SxSW podcasts!

Posted August 15, 2006 at 8:24 AM | Tagged as: Podcasts, SxSW, Web Standards | Comments Off

Sure, this comes a little late, but better late than never, right?

The good folks at the SxSW Festival have finally posted the podcasts for the panels that I was a part of. The following links will take you straight to the MP3s:

• WTF: WaSP Task Force Panel - Getting the Job Done Right, in which I talk about the activities of the Education Task Force.
• WaSP Annual Meeting, during which we launched the new WaSP Web site (sort of).
• How to Convince Your Company to Embrace Standards, in which my old friends from AOL and I tell you how a grass roots effort can create change! You can also view the slides from our presentation, or read the transcript! (Thanks, Kevin and Steve!)

SxSW notes, for you and for me

Posted March 24, 2006 at 2:02 AM | Tagged as: Industry Events, SxSW | Comments Off

(This post originally started on March 13, 2006 at 10:36 AM CST)

The crazy thing about SxSW is that you get busy and don’t have time to do the things you mean to do. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just the way it is. So you go with the flow.

Anyway, I wanted to post notes, cool quotes, and links to folks I’ve met (or reunited with). I’ll update this whenever I have time… maybe not until after I get home!

So far, here are some new folks that I’ve met:

• Ryan and Adam from Infinity Web Design, on the flight from Minneapolis to Austin
• Baratunde (meaning: one who is chosen) at Breaking Bread with Brad
• Kit Seeborg, one of the Webvisions organizers
• Eric Hansen, Minister of Culture (definitely the best title I’ve seen in a while!) at Tom Peters
• Pat Ramsey, standards wrangler at Southwestern University

There are many people here that I already knew (virtually) but am meeting for the first time:

• Chris Kaminski, a fellow WaSP member, and the guy who saved me from having to take time to write some scripts for the new site when I was still busy working on templates and design issues
• Drew McLellan, another fellow WaSP and creator of 24ways
• Kazuhito Kidachi, yet another fellow WaSP, whose done a fine job of translating and testing for the group

And I’ve gotta call out some of my AOL and ex-AOL friends:

• Tom Crenshaw, fellow hockey fan, Corrado enthusiast, and author of the foreward to the Flash 8 Bible
• JoRoan Lazaro, creator of the AOL Running Man

There are some really good pictures up on flickr from various activities, too:

• The WaSP ATF
• Me at the WaSP badge-making table
• How to Convince Your Company to Embrace Standards Panelists (including me!)

And all of my photos are up on Flickr as well.

And here are the slides from the panel I did with my AOL pals!

The Buzz about WaSP

Posted March 15, 2006 at 1:36 PM | Tagged as: SxSW, Web Standards | Comments Off

There was lots of buzz about the Web Standards Project during SxSW Interactive, and for good reason! After a panel on WaSP Task Forces, an open meeting, and the (slightly troubled but finally debugged) redesign launch, it’s clear that people see WaSP as alive and well, and ready to start stinging again. Woo hoo!

I’ll toot my own horn a bit and admit to my role in the redesign, which was the porting of the design created by Andy Clarke to WordPress. A proud moment for me just yesterday was in describing how I accomplished some of the content presentation objectives to Matt Mullenweg; he told me that I’d figured out some pretty cool stuff (which I fully intend to write about in the future)! But projects like this aren’t accomplished single-handedly, so I have to give big virtual hugs to Chris Casciano for porting tons of content to WP, Chris Kaminski for doing the scripting, and Holly Marie Koltz for doing lots of QA and content tweaking.

Meanwhile, the response to the Education Task Force has been overwhelming. I’ve probably got 30+ business cards and notes in my suitcase from folks wanting to know how they can help in our mission, as well as wanting to know how they can help affect change in their schools. And the contacts and ideas keep coming in via e-mail too… now to get some plans together! You can be sure that you’ll be hearing more from the eduTF soon.

Heading SxSW

Posted March 9, 2006 at 12:20 AM | Tagged as: Industry Events | Comments Off

Well, since everyone else has mentioned it, I guess I should too!

If you’re headed to SxSW Interactive, come to How to Convince Your Company to Embrace Standards on Tuesday at 10 AM. Kevin, Steve, Arun, Alla, and I will tell you how we got AOL to get with the times (and standards).

You can also see me speak with my friends from the Web Standards Project on Monday during WTF: WaSP Task Force Panel and later at the WaSP Annual Meeting (with a very special unveiling!).

Even if you don’t come to any of my panels, don’t be a stranger if you see me. I’m all about networking, talking geekery, or just being silly, so come say hello!

Oh the irony! IEEE site not standards-compliant

Posted January 23, 2006 at 4:43 PM | Tagged as: Industry Events, Web Standards | Just 1 Comment

Oh the irony — that a standards body should ignore standards in creating their new Web site!

As a member of the IEEE, I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that the new IEEE Web site redesign was announced in an e-mail newsletter… along with another entry titled “Let’s Not Overlook Standards”. Since their previous site didn’t make use of Web standards, I had hopes that this one would… but on viewing source of the new site, those hopes were quickly dashed.

What does this say to users and to Web professionals when a technical standards body completely ignores Web standards? The term “unprofessional” doesn’t even seem to go far enough.

As a Web professional and as a member of the IEEE, I’m ashamed and I’m insulted. You should be too. Contact the IEEE and let them know how you feel.