A Web Directions event Code 2016 Australia's Digital Government Conference

Session Details

Katie McLaughlin

The Power ⚡️ and Responsibility 😓 of Unicode Adoption ✨

Katie McLaughlin Operations Engineer

Communication is difficult. Whether it’s between humans or machines or a combination of the two, trying to translate meaningful information is a lossy process.

Converting programming languages to use the new Unicode standard is hard, but once it's in place, you get this marvellous feature-add: Emoji compatibility. No longer do we have to make faces with symbols, or be forced to platform-specific emoticons! Rejoice in the extended character set!

Emoji has a rich history as a way to allow the communication of ideas in a reduced amount of data, and dates back to a time where this was important: SMS communications in Japan. However, as social networks feverishly try and clamber into this bandwagon, their implementations of the standard create more issues with miscommunication that aren't already possible with a 12x12 pictograph. 🤔

From the technical to the social aspects, mojibake and UTF-8, this talk will cover why the extended character set provided by the Unicode standard needs to be treated with responsibility by users and platforms alike.

This talk is not just an excuse to see what parts of the conference stack can’t handle Unicode, I promise. 😇

Katie McLaughlin

Katie has worn many different hats over the years. She has previously been a software developer for many languages, systems administrator for multiple operating systems, and speaker on many different topics.

When she's not changing the world, she enjoys cooking, making tapestries, and yelling at JavaScript and its attempt at global variables.

Don't miss your chance to see Katie McLaughlin and many other inspiring speakers at Code 2016.

Tickets start at $999, for two in-depth days with the world's leading Front End Engineering experts.

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Australia's Front End Conference.
Now in Sydney and Melbourne

SydneyJuly 27–28

MelbourneAugust 1–2

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What is Code?

Australia's Front End Engineering Conference

A 2-day, single track conference for JavaScript and Front End Engineers, now taking place in Sydney and Melbourne.

Curated by founder John Allsopp, who has over 20 years of experience with Web development technologies, Code is recognised around the World as an agenda setting event, covering the latest developments in the Web's programming language, JavaScript, the Web platform, and current practice in security, performance and Web engineering.

Like all our events, Code features a mix of renowned international speakers, and local experts, all sharing deep experience of real world projects.

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Praise for past Web Directions events

Web Directions is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development.

Phil Whitehouse, General Manager, DT Sydney

I’ve been admiring the Web Directions events for years, and was honored to be part… What a fantastic event!

Ethan Marcotte, inventor of "responsive Web design"

Out of any conference, Web Directions is far and away our favourite

Dave Greiner, founder, Campaign Monitor

our audience watches intently

About Us

Co-founded and now run by John Allsopp, Web Directions has for over a decade brought together leading developers, engineers, visual, IxD, UX and product designers, Art and Creative Directors, indeed everyone involved in producing web and digital products to learn from one another, and the World's leading experts across this vast field.

We spend our lives thinking about what comes next, keeping up with trends in technology, practices and processes, and filtering the hype, to make sure you don't miss trends that matter, and don't waste time on hype that doesn't.

We promise attending one of our events will leave you significantly better versed in the challenges you face day to day, and in solutions for addressing them.

In 2016, we'll be organising Respond in Sydney and Melbourne, Transform in Canberra, Code in Sydney and Melbourne, and Direction in Sydney.

vignettes form our events, social, speakers and more. Includes Hannah Donovan skylarking.

John Allsopp

John Allsopp has been working on the Web for over 20 years. He's been responsible for innovative developer tools such as Style Master, X-Ray and many more. He's spoken at numerous conferences around the World and delivered dozens of workshops in that time as well.

His writing includes two books, including Developing With Web Standards and countless articles and tutorials in print and online publications.

His "A Dao of Web Design" published in 2000 is cited by Ethan Marcotte as a key influence in the development of Responsive Web Design, who's rightly acclaimed article in 2010 begins by quoting John in detail, and by Jeremy Keith as "a manifesto for anyone working on the Web".

Code of Conduct

For over a decade, we've worked hard to create inclusive, fun, inspring and safe events for the Web Industry.

As part of our commitment to these values, we've adopted a code of conduct for all involved: ourselves, our speakers, our partners and our audience.

If you have any concern or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.