Vasilis’ nerd blog presents
On the day after Smashing Conference, and on the day before CSS Day we’re organising two The Web You Want events at CMD in Amsterdam. We have been giving courses about designing for and with the web for years now, and these courses are all based on the idea of an open web, a web that is for everyone, by everyone, based on open standards. We also encourage our students to study what we call the material of the web: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. We think that designers can make better websites if they really understand these materials. But we wonder if these foundational ideas where we base our classes on are still valid. Are they good enough? Do they still hold true on the current web? Do they maybe need some adjustments? Are our ideas maybe too idealist? Or perhaps not radical enough? We’re organising these events to discuss these questions, and more, with you.
We encourage you all to participate in these events. You could, for instance, host a workshop where the participants work with you on the particular web that you want. Or you could organise an artistic intervention where you provoke us with a dystopian vision of the web that you do not want (positive artistic interventions are very welcome as well, of course). Maybe you want to discuss your vision on web accessibility? Or work on questions about privacy? Maybe you want a more independent, and a more personal web? A poetic web, a typographic web, a beautifully crafted web, a weird web, a practical web, an artificial web, an even more hypercapitalist web, an easy to build web, or just a wonderfully nonsensical web. We would really like to hear all your thoughts, your wishes, your sweet dreams, and all your nightmares about the future of the web. So we’re not only looking for people who want to give an old fashioned talk, other forms of participation are very welcome as well.
We have already received quite a few proposals for talks and for workshops. And so far they’re all very interesting. But we want more, we want to turn this into a fantastic web festival with many different views on what the web might be. So if you have a good idea, please let us know.
We have already confirmed a few sessions. Marleen Stikker, the Dutch web pioneer, and very active lobbyist for an independent web based on the ideas of the commons will give the opening keynote on day one. I’ve asked Léonie Watson to give a keynote on the second day. Léonie is an absolute expert on digital accessibility and she will share her current views. And the incredible Niels Leenheer will come over to control his lasers with the material of the web. Let’s hope our university still stands after the event …
There’s another way to participate: whenever you refresh the website of the event, you’ll get a different theme. If you have the skills, and the time, feel free to send us your vision of the web as a CSS theme via email or as a pull request. The codebase and the rules for your theme can be found on our Codeberg repository.
Well, yes. Unfortunately we do not have any budget at all. Which means we cannot pay for your travel costs, or your hotel, and we can’t pay you for your time. So if you propose a talk, make sure that you have the budget to travel to Amsterdam and stay here.
If, by any chance, you happen to have a spare room in your Amsterdam home, where you could host one or two speakers, please let us know.