Web414 - Milwaukee's Web Community

Smartphones and laptops and tablets... oh my! These days people are viewing the web on all types of devices. How do you keep up and make your site look best on all of these platforms, screen sizes, and resolutions?

Responsive Design to the rescue! Responsive Design is an approach that says your design and development should respond to the screen size, platform, and orientation of your device.

James Conway of C2 Graphics Productivity Solutions will join us to introduce responsive design and help us understand if it can solve our problems.

Examples of Responsive Design and the kinds of problems it solves
Some problems it introduces - responsive design vs redirect to mobile version of site vs fluid layouts
Mobile First as a design option
Media queries as the heart of responsive design - basic demo showing the simple mechanics
Flexible images - basic overview and demo
Flexible type - basic overview and demo
Flexible grids - basic overview and demo
Combining techniques for real world use - demo
What to do about IE6, IE7 & IE8
We would also like to give some show & tell time at the end of the presentation. So if you have a recent project using Responsive Design, we'd love to have you!

You can whet your appetite for Responsive Design by viewing the great set of examples at MediaQueri.es

Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 7:00 PM

C2 Graphics Productivity Solutions, LLC
222 E. Erie Street, Suite 330, Milwaukee, WI

We will be discussing WordPress security... ways to make your website safe from hackers. There are many useful plugins and a few best practices you should follow to help secure your Wordpress site. We even found some interesting paid services made just for Wordpress that help to scan and secure your website on a continual basis.

We are looking for more presenters/speakers for this topic. Contact me if you are interested in helping out.

Skype: offordscott
Google Talk: scott@orionweb.net
AIM/AOL: offordscottchina
MSN: scott@offord.me
Yahoo: offord_scott

RSVP today to secure your spot at this meetup (space IS limited).

This is Jon Knebel from Milwaukee SEO Company (milwaukeeseocompany.com). I have been establishing an SEO company that will also offer full-service web design. The team currently consists of me and 1 subcontracting graphic designer.

We will be in need of someone who can convert the mockups that the graphic designer creates into code, and then into a Wordpress template, and help to create the website.

Currently, I am the one doing this conversion, but my time will be better spend doing website marketing and sales. My point in saying this, however, is that I will be helpful with the conversion process, and be able to pick up where you leave off if you don't want to maintain long-term involvement with the company.

Please leave a comment or visit the contact form on our website to let me know if you'd like to discuss the opportunities ahead.

This is for a sub-contracting position--not employment--therefore, you are free to designate your own rates and hours and location of work. We are based out of Bucketworks.

-Jon Knebel

C2 seeks an Adobe Flash Builder developer that could convert a Flex 3.5 application to one that would run on the iPad. (There is no live data involved.)

http://www.c2gps.com/talent/opportunities.html

Please respond ASAP if you're capable, available and interested, rate is competitive.

This weekend the Random Hacks of Kindness global hackathon will be taking place at Bucketworks (as well as in 34 other cities around the globe!).

This event aims to bring together experts on real world social problems with hackers, designers, programmers, scientists and world-saving enthusiasts to build technology which solves these problems. The main focus will be on water and disaster management issues, but anything that helps make the world a better place is fair game!

The festivities kickoff with a pre-party at Open MiKE (in the Grand Ave Mall) on Friday at 5:30pm, which will feature beer from Big Bay Brewing Company and a tasting from the Great Lakes Distillery.

Lunch, team building and the problem presentations will begin on Saturday at 12:30pm. Hacking will commence at 2pm on Saturday and finish at 2pm on Sunday, 24 hours later. You are free to come and go as you please, there is no requirement to hack for 24 hours straight, but the space will be available to you if you choose to use it.

Meals will be provided through out! Prizes will be awarded to teams for best water solution, best disaster solution, best design and a sponsored challenge from WaterTech USA.

For more information and to register, please visit this URL:

http://www.rhok.org/event/milwaukee-wi-usa

And before the hackathon begins on Saturday, there will be a mobile application building workshop held at Open MiKE from 9:30am to 12:00pm:

http://www.spreenklertalentlabs.org/made-at-mike/

Hope to see you there!

Safe from Bucketworks on Vimeo.

In the middle of Bucketworks is a safe. What's inside? We have no idea, but we're about to find out.

November 4th at 7pm, DC414 will crack the case when Bucketworks presents: SAFE

Watch the video above for the lowdown.

Thusday October 13, 2011 - 7:00pm-9:00pm

Enjoy the great warm indoors at the October meeting of Web414. This month’s main session will feature an informative social media debate in the style of Shelby Sapusek and Jim Raffel of She Said He Said.

Shelby and Jim have developed an ever-growing list of topics that apply directly or indirectly to social media, marketing and communication. These are topics that occupy a large percentage of their working days. Normally, they publish about three topics that will be addressed, then one of one of them selects a topic from the list and throws it out to the other for an opinion. Next, the originator of the topic responds and they go back and forth a bit. Anyone participating in the #shehechat is, of course, encouraged to jump into the conversation. The conversation is normally spirited and often sparks ideas for future #shehechat topics. Learn more about She Said, He Said by visiting http://jimraffel.com/shehechat/.

Also on the October agenda, James Carlson, director of BucketWorks, recently attended the 2011 Chaos Communication Camp in Finowfurt, Germany. James has volunteered to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to share his exciting experience with us. Chaos Communication Camp is an international, five-day open-air event for hackers and associated life-forms. It provides a relaxed atmosphere for free exchange of technical, social, and political ideas. You can learn more about Chaos Communications Camp by visiting http://events.ccc.de/camp/2011/.

Last, but not least, Clint Laskowski will give an informative presentation on developing a web project using various prototyping tools (Balsamiq, JustinMind, etc.).

BucketWorks is located on S. 5th Street, just north of National Avenue. As always, admission is free, and there's plenty of free street parking after 6pm. Come down and join us, we look forward to seeing you there!

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***PLEASE NOTE - We will be starting the meeting at 6pm this month and finishing at 7:30 to not conflict with the Packers season opener that night***

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Join us, as always, at Bucketworks for the September edition of Web414. This month's meeting will be at 6pm on the second Thursday of the month. That means September, 8. We have an exciting show for you this month.

Segment 1 - Rackspace Cloud

Adam Hansen from Rackspace will be joining us to talk Cloud! He will give us an overview of Cloud uses in Small and Medium sized business and web and app development. He will discuss cloud in general as well as talk about his company, Rackspace. If you have any other topics that you would like discussed, be sure to let us know before the meeting. Be sure to bring your questions and Rackspace may even be giving us some swag to our group.

Segment 2 - BarCampMilwaukee6

Jeremy Jannene will be discussing the planning of the upcoming BarCampMilwaukee6. He will update us on what has been happening in planning, how you can help out, and what to expect at this year's BarCampMilwaukee.

RSVP on Facebook

August's meeting seems to still be fresh in the books, but September is coming up. For September, we will continue on the topic of Virtual Cloud Hosting with a special guest.

I am happy to announce that for September's meeting, Rackspace has offered to send an engineer to speak to the group.

They said he can speak on any part of Rackspace we would like and cloud hosting in general. So, I would like to put out the question to the loyal Web414 members. What would you like in the presentation from Rackspace? It's up to the community. Let us know in the comments, via Twitter (@web414), or on Facebook.

Stay tuned for more information on September's Web414!

Thursday August 11th, 7pm-9pm

Join us for an exciting evening of Virtual Cloud Hosting by Rob Martin (@version2beta) of Quintessential Mischief LLC. Rob’s background includes accomplishments in networking, virtual servers, databases, and server-side programming. He will compare and contrast the various services offered by cloud hosting companies such as Amazon, Rackspace, and Linode. Escape the August heat while enjoying our presentation in the cool, air-conditioned comfort of the BucketWorks facility. BucketWorks is a health club, for the mind!

Thank you to those attending, presenting, and watching the live stream of July's Web414 meeting. It was a nice group with some great discussion throughout.

The meeting started off with a presentation by Dave Brixius (@coderdx) on Mobile Web Development Best Practices.

It was followed by a presentation building on it entitled, "Mobile Web Development: State of the Industry, Tools, and Tips" by Dustin Filippini (@dustyf).

In the final presentation, Benjamin Pett (@benrobn), let us know about how to get started with Google+.

The night ended with a little open discussion with a lot of focus on BarCampMilwaukee6. We would also like to give a big thanks to our host, Bucketworks.

Archived Live Stream on Ustream

Presentation Slides

• W3C Mobile Web Best Practices - Dave Brixius
• Mobile Web Development: State of the Industry, Tools, and Tips - Dustin Filippini
• Getting Started in Google+ - Benjamin Pett

Date: July 14, 2011
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Bucketworks, 706 South 5th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53204
Topic: Mobile Page Design

Join Dave Brixius(@CoderDx) and Dustin Filippini(@dustyf) on the evening of July 14th for an exciting presentation on mobile page development. Dave and Dustin will cover all aspects of designing and developing for the new mobile web. This month’s topic comes to us compliments of Web414 member Paul Copsey(@PaulRCopsey). If you have a meeting topic to suggest please let us know and we will do our best to make it happen. Hope to see you there!

In our ongoing commitment of service to the Internet and web technology community, Web414 is pleased to announce the creation of a new administrative position within our organization. Please join me in welcoming Clint Laskowski (@Clint326) as your new Web414 Event Coordinator.

Clint will be taking our ideas and suggestions for monthly meeting topics, and then following up with the legwork required to make them happen. Clint has professional experience in meeting coordination and is looking forward to applying that experience to benefit the Web414 organization. Clint’s goal is to create and maintain a monthly meeting schedule as far in advance as possible, so start sending your ideas!

In Clint’s own words, “I think the more we can set standards (meeting dates, meeting formats, topic calendar, etc.) the easier it will be for everyone to climb on board this new Web414 train”.

Please feel free to contact Clint directly with your ideas for monthly meeting topics, and any related questions you may have. Welcome Clint, and thank you for steeping up to the plate. We all look forward to the exciting and informative monthly meetings you will be coordinating from our suggestions!

David Brixius
Organizer - Web 414

In our ongoing commitment of service to the Internet and web technology community, Web414 is pleased to announce the creation of a new administrative position within our organization. Please join me in welcoming Benjamin Pett (@benrobn) as your new Web414 Social Media Coordinator.

Benjamin’s responsibilities as Social Media Coordinator will include maintaining Web414’s social media interfaces (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and streaming our monthly meetings live via our Web414 USTREAM.com channel (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/web414). Benjamin’s focus will be on providing the latest news and informative updates to our members and enthusiasts, to keep them engaged, while also providing an interface for those who are unable to participate in our activities directly. In Benjamin’s own words, “I think, over the long term, it will also help us discover the strengths and passions of all of our members and get them more involved”.

Please feel free to contact Benjamin directly with any publicity or social media related questions. Welcome Benjamin to Web414, we thank you for your contribution and appreciate your service.

David Brixius
Organizer - Web 414