Inclusive design presentation, now on TV

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I’ve been told my presentation at last July’s WordCamp Sydney 2012 has finally made it to WordPress TV. Even though I don’t really like the sound of my voice or my annoying ticks and gestures, I thought it would be a good companion to the page of Inclusive Design resources I posted at the time.

A friend told me that it is now listed as a “Popular Video” on the front page of WP TV, so I thought I’d take advantage of the SEO love while I can. I apologise for the video being Flash and not HTML5, but if you visit the site you can also download the H264 version from the site.

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To this day, a beautiful video

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I usually don’t share in this way but this video is so beautiful, passionate and inspiring I felt the need to share it here:

Please take 7 and a half minutes out of your day to fill your heart with this passionate film.

Thank you Shane Koyczan for this breathtaking film.

To This Day Project infographic

Don’t buy Windows 8 a coffin just yet

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It’s only been a month and people are already ringing the death knell for Windows 8.

From pieces like this one claiming Windows 8 is an opportunity for Apple, to reviews panning the Microsoft Surface with RT, the tide has turned, from excitement and enthusiasm for Microsoft taking such a bold step, to opprobrium and ridicule for getting some things wrong with the latest release of their operating system.

As an Apple user and advocate for nearly two decades, I was always comfortable gloating that Apple seemed to get the User Interface right more often than not, even when the underlying operating system was a little flaky at times, to say the least. The interface always improved, even when the OS continued to fail.

Remember System 7.5? ’nuff said.

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WordCamp Sydney 2012

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Joe presenting in a lecture theatre at WordCamp Sydney 2012

©Neil Guanlao http://www.neiguanlao.com/

Last week I had the pleasure of attending WordCamp Sydney 2012 and presented for the first time in a while. It was on a subject near to my heart, inclusive design. The biggest thrill for me was being able to present early and against someone I though would claim the entire crowd, Kimanzi T Constable who was following the keynote in the larger lecture hall. I still had a decent and enthusiastic crowd who posed some good questions. It was great to get  the preso over at the start of the conference so I could relax and enjoy the rest of the conference, which I did, thoroughly.

The entire event is archived at Eventifier, which is well worth investigating in itself, as it collects public traces of your event through the content shared on twitter via hashtags, and there are better writers than I who chose to write about the presentations they saw there.

The year of coding

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NB: updated July 24, 2013

A recent WordPress Sydney meetup got me thinking. Is it useful for writers, designers, journalists, or any other people who do stuff that touches the web, to know how to code?

One of the presenters was guiding some people through what it takes to create a WordPress Theme. For the uninitiated, a WordPress theme is the part that sits between the WordPress application (which is a Content Management System) and the user’s browser, to pull the content and page elements together for the webpage.

Dee Teal mentioned there are courses available on teamTreehouse for Web Design, Web Development and iOS development. It’s a great service where you pay by the month and take as much tuition as you can handle. It’s a great service but if you’re uncertain of your commitment level before paying anything, I have a few free suggestions below to dip your toe in to ignite your developmental spark.

Before you start though it is useful to understand a few basics about coding for the web.

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Zoo2Zoo 2011 Ride

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OK, just finishing packing so thought I’d take one last  opportunity to get you to consider to donate to my fundraiser for the Black Dog Institute. Full details are on this other post but the actual donation page is at: http://sh.ortenzi.com/z2z. I just had a look and we are a few k short of $100,000. Which is eye-wateringly amazing, if you ask me.

The maps of the ride are below, just so you can get a feel for the ride we’ll be on, and I hope to have enough energy during the rest stops to twitter a bit at twitter.com/wheelyweb.

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Shoes on Bloor

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Another pair of shoes, from my remote correspondent, pistachiowriting.com

Found at Bloor and Dovercourt, Toronto, outside the Tim Horton’s.

a pair of trainers, on the pavement, near but not in a litter bin

zoo2zoo need crew

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As you know, I’m riding with a charity group in a couple of weeks. Hard to miss in here, but if you have, here it is: sh.ortenzi.com/z2z. Jim, Grant and the Andrews are asking around if anyone is free on oct 14, 15, 16 to help out as support crew for the ride. Please share the link and feel free to ring or email me if you have any questions.

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The Glue of the Zoo2Zoo are the Support Crew. Over the past 5 years, we have been fortunate to have some great people helping us out – handing out drinks, setting up the lunch and providing some much needed encouragement along the way.

This year we require 12 support crews in vehicles, which will mean each group of riders will have a vehicle close by if anything is needed. It is an important element for safety reasons but also the overall enjoyment of the ride.

If possible, could anyone who knows someone who would like to have a weekend on us (petrol money, coffee allowance, dinner shouted, accommodation provided etc) and help out on the 2011 Zoo2Zoo, please click on the following link and fill in the required fields.

registernow.com.au

And if anyone does not have access to a car but would like to help then fantastic – we will team them up with another crew.

Any questions, email us on sydney AT zoo2zoo DOT com

All the best,

Jim Scollon, Grant Hittmann, Andrew Back and Andrew McKay

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If you can’t, but know someone who might be interested, please pass it on.