As it’s Friday, here’s a little chuckle to welcome in the weekend:

Remember the heady days of the 90s, when everyone suddenly jumped onto this new-fangled internet thing, and created multi-coloured, flashing, clashing web pages that would make your grandmother’s eyeballs fall out? Wish you could relive those days now? Well the good news is that you can! Mike Lacher at Wonder Tonic has created what he calls a ‘Geocities-izer’, which converts your shiny lovely website into something that looks like it was designed by a colourblind chimp on acid.

Here it is in all its multicoloured glory: Geocities-izer a-go-go!

(make sure your sound is turned up to experience the full audio-visual extravaganza!)

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, and I have joined the pledge to write about a woman in technology whom I admire. Having written about someone whom I have admired from afar last year (Lynda Weinman), this year I decided to write about someone anear (is that a word?) – the woman who started Ada Lovelace Day, an inspirational woman in her own right, Suw Charman-Anderson.

I first met Suw several years ago B.F. (Before Facebook), when the whole concept of corporate blogging and social media in business was still in its early days. I was inspired after seeing her speaking at a conference, and then contracted her to work with me in my role as Head of Digital Media at NESTA, where I was convinced that joining the conversation should be a part of the organisation’s mission statement. She helped me coach the staff there into taking their first leaps into communicating without the mask of pre-approved text and official statements, and helped build my own confidence in believing in what I knew to be right: that people want to be treated as people, not ‘audiences’ or ‘target markets’, and that everyone wants to know that there’s a real-life human being behind every brand, company or organisation.

Even if you haven’t had the pleasure of working with Suw directly, you’ve got to respect her involvement in the Open Rights Group as well as being one of the UK’s longest-standing and prolific social media bloggers. She’s got a lot to say and makes a lot of sense (check it out for yourself here or here). Not to mention her enthusiasm and reach in mobilising thousands of people to write about, spread the word and join in the cause of celebrating the achievements of women in technology, by starting the Ada Lovelace phenomenon. I learned a lot about Ada Lovelace (and other sometimes under-appreciated women) through this, and I feel all the richer for it.

But the real reason I felt driven to write about Suw today is because we have a lot in common:

1. Each of us has a totally unique name, with no one else in the world sharing it.

2. We are both addicted to cats and crochet – and we both know it’s not something that usually mixes well.

3. We both think that the web can be a really powerful tool in connecting people, making businesses work better (and smarter) and empowering those who may not have had a voice before. It’s an awesome thing, and I hope that you’ll join me today in taking a moment to appreciate just how amazing it is to be alive and online today.

Well someone did:

This is my personal favourite intranet secret. You see, those lovely peeps at ThoughtFarmer have created a new blog called Intranet Secrets, where you can anonymously post your deepest, darkest secrets about your company’s intranet. I have posted one of my own… but I’m not telling you which one is mine! If your company has done something silly, useless or downright stupid with your intranet, why not get it off your chest. You will feel better knowing others can finally point and laugh along with you.

Random Disclaimer: I’m not paid by or associated with ThoughtFarmer, but I sure do recommend their product, having used it myself twice, both as a client and as a consultant. It’s pretty freaking awesome, if I do say so myself.

Just a quick post to say that I will be offline until I get back from my driving tour of the American Southwest. We are currently in Santa Fe, about 1/3 of the way on our epic trip from Dallas to San Francisco. We have internet connection here, but as we head off the beaten track through the deserts, we will be lucky to have electricity, much less web access! I’ll be back in October, so until then…

Last week marked the launch of my latest client sites, philbourne.com and e-motionimages.co.uk – 2 photography websites created on Squarespace. The client wanted to be able to easily update the websites with content, both in terms of text and also in the photo galleries, as well as having the option of a private client login area. As the client is great with photographic skills but otherwise a non-techie, Squarespace seemed the best choice for these projects, due to the easy interface.

I also brushed up my Flash and XML skills for these projects, including Flash animation galleries on the site homepages that can be updated by the client without any additional coding needed. I love the fact that XML has made things like this possible… gone are the days of hard-coding everything into Flash and having to re-bake the whole thing anytime a small change was needed. Using the Flash/XML and Squarespace combo means my clients can keep their sites looking and sounding fresh without having to spend loads of time learning (and probably shouting at the computer!), or paying someone to do it for them. And for creative clients, this means more time and resource for them to be creative, which has got to be a good thing.

In addition to the web design & build, I also worked with Phil on the visual identity for his brand, and we’re both really pleased with the grungy, but still polished look (if there can be such a thing!). I think it really captures the essence of his work, which is edgy and slightly ‘moody’ and youthful.

In honour of Ada Lovelace Day, I want to share my admiration and awe for a woman who clearly shares my deepest passions – design, computers, teaching and humour: Lynda Weinman. I first encountered Lynda way back in 1996, when I was learning how to code HTML to create these new-fangled things called web pages. At that time, it was rare to see a beautifully-designed web site that actually worked, as people were only just getting to grips with the technology and its limitations. Along came a book that changed my life: Designing Web Graphics, by none other than Lynda Weinman.

This was the first book to tackle web technology from the visual perspective, while still keeping usability and functionality at the forefront. Introducing such concepts as the web-safe colour palette to the masses, it really set the standard and became a rapid bestseller. Shortly after I absorbed the contents of this ‘bible’, I came across Creative HTML Design, another brilliant book by Lynda (and her brother) that combined the technical with the aesthetic. I referred to this book for years – so often that the spine broke and the pages were all tattered by the time the technology advanced enough to make it obsolete. But I still think many of the concepts in the book apply today.

Whereas most technology books of the time were filled with authoritative, cold, bland language, Lynda’s writing used a tone that made it feel like she was in the room chatting to you, reassuring you, and making you laugh along with her. I think it was this warm, personable approach that set her apart and led to her lasting popularity. Reading her books, you never felt like an idiot, but instead felt part of an exciting learning journey, with the most amazing coach.

Lynda also created a fantastic reference website to accompany her writings: lynda.com. Back in the late 90s, the site was my most frequently-visited bookmark, where I turned for advice on colurs, layouts, coding and web standards, as well as great tutorials on software such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver. Over the years, lynda.com has evolved to become *the* place to go to learn about not just web technology and graphic design software, but also video, photography, animation, games development and now even databases and business applications. I bought my husband a subscription to the video tutorials one year as a gift, and he quickly became a Lynda addict, too.

Today, it’s rare to meet a web designer, developer or anyone working with graphics who hasn’t heard of lynda.com – and rightly so. For the last 13 years, whenever anyone has asked me for advice on how to learn most anything to do with design and digital media, I tend to send them to lynda.com (or Peachpit Press, another wonderful resource for DIY education, who published some of Lynda’s books). I think Lynda Weinman has been the single most influential person on my working life, even though I have never even met her. I reckon if I ever did meet her, I might have to ask her what her favourite web-safe colour is… mine’s #00BFFF.

So hooray for Lynda Weinman and hooray for Ada Lovelace, and a huge hooray for all the women in technology who are yet to be born. Embrace your inner geek, ladies.

I have just signed up to the Ada Lovelace Day pledge: on March 24, I pledge to write a blog post about a woman in technology. The concept is simple: get as many people as possible to blog about a woman they admire who works in technology; the more, the merrier. The idea was hatched by social media persona extraordinaire Suw Charman, a rather groovy lady in technology herself (I hope someone writes about Suw!). Suw’s original goal was to get 1,000 people to pledge, but the figure exceeded that goal within a mere 7 days, and currently sits at 1,275. Why don’t you pop over and sign up to make it 1,276?

You see, Ada Lovelace was an extraordinary woman who wrote the world’s first computer programme way back in the 1830s, and she also predicted uses for computers thateven Charles Babbage himself couldn’t foresee. Sadly, she died at age 36 and never had the chance to fully explore the possibilities of these new machines. Ada Lovelace Day is our chance to celebrate the legacy she left for all of us.

I already know who I want to blog about, and she is a woman who changed my life, despite my never having met her. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you who she is just yet… you’ll have to wait til 24 March to find out who my ultimate inspiration and mentor is! In the meantime, think about the female sysadmin, programmer, developer, engineer, help desk assistant or any other women you know who work in technology, and I hope you will join the pledge, too. You can also chip in with other stuff, or just follow findingada on Twitter to stay abreast of what’s happening.

Despite appearances, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have just had an incredibly busy few months, juggling web consulting projects while at the same time working on getting my photography career back up & running after a 12-year hiatus. I’ve also published a book! Before I knew it, months had passed and I hadn’t blogged in ages. I guess the old adage about gardeners’ own gardens being full of weeds is true. So here I am, with my trusty spade and rake, ready to get back in there and do some weeding.

Today I’ve taken the opportunity to update this site with some testimonials and case studies, to help explain a bit more about what I do. I’ve also got some notes from this year’s ad:tech conference, which I’ll share with you all tomorrow. And I’ve also found a few nuggets online that I’d like to talk a bit more about (but they’re on my del.icio.us if you just can’t wait). Last but not least, over the coming weeks I hope to share some research and lessons learned from my recent projects that I was too ‘in the thick of it’ to post about earlier… right after I have myself a nice cup of tea and a sit down. It’s been a busy few months, and I think I deserve it. Aaaahhh.

Well, I’m back after spending the best part of a month entirely offline (visiting family & travelling in Japan). I thought it would be a real struggle, but surprisingly I didn’t feel the withdrawal and in fact it was a refreshing change – though I think that was mainly because I was busy doing other things. I can imagine it would be very different trying to stay offline on home turf.

In catching up with my feeds today, I read in TechCrunch that there’s yet another online project management and collaboration tool that has sprung up, but this one, called Phuser, is taking a different tack than the others by incorporating other webapps directly into the product. Apparently Phuser will have all the usual features you’d expect from an online collaborative workspace – such as different spaces for different projects, ability to invite/manage other users, document storage, discussions, etc – but will also use existing popular 3rd party tools like Slideshare and del.icio.us to boost functionality.

If it all works and is as seamless as this slideshow promises, Phuser could provide welcome relief for users (like me) who find all these webapps useful, but disjointed. What would be really great is if Phuser eliminated the need for people to create separate accounts on these 3rd party sites, which I think is one of the main annoyances (if not barriers) to people who want to use these tools within the business context. I’ll be interested to see how Phuser manages this.

I’ve been thinking about looking at alternatives to CentralDesktop now that there are a handful of others on the scene, so I’ve signed up to the beta and will be taking Phuser through its paces, alongside my old favourite CD and popular upcomer Huddle – especially interesting as both Huddle and Phuser are UK startups. If I have time, I’ll try to include the now somewhat old skool Basecamp, plus others like Goplan and Zoho Projects. I might just end up with a handy comparison chart that others may find useful.

A little comment I wrote on the NESTA blogs about the constant stream of mixed and confusing messages we are bombarded with these days:

Two stories which resonated with me this morning…

1) A colleague forwarded this nugget from popb*tch:
An avatar in Second Life has a larger carbon footprint than the average Brazilian

2) Slashdot commented on the world’s biggest digital dump, where Chinese locals harvest the gold, copper and other valuable parts within discarded PCs from the West.

How should I feel about these things? It’s a confusing state, as both coins have 2 sides…

Read the full post & comment here on the Making Innovation Flourish blog >>