Four presentations and a wedding
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I’ve been quiet lately as I’ve been gallivanting. Last week was exhausting but amazing, as I toured with Eric and Roberto from Opera giving talks at English universities on an Opera Education university tour.
Rather than just pimp the company and bore the audience rigid, I gave 45 minute talk about why and how you should use Web Standards for any-device development, and took the audience on a lightening tour around SVG, CSS 3 and (mostly) HTML 5. (The talk needs a labs build of Opera that includes support for the video element.) Grab the talk Web Standards for the Future on the Opera Developer Network blog.
Feedback shows that we got the balance right—in fact, some people actually said they’d like to hear more corporate information! People also caught on to my personal excitement about the subject matter. I’m really excited about using Standards like SVG and CSS media queries to build the mobile web. Our figures from our Opera Mini servers for September 2008 show
- Egypt now has more mobile web use than Germany
- Growth rates are soaring: Libya saw 3780% growth this year
- Overall, Africa experienced a usage surge of 180 percent over the past nine months
And what’s also fascinating is that across the world people want the same kinds of sites: free (as in open and uncensored) information sites like wikipedia and the BBC, search, social networking and news. There is little difference between Poland, Indonesia, America and Egypt.
Coupled with the interesting work coming out of the w3c Mobile Web for Social Development, I think there’s a really exciting potential to use standards to help bring about change for good in the world. Or you may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one. (I’m also one of the pacifists in the browser war—and declared that War is Over, too.)
Anyway, thanks to all who came to see us and went for a beer—as well as to old friends Simon Mackie, Ian Lloyd and Jon Hicks who came out for a bevvy. And even to Elliott who made me fall out of love with my Omina.
Mobile widgets
Yesterday, I visited the Smartphone Show at Earls Court to deliver a 5 minute “speed dating” presentation about Opera Widgets. (90 mins, 12 tables, people come to a table, listen for 5 minutes until a whistle blows and audience moves on to next table.)
The presentation Opera Widgets: uses, development and standards won first prize for best product pitch, as voted for a panel including representatives of Samsung, Symbian and Nokia. I’m a bit surprised, as my talk was for developers and so I’d dressed in no-name jeans and a hoodie (more Naomi Klein than Calvin Klein) and then found myself surrounded by sharp-dressers.
Here’s me getting the award. I didn’t blub.
Oslo, Indonesia
Next week, more quietness as I go to Oslo to do an internal presentation to Opera employeers “What developers think of Opera” (so please let me know what you think in the comments or by email). Then it’s off to Indonesia to talk more about Standards, the developing world, SEO and the like.
The Wedding
Me and the brood had a lovely day out at the nuptials of Rachel Andrew and Drew Mclellan. There were so many geeks there, it looked like an @media conference with added bridal loveliness. Here’s my photos of Rachel and Drew’s wedding.
And I didn’t blub.
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I really really like the fact that you are touring Universities talking to students about this stuff. Totally awesome – hope you plan to do some more!