One of my major clients is the Australian Council of State School Organisations. ACSSO is the national peak body for public education in Australia, comprising state- and territory-based affiliate organisations. ACSSO keeps schools, teachers, principals, students and parents informed about issues, policy developments, legislation and new research on education. When Prime Minister Howard stated that […]
Speaking of vacation accommodation, I’ve just finished another website, this one for a townhouse for holiday rental in Citerna, Italy. It’s run by an Australian couple now living in Italy, Marius and Christine Webb. Marius is well-known as one of the creators of 2JJ Radio (now Triple J), while Christine was publisher of cult style
Sometimes you just have to get away from the Web. There are few places better suited to this than Ruwenzori. A friend of mine who’s a train buff has hauled some railway carriages to a hilltop just north of Mudgee (about four hours drive northwest of Sydney). Scott and his wife Wendy have renovated these
You have to bear in mind that significant portions of my life have been characterised by some essentially incompatible habits. From the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s I was a student and then a working actor, mostly in theatre-in-education, moving from shared house to shared house and often from town to town. I also
As Paul Simon nearly said “I’m the first to admit it – I’m the last one to know”. The WD06 conference in September was the first time I’d come across mashups – the use of two or more web applications to create new blended content that is greater than its parts. An (already) classic example
Bob Evans is the alter ego of Kevin Mitchell, front man for Jebediah, a WA band I’ve been fond of since their Slightly Odway album of 1997. Nice thrashy guitars, a strong backbeat, poppy and loud. Bob released an acoustic solo album in 2003 called Suburban Kid, recalling for me other favoured singer songwriters like
Another site goes live today. This is one that’s tinged with a certain sadness, but also embodies a certain defiance. The Don Chipp Foundation is the research arm and think tank for the Australian Democrats, the political party founded by Don Chipp to “keep the bastards honest”. A lot of people are writing the Democrats
In the course of redeveloping a website for an industrial peak body over the last few weeks, I needed to identify a good content management system. I needed an end-user friendly system that would allow my client’s non-tech savvy staff and members to log in to separate areas to update information as well as provide
The term ‘global village’ still gets tossed around to convey the reach and sensibility of the web, but we shouldn’t forget about the ‘local village’ either. Some things you just can’t get from a screen or a headset. Like the excitement of performers in the flesh, so close you can touch them, making magic happen.
I don’t know whether it’s a matter of cultural cringe, but my pride in Australian achievements in web development remains tinged with surprise. Australians are apparently known for a statistical tendency to be early adopters of new technology – when it’s offered to them – but it still seems to me that we punch well