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A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Boagworld is the personal website of Paul (the Wurzel) Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset. He produces a weekly podcast along with Marcus (pop star) Lillington on all things relating to building and running websites.

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Show 68: Tagtastic

Published on: February 27, 2007 by Paul Boag

On this week’s show; Matthew Patterson from Campaign monitor shares some handy hints on sending an email campaign, Marcus finishes his series on web design contracts and Paul looks at some interesting alternative approaches to site navigation.

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News and events

Diversity in web design

This week the web design blogosphere has been dominated by discussions about the lack of women speakers at conferences. Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Jeremy Keith, Tantek... the list goes on and on. Frankly, I find the debate less than helpful. It is interesting to note that all of the women I have seen post on the subject have seemed very defensive almost as if they are under attack for not speaking more!

More on Open ID

Open ID continues to build momentum with both AOL and Digg.com saying they will support the standard. Dan Webb also provides a guide on how to support Open ID in your web applications.

Validation: why it matters

Ethan Marcotte has just published an interesting article on the List Apart website looking at the business benefits of validation and why it continues to polarise the web community.

The sorry state of web accessibility

The subject of web accessibility receives another body blow this week with Mike Davies posting a damning criticism. What is probably most disturbing is that I am yet to find a post disagreeing with him.

Client Corner: The statement of work (final chapter!)

This week sees the end of Marcus’ series on the statement of work (I know, it is distressing for us all!). In this final segment he takes a look a:

  • Milestones and timescales
  • Project management
  • Testing
  • Deliverables
  • Pricing

Ask an expert: Matthew Patterson on email campaigns

Matthew Patterson works for campaign monitor one of the best email management sites about. Their site is stuffed with great advice for those thinking of running an email campaign and so it seemed only natural to get him on the show and get his thoughts on how best to run a successful campaign.

Non hierarchical navigation

Headscape was recently approach by a potential client who had literally hundreds of thousands of web pages which were almost impossible to organise into a traditional information architecture. They wanted us to suggest some alternatives and so I thought this sounded like a great issue to cover on the show.

Instead of trying to stuff everything we covered in those show notes, I have instead posted a separate article on non hierarchical navigation which includes everything I said and the links I mentioned. Hope you find it useful.

Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

  • Post by Mathew Patterson on February 28, 2007 3:02 AM

    Thanks for having me on Paul - in case anyone was left in doubt, I work for Campaign Monitor :)

    Another great show, and we're all looking forward to some quality 'umms' and 'ahs' from Marcus next week.

  • Post by Clayton Leis on February 28, 2007 5:42 AM

    Thanks for sharing so much information with us Mathew. Campaign Monitor looks like a great service.

  • Post by George Paterson on March 1, 2007 3:06 PM

    So today i'm listening to the podcast with a fellow Paterson* highlighting proper email campaigns and the marketing department spam our user database with html emails tripping our net connection out with bounce backs. Black listing awaits.

    Now if i could get the buggers to just listen to sense for once....

    *Yeah i know two t's

  • Post by Michael Montgomery on March 1, 2007 3:32 PM

    Great episode guys. You're consistently the best web design podcast, no doubt.

    So..., who was it exactly, that reminded Paul about the tagging architecture podcast by Russ?

  • Post by Mathew Patterson on March 2, 2007 2:06 AM

    Hey George - I do have two 'ts' in Patterson, but Paul's also given me an extra 't' in Mathew which I don't use, so you can have one of mine if you like.

    I've also had plenty of experience with rogue marketing departments - they can get out of control!

  • Post by freetheweb on March 2, 2007 10:29 PM

    Hey Paul, Marcus,

    Haven't listened to all of this week's yet but thought you might like to know I had something to say on the female speaker's issue. :-)

    http://femmaissance.blogspot.com/2007/03/where-are-we-all.html

    Keep up the good work

  • Post by Cindy Lionwoman on April 10, 2007 1:57 AM

    I have a comment about why there may be more males dominating in the speaking arena of web design and development, (though it may cause a debate or perhaps some uncomfortable feelings with certain people).

    Overall, I think that women have much more on their plates (on average) than males expanding the problem to an arena outside the professional realm.

    Women are often expected to work full-time jobs, be the primary caretakers for their husbands and children and extended family members, including household pets; They are the errand runners for the household, and are often the head cook and chief bottle washers, as well. --Need I go on.

    In general, given the time... women are just as capable at presenting as men in web design or any other field that they work in. They often just don't know how they can fit one more thing on their plates. Even once children are grown, the household responsibilities (if you are married) are often ever-consuming.

    Men seem to be able to block out many (though, not all) things related to the domestics of life. This is an asset and I'm jealous that I cannot do the same, believe me...

    Somehow in a woman's genes, it feels very hard not to notice the many "life demands" that press themselves upon us. I cannot speak for men, but my perception is that they (in general) have an easier time focusing and not noticing or acting on conflicting demands.

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