Monday, 14 January 2002

In the Damnedest of Places. Greg Egan is a writer of hard science fiction who was born in Perth and by all accounts still lives and works here, as a computer programmer and author.       The Times called Egan “One of the genre’s great ideas men.” The New York Times Book Review said of Egan’s novel Distress that it was “A dizzying intellectual adventure.” Egan won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel, for Permutation City.       Nice to know there is at least one other writer somewhere in the same city! Greg Egan: Diaspora, Distress, Permutation City, Quarantine, Teranesia. Schild’s Ladder is due out in February 2002. 6:07:49 PM    Add a comment.

Terms and Definitions. I am currently in dialog with the folks at Glasshaus, defined as “a new book publishing company, committed to communicating practical web design and development knowledge from Web Professional to Web Professional.”       I am pushing for a short, succinct definition of Web Professional. So far it means “neither designer nor programmer, multi-skilled, no allegiance to any particular technology, does information architecture and back-end design, a renaissance man with esthetic knowledge. Maybe writes as well.”       That’s good, but I’d like to see it become more forceful and focused than that. A while after the web became designable and programmable the designers and programmers rushed in to colonize it for themselves. Websites became about design and programming. The people who’d been there before could easily be defined as Web Professionals, from all sorts of disparate backgrounds, but with a passion for one-to-one communication.       It’s the Web Professionals who have to claim it back now, in order to save it. We’re the ones who better understand its nature than the bearded sandal-wearers and form-obsessed esthetes. Medium and message! Form and function! Communication and passion! Beauty and desire! Sharing and caring! Myth and legend! 4:22:47 PM    Add a comment.