Web Directions: what’s in a name?
Quite a few people have asked about the name change for the conference. Web Directions is something of a new start, but most importantly, we wanted to capture both the continuity with WE04 and WE05, and something of a change in focus reflecting the change in the web development world since 2003. When we started planning the WE conferences, in very late 2003, they were pretty dark days for standards based development, accessibility, and in many ways the web in general. An aging Internet Explorer 6 (and even 5.5 and 5) really set the “standard” (or lack thereof) for development best practice (after all, these accounted for over 90% off all browsers in user), and alt text was about as far as most sites went toward accessibility.
How times have changed. Developing valid, accessible sites, using CSS for presentation, focussing on usability, all these are becoming accepted best practice, right across the board. The rise of Firefox and Safari, as well as the emerging importance of mobile devices, means that the original dream of a device independent, interoperable web is becoming a reality. “Real world semantics” like microformats, structured blogging and webpatterns all show enormous promise for making a far richer web. The birth of Web 2.0 (a real phenomenon, but vastly overused label to the point of meaninglessness), the explosive growth of RSS (not just for blogging), the rise of wikis, and continuing strong growth of blogging, user generated content and the increasing importance of online communities, are all phenomena which have gone from peripheral to central since 2003.
So rather than just focus on the essentials, wd06 focusses on the directions we are heading, with speakers like IA superstar “Mr Folksonomy” Thomas Vander Wal speaking on Information Architecture for the “Come to Me Web”, renowned designer Kelly Goto on “Designing for lifestyle”, Jeremy Keith on Ajax, Derek Featherstone on webapp accessibility, fantastic britpack designer Andy Clarke on Creating inspired design, as well as wonderful local speakers.
These speakers will help us map out current and new directions for our web endeavours, whether we are designers, front end developers, back end developers, managers, strategists, content developers, whatever our roles on the web.
We are proud of the lineup we’ve put together, humbled that so many wonder wonderful people have agreed to come and speak, and excited to hear what they have to say. WE04 and WE05 both had a profound impact on the way we work and think about the web. I am sure WD06 will do so too.
john
Lloyd
May 26th, 2006 at 11:48 PM
Bring it on! Webstock has barely closed yet I am already looking forward to the next opportunity to see people like Kelly Goto speak :)
dez
May 27th, 2006 at 12:13 AM
I was having a chat about the speakers with a couple of the crew after the Melb WSG meeting and as I pointed out then, I don’t think we should underestimate, or by any means downplay, the kalibre of the local lineup. Aussie developers and web professionals have been both innovators and leaders in spreading the use of web standards, evidenced by the facts that the Web Standards Group started here and that WE04 was the first web standards conference in the world (to the best of my knowledge). The name change also makes sense and is another reason why people should get up to conference - lots of changes happening, some good, some maybe not so good (eg WCAG 2.0) - a conference focussed on where things are going (and which gives us the chance to meet up and discuss this stuff) is definitely in order.
John
May 27th, 2006 at 1:29 PM
Dez,
without being in the least parochial, I think you are very right. We do great stuff here, and often it goes unheralded, because people look to the world as their market - Australia in many cases just isn’t big enough.
People like Campaign Monitor (who are presenting at WD06), Remember the Milk, and many more are really making some waves. We hope to be able to show case the work of these developers as part of WD06 (which is fast becoming “Australian Web Design Week”, with several announcements coming soon to add to the list of workshops, parties and the conference proper.)
See you in September.
john
» Web Directions maps out current and new directionsMacTips.info --- Miraz on Macs, web design and other matters. May 28th, 2006 at 8:59 AM
[...] Previously the conferences were called Web Essentials, but this year it’s changing direction a little: Web Directions: what’s in a name?: So rather than just focus on the essentials, wd06 focusses on the directions we are heading, with speakers like IA superstar “Mr Folksonomy” Thomas Vander Wal speaking on Information Architecture for the “Come to Me Web”, renowned designer Kelly Goto on “Designing for lifestyle”, Jeremy Keith on Ajax, Derek Featherstone on webapp accessibility, fantastic britpack designer Andy Clark on Creating inspired design, as well as wonderful local speakers. These speakers will help us map out current and new directions for our web endeavours, whether we are designers, front end developers, back end developers, managers, strategists, content developers, whatever our roles on the web. [...]
Sydney : Jason Baine
August 2nd, 2006 at 10:31 PM
The name change is a good one. Looking forward to it. Very exciting times in the industry I believe. I am particularly interested in hearing how accessible websites peform better in search engines than say table based layouts.