Year round learning for product, design and engineering professionals

Evolution and teleology as models of innovation

Generative AI is currently dominating tech (and broader) conversations unlike just about anything I’ve seen in 40 or more years immersed in technology. Some of the smartest folks I know, often with decades of experience, are enthused in a way people with decades of experience rarely are. Include me as one of them (the enthused […]

Web Directions AI–an ’emergency’ conference

I’ve been doing technology stuff for well over 40 years. As a hobbyist, a student and then professionally for a long time now. I’ve seen many fads and trends (and a few things that have been the real deal) come and go.  As a teenager I saw the emergence of micro-computing (that’s what they’re called before […]

The death the Web continues to be greatly exaggerated

In 2010, Wired Magazine published one of its periodically famous mis-takes (older folks will remember the 1997 “Pray” cover predicting Apple’s imminent demise, and even older folks their prediction that push technologies would kill off the web–”kiss your browser goodbye“). In 2010 it was not Apple that was dying, rather the web was already dead! […]

Random web reading for this week

Some weeks my notebook of links to share fills up, other weeks seem slower–like this one, though I could have sworn I read as much or more than usual. So just a handful of links this week, but all high value. Conditional CSS with :has and :nth-last-child Ahmad Shaheed is one of our favourite CSS […]

Keeping up with an ever changing web

Let’s set the effective starting date of the Web as 1993 and the release of Mosaic, the first graphical browser that gained any sort of widespread adoption. 30 years. A lifetime ago or more for many, though I remember it well. What was the technology landscape at the time? Windows dominated the consumer computing landscape […]

(re)introducing Web Directions AI

TL;DR; Today we’re announcing Web Directions AI A 1 day event focussing exploring the technologies, opportunities & impact of generative AI, taking place in Sydney, July 21st. It’s amazing value already (early bird tickets are just $395), but if you get a gold or silver ticket for Web Directions Summit by June 30th we’ll give you a free ticket […]

Some AI reading for the first week of May

This week’s reading is all about generative AI. And whether you’re a designer, developer, product manager, content strategist, whatever your role, take a look at our brand new conference, Web Directions AI, coming to Sydney very soon. Agents on the Brain Autonomous agents’ traction is undeniable. On the other hand, it’s unclear how useful these […]

the X moment for AI–solve for X

One of the analogies people all over have been using to try and distil what this moment feels like for AI is ‘the X moment for AI’. This is “the iPhone moment for AI“, or “the Web/internet moment for AI”. Bill Gates speaks of AI in as analogous to when he very first saw a […]

Engineering practice at Web Directions Code

Modern frontends are complex and large. They involve coordinating resources across front and back end, and across networks. They utilise numerous different technologies and resources, and typically involve teams of people performing different roles and potentially contributing to a code base with others they have never met scattered around the globe. Frankly it’s a marvel […]

AI, the fourth personal computing revolution

I’ve had to good fortune to see up close, and be involved in my own little way, in four transformative moments in technology over the last four decades. As a young teenager, the early PC era (we called them microcomputers back then) like the Apple II, Apricot, Acorn and TRS-80 (my own first computer) In […]

The Web Platform at Web Directions Code

The Web platform is constantly evolving, and what we can build in the browser becomes more complex and sophisticated by the day. We’ve long covered these capabilities at our conferences and Code will be no different, with a range of talks to help you get up to speed with what browsers are capable of today […]

JavaScript at Web Directions Code

We use it day in day out, but how much time do we invest in keeping out knowledge of JavaScript up to date? We get it (we’re developers too)–it often feels like a full time job just keeping up with what’s happening in front end technologies. That’s what drives the programming at all our conferences–at […]

What’s the place for design in the AI revolution?

Later this week in Sydney I’m MCing From Paint to Pixels: AI & The Creative Industries, a discussion with Jessica Priebe – Art historian and lecturer in emerging technologies at the  National Art School, Jamie Sissons – Founder of Absolutely AI, and Jesica Edwards, creative technologist at Canva. I’ll ask them their thoughts about the professional challenges […]

Front end architectures at Web Directions Code

How we architect our front ends is complex. So at Code we’re going to take a longer look at modern front end architectures. Kenneth Rohde Christiansen will take us beyond the front ends of today, and look at the capabilities coming, or already here in the Web Platform–from Web Neural Networks to Web GPU, Web […]

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I have yet to have an end-to-end conference experience that was as professional as what was provided by Web Directions

Joe Toscano Founder, designgood.tech