Aside from that, I managed to push out a new version of CllrTweeps. The new version runs from a proper database, enabling us to categorize councillors by party as well as councillors. It also gives us quite a good base from which to start adding new features, so keep an eye out for more announcements over the next month or two.

As part of the development of CllrTweeps 2, I’ve spent quite a lot of time looking at the websites of local authorities. The difference between some of them is staggering. Some councils have obviously put quite a bit of thought into the designs of their website and the services they offer online. This has made me think about doing a series of blog entries looking at council websites - possibly something similar to my local elections series last year.

For now though, I’ll leave you with an example of a great set of online services from Lichfield District Council. Their web team deserve a pat on the back for the good work they’ve been doing. Also, don’t forget to submit any ideas you have for APIs or online apps you’d like to have for business data at the CF Labs website.

Change is good

I’m happy to announce that I am now a part of one of these groups helping to set the vast quantities of data free – Consumer Focus Labs. Consumer Focus is a new organisation set up by the government to campaign for a fair deal for consumers. The organisation has established a small team of developers fronted by Richard Pope (one of the people behind My Society and Rewired State). We will be building online tools in order to pursue justice for consumers in new and exciting ways.

We’re currently collecting ideas for the first batch of tools we will build. Work should start on these in the next few weeks once we are all settled in. If you have any ideas or questions, take a look at our website and get in touch.

As always, as our work progresses I’ll be posting updates here on my blog, as well as on the Consumer Focus Labs website.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t think of anything.

The next day, I came across an article on Spoonfed Design with tips on how to avoid designer’s block.  At least next time I suffer from the block, I can try and find a way around it.

In the end, I managed to put together a design I’m quite proud of - and hopefully it’ll see the light of day sometime over the next month or two.

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.

Just over a week ago I was given the result of all this hard work - a Master of Engineering in Computing with Upper Second Class Honours (a 2:1).  I’m absolutely amazed that I manged to get a 2:1, especially when you consider all the additional extra-curricular activities I’ve undertaken during the last few years (my freelance work, the waterfront, etc.).  Its been a really difficult 4 years, and I’m glad its finally finished, but it was definitely worth it!

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m a graduate - for that I’ll have to wait for my degree ceremony on July 18th!

Since getting my results, we’ve all packed up and moved back to our respective homes.  I’ve spent the last few days helping everyone clear up the house to make room for the huge amount of stuff I’ve accumulated while living in Swansea (its amazing really how much stuff I have).

Today was the last day of freedom - tomorrow I start my job as a full time developer at a web design company in Cardiff.

Now that my time in education is finally over (and partially because we found this while tidying up the study at home), I thought it would be nice to look back at when I started school for the first time.  Below is a scan of the front cover of my very first school report from June 1991 (when I was just 4 years old).  Even back then I obviously knew that I wanted to work in IT!

So, here is a quick – and completely uninteresting – update:

July
- Attended Charlie’s graduation and graduation ball
- Went to an extremely wet Global Gathering in Stratford-upon-Avon
- Worked full time at a web development company in Cardiff as I have for every summer since Y10

August
- More working at said web development company

September
- Charlie & I spent a few days in Paris
- I moved into my new place in Swansea
- Charlie moved into her new place in Cardiff
- Discovered that the university had pretty much forgotten about our course and we had to organise it all

October
- Finished organising the course – although many important details still haven’t been sorted out
- Lots of boring university work
- Lots of web development work

November
- Even more boring university work
- Lots more web development work

So, as you can see, it’s been a pretty boring few months with lots of work but nothing particularly interesting happening. Never the less, I am intending to get back into the habit of blogging regularly.

Hopefully my next blog entry should be a bit more interesting.

Been very busy the last few days.  Helped Charlie move out of her house on Sunday.  Took a while to clean, but I think we left it in a pretty good condition.

Had a meeting on Monday at Hereford Sixth Form with a company who wanted to set up an alumni website for the college.  Unfortunately the meeting didn’t go very well, and the costs were much more than the college can afford.  The final decision is yet to be made (and I won’t be involved in making it), but it was good to be able to get my views across to the marketing team.

Anyway, lots to do and many things to pack.  I’m starting work on Monday morning - working at the web development company again.  Will be interesting to see which projects I will be assigned to this time.

Today, a letter bomb exploded at the DVLA headquarters in Swansea, injuring one person. With this major story occurring within our primary catchment area and the possibility of student’s parents being involved in the incident, it was essential that the Waterfront publish something on their website. Andrew Gwilym, our editor put together a quick story and we posted it on our front page at about midday.

Within 10 minutes, it had appeared within the Google News index. This we expected. What we did not expect was for the article to be include alongside (and sometimes above) articles from major news sources such as Reuters, The Guardian and the BBC. For most of the afternoon, our article has been in the top 4 results for the keywords ‘DVLA’, ‘Swansea’ and ‘Letter bomb Swansea’. While this surprised us, we were even more amazed to discover that for a short period, we were also included on the Google News front page, sandwiched between Reuters UK, BBC, Bloomberg and Guardian Unlimited. For anyone who want’s to see this, I have taken a screenshot.

We are amazed at the level of visibility that our small article has been given. Our only explanation is that our new website is easy to navigate, contains a lot of content and is regularly updated so Google counts it as a good source of news. If anyone can offer us a good explanation, feel free to leave us a comment!

Dafydd Vaughan
Web Editor, Waterfront Online

Work is continuing on Project Metis – expect a detailed blog post on this in the next week or so where I will formally introduce the project and a new blog covering the ongoing developments. The front end of this new website is 99% there and we are now in the process of making the final changes and implementing the back end content management systems. With any luck, we should be able to go live in time for Freshers Week at Swansea University.

In other news, one of my systems has been put to the test during the enrolment of new students at Hereford Sixth Form College. The ‘enrolment 2006′ system was built to enable the new students at the college to submit their GCSE results electronically to the student records system. The website went live on Thursday last week (results day) and has been used by the majority of students to submit their results.

Finally, this is my final post as a teenager. I’m 20 tomorrow – very very scary!

That’s all for now, keep an eye out for the Project Metis entry coming soon.

Daibach