GoodGuysInTech Archives

Preview of “What Comes Next is the Future” UPDATED

What Comes Next is the Future is a documentary film about the future of web design as envisioned by the people who build the web.

Here’s the film description:

What Comes Next Is the Future is a documentary film about the web created by Bearded founder Matt Griffin. It is the story of Tim Berners-Lee’s creation – how it came to be, where it’s been, and where it’s going – as told by the people who build it.

In the film, Griffin knits together a narrative by mining dozens of conversations with important figures from throughout the web’s history including Jeffrey Zeldman, Denise Jacobs, Tim Berners-Lee, Ethan Marcotte, Chris Wilson, Lyza Danger Gardner, Eric Meyer, Irene Au, Alex Russell, Trent Walton, Val Head, Jonathan Snook and many more.

After you watch the preview, go to the futureisnext.com site to see to the list of cities and dates for viewings or to sign up for updates. Update: the film is now available free on Vimeo.

Thanks to Eric Meyer for mentioning this documentary on Facebook, otherwise I might not have heard about it. Hope my mentioning it here helps even more people become aware of the film.

Image ©Bearded

33 Facts about Women in Tech (Infographic)

This infographic shows both A) women are making progress or B) women have much more progress to make. For women to make as much progress as these facts show are needed, men have to participate in the change. The big changes we see in the last year are there because men have finally started trying to work with women to solve the scarcity of women in tech problem.

The 238% Faster Growth of Women in the Tech Industry Than Men

Made by: Coupofy

Jeffrey Zeldman: 20 Years of Web Design and Community

This is a wonderful film everyone should watch, especially young people just starting out making web sites who have not lived through the last 20+ years with Jeffrey as their spirit guide.

The film is one of a documentary series from Lynda.com.Thank you to lynda.com for making this one available in its full length free.

There are many other fascinating documentaries on creative topics at lynda.com/vimeo. You must be a paying member of lynda.com to watch them. If you are, I especially recommend that you also watch Creative Insights: Lauren Bacon on Web Design.

Useful links: Flexbox, Ads, misogyny, HTML5 shiv

Putting Flexbox into Practice: A Presentation at Blend Conference with a lot of supporting material, slides, links, and tools. From Zoe Gillinwater.

Instagram will carry advertising soon. That’s what The Verge says.

TechCrunch apologizes for two misogynistic presentations at their hackathon. Good for TechCrunch!

Now there’s an HTML5shiv for WordPress.

Congratulations to Happy Cog

With It’s About Damn Time, the design firm Happy Cog posted this announcement by company President Greg Storey.

In a few days, our newest designer will begin her first day. When Dana crosses the threshold, the Happy Cog payroll will be 50% female. Roughly four years ago, that percentage was at a measly 2%. By next Monday, we will have women well-represented within our design, development, project management, and marketing groups—two of them dominantly female: project management with a whopping 80% and design with a stellar 63%.

Happy Cog, founder Jeffrey Zeldman, and everyone involved in making this a reality deserve recognition and congratulations for not just talking the talk, but for walking the walk. They are a premier firm in the web design industry and their leadership means something.

We’ve seen Zeldman put belief into practice at An Event Apart conferences where there are frequent female speakers. Now we’re seeing it in his design business as well.

It’s good for business. It’s good for everyone. I’m really happy about Happy Cog.

InterLab Accessibility Presentation Slides

Today, I did an accessibility presentation for the DOE InterLab conference of national labs. It was a review and refresher with a few new things about ARIA roles added in. The slide deck is available at vdebolt.com/interlab.

The agenda for the InterLab conference shows an interesting list of speakers in addition to my small part. Among the speakers are Emily Lewis and Chantal Forster. Kudos to the DOE organizers of this event for getting so many brilliant women as speakers.

Useful Links: Designers, Assumptions, WordPress, New Students

Designers shouldn’t code is the wrong answer to the right question. A quick and interesting read from Josh Seiden’s blog, More Than This.

Assumptions. At least some of the time guys notice it when they marginalize women.

HTML5 Support in WordPress Core. Some HTML5 improvements in the comment and search form are explained.

Teaching Web Design to New Students in Higher Ed is by Jen Kramer at Smashing Magazine. I don’t agree with every point made in this lengthy article, but it’s important reading and provides some thought-provoking ideas for anyone teaching web design. If this describes you, it’s must reading.