Entries Tagged 'general' ↓

This blog, I mean

The history of Zombiecoder is thus: I started blogging on my original personal web site, http://kay.smoljak.com/. After the MXDU conference in 2003, I got added to the Fullasagoog aggregator in the ColdFusion category, and eventually to Macromedia/Adobe’s MXNA.

The great thing about aggregators is that they bring you a lot of traffic that you wouldn’t otherwise get. The problem with aggregators is that really, you need to stay on topic as much as possible because the people subscribing to that aggregated feed don’t want just any old rubbish. It’s entirely different from having your own individual subscribers.

I was getting pretty involved in the Web Standards Group and AWIA and our local Perth Port80 chapter and it seemed that web standards, CSS, accessibility and other such topics didn’t fit in so well with the code-focus of a ColdFusion blog - so zombiecoder was born.

However, things have changed. While I’m still involved with the various activities of AWIA and Port80, I just don’t have enough time to devote to the WSG. And since 2003, the general CF community has become more and more interested in the wider web - to the point where web standards and accessibility are not considered off-topic anymore.

Another shift that has occurred is more to do with the web standards community: there just seems to be less web standards blogging going on in general. Some people have different thoughts as to why that’s occurred - me, I think that we’re getting to saturation point. The people who are listening already get it. Specifications move slowly - there’s been nothing new in HTML or CSS for a long time. There’s just nothing much to write about. 

So… here’s what I’m thinking. I’m thinking I will import the posts from this blog into kay.smoljak.com. I will set up redirects so no links get broken. Essentially, merge the two blogs into one: a meta-blog, if you will, but rather than calling it a web standards blog or a ColdFusion blog I’ll call it my web development blog and post about topics related to all facets of web development as I see fit.

So… thoughts? Does anyone agree, or disagree? Think it’s a good or bad idea? Like it, hate it, don’t give a toss either way? Let me know in the comments if I’m doing the right thing - cos I think I am, but I’m not sure.

“People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession.”

A List Apart are running a “web peeps” survey, to try and find out some demographic information about our fledgling industry. Who are we? What do we do and where do we come from and where are we going? And most importantly, what are we earning along the way?

Although it’s targeted more towards employees than sole traders or small business owners, I think that it could yield some interesting results - so pop on over and your critical data.

It’s been a bit quiet around here lately, but I hope to fix that in the new year.

Here’s to a very merry Christmas (or other seasonal holiday if you celebrate something different) and a fantastic, standards-compliant, accessible and usable new year.

Drew McLellan’s 24 Ways - the web standards advent calendar - is back for 2006 with some great tips to impress your friends. It’s already up to day 22, with some great articles by Derek Featherstone, Andy Budd, John Allsopp, Jeremy Keith and other web superstars.

And if you need some last-minute Christmas bling on your blog, web site, email newsletter or anything else, check out these FREE Christmas icons from Clever Icons, a new stock icon site we’ve launched. Created by celebrity icon designer Anton, the Creative Starfish of the Clever Starfish team.

Happy Holidays everyone!

I’ve been way too busy to post anything substantial lately - and here’s why: I would like to present - Clever Starfish!

After nearly 7 years, my partner Dave and I have left PerthWeb and have started our own venture, Clever Starfish. Dave’s a Windows programmer so we have some software projects planned, and I will be focusing on search engine optimisation and online marketing - with a web standards view, of course!

I’d love to get any feedback about our new site. The design and initial cutup was done by Anton the Little Tree, and I did the CSS refinements, site construction and WordPress integration (the news section is powered by WordPress). Dave and I wrote the content together.

It uses ems for almost everything (except for a few things in the masthead), so the font size can be bumped up a few places without anything too weird occurring. Other than that, I’m most proud of the footprint of the site - while it looks reasonably graphical, the entire home page is only 23K which means that even on a modem it loads in under 5 seconds.

Of course, there’s always more work to be done on a site - especially a web developer’s own site - but the feedback I’ve had so far has been good.

Entries are now open for the WA Web Awards 2006.

Exciting, huh? I wish I had something cool to enter, but this year, I’ll be part of the organising team only.

Last year we had a cocktail awards presentation evening – but this year we’re going all out with a 3 course dinner, at the Parmelia Hilton again. Last year was fun – complete with the awards chairperson accidentally setting a colleague on fire – and this year should be even better.

The 2006 awards judges are again mostly from interstate. Sonja Bernhardt will be back with us, as will Matt Voerman, the only local on the panel. Joining them are John Allsopp, Cameron Adams, and a “mystery judge” who is still to be announced. The judging process, overseen by Megs Carpenter, is a long and arduous process, and our judges are volunteers who only do it for the love, adoration and an awards night junket to Perth. So immense thanks are due to them in advance for the hard job they have ahead of them.

Thanks are also due to our sponsors, without whom the whole thing wouldn’t be possible. So far we have WebCentral, Bright Telecommunications and Perth IX as Gold level sponsors, Edith Cowan University as Silver level, and Central TAFE, Crumpler Bags, and Sitepoint as Bronze level.

Judging criteria, category list and entry forms are on the official web site now.