I recently just did a presentation on Is SEO Evil? at Sydney’s annual Web Directions South. The presentation seemed to go alright and I receieved some good feedback and questions afterwards on the topic, so I am quite happy with the overall results.

The slides alone might not make to much sense right now, but I hope to get some time to record some audio and sync them up if I can figure out a good way to do it. Slideshare and the new Keynote sound like they may support these features, so I will have a go and see what I can come up with.

It was a great experience presenting at Web Directions. I have attended all four conferences in the past and can credit these conference as a large influence on my conversion from hacking up table-base layouts to web standards advocacy… so it was quite humbling to be able to attend this year on the other side of the podium alongside so many of the web industries finest speakers.

I used a lot of Flickr photos for this slideshow, so I have attempted to attribute them all in the list below. See you at the next event.

Flickr photos used in presentation

Health.1 by mdumlao98

barcelona sagrada familia - kaneda99

Evil Emperor - toolmantim

Parc des Bastions - chaidealo

Day 254 - Rafa from Brazil

fragb_73p_hst_f - Vijñ?na

My Great Grandfather Tomi?! - Yonker

Touchdown - toddsmithdesign

Mac Keyboard - Digital Explorer

Bob and Doug McKenzie - Sherlock77

Peligro indefinido / undefined danger - Antonio Martinez

Hopscotch - kentsmudger

Rubik - Paulgi

Blurry Train - phil h

Wiener Wagon - d53wood

Lego - barbus22

Comparing - The Department

Rainbow T’s - Cayusa

Al abordaje mis muchachoooooos!!! - .mauro!

Silhouette - kevinthoule

Ice Cream - kara c

Donovan & The Dude Part 2 - Fen Branklin

the pain of youth - gleddy

pentagram pizza - shawnwall

Can you dig it? - Melbourne WSG

Hawaii Con - ken mccown

ROBOC - nachap

List - ofbedbugsandbadhabits

Ladybird Traffic Jam - Random Images from The Heartland

Traffic Jam - Curzio

Unique - Irina / Ruri

Normandy - quinonesanibal

The Crowd Goes Nuts - Dylan + Hip

If you are on fire… - superlocal

VW Genius - Baby Skinz

With the build up to Web Directions South there is quite bit going on in Sydney and you can feel the anticipation of hundreds of geeks hanging for another year of workshops, great conference action and the obligatory schmoozing in pubs that goes along with this type of event.

One of those events for me leading up to the conference was a quick online interview with Builder.com.au. I cover a few topics that I will be discussing next week in my presentation at Web Directions including how SEO impacts developers, the current state of the SEO industry and finally the real question on our minds, Is SEO Evil?.

Looking forward to next week and hope to see you there!

Just back from a 3 week holiday… one of those trips where I was visiting friends and family in my hometown of Vancouver, BC. I thought this might be the type of holiday where I might have some down time and could catch up on a few things.

Well I didn’t get any work done really, but I did figure out a few things this trip that I will take with me on the next ones where I intend to do a bit of work on the side.

Airports

This is my place to get any work done on the laptop. Lots of space, the occasional plug where you can charge your battery and sometimes even a wifi cafe that serves a beer while you check last minute emails or finish off a bit of work.

Airplanes

Time to shut off and read a good book. I thought my laptop would be great for the plane but in the end it’s just too crazy, cramped and my brain kicks into vegetable mode where it can only be stimulated by crap box office hits like Spiderman 3.

Laptops

The MacBook Pro 17 inch display is awesome for home and at other desks that you might have transported it to in your computer bag.. but have you ever tried to open one up on a plane with the seat in front of you reclined? Hectic. Throw some TED talks on your iPod and forget about it.

Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter

Seriously, what plane actually has this fabled ’seat power port’ that Apple claims will end my worry. I am yet to find a use for this ridiculously overpriced cable from Apple.

We want plugs! - Click on the plugs flash movie… love it.

RSS

I am now a full convert to Google Reader. Offline mode with Google Gears is the best thing when you are traveling and don’t want to spend $10 on wifi for a few minutes. I just have to get used to the shortcuts now.

That’s all I can get out of my jet-lagged brain, sometimes minor details are the things that can make the next overseas trip more pleasant.

SxSW Interactive is still quite a while away but I always find myself getting a bit excited once the new season is upon us, which is usually signified by the redesign of the SxSW website and the first couple of newsletters from Austin hyping up next years plans.

With the new website comes the new version of the panel picker, which was introduced last year to give the public a chance to have their voice and vote on what topics and panels sound interesting and should be voted in to create next years line-up of panels.

The new panel picker is more intuitive and a lot more polished than last year. Lindsey Simon has done a great job and when I get a decent chance to sit down and start reading all of the entries I will get my votes in and throw some of the good ideas up here for discussion.

Standardzilla has proposed a panel this year called Corporate Semantics which is based on an article I wrote for Digital Web a couple of months ago. I think this article is a great starting point on standards in the mainstream and it would make for an interesting panel.

If you like the idea for this panel, feel free to vote or comment on the idea as it would be great to hear feedback and ultimately end up presenting again at SxSW next year. I think you have to sign up first… but it’s a pretty quick process.

If the panel doesn’t make it it, well we still don’t lose out really. Great panels, free booze-ups and the most-hyped geek event of the year… what more could we ask for?

In the last of my series of guest posts on Notes on Design, I discuss relationships that often occur between the designer and the developer at some large organisations where you these might not be the same people all of the time. Head on over and have a read…

This concludes my guest appearance on Notes and Design for a while, so time to get cracking on some of the ideas that have been backing up in the Standardzilla inbox.

I have written one article on Notes on Design covering basic concepts of accessibility for designers. It has been split into two parts for easier digestion.

Accessibility on the Web and Why Your Employer Should Care About Accessibility are both published now so head on over and check them out.