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Podcasts and slides are obviously not the same as being there as you just don't get all those a-ha moments that being part of a crowd can provide. But they are an excellent way to refresh your memory about the things you saw and heard, catch all those sessions you missed, and share a bit of the love with your colleagues who couldn't be there at all. Enjoy!One thing: some slides and podcasts are missing. We do our best to get just about everything up here at the site, but unfortunately it's just not always possible to get clearance to use some of the materials delivered at the conference in this way." ["post_title"]=> string(60) "All Web Directions South 2008 slides and podcasts now online" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(60) "all-web-directions-south-2008-slides-and-podcasts-now-online" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(386) "http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jeffrey-veen-designing-our-way-through-data/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/august-de-los-reyes-predicting-the-past/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/kay-smoljak-starting-and-running-a-successful-web-development-business/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/hurol-inan-informing-experience-architecture-with-quantitative-insights/" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 11:37:47" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 01:37:47" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1218" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "1" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [1]=> object(stdClass)#115 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1167) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-28 02:56:37" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-27 16:56:37" ["post_content"]=> string(2431) "

Bruce Lawson, and Opera Software, recently interviewed us about Scroll and the conferences. For those interested in knowing a little more about the conference, or the magazine, there's quite a bit of detail there.In particular for those interested in the conferences, we tried to go into a little of detail about what is most important to us about the conference, and the way we do things. Here's a little taste

A couple of other things that are important to us:

  1. We hate panels. When people pay good money, and spend a lot of time and effort coming to a conference, they need detailed, practical, well prepared material. Panels are almost invariably under prepared, and the signal to noise ratio is low. Mostly they are about opinion. That's what bogs were invented for. We have had the occasional panel, but even then, every presenter had prepared a detailed presentation, and most of the content of the panel was those presentations.
  2. We try really hard to find women, and other under-represented people in the industry, as presenters. The industry is full of a diversity of people, and yet, it seems we often see the same folks on stage time and again. We also tend to have a very high percentage of women attendees at our conferences, in Australia as high as 40%, which by tech conference standards is extremely high.
  3. We try to make our conferences as affordable as possible - with very reasonable prices and very large discounts for students. Basically, our price point is around one to two cups of coffee per working day of the year.
  4. We strictly separate content and sponsorship. There is no relationship between a sponsors support, and speakers on stage. That's not to say that there might not be a speaker from one of our sponsor companies, but these speakers will definitely be there on merit.

It's not to say that any of these is unique to Web Directions, but I think all these together make for the particular great value, rich content, high quality, enjoyable events that Web Directions have become.

for more like that, head over to Opera's developer blog." ["post_title"]=> string(68) "Interview about Scroll and Web Directions at Opera Developer Network" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(49) "interview-about-scroll-at-opera-developer-network" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-28 03:07:46" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-27 17:07:46" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1167" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [2]=> object(stdClass)#116 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1145) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-24 07:46:05" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-23 21:46:05" ["post_content"]=> string(994) "Nearly 3 years ago, after yet another rip off of our site design (I've lost count of the number of times people have ripped our design, a lot of our content (in one case submitting it to a notable publisher, and being only days away from being published as a book!)) we started a Flickr group called OMG Someone stole my website. It was kinda light hearted, as we'd long since learned that investing much energy in worrying about that sort of thing really is counterproductive (unless it were a major company, or so on).And then promptly forgot about it.Jump forward 3 years. Flickr's front page redesign highlights things like your groups. So I headed over to find 44 sites submitted, and dozens of comments. OK, so it ain't youtube, but it's somehow gratifying to find something emerge spontaneously with no investment of energy whatsoever.Any stories out there of untended gardens becoming flourishing wildernesses?" ["post_title"]=> string(35) "On (digital) gardens and wilderness" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(33) "on-digital-gardens-and-wilderness" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-24 07:46:05" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-23 21:46:05" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1145" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [3]=> object(stdClass)#117 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1127) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-22 12:07:15" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-22 02:07:15" ["post_content"]=> string(1031) "We've just launched the site and registrations for Web Directions North 09 - to be held in Denver Colorado in the first week of February.We've got an amazing lineup of experts, sessions and workshops, - check out all the details at the site.This year for the first time we'll be holding Ed Directions - Educating the next generation of web professionals, featuring experienced educators, and web development experts, with the goal of helping educators put together the best possible training for the next generation of web designers and developers.We've kept the prices the same as last year, while managing to increase the number of speakers, and sessions per day.Register before December 5th for just $795!" ["post_title"]=> string(35) "Web Directions North 09 is launched" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(35) "web-directions-north-09-is-launched" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-22 12:07:15" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-22 02:07:15" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1127" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [4]=> object(stdClass)#118 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1113) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-19 08:07:24" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-18 22:07:24" ["post_content"]=> string(10755) "[Update 1] A couple of months back, I surveyed the scene regarding a long cherished dream of web designers and developers - font linking and embedding.[Update 2] Opera 10, and Firefox 3.1 now support linking to TrueType and OpenType (but not EOT) in currently shipping alphas or betas.A short while ago, Mozilla announced that Firefox 3.1 will, along with Safari which already does, support the @font-face mechanism for linking to online TrueType fonts. Internet Explorer already supports (and has done so for years) @font-face font linking, but here's the catch, not to TrueType fonts - only to EOT font files. EOT, now a proposed W3C specification, incorporates anti copying technology, helping to assuage the fears of font foundries that font linking in browsers would unleash a wave of unlicensed copying of their fonts. Chris Wilson, Platform Architect for Internet Explorer has made it clear that he's strongly opposed to simple font linking
we (Microsoft) should NOT support direct TTF/OTF embedding, unless 1) there is some check that the font intended that use to be allowed, which I don’t think there currently is (as it needs to refer to the license agreement), AND 2) other browsers also implement a system that actually ENABLES commercial fonts - those that are allowed to be embedded, but cannot be legally placed directly on a server - to be used
So, is this a return to the stalemate of the 1990s, when both the major browsers supported font linking, only of a completely incompatible type? From a technical point of view, no. Since the same mechanism, @font-face rules, is used to link to TrueType, EOT and other font formats, then it is quite simple to define multiple fonts, and the browser can use the font format it supports. For more on this see my previous article.But from legal, ethical and business perspectives, there's still a lot of be considered.

Some considerations - legal, ethical and business

Let's begin with the ethics and legalities for web designers and developers. Most fonts do not come with a license that allows you to share them. So, by uploading most fonts, regardless of their format, to a server, and linking to them, you are likely to be either breaching your license agreement with the vendor, or copyright laws, or both. And it's not cool.But, there are ways in which to obtain licenses, and of course, sources of freely usable fonts. In fact the current situation with font embedding technologies is very much in the favour of the big foundries - as it stops the viral spread of fonts from smaller foundries. For this reason alone I think that the wide adoption of font linking technologies is a very good thing.So, if font linking to truetype fonts could lead to unlicensed font uses and copyright violations, that shouldn't be enabled should it?

Infringing and uninfringing uses

There's a legal and a public policy argument against this.From a legal perspective, the film industry in the 1970s argued precisely this with regards to video recorders, in the famous and landmark case, Sony versus Universal Studios. In SONY the US Supreme Court found that because a video recorder had "substantial, uninfringing uses" the fact that it also enabled infringing of copyright was not sufficient to make the technology illegal. I'd speculate that this is firmly in the mind of the legal teams advising Apple and the Mozilla Foundation with regards to implementing font linking to truetype fonts. As an aside, it's arguable that the SONY decision was among the most profound legal decisions of the 20th Century. Not only did it open unbelievably rich new seams for the content industry to mine (the irony that it was those very industries which attempted to almost literally kill the goose that laid the golden egg at its birth), but it's hard to even imagine the web in a legal regime where all copying unless strictly licensed is unlawful.

Public Policy

From a public policy perspective, I think building DRM for fonts directly into the browser code base, and making this the exclusive mechanism by which fonts may be embedded in a web page is an extremely slippery slope to tread on. If we privilege one kind of intellectual property, fonts, over all others by baking DRM directly into browsers and standards, how long will it be that the film, television, music, photographic and other industries demand equal treatment? The long history of GIF, the RIAA, MIAA, Google Books, and similar situations suggest not long at all. Owners of IP very often jealously guard that all any cost, even to their own long term detriment (see SONY).[update May 2009]I recently spoke with folks implementing some of these features in real live browsers. One observation was that there's all kinds of tricky issues trying to bake license checking into a browser. For example, imagine you have a font that is licensed for preview but not editing (that means it can be used to preview a document, but not in an editable document). How should the browser disable user editable aspects of that document, for example comment textareas which display their text using the font? What should browsers do about DOM manipulation of the contents of elements displayed using the font? Should such behavior be standardized? If not, different browsers would respond to such situations differently, leading to a whole new category of potential browser incompatibilities. This developer's observation was that it's simply not the appropriate place for license verification to be done.The web is in many ways simply a giant machine for copying intellectual property (as Kevin Kelly succinctly puts it "The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it"). But as we can see with the long term outcome of SONY, and all the copying, lawful and unlawful on the web, has created enormous value for those who initially might seem most threatened by that copying - content creators. Can font foundries similarly benefit from more liberal copying of their fonts?

A Business Case for liberal font linking

Often times, when people argue for the economic benefits of a change in technology or legal regime, the argument is essentially one that "a rising tide lift all boats". Which is nice, and often true, but perhaps less than persuasive to the hard heads who run businesses for profit and the benefit of their shareholders (and there is nothing wrong with that might I add), who first and foremost see the threats to existing real revenue, more than the promise of future, possible revenue. But here, in my very naive way, is a suggestion to font foundries as to how font linking technologies, which don't do much if anything at all to protect against copying, might open significant new revenue streams.In the Kevin Kelly article I link to above, Better Than Free Kelly details things which have value when something is infinitely reproducible at essentially zero cost (like fonts). What font foundries need to do is think of value they can add that is not reproducible in the same way. What might that be?

Fonts as a Service (FaaS)

Fonts are software. That's actually why they are covered by copyright laws - it's not the font itself, but the additional information in the font file that essentially instructs a computer as to how the fonts should be displayed that is protected by copyright. In the software world, we are seeing the continued rise of "Software as a service" or SaaS. How might fonts be turned into a similar model?As a web site publisher, one of the single biggest marginal costs is bandwidth. Fonts aren't trivial in size (most common fonts are several hundred KB). And of course, many even highly successful sites are hosted now by third parties, particularly blogging type services like Wordpress and TypePad. So, what if font foundries hosted and served fonts. As a developer, you could license individual fonts, all the way to complete font sets. Licensing could be on a per domain name basis, with graduated packages up to unlimited domain name licenses. Licensing levels could also include an amount of bandwidth, or number of hits on font files.Access rights could be pretty easily managed using a key, just like Google Maps, and a great many other online services currently do.I can imagine services like TypePad, Blogger and Wordpress offering their users fonts from various foundries, and web hosting companies offering licenses to fonts for people who use their hosting services.And of course, all of this would be recurring revenue. By reasonably pricing their licenses, foundries would attract customers who rarely if ever buy fonts, and gain indefinite recurring revenue from them.The use of a wide variety of fonts would proliferate, giving rise to greater demand for fonts across the board.And all of this is unlocked as soon as we have in place a widespread, easy to use technical mechanism for embedding fonts in most web browsers. Which the recent implementation in Safari and Firefox 3 will usher in.To wrap up, a simple question comes to mind. In the decade or more since font linking was first available in browsers, just how much fscking money have foundries left on the table? I speculate that the answer is billions of dollars. So, my humble suggestion to foundries is - you've had ten years in which the only way in which font linking was available was in such a way as it protected your rights. How's that been working for you? In the last 10 years, the number of professionals in graphic design (if we include web design in that category) would have grown by orders of magnitudes. And so logically, should have your revenues from fonts. I suspect they haven't. So, maybe it's time to try something new. The web would definitely be a better place for it, and I suspect your shareholders would love you for it.How about it? " ["post_title"]=> string(52) "Ubiquitous web font embedding just got a step closer" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(52) "ubiquitous-web-font-embedding-just-got-a-step-closer" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(314) "http://www.webdirections.org/blog/the-return-of-font-embedding-to-the-web/ http://www.css3.info/mozilla-implements-font-face/ http://cwilso.com/2008/07/23/fonts-embedding-vs-linking/ http://cwilso.com/2008/07/23/fonts-embedding-vs-linking/ http://www.webdirections.org/blog/the-return-of-font-embedding-to-the-web/" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2009-05-28 17:59:15" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2009-05-28 07:59:15" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1113" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(2) "28" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [5]=> object(stdClass)#119 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1107) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-17 10:05:59" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-17 00:05:59" ["post_content"]=> string(733) "Unless one lives under a rock, or is hiking in Bhutan, the current chaotic and clearly difficult state of the world economy will have not escaped attention. So, Google's recently reported 30% year on year increase in revenues is something of a glimmer of positive news at least in the online industry.For all its profile, the online economy is a tiny fraction of the total economy - but with companies looking to cut costs, and clever companies looking to innovate, there's the chance that even as the rest of the economy performs sluggishly, the online economy might continue to grow.We can only hope." 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["post_title"]=> string(46) "Opera: 4.13% of the web is standards compliant" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(43) "opera-413-of-the-web-is-standards-compliant" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-17 08:49:48" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-16 22:49:48" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1104" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [7]=> object(stdClass)#121 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1100) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-16 10:39:04" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-16 00:39:04" ["post_content"]=> string(999) "So, some while back I wrote quite scathingly about native iPhone apps. I still stand by what I wrote there - but that hasn't stopped me downloading some apps, and even paying for a couple.But one really stands out, and I bought it this morning, sight unseen, less than a minute after learning about it.It's called Bloom, and it's by the extraordinary Brian Eno - legendary music producer, and much more, along with Peter Chilvers.I recommend it whole heartedly - like so much that Eno is involved in (with the possible exception of the tiresome Coldplay), it's brilliant on many levels. Musically beautiful, but also a wonderful use of the potential of the iPhone as a tactile device. Yet it seems so simple.Do take a look.For $5 is a fantastic bargain, it's just a shame you can't demo it :-(" ["post_title"]=> string(33) "Great moments in Hypocrisy (mine)" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(31) "great-moments-in-hypocrisy-mine" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(79) " http://www.webdirections.org/blog/iphone-native-apps-the-great-leap-backwards/" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-16 10:39:04" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-16 00:39:04" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1100" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "5" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [8]=> object(stdClass)#122 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1094) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 17:19:38" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 07:19:38" ["post_content"]=> string(1525) "Those of us who've been round online a while will have seen at least one, and probably several occasions where large organisation starts blog/forum/online community, then proceeds to try hamfistedly to control the conversation, whether by deleting adverse comments, stacking the community with "sock puppets" (community members who are employees, or otherwise associated with the entity running the community) and so on.Well, seems like folks won't learn.Cheryl Gledhill, from Moltn: (disclosure, good friend, and great supporter of Web Directions) recently posted on an episode at a new NAB website, myfuturebank, which seems like a case study in how not to do online community building.Noted social media and network guru (disclosure, friend, and long time speaker at Web Directions) has posted some detailed thoughts on the episode.This is far from restricted to the online world. agents provocateur have been round as long as there have been mobs to incite, and in the activist world, there's a term for grass roots community that is really a front for an industry group (incredibly common by the way) "astroturf" communities.Here's my suggestion for a name for the phenomenon of fake communities online - fauxmunities. I suspect they'll be round for some time." ["post_title"]=> string(10) "Fauxmunity" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(10) "fauxmunity" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(65) " http://www.moltn.com/blog/2008/10/09/nab-tries-to-pull-a-swifty/" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 17:19:38" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 07:19:38" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1094" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "1" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [9]=> object(stdClass)#123 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1091) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 09:45:02" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-13 23:45:02" ["post_content"]=> string(560) "As if the man (in blue) doesn't have enough to do, he's now remixed Carla Hackett's wonderful "Cloud v Bird" cartoon featured on the cover of Scroll (and at Web Directions South about eveywhere).Camron Adam's cloud versus bird remix with dinosaursIt's also available at RedBubble should you feel the necessity to have this as part of your wardrobe.Love it." ["post_title"]=> string(61) "Cameron Adams "cloud versus bird" remix - now with Dinosaurs " ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(56) "cameron-adams-cloud-versus-bird-remix-now-with-dinosaurs" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-14 09:45:02" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-13 23:45:02" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1091" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "2" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [10]=> object(stdClass)#124 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1088) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-09 14:44:41" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-09 04:44:41" ["post_content"]=> string(298) "Kevin Yank over at SitePoint has an in-depth interview with Douglas Crockford over at SitePoint. Conducted right after Douglas's presentation at the conference, Kevin follows up on some of the key points in that presentation." ["post_title"]=> string(47) "Douglas Crockford interviewed over at SitePoint" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(47) "douglas-crockford-interviewed-over-at-sitepoint" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-09 14:44:41" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-09 04:44:41" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1088" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [11]=> object(stdClass)#125 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1085) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 11:32:02" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 01:32:02" ["post_content"]=> string(359) "The (now officially) venerable A List Apart is now 10 years old. For old folks like me it seems like such a short period of time, and yet so long as well.Congratulations to Jeffrey Zeldman, and all whom over the years have contributed to the success of this wonderful publication." ["post_title"]=> string(27) "Happy Birthday A List Apart" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(27) "happy-birthday-a-list-apart" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 11:32:02" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 01:32:02" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1085" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [12]=> object(stdClass)#126 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1082) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 11:28:24" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 01:28:24" ["post_content"]=> string(1131) "Those who came to Web Directions left with something special - a brand new magazine for web professionals - Scroll. Designed by Veerle Pieters, with a fantastic name courtesy of Maxine Sherrin, and largely the fruit of incredibly hard work by Maxine, Scroll features in depth articles by leading web design, development, accessibility and IA experts including
  • Indi Young
  • Aaron Gustafson
  • Joe Clark
  • Jeffrey Veen
  • Ethan Marcotte
  • Veerle Pieters
  • Sebastian Strakowiez
Veerle has now let the wider world know about Scroll, through an in-depth article on the process of designing the fantastic Scroll logo.So head along and read Veerle's account of how she came up with this fantastic logo, and if you are US based you can get a copy of the Magazine via MagCloud, or you can purchase one of a highly limited number of first editions which we'll ship worldwide for $24.99 " ["post_title"]=> string(27) "Scroll Magazine is launched" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(27) "scroll-magazine-is-launched" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 11:28:24" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 01:28:24" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1082" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "2" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [13]=> object(stdClass)#127 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1074) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 10:58:13" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 00:58:13" ["post_content"]=> string(2370) "A quick note for visitors new and old, that Web Directions North will be launching next week. We are just finalizing speakers and workshops, so that when we launch, you'll know exactly why you should be coming.This year, Web Directions North moves to Denver, Colorado, for a whole host of reasons (but don't fear Canada, we've got more planned for your shores, most likely at a less chilly time of year).A few folks have asked us whether we'll still be going ahead, despite the current financial uncertainty, but here at Web Directions we like to take to heart the adage of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) who steered the US through both the Depression and the Second World War - "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".I'm sure the coming months might not be as easy as one might hope, for our industry and beyond. But it is a time of great innovation and excitement, and we feel it's not the time to head for the hills. Hopefully many in the industry will share our quiet optimism.For more on the conference, see the Web Directions North site, but the key details are
What
Web Directions North 2009
Where
Grand Denver Hyatt, Denver, Colorado
When
February 2nd through 7th 2009

Tickets will start at $USD795 for the conference, and should be available early the week of October 13th.

We have an amazing lineup of speakers, covering all things web design and development, and a closing keynote speaker who will knock your socks off (and who rarely speaks at events).

To stay tuned " ["post_title"]=> string(42) "Web Directions North - launching next week" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(40) "web-directions-north-launching-next-week" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 10:58:13" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-08 00:58:13" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1074" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } [14]=> object(stdClass)#128 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1070) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-05 10:55:01" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-05 00:55:01" ["post_content"]=> string(452) "Today's Sun Herald reports that The State Library of New South Wales joins the PowerHouse Museum, along with institutions like the US Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institute in posting parts of their extensive photographic collections online at Flickr.Great work SLoNSW and Flickr!" ["post_title"]=> string(38) "State Library of NSW photos on Flickr " ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(37) "state-library-of-nsw-photos-on-flickr" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-05 10:55:01" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-05 00:55:01" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1070" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } } ["post"]=> object(stdClass)#114 (25) { ["ID"]=> int(1218) ["post_author"]=> string(1) "2" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 11:37:47" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 01:37:47" ["post_content"]=> string(5193) "Thanks to a huge effort by Guy, we now have all the slides and podcasts from WDS08 available at the site, which means it is officially "a wrap".Please spread the word about these resources: we make them available like this because we believe too much great content comes out of an event for it to be available exclusively to those with the time and money, not to mention the geographical proximity, to be in Sydney Australia in September. Podcasts and slides are obviously not the same as being there as you just don't get all those a-ha moments that being part of a crowd can provide. But they are an excellent way to refresh your memory about the things you saw and heard, catch all those sessions you missed, and share a bit of the love with your colleagues who couldn't be there at all. Enjoy!One thing: some slides and podcasts are missing. We do our best to get just about everything up here at the site, but unfortunately it's just not always possible to get clearance to use some of the materials delivered at the conference in this way." ["post_title"]=> string(60) "All Web Directions South 2008 slides and podcasts now online" ["post_category"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["ping_status"]=> string(4) "open" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(60) "all-web-directions-south-2008-slides-and-podcasts-now-online" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(386) "http://www.webdirections.org/resources/jeffrey-veen-designing-our-way-through-data/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/august-de-los-reyes-predicting-the-past/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/kay-smoljak-starting-and-running-a-successful-web-development-business/ http://www.webdirections.org/resources/hurol-inan-informing-experience-architecture-with-quantitative-insights/" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 11:37:47" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2008-10-31 01:37:47" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> int(0) ["guid"]=> string(36) "http://www.webdirections.org/?p=1218" ["menu_order"]=> int(0) ["post_type"]=> string(4) "post" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "1" ["filter"]=> string(3) "raw" } ["queried_object"]=> NULL ["queried_object_id"]=> int(0) }

News from October 2008

Memories and articles from back in the day

All Web Directions South 2008 slides and podcasts now online

Thanks to a huge effort by Guy, we now have all the slides and podcasts from WDS08 available at the site, which means it is officially “a wrap”.

Please spread the word about these resources: we make them available like this because we believe too much great content comes out of … Read more »

Interview about Scroll and Web Directions at Opera Developer Network

Bruce Lawson, and Opera Software, recently interviewed us about Scroll and the conferences. For those interested in knowing a little more about the conference, or the magazine, there’s quite a bit of detail there.

In particular for those interested in the conferences, we tried to go into a little of … Read more »

On (digital) gardens and wilderness

Nearly 3 years ago, after yet another rip off of our site design (I’ve lost count of the number of times people have ripped our design, a lot of our content (in one case submitting it to a notable publisher, and being only days away from being published as a … Read more »

Web Directions North 09 is launched

We’ve just launched the site and registrations for Web Directions North 09 — to be held in Denver Colorado in the first week of February.

We’ve got an amazing lineup of experts, sessions and workshops, — check out all the details at the site.

This year for the … Read more »

Ubiquitous web font embedding just got a step closer

[Update 1] A couple of months back, I surveyed the scene regarding a long cherished dream of web designers and developers — font linking and embedding.

[Update 2] Opera 10, and Firefox 3.1 now support linking to TrueType and OpenType (but not EOT) in currently shipping alphas or betas.

A short … Read more »

A glimmer of hope in the current economic climate

Unless one lives under a rock, or is hiking in Bhutan, the current chaotic and clearly difficult state of the world economy will have not escaped attention. So, Google’s recently reported 30% year on year increase in revenues is something of a glimmer of positive news at least in … Read more »

Opera: 4.13% of the web is standards compliant

Via Ars Technica, news of a survey by Opera Software, long time supporters of Web Directions, makers of fine browsers, and strong advocates for an open, standards based web, that finds, to probably no one’s surprise, that the vast majority of the web is not standards based.

The good … Read more »

Great moments in Hypocrisy (mine)

So, some while back I wrote quite scathingly about native iPhone apps. I still stand by what I wrote there — but that hasn’t stopped me downloading some apps, and even paying for a couple.

But one really stands out, and I bought it this morning, sight unseen, less … Read more »

Fauxmunity

Those of us who’ve been round online a while will have seen at least one, and probably several occasions where large organisation starts blog/​forum/​online community, then proceeds to try hamfistedly to control the conversation, whether by deleting adverse comments, stacking the community with “sock puppets” (community members who are employees, … Read more »

Cameron Adams “cloud versus bird” remix — now with Dinosaurs

As if the man (in blue) doesn’t have enough to do, he’s now remixed Carla Hackett’s wonderful “Cloud v Bird” cartoon featured on the cover of Scroll (and at Web Directions South about eveywhere).

Camron Adam's cloud versus bird remix with dinosaurs

It’s also available at RedBubble should … Read more »

Douglas Crockford interviewed over at SitePoint

Kevin Yank over at SitePoint has an in-​​depth interview with Douglas Crockford over at SitePoint. Conducted right after Douglas’s presentation at the conference, Kevin follows up on some of the key points in that presentation.

Happy Birthday A List Apart

The (now officially) venerable A List Apart is now 10 years old. For old folks like me it seems like such a short period of time, and yet so long as well.

Congratulations to Jeffrey Zeldman, and all whom over the years have contributed to the success of this … Read more »

Scroll Magazine is launched

Those who came to Web Directions left with something special — a brand new magazine for web professionals — Scroll. Designed by Veerle Pieters, with a fantastic name courtesy of Maxine Sherrin, and largely the fruit of incredibly hard work by Maxine, Scroll features in depth articles by … Read more »

Web Directions North — launching next week

A quick note for visitors new and old, that Web Directions North will be launching next week. We are just finalizing speakers and workshops, so that when we launch, you’ll know exactly why you should be coming.

This year, Web Directions North moves to Denver, Colorado, for a whole host … Read more »

State Library of NSW photos on Flickr

Today’s Sun Herald reports that The State Library of New South Wales joins the PowerHouse Museum, along with institutions like the US Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian Institute in posting parts of their extensive photographic collections online at Flickr.

Great work SLoNSW and Flickr!

« Further reading

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