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The McFarlane Prize for Australian web design — nominations now open
Nominations for the McFarlane Prize for excellence in Australian web design have just opened. So, if you’re responsible for a web site launched or significantly updated since September 20 2009 which you think deserves recognition for its adherence to web … Read more »
Sitepoint are looking for a web app developer
Want to work with some of the best developers in Australia? Looking to develop world-class websites using the latest web technologies? Keen to be part of an organisation that is a great supporter of the Aussie web industry?
SitePoint are in need of a talented PHP developer — … Read more »
More Web Directions @media podcasts and slides come online
Thanks to a lot of hard work from Guy Leech, a whole bunch of the podcasts and slides from Web Directions @media are now online. It’s always great to give back by making these available, and we’d like to particularly thank our speakers for their generosity.
Help us make it all … Read more »
Three must-see presentations which came out of Web Directions @media
After any conference we always do our best to share the love by creating a podcast and resource page for each presentation from the event. Apologies that it has taken a bit of time to get these out there this time — we’ve had the small matter of … Read more »
McFarlane Prize 2009 — The Book
At Web Directions South last year we announced that we would be commemorating the 2009 McFarlane Prize by producing a beautiful high quality hard cover book containing all 48 of the shortlisted entires. Thanks to a lot of hard work … Read more »
Introducing #wdx
There have been words out and about regarding the name of our London event for this year, Web Directions @media. To explain a little where that name has come from, the conference this time around is a hybrid as we take over the reins of the highly … Read more »
The Myths of Innovation — Remixed and Remastered
A few years back, Scott Berkun gave one of the most highly regarded presentations we have ever had at a Web Directions event. It was called the Myths of Innovation, and people still buttonhole me to say how great it was, or to bemoan the fact that their lifetime regret … Read more »
Reflections on the first 24 hours of the Web Direction South 2010 “Tell us what you want” survey
Yesterday I launched our “Tell Us What You Want” survey for Web Directions South 2010. In essence this is a call for papers really, it’s just that we don’t like using that term as we think it makes us sound like some sort of antediluvian academic symposium, which, I’ll … Read more »
Web Directions South 09 Resources — many more now online
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Guy in preparing all the pages and producing all the podcasts, we now have a whole raft of the presentations from WDS09 now available online, so, if you’re looking to catch something you missed because you you went to another track, or you couldn’t … Read more »
Got your Google Wave invite? Scratching your head?
It looks like all the Google Wave invites for WDS09 attendees, courtesy of Stephanie and Cameron (thanks again guys!) went out over the weekend.
If you’re scratching your head as to what to do next though, and you’re in Sydney, why don’t you come along on Tuesday the 20th to the … Read more »
First batch of WDS09 resources now available
You wouldn’t believe how many things there are to do in the week after an event — I actually feel like I have been busier this week than I was in the week leading up to the conference. But one of the big things we have been treating as an … Read more »
Trip to Japan for Web Directions East — winner announced!
A couple of months back we announced that we were going to be giving away a ticket to Web Directions East to one lucky attendee of Web Directions South.
Well, that lucky attendee turned out to be Dylan Fogarty-MacDonald, who has already let us know that he is very excited to … Read more »
Web Directions — The Soundtrack
I’ve got a few enquiries here about the music we played during the conference, so I thought I should really give credit where it is due and write up something comprehensive.
Between sessions in the rooms we played XX by The XX — which came recommended by Luke … Read more »
99designs Are Hiring A Front-end Ninja!
99designs, the sister company of our media partners, SitePoint, are looking to hire a full-time designer from their Melbourne office. In their words, they’re after a “front-end ninja” with talents in graphic/interface design, usability, accessibility and creating standards-based HTML/CSS.
If this sounds like you and you’re in Melbourne (or prepared to … Read more »
Designing for iPhone? Get yourself some Notepods
Check out these cool little sketch pads from Melbourne based Inventive Labs and Jacky Winter Group. They’ve called them Notepods and they’re perfectly designed for mocking up iPhone Apps.
Get yourself a pack of … Read more »
Web Directions South 09 T Shirt — With Augmented Reality Superpowers
This year for Web Directions South we’ve produced a superb conference t shirt with augmented reality superpowers designed by Fail Whale creator Yiying Lu. But if you’re going to dress in magical style with this shirt at the conference, you need to get in there fast … Read more »
Would you like service design with that?
We’ve just filled the last session in the business track at Web Directions South 09 — Suze Ingram will be speaking on a hot new user experience topic: Would you like service design with that?
Service design is a new discipline which focuses on understanding what customers … Read more »
Wanted: a passionate web geek
Passionate about web design and development? Been tinkering with different web technologies for some time? Keep up to date with the web industry? Enjoy reading and writing? Then a tech editor role at SitePoint might be just what … Read more »
Matt Webb — Web Directions South 09 opening keynote
The final keynote for Web Directions South 2009 has just been announced: be there on the morning of Thursday October 8 to see what we know will be an exciting and inspirational opening keynote from England’s own Matt Webb.
Matt will be joining an already terrific lineup:
- … Read more »
McFarlane Prize: nominations are now open
Nominations for the McFarlane Prize for excellence in Australian web design opened over the weekend, on Saturday August 1. If you’ve been involved in the development of a site over the last 12 months that you think deserves recognition for … Read more »
Cameron Adams on Designing Google Wave
We were really excited to announce that Cameron Adams will be speaking at Web Directions South this year on his experiences working as part of the Google Wave team. For an extensive preview of Cameron’s presentation, check out this … Read more »
Win a ticket to Web Directions South 2009
Want to come to Web Directions South 2009 for free? One of our media partners for this year, SitePoint, is running a quiz, testing your knowledge of the conference, that gives you a chance to win a full free ticket to the conference on October 8 and 9.… Read more »
Win an iPod Shuffle
With early bird pricing only just over, conference registrations have been coming in thick and fast, putting us on track to go way beyond previous years in fact — it’s exciting!
This next fortnight we’re doing a bit of a push then on that great series of … Read more »
CSS3 Reloaded — John Allsopp at Melbourne WSG meetup — July 20
If you’re in Melbourne this July 20 there’s a whole bunch of really good reasons to go along to the WSG meeting at Loop Bar at 6.30pm.
Firstly, along with SitePoint, Web Directions is sponsoring, so, drinks and food are on us.
Secondly, … Read more »
Zero to hero with jQuery workshop — only one space left
Just as they have with the main conference, numbers have also crept up fast with the workshops this year. So much so that Earle Castledine’s Zero to hero with jQuery workshop is about to sell out. There’s only one place left, so, if you’ve … Read more »
Web Directions South 2009 Early Bird pricing ends Friday
With more registrations than we’ve ever had at this time, we know already that Web Directions South 2009 is going to be our biggest and best event so far, without a doubt.
So, if you’re thinking about coming along, do yourself a favour and don’t miss out … Read more »
Web Directions South 2009: Early bird pricing extended to July 9
Guess what: you’ve got just two weeks left to take advantage of early bird pricing for Web Directions South 2009.
Getting those training approvals through really is hard. We know this because every year we hear a familiar chorus from people who need just a bit more … Read more »
Sydney UPA Chapter’s 2nd Birthday Celebration — We’re sponsoring!
On Wednesday July 1 at 6.00 there’s three very good reasons to come along to the Sydney Usability Professionals Association’s 2nd birthday party. Firstly, you’ll get to see a great … Read more »
WDS09 Day 1 closing keynote: Cameron Adams
I actually got a little teary just then when I posted this at the site (not something I normally do while cruising around my Wordpress admin): the day 1 closing keynote at Web Directions South 2009 will be my good friend, Cameron Adams, talking … Read more »
July 24 Web Standards Group Canberra meeting
Web Directions will be sponsoring the next Canberra Web Standards Group Meeting, to be held on July 24, 2.30 to 4.30 at the NLA Theatre. Come along for the chance to win a ticket to Web Directions South 2009, and to hear a couple of excellent presentations.
- Simon Pascal Klein — … Read more »
Loyalty discount extended by 1 week — ends June midnight 19
If you’ve been to one of our conferences or workshops in the past you should have received emails over the last month about the extra special loyalty discount we have for you for Web Directions South this year. Just $750 — an absolute bargain for what … Read more »
Web Directions South 2009 — Register now, pay later
With the cut off date for early bird pricing for Web Directions South this year fast approaching, as always, I get a lot of emails about when payment for tickets can be made. The answer is, we’re pretty flexible on this, and, for a start, it’s … Read more »
Web Directions speakers on Twitter
As you might expect, just about everyone speaking at Web Directions South this year can be found on Twitter — no surprises there. If you’re planning on coming along to the conference in October, be sure to say hi to the people below, maybe give them … Read more »
Usability — the word on everyone’s lips this week
Lisa Herrod has been breathing a bit of life into the local scene by turning the Social Usability Professionals Association meetups into a regular event at The Arthouse in Pitt St. If you haven’t been before, these are a great opportunity to mix with other local usability and UX people … Read more »
Port80 May 2009 Roadtrip Meetups
It’s really great to see industry meetups taking off again. The latest I have heard is that the Australian Web Industry Association are hitting the road — bringing Port80 Drinks to Sydney and Melbourne this May.
Founded … Read more »
Data driven design — a debate that isn’t going away?
You’ll all remember the mini fracas a month or so back when Doug Bowman pulled up stumps at Google, and moved on to the role of Creative Director at Twitter.
John and I thought there was definitely enough meat … Read more »
Announcing Web Directions South 2009
After a very frenzied two weeks of finalising speakers and pulling all the content together for the site, Web Directions South 2009 is now open for business. And, we’re just a bit excited about what’s going to be happening on October 6 — 9 this year.
From our humble beginnings … Read more »
Donna Spencer’s Card Sorting book from Rosenfeld Media — Published today
Web Directions speaker Donna Spencer has got to the end of that long journey and today had her book, Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories, published by Rosenfeld Media. Congratulations Donna!
In this book, Donna describes how to plan and run a card sort, … Read more »
Web Directions South 2009 Roadshow — It’s a wrap
Thanks very much to all those who came along last week in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney and made our first Web Directions Roadshow such a success. It was great to see such a good crowd come along to see the six excellent workshops.
All the presenters said … Read more »
Know anyone who might be interested in presenting on cloud computing at Web Directions South this year?
John and I are keen to do a “briefing” on cloud computing in the Business track at Web Directions this year — see below for a description of the way we’d see this session going. We’d like to find someone who could present this session without necessarily emphasizing any of … Read more »
The perfect is the enemy of the good
The perfect is the enemy of the good
Nice quote from Mark Pesce, who has an op ed piece in this morning’s Sydney Morning Herald about the world full of surprises which will open up with the government’s very hi-speed broadband network.
Update: I … Read more »
Ignite Web — a great Melburnian night
Thanks to everyone who came along to Ignite Web last night at The Apartment in Melbourne, with particular thanks to the presenters for putting so much work into entertaining us all, Steve and Glo and the guys from … Read more »
Wanted: Someone to help us with podcasts
We’ve got a whole bunch of amazing audio content that came out of Web Directions North — all the presentations were recorded — that we’re really keen to turn into podcasts and get out there. Would anyone be able to spare us a couple of days to help us out … Read more »
Does (web) design matter?
Reading about Doug Bowman’s departure from Google, and some of the responses and coverage that has ensued (Kevin Fox, who was a UX designer at Google; … Read more »
Web Directions South 2009 — Submit your program ideas
For just on a month we’ve been running a forum asking for ideas for how we can make Web Directions South this year even better than it has been in previous years. Lost of good things have come from this, including ideas and … Read more »
Llumo — Feed reader for image and photo based feeds
Here’s something new and neat for people who collect a lot of image based feeds, from local developer Anson Parker. Llumo is a feed reader which makes the experience of … Read more »
ABC mobile web site fails accessibility test
As reported over at Crikey today, this is pretty embarrassing for the ABC.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched “ABC Mobile” yesterday. Unfortunately, the home page does not appear to have been designed in accordance with … Read more »
Ignite Web — Presentation Slots All Full
Just a quick update to John’s previous post…
Lots of interest in the very first Ignite Web, which we’ll be hosting in Melbourne on April 1. Stephen, the person who’s actually doing all the hard work and organising the event, has just been in touch to say that … Read more »
Andy Clarke’s Visual Web Design Masterclass — a big big day
We thought it was great when Andy Clarke said he’d be keen to head back down to Australia and be a part of our roadshow workshop series in April, but we’re even more thrilled about it now that he has given us all a sneak peak … Read more »
Web Directions Forum — Got some comments on some session ideas?
Lots of activity over at the Web Directions forum.
There’s a few discussions going on that it would be nice to get a bit more detailed input on — comments are where the real gems of information come out! What we’d really like some … Read more »
Announcing Trampoline — Exciting Melbourne Event
Got ideas? Love hanging out with other people who have ideas? Got nothing to do on Saturday March 28? Then get yourself along to Trampoline — a brand new event in Melbourne, which is being organised by Pat Allen, Steve Hopkins and … Read more »
Lovely Facebook data visualisation
Just found this via Seb Chan at Fresh + New(er). Nexus is a little app that takes all your Facebook connections and their connections with each other, and creates a visualisation of this.
Here are my constellations.
That large galaxy, as … Read more »
Canberra Web Standards Group Meeting — More free books
Web Directions Roadshow is sponsoring the next Canberra Web Standards Group meeting, on March 18. Get along to the meeting for your chance to win a copy of
- Indi Young — Mental Models
- Andy Clarke — Transcending CSS
- Luke Wroblewski … Read more »
The great roadshow book give away
If you’ve been thinking about coming to one of the workshops at the Web Directions Roadshow in April, now is the time to seize the day and get your registration in: John brought back a whole bunch of excellent web design and development books from … Read more »
Web Directions Forum — The First 24 Hours
We’re really happy — if a little overwhelmed! — with the number of suggestions, comments and votes our new Web Directions Forum has already generated in its first 24 hrs.
As I said yesterday, … Read more »
Announcing the Web Directions South Forum
As of today, we’re officially open to your suggestions about any aspect of the conference this year: please come in and take a look around at the brand new Web Directions forum.
And the best part is, every month we’re going to be giving … Read more »
Scroll Number 2 — Free copy for roadshow attendees
Plans are well and truly afoot for the next issue of our magazine, Scroll, which we plan to release in time for the Web Directions Roadshow workshop series.
If you’re thinking of coming along to one of the workshops, here’s another reason to … Read more »
5 difference between iPhone native and mobile-web apps
Brian Fling is going to be presenting his Creating Mobile 2.0 Web Apps workshop as part of the Web Directions Roadshow. Andrea Hill attended Brian’s workshop when he gave it in Denver last week, and came away with … Read more »
Dan Saffer — Tap is the New Click
Way back in 2006, when he’d just published what was to go on to become his very successful book, Designing for Interaction, Dan Saffer came out to Sydney for Web Directions South 06 and presented a much loved workshop of the same name. Since then Dan … Read more »
Accessible Twitter
Via AniktoBlog:
Accessible Twitter works just like Twitter with a few interface tweaks. Upon visiting the site, the first thing one notices is the large … Read more »
Experimenting with social media
This interview with the staff of COSI — a Science Museum in Columbus Ohio — has some solid insights into the institutional realities of experimenting in social media. The project seems … Read more »
Web Directions 2009 Roadshow
This April Web Directions is going to be throwing all the gear in the back of the ute and hitting the road for a whistlestop tour of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney with a workshop lineup of the best thinkers and educators in the game: the Web … Read more »
Going to SXSW? Make sure you get yourself connected
John and I went to SXSW 3 years in a row between 2005 and 2007. The first year was pretty good, suffused as it was with that thrill of meeting people we’d known via email etc for years. But the second year was probably the best for a whole host … Read more »
Campaign Monitor — giving back
Here at Web Directions we love Campaign Monitor. And what’s not to love? These guys have the best email marketing software for designers in the game, a slick new look and feel for all their sites and … Read more »
And now we play the waiting game
Interesting article over at Web Worker Daily talking about the impact of the recession, at least from the US point of view.
Got me thinking about how we might get a handle on what is happening here. … Read more »
Scroll Number 1 — full articles now online
How quickly a quarter of a year rolls by. When we launched Scroll during Web Directions South 08 we promised that all the articles would be published in full online 3 months after the print magazine was published, so, here they are.
If you didn’t manage to get your hands on … Read more »
Ten user experience myths debunked
Whitney Hess has gathered together insights from a whole bunch of influential user experience practitioners and writers to debunk a few myths about what the profession of user experience actually is. She came up with The 10 Most Common Misconceptions About … Read more »
Bokeh Type Toy
Another little distraction from the Man in Blue — the bokeh type experiment. Real real pretty.
Oh, and in case you didn’t know already, bokeh is that effect you get in a photograph when you have a narrow depth of field, and some bright points of light and … Read more »
Ignite Sydney, January 22 — Register now
The second Sydney Ignite will be held at the Shelbourne Hotel on January 22. If you haven’t registered to attend already, get in now — it’s free! There are still a few places left, but these will go quickly.
The idea of Ignite is simple — presenters stick to … Read more »
UX Book Club
This is a great idea — and indeed one that other disciplines in the web industry could think about. UX Book Club is a get-together in which people interested in the area of user experience come to discuss a book relevant to the discipline. Take a look at the … Read more »
JS-909 — Cameron Adams’ Drum Machine in JavaScript
If you went to Craig Sharkie’s JavaScript Libraries Panel at Web Directions South this year, you will no doubt be familiar with this latest work of that obsessive genius, Cameron Adams. Craig charged Cameron with … Read more »
Print’s not dead
Its purpose has just changed.
This blog post from Khoi Vinh got me thinking.
Interesting that Khoi chose to publish the photo in black and white. Maybe he always does this to fit in with the style of his blog, but, for me it emphasises a broader point as well. A … Read more »
WDS08 speakers — SitePoint interviews
One of our media partners, SitePoint, did a whole bunch of interviews while they were covering the event this year, all of which are now online. So, if you enjoyed what you heard from the people below while you were at the conference, be sure to check out the following … Read more »
Lessons learned while developing an iPhone site
Got a client who wants you to build an iPhone site? There’s a growing body of resources out there that will help you learn from the hard won experience of those who have gone before you. Check out this one from the Flickr team. And closer to home, here’s … Read more »
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 »
Photos from Web Directions South 2008
I’ve just uploaded almost 500 photos taken by our photographer this year, Wade Millican, who might I say did a thoroughly excellent job — thanks Wade!
Check them out for yourself. Even better, if you have time and inclination to tag … Read more »
WDS08 got you hankering for a change?
Monday morning after a week like the last one can be heavy going no? If things seem just a little pedestrian as you look around the office this morning, and contemplate what you have to do this week, you do have options you know. Take a break round 11 and … Read more »
Very nice molt:n t shirts — get yours!
Scott and Cheryl of molt:n digital came up with a great design for the t shirts they’ll be giving away at the conference this year.
Make sure you get yourself one by blogging or flickring something about Web Directions and tagging … Read more »
Win an ipod touch — thanks to our closing night party sponsors 99designs and Gruden
99designs and Gruden have just come on board as our closing night party sponsors, which is great news in itself. But even better is the fact that … Read more »
Social Events during Web Directions
Plenty to do after hours during Web Directions South this year — rest assured, you will not be going back to your hotel room after things wrap up at the conference and workshops each day.
Please let me know if you’re organising something you’d like me … Read more »
Internet Explorer 8 — are you ready for a CSS renaissance?
Because browsers evolve so rapidly, there really is no time to sit back and feel that you already know it all if you are a front end developer. New browsers give you a lot to be excited about with new levels of support for CSS, but at the same time … Read more »
Web Directions South 2008 — We have Webjam!
Some very exciting news for everyone who’s going to be in town for Web Directions South 2008. Those four days in September just got even better with the Webjam team announcing that the all new Webjam 8 will happen at … Read more »
Wifi at Web Directions South this year — latest news
Following on from all the comments we got on the the two blog posts we put out there last week on this topic, John and I decided to do a bit further investigation into extending wifi into the conference theatres this year at Web Directions South. It hasn’t quite … Read more »
Web Directions South 2008 t shirt remixes
There’s some cute remixes of the Web Directions T shirt over at Redbubble already. Very droll, all of you :)
You can order “Cloud vs Bird” at Redbubble today … Read more »
Great backchannel stories of our time
John wrote here yesterday about Wifi availability at the conference venue this year. The good news is, if all goes according to plan, we should be swimming in the network, which is great.
There’s been … Read more »
Local Government on the Open Web — Presentation by Lachlan Hardy
A couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of attending the closing keynote at the Local Government Web Network Conference. It was an excellent presentation by Lachlan Hardy on the possibilities created by the ideas behind … Read more »
Sydney Workshop with Indi Young in November
I’m sure I’ve spoken about Indi’s excellent presentation from Web Directions North earlier this year before. It was such a clear headed explanation of her Mental Models methodology for aligning your design strategy with how people actually work. … Read more »
What does it all mean?
I laughed out loud the moment I saw the very first iteration of Carla’s idea for the Web Directions T Shirt. It always appeals to my sense of humour to reflect on those painful moments of misunderstanding you have to go through if you are going to participate in that … Read more »
Web Directions South 2008 t shirts by Carla Hackett
Update
Our first remix, by Gary Barber.…the whale puts in his inevitable appearance.
And here’s a cute one from Susan MacGillivray — Cloud vs Tweet
This year we wanted … Read more »
A smarter, simpler phone — can this Australian team invent one?
Interesting story in today’s SMH technology section. Queensland based company Orange Dot are on a mission to design a mobile phone for adults with intellectual disabilities, many of whom find modern phones too complex and difficult to use.
That was the experience of a 34-year-old man with Down’s Syndrome, who having … Read more »
Our very own Baby Name Explorer
No doubt you’ve all whiled away the odd hour putting your name, and that of all your friends into the famous Baby Name Explorer. But it was always a bit artificial from an Aussie point of view I felt, because the data was from the US. What, no … Read more »
ScreenBurn at SXSW Game Design Competition
Got a great idea for a video game? I know I do. You get these two sticks which you can move vertically up and down the screen to hit a square ball back and forth. As the ball hits the stick, it makes a really cool, lifelike beeping sound.….(if you’re … Read more »
What are the local internet gurus excited about?
If you happened upon a copy of yesterday’s Icon in the Sydney Morning Herald you may have noticed “Dopple Your Fun” — where five local internet gurus — Cheryl Lead, Virginia Murdoch, John Allsopp, Lachlan Hardy and Tim Lucas were asked by the Herald’s Nick Galvan … Read more »
Interview with Mark Pesce at The Alcove
Local web visionary Mark Pesce has become a fixture as our closing keynote at Web Directions South. He spoke a couple of months back at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York, where he was also interviewed on The Alcove. Here’s the interview in full. Mark speaks at … Read more »
Get a free t shirt from our supporter molt:n
Words? Code? Design? Which are you? And do you want a free t-shirt so you can let the world know? It’s easy to get your hands on one — all you need to do is blog or Flickr something about Web Directions and tag it ‘moltnWD’.
Wear your passion at … Read more »
Web Directions South 2008 Schedule Published
Let the decision making begin: Developing for iPhone or Strategies for Social Media Engagement, Creating Sexy Style Sheets or Choosing the Right Web App Framework. Because the official schedule for Web Directions South 2008 has now been set in stone and handed down.
I’ve laboured over … Read more »
Deafness — our next big accessibility challenge?
Further to John’s post on Lisa’s article on A List Apart — Deafness and the User Experience — I just wanted to point out a little initiative we have started over the last couple of weeks here at Web Directions.
We’ve been publishing podcasts after our events for some years … Read more »
Aussies at SXSWi 2009
With our country yet again in the grip of that four yearly frenzy of jingoistic nationalism that is The Olympics, even I can’t help but come over all patriotic. In that spirit I encourage you all to head on over to the SXSW panel picker and give your vote … Read more »
Thinking about going to SXSW 2009?
Attending SXSW interactive at least once in your life is a must for any web professional, no matter how far you have to travel to get there. You’ll get to see what some of the most interesting people in the industry have been working on for the last 12 … Read more »
Edge of the Web — Perth is the place to be
Time’s running out to take advantage of early bird pricing for Perth’s long awaited web industry event: Edge of the Web, brought to you by the Australian Web Industry Association.
On the 6th of November there will be a full day two track conference featuring
- Derek Featherstone, who’ll be delivering … Read more »
- Simon Pascal Klein — … Read more »