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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 »
Introducing Amped, the hackday, reloaded coming to Atlanta and Sydney
When you hear about the latest web technologies and techniques do you ever think “damn, I wish I could play with these right now”?
Enter Amped — the Hackday, reloaded.
We’ve taken the traditional hack day, pulled it apart, thought long and hard about what’s great, what’s … Read more »
Learn CSS3 with John Allsopp
Hot on the heels of my recent HTML5 course with SitePoint, is our new CSS3 Live course, starting today, August 16. It features screencasts, exercises, articles, and live streamed FAQs, and runs for 3 weeks.
We cover selectors, properties, media queries, and more in real depth — so if … 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 »
Tech23 — for Australian Technology Innovators
Tech23, in its second year now, is a great event in Sydney focussing on commercial technology innovation. Featuring a combination of insights from leaders in the tech industry, and a shootout for some serious prizes by 23 early stage technology companies, and all wrapping up with a great awards … Read more »
HTML5 Live, a two week online course from John
A quick note to all that with SitePoint, a fantastic community for web designers and developers, and publisher of many excellent design and development books, I’ll be running a two week course, online starting next Monday on HTML5. And best of all, it’s only $US9.95 (yep, less than a … 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 »
Web Directions South 2010
We’re really excited to take the wraps off Web Directions South for 2010. This has been a big year for Web Directions, with our first ever @media just wrapping up in London, and the recently announced Web Directions US in Atlanta.
But our home will always be Sydney, … Read more »
SVG Contest closes Friday
Just a quick update on our “No Bit, Sherlock” competition, where you can win some great prizes like XBoxes, Mindstorms and a SONY Vaio just for building an SVG button, or progress control.
There’s plenty of great examples you can learn from (remember, “view source” is not a sin, it’s … Read more »
@media is a wrap, and a huge hit
We’ve just wrapped up the first @media event run by Web Directions here in London, and if we say so ourselves, it’s been a huge hit.
An incredible array of speakers, covering a wide range of breaking topics including CSS3, HTML5, mobile web app development, geolocation, but much … Read more »
SVG — the Cinderella of web standards goes to the ball
To date, SVG has been rather the Cinderella of web standards (people forget that Cinderella was the beautiful, but overlooked sibling before the whole glass slipper business). But since the handsome Prince (Internet Explorer 9) showed interest in her, things have been looking up. OK, so I’ve pushed … Read more »
Opera Dragonfly Developer survey
Those of you who use Opera likely know about their very cool, open source development and debugging tool Dragonfly. It’s in many ways similar to Firebug, IE’s developer toolbar, and Safari’s Web Inspector.
The folks at Opera are running a short survey to help get a better understanding of what … Read more »
@media approaches — along with many web related events
We’re gearing up for our first @media filling the huge shoes left by founder Patrick Griffiths, and things are shaping up really well.
But @media’s not the only thing on next week. The excellent folks at London Web Standards are holding HTML5 and Flash, where are they now?, … Read more »
SitePoint interviews @media speakers Jonathan Stark and Tom Hughes-Croucher
Our fine friends, and long time supporters SitePoint have been doing a number of interviews with @media speakers in the lead up to the event next week. Craig Buckler speaks with Jonathan Stark, on building native mobile apps using web technologies, and Tom Hughes-Croucher on Server Side JavaScript … Read more »
Announcing Web Directions USA!
Our traditional early year timeframe for Web Directions North has come and gone, so you might have been wondering what’s been happening with Web Directions in North America.
We’re really excited to be able to say behind the scenes a lot has been going on, and we’re excited to be able … Read more »
State of Web Development 2010
We’re late to our own party here, but earlier this week we released the results of our second State of Web Development survey (last year it was the state of the web survey, but we changed the name to more closely match the aim of the report).
You can … Read more »
White Pages Australia new API — beta testers wanted
In a move that hopefully points to where Sensis is heading with their data, Australia’s White Pages are looking for beta testers for their new API. So if you’ve got an application that could benefit from all that data on business, government and personal contacts, get in touch … Read more »
jQuery conference in San Francisco next week
jQuery comes up all the time in our conferences (we’re particularly privileged to have jQuery founder John Resig speaking at @media in London in June).
So, it makes more than a little sense to point out that the next jQuery conference is on in San Francisco this coming weekend. … Read more »
A dao of web design turns 10
A decade ago, I wrote an article “A Dao of Web Design” that the then youngish A List Apart published apparently exactly 10 years ago today.
At the time, I practiced a lot of Tai Chi (which is closely associated with the philosophy of Daoism) (sadly, I do so much … Read more »
iPad, Work Discipline and Post Industrial Capitalism
When Apple finally revealed the world’s second worst kept secret (Ricky Martin today revealed the other one — good for you Ricky), I publicly and privately expressed, along with many others, my initial, if not disappointment, at least state of being underwhelmed. Whatever it was, it wasn’t revolutionary (and … 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 »
SVG and IE9
Today at MIX, Microsoft announced the first developer preview version of IE9, a far from finished, but usable look at where IE is headed. Microsoft will update this preview very couple of months or so.
There’s a great deal new, and much for us in the web design and development … 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 »
Bob Harris’s closing Keynote at Web Directions North 09
Jeopardy champion, fantastic comedian, author, inventor, television writer (credits include CSI and Bones) and much more, Bob Harris came into my life in a way unimaginable only a handful of years ago. My wife was well over due with our first child, and far from contented. She … Read more »
State of the web survey — closes today
A quick note for those web designers and developers out there who’ve not yet taken this year’s “State of the Web” survey — it closes today, so if you have a few minutes, please head along and take it.
The survey, follows up on last years and aims to … Read more »
@media early bird registration extended to March 7th
A quick note for those thinking about attending @media — we’ve (as has become something of a tradition) extended the super early bird discount of £100 off until March 7th. So, if you’d thought you’d missed out, you’ve got a few more days to register at this pretty amazing … Read more »
Boagworld Big Breakfast at @media
Web Directions is very proud to be hosting a really special and fun event on the Friday morning of @media: the Boagworld Big Breakfast. Boagworld is the longest running web design podcast with a passionate and dedicated community from all backgrounds. The show offers something for everyone from … Read more »
John Resig speaking at @media
That’s right, someone we’ve been trying for literally years to get to come and speak at one of our events, John Resig, father of JQuery, is speaking on JavaScript testing at @media in London in June.
As web applications mature, the need to test systematically and thoroughly is becoming … Read more »
AIIA 2010 iAwards
The Australian Information Industry Association, a long time industry Partner of Web Directions, has recently launched the 2010 edition of the iAwards, now in it’s 16th year, and Australia’s premier technology innovation awards program.
With 18 categories, including startups, tools, tourism, student projects, education and government, whatever solutions you … 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 »
Want to speak at Web Directions South 2010? Got Feedback and Suggestions?
If you want to speak at Web Directions South this year, here’s your chance to propose a topic.
Even if you don’t want to speak, you can also give us feedback and your thoughts on what you’d like to hear about this year, and who you’d like to see … Read more »
State of the Web Survey for 2010
In late 2008, we did our first comprehensive State of the Web survey, with well over a thousand respondents from all over the world answering. The aim was to capture a snapshot of the technologies and importantly practices and philosophies of professional web designers and developers. We published the … Read more »
Announcing Web Directions @media — London, June 8 – 11
In 2005, not long after WE04, the first conference we helped organise, well known UK web industry expert Patrick Griffiths, of HTML Dog fame, launched @media. An instant success, @media and Web Directions have always shared very similar DNA — a passion for the web, standards, accessibility and best … Read more »
MOB Case Study now.webdirections.org
The amazingly talented folks at MOB produced a couple of fantastic things for Web Directions South 09. Working with YiYing Lu, they produced the wonderful “you are what you tweet” Augmented Reality project. They also built now.webdirections.org, an iPhone optimized web application (yes, yes, the design decision … Read more »
Google’s new approach to China
Google had just taken what we believe is a huge step forward for the web, and the world
We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis … 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 »
GovHack, Canberra Oct 30 and 31 — produced by Web Directions
On Friday afternoon at Web Directions South we were excited and honoured to be able to announce GovHack, an event we’ll be producing in canberra at the end of the month. GovHack is an initiative of the Government 2.0 TaskForce, in support of MashupAustralia, a competition encouraging … Read more »
Tech23 startup event in Sydney
Hot on the heels of our amazingly well received Atlassian Startup Space at Web Directions South, Tech23 is a full day startup focussed event in Sydney on October 27.
If you are a startup, an investor, or someone thinking about starting up — get along, learn and network. … Read more »
Web Directions South 09 — Our best ever
Web Directions South is over for another year, and judging by the comments in person, in blogs, via email and of course via twitter, it would seem many think it is the best to date, something we’d have to agree with. Sometimes the stars seem to align — extraordinary presentations … 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 »
Special event for Web Week — go deep in the bowels of a leading data centre
Thanks to our sponsors Anchor Hosting, and Australia’s largest carrier neutral data centre, Global Switch, we’ll be running two, limited places 1 hour tours of their data centre facilities, in Tuesday the 6th and Wednesday the 7th of October at 345pm (and finishing up at the … Read more »
Win a ticket to Web Directions South from Opera Software
If you’ve not been able to get along to the conference next week, our excellent friends over at Opera Software are giving away a place to Web Directions South 09.
All you have to do is submit an abstract detailing what you would do to showcase the new breed of web … Read more »
Atlassian Startup Space at the Web Directions Expo
Thanks to the support of Atlassian, Aussie startups turned worldwide success, at the Web Directions Expo this year we have a dedicated startup focussed area, the Atlassian Startup Space.
7 recent startups, with a broad range of products and services relevant to the web industry have been chosen for this … Read more »
McFarlane Prize 2009 Shortlist
The Judges have been hard at work with the higher than ever before standard of this year’s Prize, and have decided on the short list for the 2009 Prize.
Last year’s winning designers, Propeller Global, after two grueling rounds of judging have three sites they designed in the short list … Read more »