webstock wrap up

What an amazing few days at webstock. An incredible lineup of speakers. My notebook was full at the end with advice, ideas and loads of recommended reading.

Favourite sessions for me:

Tom Coates spoke about how web platforms create best value by being repositories of data, on which other things can be built. Platforms that facilitate connectivity between other third party applications - "must play nicely with others".

Simon Willeson gave a tutorial on OpenID. A practical explanation and a walk through the authorisation process making the benefits of OpenID really clear and understandable. A webplatform can use OpenID in different ways - but I was particularly interested in its use to authenticate third party business applications attached to platforms.

Jason Santa Maria talked about how design can not help but communicate messages to users, whether good or bad. He emphasised that having a strong story is key to a good design structure and providing "high value information" to users an important principle. "Design so web development is driven by the message not technology".

There were several other talks that I also *loved* including the very frank fireside chat Rowan Simpson had with Sam Morgan. It must be weird when people you don't know just start referring to you by your first name, like you're part of the family. I really enjoyed hearing about the types of investments he's made post the sale of TradeMe and the reasons why.

Glad the sessions will be posted on the webstock site so I can see the ones I missed.

Thanks to the webstock team for giving me the opportunity to attend via the scholarship programme - I had a blast and learnt heaps of practical tips I can apply to my own project.