I have some thoughts on the conference that I want to mull over first, as posting when I’m this tired would be is silly. Maybe I’ll be able to compose my thoughts on the plane ride home.

• Use virtualization to test, test, and test some more your configuration and deployment environment. Also a great place to play with and learn the new technologies involved (SCCM, Server 2008, Vista itself, etc.)
• BDD Solution Accelerator
• Win PE is a core part of the BDD imaging process
• In environments where SMS/SCCM may not be the best fit (like smaller labs or clusters), Server 2008 and BDD make deploying and managing Vista easier
• Server 2008 consolidates many, many imaging and deployment tools into one console

Lessons Learned from Rails Development

So you’ve deployed uPortal, CAS, Confluence, and JIRA. You’ve conquered Maven and your entire life is represented in XML configuration files. You’ve got Java application deployment down to a science. Now some guy from Denmark comes along and says you’ve got it all wrong. The nerve!

We treaded lightly into the world of Rails but over the past year we have learned a lot of valuable lessons that can be applied to web development in general.

• Convention over configuration in the right measure
• Deployment needs to be easy
• Deployment needs to integrate with your SCM

Rails has benefitted from a tremendous hype cycle, but a lot of the benefits are real and can translate to other frameworks.

Pragmatic Issue Tracking with JIRA

As technology workers and managers we often have more things to do than we have time, so we are constantly on the lookout for time savers. They say that time is money and we all know that to make money you have to spend money. A similar concept applies to time in that you have to spend time to save time. We’ll look at how JIRA helps you do this, but also focus on how to implement JIRA to make sure it’s a success.

Specific topics will include:

• Who should get a JIRA project
• Setting realistic expectations
• How usage will differ between types of users
• Using JIRA to Get Things Done

I was glad to see that someone used S5 and gave a link to the slides. The best tidbit that I took away from this session was that WebAIM’s Wave 4.0 (when released) will be a great tool for testing applications for different accessibility checks without having to send data over the network. This is a big advantage to those application using AJAX technologies or sites that are password protection or on a secure network. I’m anxiously awaiting the public beta version.

Technorati Tags: csun, accessibility

The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect – Tim Berners-Lee

The presentation by representatives from the User Experience Team at Google was a very insightful look into how they’re approaching accessibility.

Accessibility is more than just code compliance

Google is spending a fair amount of resources researching how people with disabilities interact with their products, and the Internet in general, to ensure they can have a similar experience to those without disabilities.

One of the great aspects about their approach to accessibility testing was that they brought in engineers to watch the test, and even in some instances provide a translator who can explain to engineers what the screen reader is saying.

I was also pleased to hear that accessibility efforts were being applied to Google Search, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Maps, and Google Video. Simple things like headers can go far toward improving the Google experience for those with visual impairments.

Technorati Tags: csun, accessibility

One of the best resources that I found out about was the Access Firefox which provides themes, extensions, keyboard shortcuts, and much more that all help those with disabilities use Firefox to navigate the Internet. I will be gathering tons of resources from this site, or linking heavily to the site, in the upcoming Accessibility web resource site that we’re building for the ATI project.

Overall, it sounds like Firefox is a very accessible application and works well with several applications such as: Jaws, WindowEyes, Drago, Firevox, and ZoomText. I think it’s high time that CSU Chico start to officially support Firefox 2.0 simply because it has such great support for making the web accessible.

Technorati Tags: csun, accessibility

What I did find interesting is that there is a committee working to refresh Sect. 508 as it applies to technology. This could have interesting implications for us as we could be facing the scenario where we get X number of sites to be 508 compliant, only to have those same sites fail if a revised 508 law goes into effect. The upshot? While we’re required by law to be 508 compliant, 508 isn’t a very good law as it’s very specific to outdated HTML.

Apparently one of the best bits of WCAG 2.0 is that it’s meant to be technology agnostic in addition to not being country-specific as other accessibility laws apparently are. The good news is that the 508 Refresh now includes members from abroad as well as representatives from the W3C.

Technorati Tags: csun, accessibility

So far I’ve heard a few session about WCAG 2.0 and the WAI part of W3C. Unfortunately most of the stuff we’re dealing with revolves around 508 so I’m tempted to write most of that stuff off. Especially after revisiting Joe Clarks To Hell with WCAG 2. That said, I’m waiting for a session to start that’s being presented by IBM titled Making the case for standards harmonization: An IBM Case Study which is suppose to be able developing sites that meet multiple guidelines (508, WAI, WCAG, etc). This should be very interesting. If IBM has an approach to development that ensures their product meets multiple guidelines, then that is something we should consider at CSU Chico; not because it’s required, but because it’s the right thing to do and the more accessible we can be the better.

Technorati Tags: csun, accessibility

Mobile Web

This will continue to grow and become increasingly important in the future. As a university, we’re probably safe lagging behind in mobile development. However, the message was this: build web standards based sites, and you’ll be ready when the mobile revolution happens.

Accessibility

Let me repeat: build web standards based sites and you’ll meet most of the accessibility checkpoints.

Typography

Ahh… an old topic that had fallen by the way side in the last couple of years. For me, the subject of typography would have to be the most inspirational bit that I took away from SXSW. Sitting in on sessions about Grid Theory, Web Typography, and being able to see the world premiere of the documentary Helvetica took me back a few years to my days in CDES.

Typography is more that just choosing a font. It’s about making sure you use proper ligatures, have a good vertical flow that content follows, and making sure when you define substitute fonts, they’re similar.

Networking

Last year, I went to SXSW with hopes of meeting some of my web design “superheros” and for the most part I was able to say “hi” and chat for a few minutes with most of them. That was all fine and nice, except they were meeting so many people, I really didn’t feel that anyone really remembered me the next day. What I found was that the lasting connections I made were with other people from universities. This year, I wasn’t really interested in trying to talk with all the “VIPs” of web design, but rather meeting up with the people I had met last year: Dave, Josh, Jessa, Chip, and Pat. On that level, this year was a great success. I spent some quality time hanging out with Dave and his crew, along with Josh and Jessa.

Sessions

I suppose it’s hard to really know what you’re signing up for from the session titles. I had a lot of hope that I would find tons of good information in the sessions. I was sorely mistaken a few times, and spot on others. I would say that overall the quality of the sessions were lower than last year. I discussed this with others, and they felt the same. The focus this year seems to have shifted toward video and business; not much of a surprise there considering the YouTube purchase by Google. While some will claim that SXSW is not about the sessions but the hallway discussion or after hour events, it’s hard to make that justification to your employer.

With that in mind, I would continue to advocate SXSW as an event that we must continue to send people to because you never know what will grab your attention and what will reinvigorate you.

Final Thoughts

Now that I’m back from SXSW and have had a chance to reflect on my experiences, I’d like to see SXSW continue to play a roll in web development at Chico State. In many respects, much of our web presence is a few steps behind. Here, we tend to treat the web as an extension of old media. Through learning about new technologies, techniques, and what other universities and businesses are implementing, we can understand where we need to guide our own web presence. Instituting that type of change can be difficult and require a lot of energy. SXSW gives you an infusion of energy to help you become an agent of change. Hopefully next year Chico State can have a larger contingent travel to SXSW to experience all it has to offer.