Conference

This year we've built a whole separate site for the conference: Visit the WE Believe In Community 2009 Conference website now!

Conference 2009 - Ideas Wanted

Tell us how you want this year's conference to be - add your suggestions in the Ideas Forum now! Keep reading below if you want to see information from the conference last year.

Conference 08

Our first annual conference was held in Sydney, 21 to 22 August 2008

We Believe in Community - 21 to 22 August 2008, Sydney NSW

Local Government Web Network Conference 2008 Supported by the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW and Local Online Communications and Linkages The conference was held over 2 days, aimed at people who work on the web in the Local Government in New South Wales, with most topics being relevant to those working in the public sector, community groups, and non-profits, as well as other tiers of Government. View photos from the conference on Flickr

Speakers and Presentation Material

Audio files and slides are linked from the session descriptions.

Cameron Adams

Working with Design

Designing on the Web is increasingly becoming about how something *works* rather than how it looks. But this doesn’t mean you can abandon aesthetics altogether.

Cameron Adams will be taking a look at designing for the Web in 2008, where visual appearance and user interaction have to work together from day one. There’s no fixed recipe for success, so the more that designers have in their toolkit, the better the outcome will be. Cameron will take you on a tour of design sketching, rapid prototyping and polishing up the all-important details in order to give you the tools to quickly make usable and beautiful websites.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Working with Design

MP3: Working with Design

About Cameron Adams

The Man in Blue — melds a background in Computer Science with over nine years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications.

In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet and design in general on his well respected weblog, and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. His latest publication — Simply JavaScript — takes a bottom-up, quirky-down approach to the basics of JavaScript coding.
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John Allsopp

Opening Keynote Speaker: The real and the virtual - closing the circle

How the web is bringing the virtual world into the real, and taking the real world into the virtual, and the implications for service delivery and communication in government.

In this presentation John looks at many of the devices now available for using the web on the go, in the living room, and in many other places away from the laptop and desktop computer. He assesses the use cases that these devices and context opens up, and considers the new kinds of web services this enables.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: The real and the virtual - closing the circle

MP3: The real and the virtual - closing the circle

About John Allsopp

John is a co-founder of the Web Directions conference series, and author of one of the earliest books on Microformats. As a software developer, long standing web development speaker, writer, evangelist and self proclaimed expert, he’s spent the last 15 years working with and developing for the web.

As the head developer of the leading cross platform CSS development tool Style Master, and developer and publisher of renowned training courses and learning resources on CSS and standards based development, and author of the highly regarded “Dao of Web Design” he has been widely recognized as a leader in these fields.
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Robert Beerworth

Social Media and Online Marketing

Wiliam’s Robert Beerworth will outline the essential ingredients that make up any successful online marketing campaign. He will also discuss the trajectory of emerging social media technologies and explain how Local Government organisations can benefit from an online marketing and social media strategy.

• Understanding online marketing. Why build a great web presence if no one sees it?
• Developing an online marketing strategy
• Social Media – What is it? What can it do?
• Blogging, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Linked In, Flickr, Digg, Delicious…
• Social media strategy – Building a community?
• Case studies

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Social Media and Online Marketing

MP3: Social Media and Online Marketing

About Robert Beerworth

After founding Wiliam in 1997, Robert Beerworth has converted what began as a personal passion for creative web design into one of Australia’s most prominent and successful web design and development companies.

With Wiliam surviving the internet downturn of 2001, Robert is unquestionably one of the most knowledgeable and inspiring personalities in the Australian web industry. Robert has not only formed long standing relationships with Wiliam’s major clients but has also been an ideal leader for a growing team of talented individuals.

A self-confessed lover of brilliant and smart design, he also invests copious amounts of time researching internet strategies, content, search marketing and Web 2.0 technologies.

Robert regularly presents at web industry functions on the latest trends in web design and development and also has his own blog which can be accessed at www.robertbeerworth.com
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Ben Buchanan

Steering the glacier: how does one person have an impact?

When you get back to your desk on Monday, where will you start? How does one person have an impact in something with as much inertia as the public sector? It can be done! This session will run through some lessons learned (yes, the hard way) and some tactics to steer your organisation’s web presence in the right direction.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Steering the glacier

MP3: Steering the glacier

About Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan started creating web pages more than ten years ago, while completing a degree in everything but I.T. He has worked in both the public (university) and private sectors; and worked on the redevelopment of major websites including The Australian and three generations of Griffith University’s corporate website. He now works as Frontend Architect for News Digital Media and writes at the 200ok weblog.
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Matthew Crozier

Online Community Engagement – what are the benefits and how to manage the risks

Online Community Engagement is growing in popularity with Local Government helping them to involve their communities in decision making processes. It provides a cost efficient compliment to existing consultation methods and offers a clear demonstration to the community of a Council’s commitment to community participation. But what are the risks and how should they be managed?

A founder of BangtheTable.com, Matthew has had firsthand experience moderating and advising on a number of controversial online consultations. He will offer a case study illustrated discussion of the benefits and risks of online consultation and some of the strategies used to successfully manage these consultations.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Online Community Engagement

MP3: Online Community Engagement

About Matthew Crozier

Matthew is a co founder of Bang the Table – a groundbreaking company that hosts and independently moderates consultations for Government clients. He also writes a blog on online community engagement www.onlinecommunityconsultation.com

Prior to founding Bang the Table Matthew was a founder and Director of Duo Consulting which specialised in developing and implementing strategies to engage communities and Government. He has also spent time as the Regional Director for the Department of Planning in the Hunter, worked as the Conservation Director for the NSW Farmers Association been a Senior Policy Advisor in the Premiers Department and was Head of Rural Economy for the UK’s Rural Development Commission.

Matthew lives in Newcastle with his wife and three daughters and has absolutely no time for hobbies but dreams of going fishing.
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Ruth Ellison and Andrian Newton

Usability for Government: improving service delivery

Usability is more than the look and feel of a website. To improve the delivery of government services, a holistic approach needs to be taken. The needs of a community must be factored into the design of a website or web application. In this session, we will highlight the importance of usability and user-centred design and provide practical tips for improving much more than just the look and feel of your website.

Presentation material

Slides: Usability for Government

About Ruth Ellison

Ruth Ellison is an interaction designer and user experience practitioner. She is extremely passionate about creating accessible and useful user experiences. Ruth has been working with the web for ten years, with over six years experience working on a number of accessibility and user-centred design projects in Federal Government. She is a senior consultant at Stamford Interactive, a usability and user-centred design consultancy. She takes a holistic approach to her design work, drawing upon her background of accessibility, usability and human-computer interaction.

About Adrian Newton

Adrian is a seasoned IT consultant with capabilities spanning business process analysis, requirements documentation, system design and project management. Adrian is also an experienced IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementation resource, with deep exposure to service management systems and practices in retail, finance and public service sectors. Always client focused, one of Adrian’s key roles at Stamford is to provide specialist advice in interfacing between usability specialists and systems implementation contractors.
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Brian Hardy

Making the Web Accessible

Local government services increasingly rely on the web as a channel for communication with ratepayers and residents. The ABS now reports that over 64% of households have Internet access so this channel is growing in value.

It is critical therefore that all residents and ratepayers can access this channel effectively and efficiently.

In this session Brian will briefly introduce the common problems that people can face in using web sites that have not been designed with accessibility in mind. The session will focus on accessible solutions in two areas: forms and multimedia.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Making the Web Accessible

MP3: Making the Web Accessible

Slides: Making the Web Accessible

Writing for the Web

The web is full of poor-quality content that is:

• vague
• uses too much jargon or complex language
• provides little in the way of useful information

Users scan websites looking for the information they need, so writing for the web needs to reflect this.

Poor web writing means that organisations fail to get value from their websites - and the community does not get the services and information they want.

In this session Brian will provide a brief introduction to the basics of effective web writing, with Ten Tips for Writing Better Web Content

Presentation Material

Sorry there are no resources available for this presentation.

About Brian Hardy

Brian Hardy is the National Manager, Consulting and Commercial Services with Vision Australia. Brian manages teams involved with providing consulting and training in accessible web design and in making the built and pedestrian environment accessible. Brian also publishes audio books under the Louis Braille Audio Brand and a new range under the Vision Australia audio book brand.

Prior to joining Vision Australia in 1998, Brian was a Senior Executive in the Victorian State Government, with responsibility for the development of Community Access services for people with disabilities.

Brian has had a lifelong interest in the role of information access and management in pursuing social objectives.
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Lachlan Hardy

Closing Keynote Speaker: Local Government on the Open Web

The Open Web is an evolving term that encompasses technologies from web standards stalwarts like HTML to emerging specifications such as OpenID, but it’s more than that. It is a philosophy.

Lachlan Hardy examines what the Open Web really means and how local government can use it to reach more people, more powerfully.

Presentation material

Video: Local Government on the Open Web

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Local Government on the Open Web

MP3: Local Government on the Open Web

Slides: Local Government on the Open Web

About Lachlan Hardy

Lachlan currently works as a Design Engineer at Atlassian where he builds functional designs into all their products. He is a web standards expert who has worked on numerous high-profile sites for News Digital Media, Queensland Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries, several Victorian government projects and the ticketing system for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. He leads the team behind the highly successful Webjam events promoting web innovation in Australia and has written for ReadWriteWeb. He’s an advocate of open web technologies and currently very interested in networking the facets of our online identities. His site is Lachstock.
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Matthew Hodgson

“The Intranet is dead! Long live the Intranet!”

Technology comes and goes like the reign of kings and queens. Just as Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, heralding a Golden Age of exploration and innovation, intranets trumpeted the coming of the renaissance of an Online Information Age for rapid communication of ideas and sharing knowledge. But a decade on, did many of our efforts actually meet our expectations or have intranets just become the jester of the court of corporate knowledge repositories?

Matthew will look the reign of the intranet and examine where we’ve been, where we are now, and what might lie beyond the Web 2.0 door. Specifically, Matthew will look at:

• how Web 2.0 tools are helping us today to realise some of our old ideas about communication and sharing knowledge;
• what we can learn from all that social computing goodness, from current tools to frameworks, methodologies and emerging best-practice; and
• some practical examples of the use of wikis and blogs in the real world to help manage corporate knowledge

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

MP3: The Intranet is dead! Long live the Intranet!

Slides: The Intranet is dead! Long live the Intranet!

About Matthew Hodgson

Matthew Hodgson is regional lead for Web and Information Management at SMS Management & Technology in Canberra. He has over 10 years experience in e-business strategy, information architecture, information management and knowledge management, working with the government and commercial sector to deliver innovative solutions to difficult web problems. Matthew has published papers in the areas of social psychology, has lectured at the University of Canberra on social computing, and is passionate about the way in which technology can positively impact on social change through facilitating interpersonal communication and knowledge sharing.

Matthew’s experience is underpinned by a comprehensive applied knowledge of government and international web and information standards, degrees in organisational psychology and knowledge management, and an intimate understanding of Web 2.0, from folksonomies to wikis and blogs.

Matthew blogs at Matt’s Musings and is a contributing author at The AppGap.
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Joanna Lewis

Information Architecture - What it means for you and your users

Why bother with information architecture? What does it mean for website users? Why is it important in managing your website?

Information architecture refers to how you structure the content on your website. In many cases, information architecture develops over time in an ad hoc manner into long lists of unorganised content. Users can’t find the content they need. Managing the site becomes an exercise in managing demands from content owners to be higher up in the structure. This session will look at how attending to your information architecture will make the job of managing your site easier.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Information Architecture

MP3: Information Architecture

About Joanna Lewis

Joanna Lewis have over 8 years experience in applying user-centred design principles to information architecture and interface design projects. This experience includes working on large content rich intranets and websites for both government and the private sector. She loves the insights you get from observing users interact with websites.
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Diana Mounter

Working in a multi-platform environment: the pros and cons of custom builds and your CMS

If you’ve ever had experience trying to manage an environment where you have multiple systems you will understand this can be quite a headache, and you’d probably seriously question employing any new platforms to manage your websites and online applications. On the other hand, trying to fit everything into and existing system, or CMS can create its share of troubles too.

This session will show you how custom builds can be a great success but also how to make the decision between sticking with your existing systems or when to consider employing a new one, be it custom or otherwise. We’ll also look at some things to consider to ensure a streamlined end-user experience, and how to ease your support role in a multi-system, multi-author environment.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Working in a multi-platform environment

MP3: Working in a multi-platform environment

Slides: Working in a multi-platform environment

About Diana Mounter

Diana is the Design and Development Coordinator for the Local Government and Shires Associations of NSW (LGSA). She combines her experience in graphic design, IT, database management, and marketing to approach web project management creatively and with a fine-toothed comb.

In her role at the Associations Diana designs, coordinates, and supports the Associations many websites, giving her the experience of working with both a CMS and custom build applications. During her experience at the Associations she has coordinated many online projects, the most recent achievement has been the success of the 2008 Cultural Awards.

Diana co-founded the Local Government Web Network with Reem, and blogs on this website.
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Tim Lucas

Just Building It, Introduction to Ruby on Rails

Sometimes the best path to change is to go ahead and just build it, and then ask for forgiveness later. Tim gives and introduction to Ruby on Rails, showing you the development tools and practices that will help you avoid the big spec and simply get stuff built.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Just Building It, Introduction to Ruby on Rails

MP3: Just Building It, Introduction to Ruby on Rails

Slides: Just Building It, Introduction to Ruby on Rails

About Tim Lucas

Tim Lucas, aka toolmantim, is a software developer and web technologist known in the Aussie web community for his involvement in events such as Work at Jelly, Webjam and the Sydney Ruby on Rails group. Tim’s been building connected software for as long as he can remember, recently helping craft the iphone version of news.com.au and the new VOIP platform vtalk. Tim combines his passion for quality with his human approach to software development as co-founder and senior developer at Agency Rainford, a web agency collaborating with brilliant individuals to create kick-ass solutions to problems that matter. Tim was the lead developer on the LGSA cultural awards web application.
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James Robertson

Open Source Web Content Management: are we asking the right questions?

Beyond the 140+ commercial content management systems (CMS) in the Australian market, there are many open source offerings used globally. These have many potential benefits, but when considering these, are we asking the right questions?

About James Robertson

James Robertson is the Managing Director of Step Two Designs, a vendor- neutral CMS consultancy based in Australia. James is recognsied as global thought-leader on CMS selection, and spends part of every year speaking at conferences throughout Australia, as well as in S-E Asia, Europe and the US.

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Russ Weakley

Efficient, maintainable, modular CSS

Many web sites have moved away from table based layouts to CSS.
But what about the longer term? Is you CSS efficient, maintainable and
modular? Find out about taking your CSS to the next level.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Efficient, maintainable, modular CSS

MP3: Efficient, maintainable, modular CSS

Slides: Efficient, maintainable, modular CSS

About Russ Weakley

Russ Weakley has worked as a web designer for the last 13 years. Russ has a detailed knowledge of web design and development. His expertise covers graphic design, interface design, site architecture and standards based development ­especially in the area of XHTML/CSS. Russ chairs the Web Standards Group which was set up to assist web developers learn about new technologies and accessibility issues. Russ has produced a series of widely acclaimed CSS-based tutorials as well as a book, “Teach Yourself CSS in Ten Minutes”.
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Web Standards Panel Members

This will be a panel discussion on web standards with the real experts in the field. We’ll have a look at what’s happened in other governments and talk about where we want New South Wales to aim for with an improvement in accessibility, usability, and the quality of our websites. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and give feed back on what really matters to them about web standards.

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Web Standards panel discussion

MP3: Web Standards panel discussion

Kate Cumming
Government Record Keeping, State Records NSW

Kate Cumming is a Project Officer in the Government Record keeping program of State Records NSW, where her main areas of responsibility concern digital record keeping, principally system design, record migration and metadata. Kate holds a PhD from Monash University. Her dissertation examined the roles and purposes of record keeping metadata.

Kate has a longstanding involvement with the Standards Australia records management committee and has represented Australia at numerous meetings of the International Standards Organisation.

Brian Hardy
Vision Australia

Brian Hardy is the National Manager, Consulting and Commercial Services with Vision Australia. Brian manages teams involved with providing consulting and training in accessible web design and in making the built and pedestrian environment accessible. Brian publishing audio books under the Louis Braille Audio Brand and a new range under the Vision Australia audio book brand.

Prior to joining Vision Australia in 1998, Brian was a Senior Executive in the Victorian State Government, with responsibility for the development of Community Access services for people with disabilities.

Brian has had a lifelong interest in the role of information access and management in pursuing social objectives.

Russ Weakley
Web Standards Group

Russ Weakley has worked as a web designer for the last 13 years. Russ has a detailed knowledge of web design and development. His expertise covers graphic design, interface design, site architecture and standards based development ­especially in the area of XHTML/CSS. Russ chairs the Web Standards Group which was set up to assist web developers learn about new technologies and accessibility issues. Russ has produced a series of widely acclaimed CSS-based tutorials as well as a book, “Teach Yourself CSS in Ten Minutes”.
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Local-e Re-Design Project 2008

Reem Abdelaty – Program Director, Local Online Communications and Linkages

Joanna Lewis – Customer Experience Consultant, Objective Digital

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Local-e Re-Design Project 2008

MP3: Local-e Re-Design Project 2008

Slides: Local-e Re-Design Project 2008

In late 2007 Local-e embarked on a program of market research with Objective Digital to find out what members of the public are seeking from your council websites. In this session, we will present in detail the results of this research, the methodologies used, and provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and discuss the findings of the research with us and amongst yourselves, and how it will impact on the re-design of the Local-e template.
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Local-e Tips & Trick, and wish-list for 2009/10

Reem Abdelaty – Program Director, Local Online Communications and Linkages

Presentation material

Audio file: right click and “save as” to download or just click the link to play audio.

WMA: Local-e Tips & Trick

MP3: Local-e Tips & Trick

This is an interactive session where Local-e users have the opportunity to meet each other, share tricks and tips that they use, as well as feedback to us to find out what your priorities are over the coming year, so that we can define a course of development work for Local-e over the next two years.
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