Back in the early days of the Internet, companies and government agencies connected up and started to use email as a means of communication beyond the usual LAN restricted email within the office. This was novel it was new. It was seen as the new method of business communication. It also became the new method of social communication. Over time the bean counters and bureaucrats looked at this communications tool and saw that it was in fact taking up too much of the younger staff product work time. So email was restricted to senior and key personnel and the walls around the corporate communications structure where re-enforced rebuild. The same thing happened with the Web. It’s was given open rein, until it was perceived to be consuming corporate productivity, and so it was restricted to a few key personnel.
We just had Webjam in Perth on Wednesday night. It went off! With just three week notice there was around 100 people attending and 14 people stepping up on the night. I have been to a Webjam before at WebDU, but that was a poor second in comparison to this. The vibe on the night was just amazing. It was good to see all the aspects of the Western Australian Web Industry come together. The depth of talent and ideas that came out of the jam was amazing. From Lichen Webmail, Kromes bookmarking system, Myles Eftos with CTR (Canvas Text Replacement) the list just goes on.
I’ve noticed this over the last say 18 to 12 months, things are changing in the web community. There are still the usual arguments between people and various factional groups. That’s nothing new there. No it’s something more. It’s like a complacency, that we have all fought hard and that the war is over and we can live now in a golden age. The voices of leadership seem to be dropping away, not being as potent or vocal as they once where. Molly Holzschlag has seen it to, and again call people to arms, I seem to remember Molly doing this before recently.
Back at the start of year I documented a list of possible achievements for the year of 2007. Well we are now well and truly past the halfway point, so now is a good time to review.
Achieved Goal
- Do more networking outside of the web community. -
- Drink less alcohol. -
- Get more organised. -
- Hire good developer and CSS people. -
