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Web Directions South 09 Resources – many more now online

Maxine — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:30:54 +0000

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 make it to Web Directions at all this year, check the listing below.

Many of the speakers have even gone to the trouble of synching the audio with the slides, so it really is a lot like being there on the day: enjoy!

There’s some great content here - we’d love it if you could help us spread the word about these resources in particular to people who couldn’t be there on the day, by blogging about them twittering, or just emailing the link around to all your colleagues.

Keynotes

Design track

Development track

Business track

We also have video from the W3C track, which we’ll be making available soon.

Got your Google Wave invite? Scratching your head?

Maxine — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:46:10 +0000

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 Google offices, for an informal info night. I’m going to be there, so, rest assured, you won’t have to shame yourself by asking the “simplest question of the evening”, I’m sure I’ll manage to cover that off for you.

Hopefully see you there.

First batch of WDS09 resources now available

Maxine — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:24:40 +0000

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 absolute priority is making the resources from each of the sessions - podcasts and slides - available as soon as possible. So I’ve been contacting all the speakers and getting permissions sorted, as well as making sure all the slides are uploaded, while Guy has been preparing all the podcasts and the actual resource pages.

With 36 sessions at this year’s conference, we’ve got a bit of a mountain to climb, but we’ve certainly made a good start, and the following sessions are now completely online:

Trip to Japan for Web Directions East – winner announced!

Maxine — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:16:40 +0000

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 take us up on the offer of return airfare, accommodation, plus full attendance of Web Directions East 2009. Congratulations Dylan!!

Web Directions – The Soundtrack

Maxine — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:01:56 +0000

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 Stevens who alongside being a data driven design expert, also has excellent taste in music - as well as the new Air album - Love 2. Check out the music video to the single Sing Sang Sung - I guarantee it will make your afternoon!

And then for our opening and closing credits we took a bit of inspiration from Hollywood and used a song - Blood by Townsville band The Middle East - from soon to be released Australian feature film, Accidents Happen.

GovHack, Canberra Oct 30 and 31 – produced by Web Directions

John — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:38:13 +0000

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 the creation of mashups and apps on top of Australian Government data.

GovHack is a free, intensive day and a half exploring ways of creating mashups and applications with government data and services, and most importantly building some applications before the event is over. See you in Canberra, October 30 and 31.

The executive summary

What: The first ever Australian Government supported hack day
When: October 30 and 31 2009 (you can come to one or both days, or hack through the night at the venue)
Where: Canberra, Australia (venue TBA)
Who Should attend: Web designers and developers, IAs, back-end engineers, usablity and interaction experts, information visualization gurus, and anyone interested in developing applications, mashups, visualizations and other creative uses of Australian Government data
What will be provided?: Power, wifi, food, caffeine, inspirational mentors, and the chance to connect with new collaborators.
Price: Free, but RSVPs are essential

Tech23 startup event in Sydney

John — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:22:55 +0000

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.

Web Directions South 09 – Our best ever

John — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:57:10 +0000

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 by truly amazing people, incredible contributions of art and technology by Yiying Lu, MOB (their AR collaboration with Yiying, and their fantastic now.webdirections.org application), Agency Rainford for their Tweeps aggregator and Flinklabs, for their ConceptLens Twitter visualizer for Web Directions related tweets.

There’ll be much more to write very soon (along with the winner of the trip to Web Directions East in Tokyo next month), and of course, podcasts and slides to come very soon.

A huge thanks to all who made this possible, and beyond that wonderful - speakers, sponsors, volunteers, and above all you who attended. A great event is all about the audience.

John Allsopp and Maxine Sherrin

99designs Are Hiring A Front-end Ninja!

Maxine — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:56:35 +0000

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 move there) then you can read more about the role or apply online.

You also might have seen the team from SitePoint/99designs getting about the conference in their black t-shirts. They’re a friendly bunch, so be sure to approach them and say hi.

Special event for Web Week – go deep in the bowels of a leading data centre

John — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:34:43 +0000

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 Watershed at 5pm for a post visit drink on anchor - there’s Web Week events at the Watershed both evenings).

The centre is home to where a significant percentage of the internet in Australia is hosted, and has to be seen to be believed - in terms of its sheer scale, and the complexity of the technology. Then finish off the trip with a drink on Anchor. This is a rare chance to see beneath the hood of the web, so don’t miss out!

Here’s the lowdown

What: A rare chance to see the inner workings of a major data centre
When: Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th October at 330 for 345pm
Cost: Free, but RSVPs are essential and places are very limited - Tuesday 7th or Wednesday 8th
Where: Meet at the Watershed Hotel, Darling Harbour

The Fine Print

Photo IDs will be required (the data centre is a secure area).
Some walking will be required, so contact us if you have special needs.
Closed footwear (no thongs or sandals!) are required.
All attendees must RSVP 24 hours before the events. Photography in most areas is fine (you will be told of any areas where photography is not permitted).

A big thanks to Anchor, and Global Switch for this opportunity.

About Global Switch

Global Switch Sydney is Australia’s largest carrier neutral facility - delivering highly resilient, secure IT space.

All our IT space is protected by resilient power and cooling systems, state-of-the-art security and fire protection, and N+1 provisioning on critical services. We also maintain 24x7 operational control across the facility to ensure it’s well managed, monitored and maintained.