The Digital Economy Bill has been drafted largely by corporate content providers attempting to protect their industrial business models and includes measures to disconnect alleged copyright infringers without any judicial oversight.

Other impacts include forcing open wifi providers, such as cafes, bars, libraries, etc, to close their networks or face crippling penalties if someone downloads copyrighted material.

The Bill also gives unprecedented powers to the Government and State to block and censor websites it (or big business) doesn’t like and take over domain names where it sees fit.

In short, the Bill will make the UK’s Internet less free than China’s and stifle innovation, creativity and economic growth.

Unfortunately, this bill was passed last week as the government scrambled to get a number of bills passed before the general election this May.

The effects of the Digital Economy Bill as it stands will have serious implications for everyone. Us digital media types won’t be able to stop off at a café for a coffee and check our emails because free, open wifi will be shut off. Our children won’t be able to do their homework or learn about the wonders of the wider world because the household has been disconnected without evidence after someone has been suspected of ‘illegally’ sharing a large file.

So now we face a bleak future where creativity and self expression are under we are all now being shown the Orwell 1984 treatment.

Why expand in a downturn?

This allows us to be at the cutting edge of new developments in the capital, as well as collaborate with our friends, colleagues and other agencies on exciting digital projects.

It also allows us to attend fantastic networking events like open coffee, minibar and a wide range of regular and one-off ‘web-tech’ events that give us the opportunity to meet new colleagues and clients, talk to people about our work and look for new products to perhaps sell in the future.

As well as go after the larger range of work that is available in London.

We feel this will give us the advantage to learn, collaborate and deliver higher quality than before.

If you are based in London, or even if you are not and want to come to visit us and see the new office. Or meet up for a coffee, and an informal chat feel free to contact us.

Likewise, if you are looking for meeting roooms, permanent or hot-desking office space check out eoffice. Tell them we sent you!

Our London address is:

Callender Creates,
2 Sheraton Street,
London, W1F 8BH

Tel: 08456 524 203
Email: info@callendercreates.com

You can view a Google map and all our other contact details on our contact page.

All these services are ‘cloud based‘ meaning you can log on and access them anywhere in the world, giving the potential to work wherever, whenever you need to.

Why we like them? There are a number of reasons why they have been our favourite online services for a while – Increased productivity, no licence fees for expensive software, always on, access anywhere, powerful community features, and takes the headache of having to write your own code for these services:

1. Basecamp http://basecamphq.com – Basecamp is the leading web-based project collaboration tool. Focusing on communication and collaboration, this takes the hastle away from project management, where you can create to do lists, add milestones, share files, and message entire teams working on a project so everyone is up to speed.

2. Google documents http://docs.google.com/ – Our files and reports would be in a real mess without Gdocs! Think of it as an online Microsoft Office suite, docs, excel, powerpoint, and even surveys. You can create as many documents as you like, send a link to colleagues so they can collaborate on the same report, for example. There is a full revision history, something not available on a desktop publishing software.

3. Twitter http://www.twitter.com/ – Without Twitter the world would be a much bigger place. The site that allows you to update your status, share links to interesting web sites, and even breaking news is an invaluable resource to a small business or freelancer. I have successfully promoted our business using this network to new and existing clients so they are always aware of our new projects and developments. No day on Twitter is the same as the each other, with trending topics and current affairs being discussed by a global community.

4. Flickr http://www.flickr.com/ – This community is all about photos, that you have taken, and also being able to search for tagged photos, and browse photos from your friends. Whether its a conference, party or family holiday you can always find colourful, inspirational photographs that you can download or comment on. Flickr has created quite a few web celebrities, by amateur photogrpahers attracting millions of views and comments to their work. A good resource for finding stock images too, if you need to for a current or future project – like Google image search, but more fun!

5. Upcoming http://www.upcoming.org – Even ubergeeks have to leave their offices now and then, this is why upcoming, an events listing site is so useful. Upcoming is a community for discovering and sharing events. It can help you find things to do, and discover what your friends are doing or going to. Use it for networking at local or even international events, view who is going, and add yourself to an event to let everyone know you are attending too!

One thing in common for all these applications is that they bring people together, sharing ideas, knowledge and information. And they are all have free packages!

All the services are password protected and safe from prying eyes. All accounts include SSL security – the same as online banks. The option to you is whether you wish to offer public information to your friends and the public, it’s always up to you.

All these tools are relatively new still, and we look forward to seeing how they evolve around the people that use these apps on a daily basis. Being owned and managed by large corporations means they can adapt and add features requested from their community relatively quickly.

What are your favourite online services and applications?

Applications for the Sussex Internships Programme went live this week – you can apply for one of 40 current work placements.

The Sussex Internship Programme will provide 100 short-term internships at a wide variety of games, web, software development, animation, TV, e-learning, music, film and advertising companies.

Check out the website today to find out who is involved and what internships are available.

In a series on monthly publications we will be publishing free e-guides for you to download for free. You are welcome to share and print these eguides amongst your company or organisation.

Who are these eguides for?

The guides are in PDF format, in a print friendly format you and colleagues can use for building up a well rounded knowledge of web trends and technologies.

Whether you are a manager, a stakeholder or you someone who is looking at making web sites work harder this collection of eguides is for you. We want to help those who are less internet-savvy through the digital minefields.

We realise that there is a huge choice of services and tools on the web to choose from, we want to be able to explain in simple terms what this means to you and how they can help you save time and money as well as increasing your productivity.

Download our first client e-guide

Our first eguide ‘what makes good copy?’ covers an often over-looked part of web sites. Well structured copy can dramatically improve the feel of your web site, and convey a message to visitors that will make clear, compelling offers. The e-guide also includes copywriting dos and dont’s, and a recipe for “good copy”.

Download what makes good copy? (PDF 419kb)

This e-guide has been written in partnership with Brighton copywriter Leif Kendall and illustration/print design by Door 22 Creative.

Future publications include

• Client e-guide to usability
• Client e-guide to monitoring your brand online
• Client e-guide to a web design project
• Client e-guide to search engine web spiders

We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have getting our ideas down to help you make ‘useful web sites for everyone’.

Published using creative commons licence

Where we discussed a variety of subjects, including ‘user centered design’, and meeting client business goals. As well as showing some examples of effective and clear design process that make it easy for a site user to understand how a web site can help them in their task to achieve their tasks on the web.

Perhaps the most important question for a client is ‘essential pitch questions’ that you should ask any web design company, to help distinguish between an agency that will be good, and one that is going to be great and deliver results.

Read the full interview

Depending on who you talk to, SxSw is all about the 1000 different panelists talking tech to a very enthusiastic International audience, others refer to it as ‘summer camp for geeks‘. Being a super friendly conference means that it’s very easy to speak to a number of people from different backgrounds.

The best part of SxSw?

Is that everyone, whether they are ‘Internet Famous’ like Scoble, or whether they are freelancers is that the hierarchy is flat. So you can be sitting next to a CEO, and converse with a great variety of businesses in an informal setting. There are very few ego’s here, which I find quite refreshing compared to other events.

How to choose the right session

The level of information and user generated content that is generated from this event is staggering. 19 different panels happening at the same time, a choice of topics that covers everything from internet privacy to social media practices. Think like going to a music festival and having to choose just one panel out of 19, a tough choice. Two ways of getting round this, 1: if the panel you are in sucks after 5 minutes, walk out, and find the next one on your schedule. 2: Realise you can’t catch everything and listen to the podcasts when you return home.

The difference between this years event and last years

The mention of the word ‘downturn’ made some people look like you had just swore at them. However, the number of sponsored events around town and presence of silicon valley companies made it feel like the event was throwing caution to the wind, and giving people the opportunity to get on with business and make new connections.

Twitter usage. Each panel had a hashtag (#) on twitter so the panelists could take questions directly from twitter and also keep a track of what was being said in real time as they spoke. It’s hard to believe Twitter won a web award 2 years ago at SxSw for best newcomer web site.

The hashtag #sxsw has been a trending topic in Twitter search for two weeks now.

I must say that the Twitter network held up very well during this manic time where lots of data was being pushed from Austin over the week. The bloggers room was like a war room, there was a sea of laptops, people on phones, and after a few days it didn’t smell to good either.

Our favourite sessions

• The Kawasaki and Anderson keynote (youtube link)
• Version Control: No More Save-As (Matt Mullenweg, Wordpress) (no media yet)
• Cloud Computing: Defending the Undefinable (Folks from Google, Microsoft, and the CTO from Amazon) (no media yet)
• HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility! (podcast link)
• Curating the Crowd-Sourced World (podcast link)
• Designing for Irrational Behavior (podcast link)

Our favourite SXSW tweets

Our SXSW photos

This years set is here. More photos tagged SXSW are available on flickr.

Podcasts from SXSW

SxSw 09 Podcasts – More being added everyday. And from SxSw 2008 and the SxSw channel on YouTube.

See you next year Austin!

Before we start any sexy, fancy design, what we want to consider is “is the structure and layout of the web interface easy to understand?”, “does it follow how users think it works in their minds?” This way of working allows us to understand our users “mental models” in their minds, in relation to how the site should be physically structured.

By learning and using this feedback in the web design, we can add to the value of the user experience on a web site, and turn this into an enjoyable experience for our users.

We’ve had an example published on the wireframes website which summarises how we used interactive prototypes worked on a recent project with East Hampshire District Council.

Using interactive prototypes allowed us to confirm the areas of the site that were successful in terms of users being able to achieve the tasks (we were asking them in a user testing interview) successfully and quickly.

More about the way we worked is on the article. We hope you find it interesting.

Image of the interactive prototypes for easthampshire.org

Firstly, it seems as if the coming year will be a challenging time for most of us. But running a small business is all about tackling and overcoming challenges, so in many respects, it’s business as usual. It’s just that the difficulties we now face are different to those we’ve battled in the past.

Wise words from a recent article by Jeffrey Zeldman in the .net magazine:

‘While it’s difficult to tell what will happen in the wider economy, web design has remained robust through numerous economic ups and downs”

He reasons for the increase on our reliance with online services – even if shops close down and staff laid off, products need selling and websites need creating and maintaining. This means freelancers, in-house staff and agencies should be busy, even when others are losing their jobs’

What should you be doing as a design company?

• Our main aim for this current economic climate is to continue to have empathy for users, base our work on a strong design process based on site users and client business goals.
• Continue to look ahead, embrace and adopt new technologies and assess their usefulness for your clients work.
• Diversify your capabilities and services/products you offer to appeal to a wider client base.
• Get organised, form teams of compatible skills through your networks to increase your chances of being able to respond to a wider set of briefs
• Think beyond the desktop browser – get a head start and learn about the web on a smaller screen
• If you have a quiet time you can still be proactive – here’s some ideas:
  • Teach yourself new skills
  • Get out meet new contacts for coffee
  • Get off-line and you may find it easier to focus on what is important for your business

What we have planned for 2009:

• Client guides – In a series of free ebooks we will explain to our new and existing clients about current web services, trends and technologies in easy to follow guide
• Training freelancers and mentoring local colleagues
• Work with our peers
• Develop International business opportunities
• Attending conferences, meetups and networking events, and also attend more non-technical events (no not knitting classes)

How you are going to stay confident, fresh and stay relevant in this industry? We’d love to know, comments are on..

So 2008 was all about collaboration, online, with local colleagues and forging new projects and relationships with clients and friends alike, here’s what happened at Callender Creates:

• 2008, the year my girlfriend started to use the mobile web!
• Recovered from a big theft at home during a new year trip to India
• Moved office from the North Laine to The Werks in Hove
• Proposed to my lovely girlfriend in Sussex, married her in the Peak district and honeymooned in Cornwall – magic!
• Networked and partied at SxSw 2008, and photos here
• Attended The Future of Web Design in London
• Moved house within Brighton
• Designed and developed a variety of ecommerce, content managed and social networking sites for a variety of UK based clients, startups, agencies, local government and councils
• Saw Neil Young play a live open air gig in Kent
• Sponsorship for local conferences – BarcampBrighton and the Head conference
• Pitched on large projects in collaboration with a number of development companies. From startup to local government tenders
• Attended part of the UX Week run by Norman Nielsen Group in Amsterdam
• Judge in partnership with the Brighton Farm for the Brighton DIMAS awards

Our biggest achievement in 2008
To take on large projects and successfully work collaboratively with local colleagues and achieve results at much higher quality than a individual would be able to produce.

Sites I visited on a daily basis in 2008

• Twitter
• BBC
• Google Reader (RSS subscriptions)
• Popurls
• Google Analytics
• ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb have done a big list of the top 100 products of 2008

Looking ahead into 2009 – Guardian online have picked the web’s cream of the crop, their latest selection finds that location-based services, work-anywhere collaboration and video are prominent –
100 top sites for the year ahead

To all the people we’ve worked with in 2008, to all our readers, family, friends, peers and everybody else. A big thank you and looking forward to more success and interesting work in 2009.

A list of the most popular articles on Callender Creates in 2008

• Top tips for HTML email development
• Geek desk spaces
• Email newsletter statistics
• Essential web design and development conferences
• Callender Creates website redesign
• Pagerank – A client guide
• Top 5 time management tips
• Online charts and diagrams