As a web developer, hosting provider and internet user, I do not understand how such a scheme would be possible.  There are a number of issues that need to be considered before anything like this is implemented in this (or any other) country.

Firstly – the majority of websites available on the internet are not hosted on servers based in the UK.  As such, they are not under the jurisdiction of our laws.  Additionally, hosting costs in the UK are significantly higher than other countries such as the United States and Europe.  This poses a huge problem for such a scheme as the majority of websites are likely to ignore the requirement of content ratings and there is nothing our government can do apart from completely block access to unrated sites.

A rating scheme is also clearly open for abuse.  As proved with cinema, video and game rating schemes already in place, a large proportion of people do not pay attention to them.  Parents continue to buy 18 rated games for children of much younger age.  In the case of this scheme, children would probably still be able to view websites not suitable for their age group unless there was some way of verifying their age.

Some sites already implement an ‘age filter’ of sorts.  For example, the Guinness.com website asks for your date of birth before you enter the site.  It doesn’t take much effort to work around this filter.  It also isn’t best practice to provide your date of birth to any website as it could potentially be used for identity theft.  Unless there is a way to safely and accurately identify a user’s age, a rating system can only act as a guide and would still require parents to monitor usage of the internet.

A further concern is how a website will actually be rated.  Technically it is possible to rate the content of a website through the use of Meta tags (and a W3C standard already exists – PICS).  But this plan would rely on a level of trust between website owners and users.  What would stop me from running a “harmful” porn website, and classifying it as “suitable for all ages?”  A safer way to do it would be using third party rating systems, similar to the way secure certificates are provided at the moment.  However this would likely incur a cost to the owner as the third party would need to validate the content of the site.  An additional cost in development is likely to force website owners to look abroad for hosting services that do not require this level of regulation – harming the UK industry and making the rating system useless.

The only ‘safe’ way a rating system could be done is through an independent government funded organisation whose sole job it is to rate websites – similar to the BBFC.  However this opens a whole new can of worms.  Who would regulate the regulators?  How can we ensure that the ratings are fair?  How can we ensure that an anti-government website isn’t deemed “dangerous” and blocked by internet providers?  How will it be paid for (it is bound to be extremely expensive)? An existing scheme like this has already come under heavy fire in recent weeks after the Internet Watch Foundation added a Wikipedia page to its block list, essentially stopping the whole of the UK from editing the site.

In the end, it just appears to be another plan by a government minister who does not know how the Internet works.  For those who have read my blog for a while, I posted about a similar plan in May by the Home Secretary who wants a national database of all emails and phone calls sent in the UK.

Now, I’m all for making the internet safer for children and vulnerable people.  However, systems already exist to do this – there is plenty of “Net nanny” software available to stop people accessing websites with certain keywords or content.  You can even buy hardware solutions which will do it for you.  We do not need the government deciding what is safe for us to view.  This just brings us another step closer to countries like China.

I think it is about time the entire government is sent back to school to learn how the real world works, because they have quite clearly forgotten.

You can get more information at Techcrunch and The Social Programmer.

So, how do you keep your head above the water?  Well, everyone has their own ways as you can see from the discussions over at Freelance Folder.  I have a number of methods I use:

Read blogs
I subscribe to a large number of blogs from other web developers from both the design and development ends of the industry.  A huge amount of useful information comes from people who are facing the same struggle to keep ‘fresh and new’.

Twitter
Twitter is a fantastic resource for developers – how we all coped before it existed I have no idea!  I follow many designers, developers, freelancers and technologists on Twitter.  These people regularly point me in the direction of new and interesting things on the web which help me to produce better sites.

CSS Galleries
I find that looking at CSS galleries such as CSSMania or Best Web Gallery help inspire me to create better designs.  They show off some of the web’s best websites and really help to formulate ideas.  There are plenty of galleries around the web, covering all sorts of niches.

Magazines
A few people say that magazines are a waste of time – by the time they’ve been written, subbed, edited, printed, distributed and read, the industry has passed them by. I don’t agree, the internet moves so fast that it is easy to miss out on important information if you happen to blink (literally).  Magazines help fill this gap.  I have a subscription to .net magazine which is a fantastic resource for designers. (But then again, I would say this – my partner is a magazine journalist… but no really, mags are an invaluable resource).

Conferences
This is probably one of the most expensive parts of keeping up with the industry, and something that until now, I haven’t been able to afford.  There are a huge number of web related conferences throughout the year and across the world, from Future of Web Apps in London, Miami and Dublin, to DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! in Reading.  Conferences enable you to hear from some of the most influential and knowledgeable people in the industry.

Contribute
Probably the most important thing you can do.  The web is shaped by the people who produce it – whether designers, developers or writers.  If you don’t contribute, you can’t make an impression.  If you follow people on Twitter, respond to them, talk to them.  If you read blogs, comment on them, or better still, write a full response.

So how do I fit all of this in?  It is very difficult – you have to strike the right balance.  Spend too much time keeping up with the web and you don’t get any work done, spend too much time working and you drop behind the curve.
On the train into work in the morning, I read blogs, and last night’s twitter messages.  At work, I have TweetDeck keeping track of twitter for me – letting me know when new messages arrive.  When I have a bit of downtime (such as when I’m waiting for something to load or compile), I look at new blogs that have been posted.  In the evening, I read things in a bit more detail, and at some point I find time to sleep!

As I said, trying to find the right balance is difficult a challenge, but whatever you do, don’t fall behind or you’ll discover it is difficult to get back on track.

During the day, there were five sessions, each with four talks on different subjects, from building a scalable web application and server virtualisation, to ASP.NET MVC and how to develop .NET on Linux.

Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of time, it wasn’t possible for me to go to all of the talks; but luckily, each one was filmed for us to watch online later.  The day was really worth the early start to get to Reading!  I came away with lots of useful information that we can utilise to make the products we produce better, and a very good insight into the way the platform is going to progress over the next 12 months.

The organisers did a fantastic job getting everything sorted for the event and making sure it all went so smoothly.  Microsoft was also great for hosting the event, providing tonnes of free food and drink and looking after us all day.

This was the first technology event I’ve been able to go to – but definitely won’t be the last.  I’ve already bought my ticket for Future of Web Apps (FOWA) taking place in Dublin next March.  I’d also recommend that anyone interested in .NET development look out for tickets for next year’s developer day.

As a web developer, keeping on-top of changes in the industry is almost a full time job in itself. Dropping behind the curve is not something you can afford to do. When it does happen, getting back on-top of things is especially difficult.

I already follow a large number of the feeds that Selene suggests, and will definitely be adding the rest. I currently use netvibes to keep track of my RSS feeds - primarily because I use so many different computers throughout the day it allows me to keep everything in one place. If anyone has suggestions for a better reader, let me know.

Over the last few months we’ve been busy working on several new websites, a fair number of which have now been handed to the client for final approval.  We’ve also been working on some of our own projects, and another new release of our content management system.

At home, I’ve been busy working on some of my own projects, including an updated Govilon History website (which I’m sure I’ll get finished eventually), and a new personal homepage (which I launched last weekend).

As soon as some of my work starts making it into the public domain, I’ll post some more.

Techcrunch, a technology blog covering ’web 2.0’ and internet start ups had a bit of a redesign earlier this week.  As a blog that I keep track of all the time, I’m really pleased to see it move away from its previous, cluttered look to this clean and fresh design.

Features of the new look include a much more integrated navigation including links to other blogs from the Techcrunch  network, more consistent advert space, links to most active and recent comments, and a move away from full posts on the homepage.

The new navigation brings a much more consistent feel across the website.  Links to the other Techcrunch blogs (CrunchGear, MobileCrunch, TechCrunchIT etc) have moved from their previous location at the bottom of the old advert column to the very top of the page, making it easier to navigate across the network.  However, TalkCrunch (the network podcast) and CrunchNotes (Michael Arrington’s personal blog) are notably missing from this list.  Other links which a regular reader wouldn’t use very often but are still important (such as About, Contact, Advertise etc) have been moved to the right of the logo.  While they are still obvious, it means they do not take up as much valuable real-estate as the previous layout.

The new Techcrunch network navigation makes it easier to move between blogs

The new design loads much quicker than before.  The old site took an age to load (it was almost worth going to make a cup of tea while waiting for it to load), however the new design is pretty much the same as every other blog in the world.  I can only assume this is mainly achieved through a simpler layout and improved code.

One of the way’s the speed has been increased on the homepage is by switching to an excerpt scheme (only showing a small extract rather than full articles).  From a web design point of view, this is a big improvement - it increases page views (because you have to visit a dedicated page for each article), and it can increase your Google rank (because you no longer have duplicate content on your site).  But from a user-interaction point of view, it requires many more mouse-clicks, and makes it difficult to just scan through a series of entries.  I’m torn as to which is best and have been considering a similar switch on this blog - comments from readers would be much appreciated.

In general I think this redesign is a big success (although a fair amount of the comments on their website seem to disagree with me).  Mark Hendrickson (who announced the re-design) explained their intention to roll this design out to other parts of the network, an aim which would bring consistency across the board.  However, I’ve heard this before. CrunchGear has had two designs over the last year, both of which were supposed to be rolled out across the network and never were, and more recently new layouts have appeared on TechCrunchIT, TalkCrunch and CrunchNotes.  If, however, this does happen, all the blogs will be much more pleasant.

Other recent Techcrunch layouts.

Following several weeks worth of work, I’m really pleased to launch the new company website for VSI-Thinking - the web development company where I’m employed. The new website showcases a number of the systems the company has produced for clients such as Thomas Cook, the Celtic Manor Resort and Peterstone Court. The site also shows off a few of the solutions we offer to our clients.

The launch of the new VSI site is my first major achievement since becoming a full time developer at the company. Over the past two months, I’ve been involved in a complete revamp of our in-house content management system, providing a much more consistent look and feel across all of our modules, adding new controls and improving the quality of the code. The VSI website is the first to make use of the improved CMS.

What I’m especially pleased about however, is the launch of our new company blog. All the developers at VSI (myself included) will be regularly posting company news, random thoughts and solutions to some of the challenges we encounter.

Of course, despite the site launching, we can’t just draw a line under it and move on. We’ve already begun development on the next version of the CMS, bringing in improvements and features that didn’t make the cut this time around. I’m also hoping we can introduce blog commenting facilities in the near future.

So, keep an eye out for posts from me on the VSI Blog, and go check out the new website and let me know what you think.

When not sat at my desk writing thousands of lines of code, or commuting from Cardiff Bay to Abergavenny (and vice versa), I’ve been busy working on some of my personal websites (a few of which will be launched / re-launched soon).

Today, I’m happy to be able to tick the first item on my to-do list – Daibach.co.uk Version 5.  After a few months working on-and-off, I’ve finally put the finishing touches into place.  This version of the site is a major upgrade from previous versions.  Not only has it got a new design and content management system (it’s now running Wordpress), but a fairly large restructuring of the content of the site has also taken place.

Although the latest design went live in June, some parts of the site (most notably photos) still operated from the old CMS.  It’s taken until now to pull all these bits and pieces into Wordpress, but finally, it’s done!  Some older sections – such as photos and media – have been brought into the main blog, while music has moved into the profile pages.  There’s also a new page outlining some of the changes to the site and the reasons behind them. Hopefully, the new structure will prove to be more flexible as my needs change.  Of course, in typical designer fashion, I reserve the right to change my mind regularly!

So what’s next?  Well, the next task is to look at the projects site.  There is a lot of missing content, uninteresting materials and general issues with the site, so I’ll be taking a long hard look at it over the coming months and whipping it into shape.  I’ll also be working on a new Govilon History site – with huge upgrades to the searchable census records, historical photos of the village and plenty of enhanced content. A few other projects are also in the pipeline – I’ll be posting about them when they are a bit closer to launch.

Right from the beginning, Facebook were open about their intentions.  They set up a group which they regularly updated with concepts, thoughts and reasons.  They also gathered a lot of feedback – some positive, some not so positive (you’ll never please everyone).   Some of the early ideas and plans were fantastic.  Some even made the final cut – such as the new tabbed profile page.  However, other not so great ideas also made it through such as the new combined mini-feed/wall.  But at some point, the design has gone off the rails and seems like it is trying to be all things to all people.

The old Facebook design was very simple to use.  Its consistent appearance and layout kept it clean and professional – a feeling surprisingly absent in the latest incarnation.  The designers have attempted to further simplify the simple site navigation by moving everything into a much thinner masthead at the top of the page (you can see old and new below).  This has been achieved through the use of drop down menus.  However unlike the previous design, the presence of these menus is not obvious – for some bizarre reason, the arrows that informed the user of a menus existence are gone.  Even more annoying is the continued reliance on JavaScript to make the menu visible.

Facebook navigation - old vs new

The new profile design is a vast improvement on the old layout which had become crowded and difficult to use.  Implementing a tabbed format for the profile means I no longer have to wait forever while several hundred thousand applications load before I can see someone’s details, or post on their wall.

The big annoyance however is that the layout completely changes when you swap between tabs.  The ‘Wall’ and ‘Info’ tabs have a large profile image, with information and buttons underneath.  However the ‘Photos’ and ‘Boxes’ tabs, have a small profile image and the content takes up the full page width.  This lack of consistency is exacerbated further when you realise that the boxes tab (where all the applications have been hidden away) doesn’t even make use of the full width in most cases.

This latest design is 161 pixels wider than the old layout – yet I’m left wondering where this extra space is used.  Looking at it in a bit more detail, the column that houses the profile picture is no wider than before, but it is now positioned much further to the left, occupying the area that used to house the search and adverts.  The space saved by moving that to the left is taken up but the slightly wider content column.  But still, the site only takes up the same space as before – why the extra 161 pixels?  The answer – adverts.  A much more prominent advert column has been created to the right of the page.

Facebook profiles - now include more prominent adverts

After looking at some of the bits that annoy me, I get the feeling that it isn’t that bad.  There are actually many bits about this new design I like. I would put it down to not liking change – but I know that isn’t true. Overall, I think the designers have missed a trick by not creating a consistent structure and layout to the site – at the moment it just seems like a miss-match of styles, columns and widths.  Hopefully over the next few months, some of these issues will be ironed out.  Although something tells me we’ll just have to get used to it.  But please Facebook, bring back the link to my list of recently updated friends!

Following in the footsteps of TypePad, this app allows you to post to your Wordpress blog straight from your iPhone without having to use the standard admin panel.

One I’ve tested it a bit (this entry is being written using the app), I’ll probably write a bit more.