Hey folks,

Our next meetup:

Date: Wednesday, 1st July 2009
Time: 7:30pm (can come earlier to chit-chat, we’ve booked the room from 7pm)
Place: Seminar Room 4.2 @ School of Economics & Social Sciences, SMU (it’s the building nearer the National Museum)

Speakers and Topics

This meetup we’ll delve into processes: how we make things work.

Website Design and Development Processes

Singapore web standards pioneer Nick Pan (@nickpan) will be kicking off the session with a presentation on common methodologies used to bring concept through development and unto the launch of a website. Nick bring with him a huge amount of experience, and has traversed the journey to and from code monkey, entrepreneur and project manager.

This presentation will be an open one, so feel free to conjure up your own deck of slides and take the stage if you think your approach to web development is something you’d like to share with the rest of us.

Deconstructing MOE.gov.sg

Thanks to a request over Twitter, yours truly will try to give an insight on the learning experience of revamping the Ministry of Education’s website. It’ll be a glimpse of working within large organisations, and hopefully you’ll walk away with a few tips on how to deal with Galactica-sized setups.

See you guys there?

We’ll need to know how many are coming so we can get a bigger room if necessary. So drop a comment if you’ll come yah?

Lucian|Tuesday, June 2, 2009 |38 Comments |Digg This

We took some time at the WebSG meetup to discuss possible avenues for improving the government’s online efforts. While Singapore has won accolades for its drive for eGovernment, participants at the meetup highlighted a few steps the Singapore government could do to improve her services. I will be passing these suggestions on to the relevant folks in the government.

Continue reading "What the Singapore Government Can Do Better Online" »

Lucian|Thursday, May 7, 2009 |10 Comments |Digg This

We are having our next meetup!

Date: 29th April 2009
Time: 8pm (can come earlier to chit-chat, we’ve booked the room from 7pm)
Place: Seminar Room 4.2 @ School of Economics & Social Sciences, SMU

Speakers and Topics

Where Websites Go Wrong

Andy Croll (@andycroll) will be speaking on “Where Websites Go Wrong”, covering commonplace mistakes made by websites. Andy blogs at Deepcalm and has done spectacular work on Singaporean websites such as Epicurious and Bezurk (now known as Wego).

Developing for the Mobile Platform

Jon Peterson (@singeo) will be covering the in and outs of developing applications for the mobile platform. Jon has wowed many of us with his mad topographical skills on his blog Singeo, moved his mapping mojo to mobiles with iSingeo and most recently whetted our insatiable need for good food with the iPhone application buUuk.

What the Singapore Gahmen Could Do Better Online

We will also be having an open discussion on “What the Singapore Government could do better online”. While we encourage a spirited debate, there is a need to keep from becoming a slamming session (unless by slamming, you mean kickass, and by kickass, you mean awesome). So political tirades aside, let’s get cracking on how Singapore could move forward on making things happen.

Epic Fail

We’ve heard of your single claim to fame. Now regale us with tales of the many failures, missed opportunities and faceplants. We want to hear every sordid detail of how you took the wrong turn and ended up sitting next to the rest of us at the meetup instead of wining and dining with Silicon Valley’s finest. If you have such a story, bring it. Open mic, five minutes a piece, slides optional.

Because we’re sick of listening to the lucky few. This is the time for failure to shine.

Are you coming?

Due to the limited number of seats, I’d ask that you leave a comment below if you are coming. We’ll move to a larger room if necessary and available.

See you guys there.

Lucian|Monday, April 20, 2009 |39 Comments |Digg This

A great summary of events.

Lucian|Wednesday, March 18, 2009 |No Comments |Digg This

It is sad news indeed that JPG Magazine is shutting down. I was a fan of JPG when Derek Powazek began it, and fell out of love with it when Derek was no longer part of it. The closure of JPG Magazine begs an important question:

Will people pay for a printed version of what could be made available online?

The answer of course, is yes. People still buy newspapers, although the numbers are dropping. Moleskines are the rage. It will be some time before we see the end of paper.

JPG Magazine was printed on high-end glossy paper. Its closure means that people, for the most part, are satisfied with online images, even though they provide no tactile satisfaction and are often constrained to small resolutions. The improvement in quality of the printed photo over the Flickr image isn’t worth paying for, making the business of JPG Magazine an unsustainable one.

So what would make you pay for something in print? These are a 2 of my own reasons, feel free to add your own. That I couldn’t think of any more makes me pessimistic about the print industry as a whole.

• A substantial amount of information that has to be packaged as a whole (e.g. a book)
• It is important for the info to be electricity-independent (e.g. first-aid manual)

Lucian|Friday, January 2, 2009 |No Comments |Digg This