The Raleigh-Durham Web Design & Markup Group May Meeting

Correct Map

May: How it Fits: Scripting Languages

We'll discuss how scripting fits in the overall architecture of building Web sites, and applications. Deep discussions of Ruby on Rails, ASP, PHP, MySQL, may be more appropriate to groups focussed on MySQL, PHP, and Ruby. We'll try to stick to basics and answering users' questions.

A Web Design meetup member has mentioned the possibility of offering an office conference room for a meeting. This might be good for a small tutorial. If you're interested in presenting on a topic in a more formal presentation setting, please let the organizer know.

2008 Tentative Agenda
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June: Flash Tools
July: Web Site Security
August: Videos and Movies on the Web: MP3, Music, and Podcasting
September: Search Engine Optimization
October: "Web 3.0"
November: Toss Up:
Template Languages: Designing for Blogs and Other CMSs;
Web Addressing: REST;
("Representational State Transfer". REST was introduced by Roy Fielding in his 2000 Doctoral Dissertation. Broadly, REST refers to an architectural form in which applications are considered as resources, represented as markup documents which are stored/retrieved/removed by way of HTTP commands using only Uniform Resource Identifiers - that is, a web address.)
Using mod_rewrite
December: Agenda and Organizational Meeting

2008 Past Meetings:
January Topic: Favorite Web Editing and Design Tools
February: Design Templates as "Silver Bullets": Pros and Cons of Web Design Templates
March: Designing with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
April: Search Engine Marketing

These are not fixed in stone. Please contact the organizer if you have questions or comments.
(The agenda for Markup Northeast will be less "design-oriented"; details will be given in separate announcements.)

Other optional standing tickler topics . . .

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Bring us a URL of a Web site, whether the best, the worst, or merely adequate. We'll talk about it. Let us know if it is yours and we'll be nice.

Back-end Server Coding
Have a problem grokking server-based code or architecture? Just Ask. Wanna discuss a Web service? We can do that too.

Book Review
Pick up a particularly interesting book relating to Web Design, design in general, or a cool Web technology? Or did an impulse buy turn out to be a waste of time? Tell us about it.

If you have an idea for a topic let me know. I'd be happy to update the agenda.

Discuss member's Web questions, talk about what's new, volunteers welcome to present anything of interest to Web professionals, novices, and/or hacks. The stock agenda applies of course:
* Strut your stuff. Show us your recent design work, whether programmatic or artistic.
* Q&A. Get answers to big picture and little detail questions.
* Nifty tools, technologies, and practices you find "just work well".
* Meet! Mingle! Talk!

About the Location

Panera has WiFi access, deep pots of coffee, and plenty of room. Please be polite to the staff and mindful of other customers. We do need to vacate by 9pm so the staff can close up!

*** GOOGLE/YAHOO/MAPQUEST MAPS ARE WRONG ***

The location info has a link to work around problems with Google and Yahoo Maps. The address on the embedded map was tweaked to get the Yahoo link to point to the geographical vicinity.

Mitch made a better map on MapBuilder: Map Builder Map of Panera Bread

- Mitch

Past Meeting Topics (2007):
Jan: Site critique; What is "Reasonable Disclosure" for a freelancer?
Feb: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
March: Firebug debugger & Firefox extensions (proposed Book swap a non-event)
April: Color - Theory, Web Rules of Thumb, Design Resources
May: Layout - Space, Composition, Template Design & Idioms
June: Fonts - Typesetting jargon, Good Style, Controlling, Tools
July: Vector Art - Basic Techniques, Tools, Resources
August: Bitmaps - Image Editing, Basic Photo Tips, Tools, Resources
September: Human Factors - Interface considerations, Heuristics, Tips
October: AJAX & JS Animation & Libraries
November: Flash Basics & Tools
Dec: Agenda discussion
Special Called Meeting for Dec: Markup Northeast - Dinner & organizational discussion