Learning the World

There are two (un)conferences on January 29th that I can recommend, and a third in June:

1. The geek meeting in Frankfurt known as Webmontag will be held for the seventh time at the Brotfabrik. So far there are short lectures about a social photosharing network, semantic webworking P2P transactions, and a wireless match maker, but you are free to present your own work and research.

   After all, this is an informal meeting organized through a Wiki where you can participate and share your knowledge. Not necessarily technical knowledge, also designers, project managers, and information architects have been spotted — I wish they would speak up more often. Admission is free, so if you are in the Frankfurt area you have no excuse not to attend.

2. The second conference almost slipped my radar: it’s the First European e-Accessibility Forum in Paris, organized by the French accessibility entity BrailleNet and EDeAN (European Design for All e-Accessibility Network). While I can’t say much about BrailleNet, EDeAN is the official accessibility outreach organization of the EU. So far they have kept a low profile doing politics and research in the background, but it’s about time more people learn about their existence.

   For only € 90 you get a day packed with high quality accessibility information from industry leaders: Microsoft’s French Technical Director speaks about accessibility in the Web 2.0 context. IBMs Rich Schwerdtfeger, member of both the WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group and the HTML Working Group, is next with accessible rich internet applications (ARIA). Among other speakers, there will be Christian Heilmann (Yahoo!), Michael Cooper (W3C / WAI), Steven Faulkner (developer of the Web Accessibility Toolbar), Dave Wilton (Legal & General, the insurance company that got best practice credits in the UK’s PAS 78), Julie Howell (former accessibility champion of the Royal National Institute of the Blind), Dominique Hazaël-Massieux (W3C), and Miguel González-Sancho (European Commission). They will talk about accessibility and the Mobile Web, the UbiWeb, harmonization of European accessibility and a European label, or present a couple of case studies from print, banking, and job websites.

   You better be fast for that one, registration is only open until Saturday, January 20th.

3. Last but not least the website for the @media conference has been updated yesterday, so you can register for the event in London, June 7th and 8th, or earlier in Asia and the US. Last year’s event was fun and inspirational, so start fast-talking your employer now!