News from July 2008
Memories and articles from back in the day
Australian Anthill
One of the things we try to encourage with Web Directions is a more entrepreneurial approach to development. We recognize that there are a great many Australian success stories out there — from the originally Australian Google Maps to folks like high tech bag company STM, to Freshview, … Read more »
jobs.webdirections — a job site for web professionals
Just about ever since we started web directions, people have been asking us to help them find just the right developer, designer, or other web professional. Often we’ve posted a job description on our blog, or put people directly in touch with folks we might think fit the bill (provided … Read more »
The second annual A List Apart Web Industry survey
After last years amazingly successful survey of web professionals, which saw over 33,000 folks take part, the second annual survey conducted by our friends at A List Apart is now up and running.
This aims to take a snapshot of the industry around the world.
So head over and take part … Read more »
Javascript Libraries session
This year at Web Directions South we’re trying something new. Craig Sharkie will be using a panel type approach to explore the pros and cons, ins and outs of Javascript libraries in what will be both an entertaining and edifying session. I say “panel type approach” because I definitely … Read more »
Want to come to Web Directions for free?
In all the excitement a couple of weeks back, you might have missed the mention of a competition we are running with Digital Web Magazine, long time friends and supporters of Web Directions here and round the world. For Web Directions North, they’ve run a “design a snowboard” competition … Read more »
OpenAustralia — Interview with Matthew Landauer
A while back I blogged about the launch of OpenAustralia.org, which essentially remixes Hansard to allow you to more easily track all the debates in the House of Representatives, and keep an eye on your local representative.
There’s nothing at OpenAustralia that isn’t available elsewhere, however, it’s the way the … Read more »
Javascript — the good bits
I know many folks are looking forward to seeing Douglas Crockford at Web Directions South as much as we are. One of the drawbacks of running a conference is that you simply don’t get the chance to attend a whole workshop, and this year, I’d definitely be doing Douglas’s … Read more »
Australian Tax Office — online tax lodging is (still) Windows only
BuilderAU and The Sydney Morning Herald are both reporting on the ongoing disgrace that is online tax lodgement in Australia.
In short, only Windows users can lodge tax forms online. If you use Linux, Mac OS, or any other device, then you are out of luck.
Various groups are … Read more »
The Australian Design Federation
The Australian Design Federation is a web based community for the Australian design and new media industries. It features news, interviews, competitions (currently you can win a ticket to web directions!), reviews of shows and exhibitions, and lots of other cool stuff.
The Design Federation are on board … Read more »
Silverback — your guerilla user testing prayers answered
Our good friends over at Clearleft (home of Andy Budd, Jeremy Keith and Richard Rutter) have just released Silverback — a tool to help you do user testing quickly and effectively. When Andy was out here for Web Directions UX he gave a sneak preview to those doing his … Read more »
iPhone native Apps redux
Again, my apologies to those many who posted long, (or not so long) well thought out responses to my initial post. Like Hendrik, I found the level if discourse commendable.
One thing I didn’t actually talk about in my original article is that even if I wanted to, I can’t … Read more »
Introducing our media partner — Web Designer magazine
Curiously, the world over, there is only a handful of print magazines for web designers. Japan has several, but elsewhere there are few if any magazines focussing specifically on the web design and development industry. Bucking this trend, Web Designer magazine was recently launched in Australia. The magazine covers … Read more »
Joomla developer? Keen to participate in a panel at WDS08?
We’re looking for a Joomla expert to help us out with one of the panels in the development track at Web Directions South this year. This session, to be run by Lucas Chan, is going to showcase the strengths and weaknesses of a number of backend frameworks in a … Read more »
Web on the Piste: got a hankering for a bit of snowboarding?
Yesterday I caught up with Todd Trevillion and Mark Stanton of Gruden — those of you who came to the very first Web Essentials way back when will recall that Mark gave a presentation on semantic markup — it all seems so quaint now! Sadly pre podcasting, so we … Read more »
Seb Chan reflects on first 3 months of Powerhouse Museum Flickr Commons Program
Seb Chan has written a very comprehensive and intellectually generous overview of The Powerhouse Museum’s experiences in the first three months of having the images from the Tyrell Photographic Collection available in the Commons on Flickr.
An interesting observation that maybe a lot of us could think about … Read more »
Australian consumer watchdog and data pricing plans
After last week’s (very popular) post here about mobile data pricing plans in Australia, it’s encouraging to read The Sydney Morning Herald reporting that the ACCC — the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission — has been prompted to “investigate whether carriers are misleading consumers into a trap … Read more »
New York Times on small screens and the web
Via Small Surfaces, Web Directions South speaker Gabriel White’s website focussing on designing for mobile technology (well worth a place in your RSS feeds) is a story in today’s New York Times on how well web sites often work on small screens. Yes, it specifically focusses on … Read more »
iPhone native Apps: the great leap backwards?
As did many others, I greeted the arrival of version 2.0 of the iPhone operating system no little enthusiasm. To be fair, in the world of endless betas that is the web these days, as a version 1 the iPhone OS was pretty amazing. But what would Apple do with … Read more »
Lynne d Johnson — Opening keynote: New media — new business
Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 9.10am
Lynne will set the tone of the conference this year with insights into the future of media drawn from her wealth of experience in business, media and online communities as Senior Editor at Fast Company.
See the slides and hear the podcast »
Early bird discount extended to next Wednesday at midnight
Registrations for the conference have been going really well — thanks so much to all you who have signed up already. For those who still need a little incentive, our early bird which was to finish tonight at midnight, will now finish Wednesday night at midnight. So, if you need … Read more »
There other other mobile browsers out there you know
Yes, it’s hard to believe, but there are mobile web devices other than the iPhone out there, and other browsers than Safari. A real leader in this area for many years has been Opera, and a new beta of opera 9.5 for Windows Mobile is now out. Tech supersite … Read more »
Lovely data
Via Joi Ito. The new single from Radiohead’s In Rainbows has a trés cool music video. No cameras or lighting were used in the creation of this work, but it’s not just another yawn-worthy CGI affair or animation. Two (admittedly somewhat expensive sounding) technologies — Geometric Informatics and … Read more »
Excellent Australian eGovernment Blog
Craig Thomler seems to be gaining some traction with his eGov AU blog, but if you work in government and you haven’t heard of it yet, then check it out and subscribe. Excellent daily postings on news, projects and so on related to eGovernment with an Australian focus. This … Read more »
New session: Developing for iPhone
We couldn’t let this year go by without doing a session on the perils and joys of developing for the iPhone, but we wanted to wait and see what secret projects might crop up in the aftermath of the release of the 3G phone in Australia.
Plenty of people have been … Read more »
Win a ticket to Web Directions South 2008
One competition ends, another begins.
Echoing the “Design a Snowboard” competition we have run for the last couple of years for Web Directions North, this year our partners at Digital Web are hosting Desgn a Surfboard and win a ticket to Web Directions South. There’s also some cool … Read more »
iPhone 3G — and the winner is…
Yesterday, I got to make someone’s Monday: and that person was Matthew Patton, who came to Web Directions last year and liked it so much he made sure he got his registration in pretty quick smart this year. Congratulations Matthew!
Now I get to play Santa and go out there and … Read more »
Introducing our media partners Desktop Magazine
At Web Directions, while we don’t want to be jingoistic, we definitely like to recognise Australian success stories. It’s too easy to think all the good stuff happens “over there”. To that end, it’s great to work with local industry media like Desktop Magazine. Now 20 years old (or … Read more »
McFarlane Prize for 2008 launches
Nominations are now open for the McFarlane Prize for Excellence in Australian Web Design for 2008.
Now in its third year, the prize recognizes and encourages excellence in web design by Australian web professionals. We’re really proud of having created and nurtured the prize — it’s been extremely rewarding over … Read more »
Teaching Web Standards
One of the recognised challenges in educating new web designers and developers is putting together a good curriculum. This is something many folks have talked about over the last several years, but now Opera, spearheaded by Chris Mills (formerly an editor at Friends of Ed, publishers of many fine web … Read more »
UI Developer job at Atlassian
Our friends over at Aussie success story Atlassian are looking for a UI developer. By all accounts it’s a great place to work, and definitely a company on the rise. So, if you are looking for a UI developer job, take a look, and if you think this position suits … Read more »
Interview: online advocacy
Regular Web Directions attendee Priscilla Brice-Weller is the Online Campaigner for advocacy organisation, ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation). Priscilla also blogs about technology and activism at Solidariti.
It being NAIDOC week, I thought this might be a good occasion to hear about the work Priscilla does … Read more »
Win an iPhone — just four more days to get yourself a ticket
Despite all the (justified) doom and gloom about data plans and pricing, one lucky person is still going to win an iPhone courtesy of Web Directions this Friday morning, even at the ridiculous gouge it will almost certainly be to get one without a plan from either Optus, … Read more »
iPhone in Australia — now for the bad news
Welcome folks from round the interwebs — this article seems to be getting widely read.
If you want to know a little more about what we do (run conferences for Web Professionals) take a look at our upcoming Sydney Conference. And please leave your thoughts on the issue of mobile … Read more »
When business week does special edition on web design…
Via our good friend Dan Cederholm (we’ll get him out to Australia to speak one day soon we promise!) here’s a whole section at Business Week, the venerable US business magazine, on Web Design. Aussie web super success story, Remember the Milk get a nice mention as … Read more »
9 Reasons Why Application Developers Think Their CIO Is Clueless
Via Slashdot (described cruelly but amusingly as “women’s weekly for geeks” by one mart young developer I know), we find this article at CIO magazine — 9 Reasons Why Application Developers Think Their CIO Is Clueless.
Having been the CIO and main developer most of the time at westciv, I … Read more »
Welcoming our media partner BuilderAU
BuilderAU has been a media partner, supporter since the first Web Directions conference, providing us with much appreciated publicity, and covering the conferences in no small detail — with audio, video and text based stories, interviews and more. You can find all their coverage of our past events here.
While … Read more »
New session at WDS08 — HTML 5 with Michael™ Smith
We’ve just added another session to the dev track at the conference this year. Additional to sessions on Ajax Security, Javascript Libraries, Web App Frameworks, Oauth and OpenID and Web Vector Graphics, we now have Mike Smith of the W3C HTML Working Group, who will … Read more »
Job: Front end specialist
Aussie Web 2.0 startup 99designs.com is looking for a front end specialist — this is a great opportunity for someone who really knows their stuff to work in a fast paced, fun environment with a highly motivated, switched on team.
99designs.com is the latest project from the SitePoint guys … Read more »