Webstock 2006

I am at Webstock 2006 for the last 3 days and this is the coolest conference I have ever been to. The passion for what people are doing, the internet, design and how it can help life is fantastic. The speakers have been fascinating and for me as someone who works on the edge of the internet industry as a user and consultant for companies hiring in this area it has been great to get a better grasp on the people I am trying to help on a day to day basis.

People keep asking me why I am attending, or "who are you here to poach?". But I think it is a real reflection of how the internet has changed in that people like myself who have huge daily interaction with the internet need to get a little lower and a little wider in our understanding to help us become more productive in our own businesses and with our clients.

Yesterdays presentations included Steve Champeon on spam, Kelly Goto on Design Ethnography and Doug Bowman on Microformats for information. Every presentation had areas that I struggled to understand, but all the speakers had points that really gave some fascinating insight into the future on the internet and how we can all help in moulding that into a better result for everyone. One of the presentations that really blew me away was from Darren Fittler, a visially impaired lawyer from Australia. Darren's presentation on how sloppy coding can effect use of the internet for the visually impaired was mind-boggling.

Today is day two and promises to be just as interesting.

Comments

[Paul]

Gidday, I met you at webstock. The name of the Japanese Online forum we were discussing is 2channel.

http://www.2ch.net/

There is background info at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2channel

I still don't quite understand why it has been so successful it but it's the most popular internet forum in the world according to some so whatever they are doing must be working.

It was great meeting you.