Future of Web Apps 2009 - Miami, FL

Now, I posted a badge for the FOWD to see if I could win a free pass… and though I didn’t win the free pass… I did get to go with all the zeal I put into wanting to go. So, I figure this time I might get the pass (it doesn’t hurt to try or I may repeat the magik that was performed the last time, to the FOWA Miami event. Seriously though, this looks like a great event! If I can go to this one… maybe I will get lucky for the Dublin FOWA Event (I did grow up in Dublin….. Ohio that is).

Before I go, I wanted to thank some of the people for the FOWD event in New York! It was a time that was really memorable and inspiring! Joe and I are compiling all the photos I took and we are creating a portfolio piece that we will share with everyone on a later date.

Thank You:

Louise at Carsonified: You were really great at corresponding with me about the arrangements of the event. You are really busy I am sure.. and even to the wire of the event, you were friendly, accessible and prompt with returning your emails.

Natasha at Carsonified: We also really appreciated your hard work at the event! We noticed you were really busy with people checking in and out.. purchasing goods, questions, etc. You let us use wireless internet at the event to check and see if we could delay our flight to stay for the after party (we didn’t get to stay… but it is the thought that counts!)

Paul Boag at Headscape: We really enjoyed your workshop! It was really usefull to discuss the process of handling design from conception to finish, keeping roles in place, and what works and even better… what doesn’t work! Your attitude on saying YES, things can be done… and then also including the consequences. All of this has already improved the flow of my work in-house and in my freelance world.

Nick La at NDesign Studio: Your illustrative work is amazing!!! I walked away from your talk totally believing that anything is possible with the right amount of time, work, and patience! Really really beautiful!

Mike Kus at Carsonified: Thanks for using one of my doodles in your workshop… it helped me realize that I have some stuff to work with already & that I don’t take advantage of my art in design. Your speach at the event was full of passion and spark! I am glad to have met you and look forward to sharing with you what you have inspired in me!

To everyone at Carsonified and all of the speakers… the people of New York, The Pizza Parlors, the crazy bartender at that bar I went to (the Whiskey Den???), Nice taxi driver that almost killed us but got us to the airport on time… and my boss for sending Joe and I… Thank you all for the memory! I really hope I get to continue on this path! I love art, design, and the internet that strives to be good!

Future of Web Design 2008 New York City

I have come across something really special here!!! There are people out there that really get it im my field. People that not only understand the importance of design for the sake of prettyness… but people that are equally passionate about user interface thoughtfulness. See, in the end, it is all about the user. It isn’t all about what I think is cool or what Ithink looks good. It is about the internet being a better place. Cleaner, useful, and genuinely worth sharing with people you care about.

I have found many websites that are beautiful to look at, wonderful and interesting to use and worth sharing… I have bookmarked them on Delicious.com, digg, facebook, etc. I have “tweeted” them to those who follow me on Twitter. Well folks, this is a conference of like minds who are pioneering the very content I speak of. These are the heavy hitters in the industry of jquery, css and html validation, user interface design and web application mastery. This is the cutting edge stuff that designers all around should be aware of.

In today’s day… you pretty much can’t say you run a business without someone asking you what your website address is… and when they get there, what’s next? Do they see a mess of text in many different fonts and sizes, broken images, and inconsistent content? Or, do they see the simplicity of what you’re about displayed with freshness and pizazz? Did they find you on a search engine because you had strict markup and good quality textual content? This is the stuff I ask when I do a web consult. This is the present day web. Content that speaks to people, grabs and Keeps their interests. This is the topic of FOWD 2008 – New York. The future of Web Design.

So, what are you going to do now? Maybe if you care about this stuff and you want to get your site to the top of industry standards and you will call up your web designer to let him / her know that you bought them passes to the conference and the workshops for this years event… and maybe you will even throw in a plane ticket, hotel room, and cab fare!!! I think it would be a good idea! If you want your site to stand out among the rest in your business and among your competitors.. then your site will probably need to contain the topics of this FOWD.

That is enough of my ranting… as you can tell, I am passionate about this and I feel this is the coolest event I have seen the lineup for so far! I know that I have alrready asked my boss to send me and the design team here… whether or not he sends us… well, hopefully I will be posting a review of the show next month!!!

With the recent popularity of books such as “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Secret” and other esoteric hits.. this is a hot story. At least I think it is. The Brothers of the Rosy Cross are tryiong to strike it rich and claim artifacts that they say, were stolen from them. It is an interesting battle to claim rights to such things based around Jesus, whom would have renounced possesion for a wooden bowl and piece of stale bread. Or not funny depending how you look at it. The crusades were a horrible time, people were killed, enslaved, and all in the name of religions claiming their “loving doctrine” of righteousness. Now, I don’t want to sound too cynical because I happen to think scripturs of all kinds are beautiful and inspiring… I just don’t really get the organizations around them and their politics. I mean I don’t think you’ll ever get that kind of Hostility around a Tom Robbins book club. This story is interesting though. I am sure their will be more to follow on this. Check it out.

“A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing Pope Benedict XVI, seeking more than $150 billion for assets seized by the Catholic Church seven centuries ago. They also want to restore the order’s good name. When they fell out of favor, members were accused worshipping the devil & were burned at the stake.”

 – Story From NPR                           read more | digg story

Seth Godin take a nice semantical approach to differentiate between design and architecture. While I agree there is a certain structure implied by the word “architecture”, design can have planned and thought out principles as well. Yes, design has a certain ambiguity hovering around aesthetics, but if you have a science around your creativity, then I think the two can be balanced. I think that the two words are often seen as a bad married couple constantly arguing with one another about how the other is so different and to a fault. When they get along though… it is what makes people wish they could have what it takes to create a building like the Disney Philharmonic Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. However my view differs from Seth Godin’s article… I think it is a great topic to think about and definitely worth batting around for a while amongst ourselves in any field. Science and Art… the magnum opus.

Photo is of Michael Graves, an Architect/Designer, someone who has definitely found a balanced union between structure and aesthetics.

read more | digg story

I just found this and thought it was really neat. Have you ever looked at the creation of a child under a microscope? You know, when the sperm enters the egg and then cells start dividing and multiplying… it is a fascinating process that marvels me. The alchemists believed in a saying: “As above so below.” I too think this is the case here. We can look up at the stars and see the answers to our deepest mysteries that boggle our very own psyche. I think that everyone should take a look at this and then schedule some time to be alone under the stars. That is my prescription… take it and comment in the morning.

“Scientists don’t know much about the mysterious phenomenon known as dark energy, but they do have a picture of what it’s doing to the universe, namely, driving it apart. In what may be the clearest detection of dark energy to date, astronomers looked at microwaves left over from the beginning of the universe some 13.7 billion years ago.” – From the Article

read more | digg story

Here is a great website doing a great survey! If you have anything at all to do with the web as a profession… then you should help them gather data to accurately paint a picture of what is going on in our profession. So Marketeers using the web, programmers, bloggers, designers, and anyone else involved in the business of the internet, Take this survey. I took it and it was painless. They even asked questions that were helpful for me to ask myself! click here or on the icon below.

I found this site travelling in the social media scene. I have made some proposals at work to spearhead a social networking/blog marketing engine that will positively promote our company and its services. This site came up as a monster of a cool online thread/magazine with tons of topics articles, blogs, social network users, and well… just check it out. www.popurls.com

Here is a widget from the site’s networking platform linked to my personal page… it will contain articles I clip and share as I go along in real time with my visits. 

Here’s What Fred Wrote:

Help me torpedo the McCain candidacy!I created this mashup video with the movie Watership Down and submitted it to Comedy Central’s “Make McCain Exciting Green Screen Challenge”.What happened was that McCain gave a speech in front of the usual background of talking points but he messed up and the background was green. Green is the color used in video to add actors into alternate backgrounds. Stephen Colbert jumped on that and posted the footage on his site and asked the nation to help him make McCain exciting. With any luck he will play this video on his show soon.So help me torpedo the republicans and send this to your friends, post it on facebook and myspace and everywhere else you can. And if you are a republican that is ok but we should talk because I have a bridge I would like to sell you.Click here for the video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWsYhcfBcdsTo learn more about the Green Screen Challenge go here:http://www.colbertnation.com/?p=1593If you have not seen the movie Watership Down lately you should check it out. It is amazing.And remember, bunnies don’t lie!

- Fred KnackThanks Fred!!! Great video. Hope you end up on the Colbert Show!