Rowan Simpson

Some good news this morning from the Webstock team:

• Webstock Autumn Series

I’ve written about Garr and Presentation Zen here several times:

• TV sucks
• Garr Reynolds Wisdom, Part I
• Garr Reynolds Wisdom, Part II

I’ll look forward to hearing him talk.

Once again the organisers managed to put together a great line up of speakers. I’m not sure how they convince these people to travel half way around the world to come and talk to us, but good on them for doing it.

Actually, that’s not true at all. It’s obvious how they do it. They treat the speakers like rock stars, fuss over seemingly little details, and go the extra mile to create a great experience for everybody who attends - right down to the t-shirts, bags and name tags. It works! Even people who attend lots of conferences seem to love it.

I did wonder what I was going to talk to Sam about in our fireside chat. In the end it seemed to go okay (thanks to those who sent in questions). Everybody there seemed happy to sit back and take it in at the end of a long first day. I’ll post a link here to the video when it’s available for those of you who were not able to make it on the day.

With that out of the way I enjoyed the second day much more.

The highlights for me, to name just a few (with links to review from LukeW where available):

Nat Torkington was thought provoking as ever. I have to apologise (on behalf of my laptop) for messing with the ye olde font he used - but in the end it added an extra dimension to his presentation on future trends. I especially liked this quote, on the explosion in the amount of data available nowdays:

“Needles have stayed the same size, but the haystack is growing exponentially”

Cal Henderson from Flickr. A lot of the tool and techniques he talked about were familiar to those of us lucky enough to have worked at Trade Me, so it’s good to have a second example to point to when talking to developers about how to manage this sort of thing.

Tom Cotes, who gave the best explanations I’ve heard to date for why it’s important to think outside of your own little sandbox. Succeeding online means thinking about how to take advantages of the network rather than just simply trying to build the best website.

Dan Cederholm. Dan is originally from Vermont just like Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream. Once you know about that about him, his approach to design and (as he talked about in his session) “craftpersonship”, makes a lot more sense. He had a lot of practical advice too - it’s nice to come away from a presentation with half a dozen things that you can apply immediately to the things you’re working on. Thanks Dan. :-)

Damian Conway and Kathy Sierra both lived up to their top billing and were a nice way to finish things off.

And the winner? Well, according to Walter, Nat was the only speaker to mention all of Twitter, Flickr, LOLcats and the iPhone. So he wins. :-)

My only complaint was that the streamed sessions either side of lunch on the second day meant that there were a number of interesting speakers who I didn’t get to see. I guess we have to wait until the videos are available to remedy that.

UPDATE: audio and video of many of the presentations are now available.

So, all in all, a fun couple of days.

How, we wonder, will they top that at the next Webstock in 2010?

PS if you’re suffering withdrawal symptoms, you might like this video of Steve Krug (who surely must be on the invite list for next time?)

The next Webstock conference in Wellington will shortly be upon us.

On the Thursday afternoon I have the privilege of hosting a fireside chat with Sam Morgan … you know the slight red-headed fulla who started Trade Me? :-)

Here is how it’s described on the Webstock site:

“Join us at the end of the day for a relaxed Q&A with NZ’s own Sam Morgan.

We’ll share some stories from the very early days of Trade Me through to the sale to Fairfax and beyond. We’ll also talk about what Sam is doing next, including technology investments and social ventures.

Rowan was the first Trade Me employee who didn’t share a surname with Sam, so is well placed to cover the questions that others don’t know or don’t dare to ask.”

Hmmm … I don’t know about that last part, but it should be a fun session nonetheless.

There are lots of things that I’m keen to ask him about, but I also thought I’d get your help and suggestions.

If there is a question you wish you could ask Sam now is your chance!

Just leave a comment below and I’ll see what I can do.

And, if you want to come along to Webstock and see it live and you still haven’t reserved your ticket, time is running out so get in quick.

Here is a nice (old) post from Sam Ng at Optimal Usability about Ben Goodger’s presentation at Webstock last year:

“Ben Goodger, lead engineer for the Firefox browser, obviously believes in the power of the user interface and credits their ‘less is more’ philosophy as one of the key reasons for the browser’s success. As part of this philosophy, they made sure that the interface was clear, removing words or interface elements wherever they could to increase clarity. They also had fewer and more useful options, only including a configuration option if 15% or more of users were likely to change it. And they worked hard on using smart defaults, like turning the pop-up blocker on. All these small changes created a ‘cumulative feeling of quality’.”

From: http://www.optimalusability.com/post.php?postid=31

Designing for the 80% majority (or 85% in this case) is a great idea.

Sam - this is good stuff, what’s happened to your blog?

The Code Blacks, who are the New Zealand team in the upcoming Geek Olympics, have launched their website:

Great logo! Do you get it?

The videos from the latest Webstock Mini have been posted.

If you’re looking for a bit of light entertainment check out the Web 2.0 debate (a.k.a debatr, a.k.a. LOLDebate), where we resolved once and for all the question of fizz vs. substance. Or, something like that.

Mike Brown’s conspiracy theory alone was worth the price of admission: “Rod Drury. 8 letters. 3 r’s. You do the maths!”

Phil’s slides were featured on the SlideShare home page a few weeks back and are worth checking out (if you’re interested in the substance).

Mike’s subsequent tribute to the “moral superiority, intellectual acuity and all-round web prowess” of the victorious negative team is also worth a read.

Peter Griffin’s column had a nice summary:

“I think the debate came out how it should have, despite the “fizzers” presenting a more compelling and humorous argument than those with substance.

Above all the inane chatter on Twitter, the annoying music blaring at you from MySpace pages and the flying penises in Second Life, there’s something powerful going on in these new web communities.

Whether they will all live on remains a moot point, but one thing is for sure, the new makeup of the internet is seriously changing our approach to information use and social interaction. Whatever price you put on that, such transformation in a few short years has been nothing but substantial.”

PS In other Webstock related news … the NZ team to compete in the FullCodePress Trans-Tasman Challenge was announced today. Thanks to everybody who put their name forward and congratulations to the chosen few. The nations expectations sit on your shoulders. Jeff from Xero has more details.

A while back Natasha (who works with us at Trade Me and is also one of the people behind Webstock) asked me to nominate my dream speaker for their next conference.

For me it was an easy question to answer: Paul Graham.

If you’re not familiar with his writing, please stop embarrassing me by reading this relative drivel and go and read some of his stuff instead.

His latest article is here:

Why to Not Not Start a Startup

Here is a quote that appealed to me:

“If you took a nap in your office in a big company, it would seem unprofessional. But if you’re starting a startup and you fall asleep in the middle of the day, your cofounders will just assume you were tired.”

:-)

I was sorry to miss the recent Webstock Mini event in Wellington a couple of weeks back.

But, the good news is that the presentations are now all available online:

http://www.webstock.org.nz/recordings.php

If you didn’t get along, make sure you check out the 10×2 sessions.

This is the quote that grabbed my attention:

“The internet didn’t change my life at all.
I can’t remember life without the internet”.
– Josephine Hall

Ouch! That would have stung for some of the older people in the audience.

She is now 18 and talked about using the internet in 1996, while still at school, to research a science project.

I graduated in 1996. It was also around then that I read an excellent book called Growing Up Digital by Don Tapscott, about “N-Gen”, or the net generation. They (we, although I only just qualify!) are the echo of the baby boom, who have grown up surrounded by interactive technology.

From the book:

Technology is only technology to people born before it was invented
– Alan Kay

That’s why we don’t argue anymore about whether the piano is corrupting music with technology
– Seymore Papert

So, if you’re the sort of person who still marvels at the promise of the internet, take a look over your shoulder and see people, like Josephine, who are already taking it for granted and asking what they can actually do with it.