Want to bounce ideas and techniques off similar minded people? In Sydney or Perth? Then mark down October 26th as the first “freelance friday” (or in Sydney Work@Jelly) day.

Check out Myles Eftos’s blog if you are … Read more »

Web Design Job in Perth, WA

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 12, 2007

Our good friends in Perth, BAM Creative, are looking for a standards based designer. So, if you are looking for a job over that way, check out their offering.

Adrian Holovaty interview at SitePoint

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 11, 2007

SitePoint continues their coverage of Web Directions South with a just posted interview with Adrian Holovaty. I happen to think Adrian is one of the most influential people on the web, with major involvement in Django, Mashups, GreaseMonkey, online journalism, and more.

We’ll have the podcast of his presentation … Read more »

Accessibility is about people, not compliance

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 8, 2007

As developers, designers, architects, anyone really who designs and builds things that people rely on to get on with their lives, often think about accessibility is very theoretical terms. In the case of the built environment, it’s about complying with building codes. On the web it’s about meeting WCAG level … Read more »

BuilderAU Web Directions features

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 8, 2007

Builder AU, the local edition of CNET Networks Australia site for developers was our online partner for the conference, and were there in force covering Web Directions. The fruit of their efforts is now coming online, including video interviews with speakers (currently there are interviews with Adrian Holovaty and … Read more »

Speaker Interviews at SitePoint

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 8, 2007

At Web Directions Kevin Yank from SitePoint spoke with some of our speakers, and there are now a couple of these audio interviews online.

First up, there’s an interview with Andy Clarke, and Cameron Adams, two of our most popular speakers (people were standing in the hallway outside the room … Read more »

iPod Touch winner from SitePoint

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 8, 2007

Matt Magain from SitePoint got in touch to let me know the winner of the iPod Touch in their recent “Why do you love the Web” competition .

Congratulations to Teresa Ko, and I know you’ll love you iPod too — I sure do!

More Jobs — Developer/​Designer at Glass Onion

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 2, 2007

Great supporters of Web Directions, and strong proponents of standards based design, Glass Onion, are looking for a Web Designer/​Developer.

Web Designer

Excellent written and communications skills

Able to work Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash

Knowledge of standards-​​based HTML and CSS coding

Glass Onion is a Sydney based web design, development, intranet, extranet, search and … Read more »

win an iPod Touch, or get a Job, at SitePoint

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 2, 2007

SitePoint, excellent Australian based web design and development publishing company and community have an iPod touch to give away. Just head over to their site and tell them why you love the web by Friday, and you could win one of these fantastic devices (I got one last week. … Read more »

Gilmore’s Law

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• October 2, 2007

Fans sabotaging scalpers’ auctions

Pace Mark Pesce WDS07 Closing Keynote.

2007 McFarlane Prize

• In: Uncategorized
• By: John
• September 30, 2007

Apologies for the slightly belated announcement of the winners of this years prize.

As announced last week, the shortlist for this year’s prize were

• EQASRM by Angela Bonfato Creative and Spoon Media
• Occupational Psychiatry by August
• Andrews Must Resign by Michael Koukoullis
• SitePoint Design Contests by SitePoint
• … Read more »

  Thank you

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 29, 2007

  This is not the end, by any means, but just for the moment, a huge thank you to all who came to the conference, to make it the amazing experience it was. 600 web folk from around the world, saw 30 wonderful speakers, and without doubt the best Web Directions … Read more »

  Microsoft Mini presentations in the breaks

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 26, 2007

  If you are here at the conference, check out the Microsoft area in the breaks, where all kinds of folks are doing interesting presentations on technology. They’ve also got loads of interesting presentations on mapping, mashups, mobile, silverlight, and more. There’s a timetable in your laptop bag, so check that … Read more »

  Introducing meetweaver​.com

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 26, 2007

  The fantastically talented dynamic duo of Tim Lucas and Cam Adams, builder of last year’s web connections, have taken the wraps this morning off meetweaver a social site focussing on participants at conferences. Too hard to describe in a few words, so visit, and take a look — and … Read more »

  WDS07 Kicks off

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 26, 2007

  Web Directions 2007 is underway, kicked off with a fantastic presentation on social media, systems and software by Rashmi Sinha, CEO of Uzanto, who built SlideShare.

  Much more to come, meantime check out photos on Flickr, blog posts at Technorati, the slides at SlideShare, and elsewhere online.

  [tags]wds07[/tags]

  What’s going on at Web Directions?

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 25, 2007

  Can’t make it to Web Directions? Can’t get enough anyway? Keep up to date with people’s latest photos on Flickr (al those tagged WDS07), with our little app which updates the latest photos every 15 minutes or so.

  So if you upload photos to Flickr, make sure you tag them … Read more »

  Closing night party news

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 23, 2007

  If you are coming to Web Directions — great news. If not, you have two days to get your act together, because, Microsoft has just come though as the closing night party sponsor. That means loads of food, loads to drink (in moderation, responsibly, and so … Read more »

  McFarlane Prize shortlist

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 23, 2007

  After an arduous decision making process, the Jury in this years McFarlane Prize has decided on the shortlist. The shortlisted sites this year are

  EQASRM by Angela Bonfato Creative and Spoon Media

  Occupational Psychiatry by August

  Andrews Must Resign by Michael Koukoullis

  SitePoint Design Contests by … Read more »

  Mark Pesce in today’s Sydney Morning Herald

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • September 23, 2007

  Web Directions closing keynote speaker, Mark Pesce is interviewed in depth in today’s Sydney Morning Herald.

  So to get a sense of what he’ll be talking about, and the ideas he is kicking around, take a look.

  SitePoint, Australian based Web tech book company is hiring

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 20, 2007

  Our good friends at SitePoint are looking to fill a number of positions. So if you are looking for an interesting, challenging job in the web tech world, take a look.

  Do you enjoy tinkering with the latest web technologies? Fancy yourself as a gun coder, a gifted communicator, … Read more »

  WDS Speaker interviews

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 20, 2007

  Scott Gledhill, who’s speaking on “is SEO evil” at this year’s conference is interviewed in builderAU today. A good interview on some key SEO issues for developers and designers. So for a primer on SEO, head over to BuilderAU.

  Wifi at Web Directions South

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 19, 2007

  One of the hardest things to get right at a conference is wifi internet access. You’d think it would be easy — afterall, setting up a network at home is simple stuff, right?

  Trust us, it is hard. Wifi and internet access don’t necessarily scale as easily as you’d think. Get … Read more »

  Following Web Directions on Twitter, Flickr and more

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 18, 2007

  The divide between the ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ worlds is something we’ve long tried to address at our conferences. To me, the online world augments our ‘real’ lives — it’s not separate, nor even an extension of our physical lives, they are part and parcel of the same life. And at … Read more »

  Thanks to our sponsor W3C Australia

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 17, 2007

  Since our very first conference, we’ve been fortunate to have the support of the W3C’s Australia Office. Since last year, the office has been hosted by CSIRO, and this year, their support has grown yet again. Not only have W3C Australia ensured that we can entice Bert Bos … Read more »

  Workshops updates — a sell out, and a few places left

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 16, 2007

  Well, it’s a week and a day ’til our workshops, and we’ve just had our first sell out — ‘Dr. Nic’ William’s Beginning Ruby on Rails.

  Meanwhile, we have just a handful of places left for Andy Clarke’s Transcending CSS, so if you want to get a day’s insight … Read more »

  A botnet the most powerful supercomputer

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 11, 2007

  Via BuilderAU, our online partner at the conference, the thrilling, fascinating and disturbing story that suggests the most powerful supercomputer on earth (and that means ever) may be a botnet, of PCs infected with the Storm Worm.

  Distributed processing applications like SETI@home have set a precedent for such massive, parallel … Read more »

  2 weeks to go

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 11, 2007

  Tomorrow it’s just two weeks ’til Web Directions South 2007. Already an audience of close to 600 is expected, from all over Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific, the US, South America and Europe. The only continent missing in Antarctica. So, first person who signs up from Antarctica gets a great … Read more »

  Geeks on the Grass

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 11, 2007

  All you Sydney web folks, keen to catch up with peers in a relaxed setting? Well, Friday the 21st of September sees the first Geeks on the Grass.

  One of the reasons we started doing the conferences in the first place is that having started to meet fellow designers and … Read more »

  Designers, start your engines — a Web Directions competition

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 10, 2007

  For those coming to Web Directions, we’ve got some fun stuff planned. One of those is the use of various screens around the conference to show real time content from the audience (blog posts, photos and more) to see what others are saying, thinking and doing at Web Directions.

  Right now, … Read more »

  Standards in email clients

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 10, 2007

  I must admit I’m old school when it comes to email — I like it plain and vanilla. I read it and write it vanilla stylee. I use *this* for emphasis. But, that’s my taste and choice (OK, so I have been using email, I kid you not, since 1985). … Read more »

  Focus on Aaron Gustafson

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 9, 2007

  With a book on Javascript due out soon, Aaron Gustafson has been one of the quiet achievers of the web industry these last few years. A wonderful educator (his workshop with Andy Clarke at Web Directions North earlier this year was very well attended and received), Aaron has been … Read more »

  Thanks to our sponsors, Glass Onion

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 9, 2007

  I hope it’s reasonably well known that one of the principle foundations of Web Directions has always been standards, accessibility, and best practice in web design and development. For close to a decade, Maxine and I have evangelized standards, developed software all about developing standards based web sites, and provided … Read more »

  Thanks to our sponsors, Adobe Systems

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 5, 2007

  At Web Directions, we honestly like to think that we put together as good a conference as you’ll experience anywhere in the world. The best speakers, the most relevant content, and on top of that, an enjoyable event, which provides plenty of opportunity to meet and get to know your … Read more »

  For you Flash developers out there — a little gig

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 5, 2007

  Our good friends at REMO are looking for a Flash developer to do some work for them.

  REMO is seeking a Flash designer to help out with REMOVISION. See attached logo and Item 5 from this week’s CustOMER email here:

  REMO General Store is a Sydney based online retailer with a … Read more »

  A small number of exhibitor places left

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 4, 2007

  Quick note to let anyone interested in exhibiting at this year’s expo, that we have only a small number of places left.

  The Expo is very reasonably priced and will have a guaranteed audience of well over 500 web industry professionals. If your products and services are focussed on the web … Read more »

  Thanks to our sponsors, Microsoft Australia

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 3, 2007

  As Web Directions has grown from quite humble beginnings, to a conference that well over 500 people will attend this year, the challenges of continuing to improve the quality of the content, and the overall experience for all our attendees has become significant. This year, a number of sponsors have … Read more »

  Adobe Systems

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • September 3, 2007

  We are very excited and grateful to have Adobe Systems as a significant sponsor, and as sponsor for WebHatch, our day of hacking, collaboration, networking and fun on Saturday 29th September. Thanks to their wonderful support, that day is free, though make sure you … Read more »

  World Wide Web Consortium

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 30, 2007

  The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. The Australian W3C Office (W3C-​​Aus) is the national contact point for W3C activities in Australia.

  We are very … Read more »

  Microsoft

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 30, 2007

  We are very grateful to have Microsoft as a key supporter for Web Directions South. Through this generous support Microsoft enables us to provide an even better conference for our attendees. Look out for Microsoft’s presence at our Expo, where they’ll be … Read more »

  Glass Onion

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 30, 2007

  Long before it was accepted best practice, Glass Onion focussed on web standards and accessibility as key philosophies in their projects. It means a great deal to us that Glass Onion recognises the importance Web Directions plays in fostering these philosophies in our industry through their role as a … Read more »

  McFarlane Prize nominations close tonight at midnight AEST

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 30, 2007

  With the number, and just by glancing at the nominations as they come in, the breadth (for want of a better word) of the sites being submitted for this years McFarlane Prize considerably greater than last year, this years Prize is shaping up as a very worthy follow up … Read more »

  Full programme now online

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 26, 2007

  Quick note to let you know that the full, (highly microformatted) conference programme is now online (and downloadable for any application which supports hCalendar/​iCalendar through the magic of microformats and Brian Suda’s X2V).

  With three tracks to choose from, you’ll have a month to work out what you … Read more »

  Diversity initiatives

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 21, 2007

  First up a disclosure — very soon we’ll be announcing that Microsoft is a sponsor and exhibitor of Web Directions South, and they were also a sponsor at Web Directions North

  BuilderAU is running a story I just saw on Microsoft Australia’s new Diversity Council, an initiative to ensure diversity … Read more »

  Reminder: McFarlane Prize — nominations close August 31

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 19, 2007

  A quick reminder that the McFarlane Prize nominations close at the end of the month.

  The Prize is open to any Australian web design and development teams or individuals. The only other requirement is that the site must have been launched or sigificantly updated between August 1 2006 and July … Read more »

  Our online partner C|Net Builder

  • In: news
  • By: John
  • August 16, 2007

  BuilderAU is the Australian edition of C|Net’s builder site, a rich source of developer news, information, training and resources, for the web, and a wide variety of technologies.

  Builder​.au has a strong commitment to local content, industry news, video interviews and more, and we are really proud … Read more »

  New keynote speaker — Chris Wilson

  • In: site-program, speakers
  • By: John
  • August 14, 2007

  We are really excited to announce our final keynote speaker for Web Directions South 2007 — Chris Wilson. Chris, currently the co-​​chair of the W3C’s HTML working group, and Platform Architect of the Internet Explorer browser has a long and extraordinary career with the web. He was a developer … Read more »

  Web Directions Student Discounts

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 13, 2007

  Are you a full time student? Do you know any full time students? If you are, or if you do, then hopefully you’ll be interested in our student discounts for Web Directions and for the W3C’s Special interest group day, running in conjunction with our workshops.

  Places at the SIG … Read more »

  Expo and Sponsorships

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • August 12, 2007

  What began as a labour of love about 4 years ago, has clearly grown into a significant event in the web industry, both locally, and indeed right round the world, thanks in very large part to you, the people who have supported us by coming along to the conferences and … Read more »

  Web Directions Speakers — Mark Pesce

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • July 22, 2007

  Last year’s conference closed with what may just become something of a tradition, a keynote from Mark Pesce. Mark is one of the things the web seems to foster so well, a genuine polymath, whose “blog” hyperpeople (I hesitate to call it that because its really a collection of … Read more »

  WA Web Awards — finalists announced

  • In: events
  • By: John
  • July 19, 2007

  The finalists for the third WA Web Awards have just been announced. Last year, I was honoured to be asked to be one of the Judges, while this year, Maxine is one of the judges. We recently discussed just how high a standard across the board the entrants typically … Read more »

  Writing for the Web

  • In: events
  • By: John
  • July 19, 2007

  Organisations large and small are beginning to realise that writing for the Web is a specific challenge. Vision Australia is running a writing for the Web workshop in Perth toward the end of August, as well as a We Accessibility workshop. We’ve had VA speakers at Web Directions before (and … Read more »

  Speakers in the news — Scott Gledhill

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • July 19, 2007

  A new local speaker for 2007 is Scott Gledhill, from News Interactive. Well, Scott’s a local now, though hails from near Vancouver in Canada. Scott’s newsigh blog, http://​standardzilla​.com/ provides no nonsense opinion and idea on using standards in a corporate context, and he’s just had a feature article published … Read more »

  Early bird finishes tomorrow at midnight, Andy Clarke selling fast

  • In: news, speakers
  • By: John
  • July 2, 2007

  A quick final reminder that to get $200 off the full ticket price of Web Directions, (that makes it only $795 including GST) you’ll have to register by tomorrow night at midnight. You can pay later, but that is the final chance to get the early bird discount.

  Registrations have been … Read more »

  Should your organisation have a “web department”?

  • In: trends
  • By: John
  • July 2, 2007

  One of the web’s elder statesmen, and all round delightful person, Jeffrey Zeldman (he did a video keynote for our first ever conference, which you can watch here — it’s about 9 minutes, and a lot of fun) asks today “who should be responsible for an organisation’s web … Read more »

  Web Directions speakers in the news — Gian Sampson-​​Wild

  • In: speakers, trends
  • By: John
  • June 28, 2007

  While she might not e speaking this year, last year’s speaker Gian Sampson-​​Wild has an important role to play in conjunction with Web Directions South this year, which we’ll be announcing next week. For now, she’s been in the news a fair bit, and has just published an article on … Read more »

  Early bird discount ending very soon

  • In: news
  • By: John
  • June 27, 2007

  Just a quick note for anyone interested in coming to Web Directions for the super discounted price of $200 off, only $795AUD, then you had better move quickly. As has become a tradition, we are extending this discount period for a few more days, until next Wednesday, July 4th — … Read more »

  Web Directions speakers in the news — Angela Beesley

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • June 22, 2007

  Angela Beesley, speaking on Wikis and community collaboration in our management/​strategy track is, along with Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) a founder of Wikia, which aims to be “To be the definitive, unbiased resource of the Web.”. Read/​Write Web is profiling Wikia today. They are doing … Read more »

  Early Bird ends June 30 (tomorrow week)

  • In: news
  • By: John
  • June 21, 2007

  Moving to a much bigger venue at Darling Harbour this year was a bit of a risk. Above all, a big venue can feel very empty even with a lot of people in it. But registrations have taken off really well this year, so hopefully the gamble will pay off. … Read more »

  Aussie Startup “Remember the Milk” featured in Slate

  • In: business, news
  • By: John
  • June 18, 2007

  We’ve always been fans here at Web Directions of “Remember the Milk”, an amazingly richly featured “to do” app online. Emily Boyd, one of the founders, came and spoke at an event of ours last year, and she and Omar Kilani, the brains behind the app both came to … Read more »

  iPhone/​Safari is the Mosaic of the Mobile Web

  • In: speakers, trends
  • By: John
  • June 11, 2007

  Really old folks like me remember a time before the web. And then a time when the web was an interesting technology. And then Mosaic, the browser which by virtue of (many people would argue) incorporating inline images in web pages kickstarted the web.

  I think that in the wake … Read more »

  “Getting” Web 2.0

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • June 7, 2007

  Published today in Smart Company, a newly started online Australian magazine focussing on business and technology is an articale by Brad Howarth, Australia’s leading business/​technology Journalist (at least in my opinion), “Web 2.0: the new divide”. Brad and I spoke recently, and quite a bit of what … Read more »

  Web Directions — it’s not just for geeks

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • June 2, 2007

  Since last week’s launch there’s been a lot of coverage online about the conference (and brisk signups too, thanks very much for those who have signed up already, we are off to a cracking start). One thing that a number of people have mentioned is that Web Directions is a … Read more »

  The McFarlane Prize for 2007

  • In: news
  • By: John
  • June 2, 2007

  Just a quick note to let you know that this year we’ll again be organising the McFarlane Prize for Excellence in Australian Web Design. Nominations will open soon, for sites built by Australian individuals and teams between August 1st 2006 and July 31st 2007. The quality of entries last … Read more »

  Web Directions Speakers in profile — Adrian Holovaty

  • In: speakers
  • By: John
  • May 29, 2007

  I’m not quite sure when I first heard of Adrian Holovaty, but I’d long heard of Chicago Crime, one of the very first “mashups”, which Adrian developed. With that kind of achievement, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Adrian was a computer scientist, but in fact, his background … Read more »

  Australian “web 2.0″ apps

  • In: business
  • By: John
  • May 29, 2007

  Over at Read/​Write Web, one of the most widely read blogs covering the web business/​technology scene (and founded by New Zealander Richard McManus, making it an antipodean cousin of sorts) there’s a list of 60 Australian “Web 2.0 companies” (which I guess these days means web companies but … Read more »

  Australian Web Industry events — May June 2007

  • In: events
  • By: John
  • May 24, 2007

  Over the coming few weeks there’s a tonne of stuff happening of interest to Australian web professionals. If you’ve got an event, or know of one I’ve missed, do let us know.

  First up, Microsoft is running a local version of their MIX conference, ReMIX which has strong web … Read more »

  Web Directions on the internets

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • May 23, 2007

  Anyone who has been to one of our conferences will probably know we really try to integrate the online and offline, though blogging, flickr photos, t-​​shirts and so on. In the last year or so, there has been an explosion in the use of services like Upcoming, and social networking … Read more »

  How we plan our program

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • May 21, 2007

  Web Directions South 2007 is the fifth conference that Maxine and I have been involved with. In the 4 years or so since we started down this path, a lot has changed in the web world. Things which were very much at the pointy end of the profession, like standards, … Read more »

  Australian Rails Camp ‘07

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • May 16, 2007

  Pat Allen dropped us a note to let us know about the upcoming Rails Camp (and they mean billy tea and damper camp people) over the June long weekend (15th to 18th) about an hour north of Sydney in a bona fide bush setting.

  So all you Rails developers, get … Read more »

  Web 2.0 downunder

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • May 16, 2007

  As we put the finishing touches on the launch of Web Directions South 2007 due in a couple of days (I think you’ll be very excited withat what’s on offer), a couple of things over at Fairfax newspapers that will hopefully be of interest to the Web Directions community.

  Brad Howarth, … Read more »

  Resources

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • April 29, 2007

  Web Directions South was a jam packed couple of days with 28 presentations delivered by over 30 presenters. Not to mention the two days of workshops. We’ve put together this collection of resources to help you fill in the blanks, whether you were there or not.

  We’re so grateful to our … Read more »

  Web Directions North podcasts online

  • In: Uncategorized
  • By: John
  • April 12, 2007

  At Web Directions North, like all our conferences, we recorded all the sessions (sadly there were technical issues with one session, and another still needs a little editing, while a third was just for the session attendees (speakers sometimes like to do that, so they can get more, shall we … Read more »

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