The Dangers of Being a Web Developer

Web development is an amazing field—easy to get into, straight forward to grow skills, great to build a reputation. The sky is the limit. It turns out, being a web developer is not all roses: on great opportunities that lead to obscure problems that ask for humble solutions.

Web Annotation: The Web’s Conversation Layer

Web Annotation—now a W3C standard—aims to establish a conversation layer on top of the web. By theoretically allowing anyone to annotate any web page content, it’s an ennobling premise and thoroughly web-like: democratic, open and standardised. But with this freedom comes challenges. Content publishers are faced with an anxiety-inducing lack of control over what people say about their content. And nothing in the standard itself protects against conversations devolving into troll-hijacked chaos. The evolution of Web Annotation mirrors that of the Web itself, in miniature, facing off with some of the same big themes of identity, security, authority and freedom.

Design for Non-Designers

Design can feel super intimidating when you feel more comfortable with code and don’t have a background in design. Knowing design basics and shortcuts can help your career in measurable ways: by helping you work more effectively with your coworkers as well as making it easier and faster for you to launch new projects from scratch without hiring a designer.

This presentation will go over design for non-designers, skipping the university-level concepts and jumping right to shortcuts and easy-to-remember principles. Recommended for those who want to learn just enough design to be dangerous (or for designers who’d like to better teach their coworkers and colleagues); featuring quick hits, easy to understand and utilize principles that anyone can use to improve their design skills.

No Effing Failure

Vic will talk about his beginnings, how he got started as an illustrator, muralist, wordsmith and man of many Inkings.

But to get to where he is has been a journey, from working 7 days a week, to constantly challenging himself and getting noticed in an increasingly flooded market.

Vic will talk about hard work, how it pays off. Being reliable, always saying yes, and getting new clients. It's not a quick fix, but a dedicated daily routine to being the best he can be and to think of the next thing before some other sucker does.

Vic will show how his clients trust him, from Nike to Virgin, The Tate to some of the worlds best design agencies. It's not about slacking or being scared and its realising that there is no such thing as failure.

In the Brink of Consciousness

Advances in deep learning and artificial intelligence are moving very fast now. People are starting to wonder what role Robots will have in our society. While many researchers are focusing on the very practical side, we have to wonder how we will interact with the Robots on a social level. How will we feel about them, and even more important: how will they feel about us?

Jan will give an overview of his robot projects from recent years, giving insights in their production, and in their effect on their audience.

A Tinker Story

In this talk dina will share her tinker story, how it all started and why she continues to tinker. She will share what she’s learnt so far and the biggest mistakes she’s done. And hopefully show you a side of Egypt you’ve never seen before.

Generative Spaces

Generative algorithms have the capacity to produce complex and beautiful designs. Often times just a few simple rules can manifest incredible phenomena. The application of this particular class of programs have practical value and artistic beauty.

Jared explored these types of programs early in his career. Now his interest in these systems has deepened. No longer are we trapped in the domain of the pixel. Generatively designed computational artifacts can now be brought into the physical world with digital fabrication.

Through the use of several examples, a variety of techniques in the world of generative programming will be explored. Algorithms will be explained, secrets will be revealed, and haunting questions asked in this highly visual presentation designed to inspire.