The Independent Electoral Commission will spend R3 million to fix its broken website as complaints mount.

Wow!

Allow me to first provide an overview of the events leading up to this latest development of absurdity in the IEC website saga, before I add my own thoughts.

In late August, Alistair Otter published an article on Tectonic (a popular open source-related technology site) about how the South African Independent Electoral Commission (IEC)'s website was denying access to visitors not using the Internet Explorer web browser on a Microsoft Windows platform. That in itself was nothing new: in January 2006 I blogged about their site, listed among others, pointing out that exact shortcoming - see State of South African political websites. Ian Gilfillan commented, bringing to my attention that South Africa's political web wasn't any better in 2004 either. However, the focus of that post shifted to the DA in particular, because I successfully compromised the security of their CMS. ;)

To date, over two months later, the IEC have made no discernible effort to correct this flaw. Visitors to http://www.iec.org.za ("www" subdomain required - WHY!?) using any browser other than Internet Explorer will receive this message:

Our server detected that you are using a browser or operating system (e.g. Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc.) which is currently incompatible with our website. The current website is only compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer V4 (and upward) on the Windows operating system.

In the days that followed Alistair's Tectonic post, Aslam Raffee (chairman of the South African Government OSS working group), Daniel Mashao (the CTO of SITA) and Helen King (Principal Advisor of The Shuttleworth Foundation) laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) against the IEC for excluding non-Internet Explorer users from its website. Aslam has made the full complaint available on this blog.

The latest developments that made headlines today, in response to the HRC complaint, is that the IEC will be spending R3 million to fix their broken website. And when they say broken, they're referring to the fact that it was designed and developed (way back in 1998) using Microsoft's proprietary technologies - so in effect they will be redesigning and redeveloping it to support all their visitors. My response to this news echos what everyone else has said.

On top of that, Karl Fischer - a well-known open source advocate - launched the No Firefox! No Vote! campaign today:

...urging Internet users to email or fax IEC chief information officer Libisi Maphanga, to demand that the organisation make its website available to all users.

LYW Karl. Visit Stop Digital Apartheid to get in on the act.

Raoul Snyman, a fellow web developer, has published An Open Letter to Mr Maphanga, CIO of the IEC.

So where am I going with all of this?

Well, regular readers of this blog will know that in the past, I had a tendency to name and shame the big brand national websites that failed acceptable support for web standards (to the point that I even maintained an "Evangelism list" for a while), in an effort to get them to realise and admit their shortcomings, and as a result make the appropriate changes for the benefit of their users. I doubt it made any difference, but if anything I hope it provided some insight for those who stumbled upon it.

Six years on, with a wide variety of modern web browsers and technologies fighting a new browser war, there sadly still exists an ignorant mindset that internet user's best interests should be disregarded in favour of designing and developing for a specific browser, platform or device. This has got to change.

The IEC have become the new posterchild for the return of the evangelism list.

My resolution is this: a public wiki or blog that shames (in a constructive manner) the local websites that fail an acceptable level of support for W3C web standards (ie. they're browser/platform/device incompatible), accessibility guidelines, and potentially also best practices in web design and development.

Alongside this list, links to local designers and developers who are accredited with providing the relevant services that meet this demand - and are willing to do it for a budget well within R3 million.

And for good measure, a list of sites that showcase the multitude of benefits associated with a standards-compliant, accessible and usable approach to modern web design.

If you like this idea and think it has the potential for good, lets hear your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact me directly. Thanks.

It was by chance that I stumbled on OpenDNS this week while trying to find a tutorial to configure the Apache HTTP server running on my machine publicly accessible via a dynamic DNS provider (as it turns out, port forwarding on your router is the key! Well, one of them...).

So anyway, OpenDNS - here's their marketing blurb:

OpenDNS makes the Internet experience safer, faster and smarter for you and everyone using your network. It's free and takes only 2 minutes to get started, with no software to install.

And a more technical explanation via Wikipedia:

OpenDNS offers DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their Internet service provider's DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS usually processes queries much more quickly, thereby increasing page retrieval speed.

Other features include a phishing filter, domain blocking and typo correction (for example, typing wikipedia.og instead of wikipedia.org). By collecting a list of malicious sites, OpenDNS blocks access to these sites when a user tries to access them through their service. OpenDNS recently launched Phishtank, where users around the world can submit and review suspected phishing sites.

And here's a great introduction to the service and how to get it working:
What is OpenDNS and Why You Absolutely Need It ?

Once you're up and running, or you think you are, you can take the tests to verify that your configuration is correct. Signing up for an account is optional, but it lets you manage content filtering, stats, and a whole suite of other features. And it's free! There's also an active community.

You could use OpenDNS without an account, but it'd be like having a Porsche stuck in first gear.

Unfortunately I can't benefit from these extra features because of my ISP's proxy server, but my original problem is no more, so I'm stoked!

Well, the Technovated team (who were kept busy with the impressive Kindo) have now put plans into place, and TECH4FRICA 08 is coming to Johannesburg, South Africa on October 3rd!

With speakers such as Joe Stump, the lead developer and architect of digg.com; Andy Budd, the internationally renowned user experience designer and web standards expert; and Stafford Masie, the Google SA Country Manager; the conference promises to be a pioneering and intimate affair, congregating digital elite for the first time in Africa.

Check out the rest of the speakers and the 5-star venue.

Focus areas include:

• Emerging tech in Africa
• Web / web 2.0
• Mobile / wireless innovation and trends
• Startups / technology business opportunities in Africa
• Telecoms / infrastructure growth and trends

Some of the things you can expect to get out of the conference:

• Hear international speakers presenting in Africa
• Hear industry leading African speakers talk about their experiences
• Discuss global web and technology opportunities
• Understand what technologies are making the biggest impact
• Thrash out how the web can play a positive role in the development of Africa
• Create a fun, informative event where everyone can meet and interact with like-minded people

Get involved:

• Join the Facebook group and the Facebook event
• Subscribe on Upcoming
• Stay in touch on Twitter

# redirect domain.co.za
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^domain\.co.za$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://coda.co.za/$1 [R=301,L]

What bugs me is that I have to add these lines for each domain name, and then again for instances when the "www" subdomain prefix is included (I prefer to remove the "www"). Needless to say my .htaccess file is looking mighty bloated these days.

I've hunted around for a more elegant solution with no luck, so here's my question for all the Apache and Regex geeks out there: is there a way to list these domains in a Rewrite condition (as an array of sorts) that will also cover the "www" inclusion/exclusion? So something like this:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(domain1.co.za|domain2.com)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://coda.co.za/$1 [R=301,L]

The end result I'm hoping for is that "domain1.co.za", "www.domain1.co.za", "domain2.com", "www.domain2.com", etc. will all redirect to "/". Supposing my pipe-delimited array idea isn't possible, what is the most practical way to achieve this?

• No page titles in favour of the browser window's title bar
• Feed Autodiscovery in favour of RSS/Atom feed buttons and links
• Navigation aids in favour of previous/next links
• OpenSearch in favour of a search form

Another classic example of redundant functionality is the "print this page" link that you'll still easily find littering the web. Bonus annoyance points for launching a popup window. The intention behind this madness is to provide the user with a print-friendly version of the page content. But with today's modern web browsers, the best practice is of course to support CSS media types for multiple devices. A print style sheet is very easy to create, test and implement. And if you don't like multiple style sheets, you can include your print rules in your global file to reduce server requests.

Some more quick examples of redundant functionality:

• controls to adjust text sizes
• "make this your home page" links
• "launch external links in a new window" option
• displaying the current date and time

Duplicating browser functionality in-page dumbs down the experience into a cross-browser compliancy mess. The practice of shifting user control from the page to the browser is very tempting for a number of reasons:

1. The consistency of the user experience is improved across the web. This is huge. Users don't need to waste time hunting for a search form, pagination, feed links or print controls if they know where to find these in one standard place within their browser. Both Firefox 2+ and IE7+ support OpenSearch - imagine how much more improved the implementations could be in the context of this post.
2. Users become instinctively more familiar with the powerful possibilities provided by their web browser, and potentially their PC's applications in general.
3. By reducing the amount of JavaScript on the page (which is responsible for reproducing most of the functionality), you're reducing the potential for scripting-related issues to occur.
4. It frees up valuable screen space for more appropriate and useful content.

Although still a work in progress, Mark's approach is drastic and for most practical purposes, unrealistic. I love that it's progressive and places focus on the content (a topic I've been meaning to blog about for quite a while) - it's almost a glimpse into the web of the future. But it suffers with no backward compatibility. He also mentions that some of his decisions aren't user-centered but rather personal-related, as bizarre and self-defeating as that sounds. On his new archives page:

If you like it too, that’s nice, but I don’t care about your opinion nearly as much as you might think.

His commenting system currently only supports OpenID users, so as an Anonymous user, I left the following thought (I can't remember where I first read this, and I can't find it elsewhere either, so no credit unfortunately):

Less is more. Until more is less.

I've integrated this one liner into my creative thought process, which I hope is obvious on this site. There's a fine line between overdesigning, or providing so much to the point that the experience becomes overwhelming, and underdesigning, or simplifying to the point that the most basic design concepts (heirarchy, navigation, accessibility) are compromised. Finding a balance isn't a complicated or challenging task, it just requires insight and carefully considered planning.

Second-guessing every detail is a good place to start if you have an existing site. Question what value it serves to your users, if at all, and if that value justifies its position on the page. I think the biggest mistake we make is to add stuff to our designs that we see elsewhere, without considering it in our own unique context. Just because John has a feed icon the size of a house in his sidebar, doesn't necessarily translate to more subscribers. In my eyes it screams of desperation.

My blog sidebar is a perfect example of where I've applied this thinking: I have plenty of vertical white space to litter and decorate it with all kinds of non-essential content, banners and buttons, but I know that will detract from the overall experience so I choose not to. I only show what I think it relevant to the content on that particular page and useful to the reader.

My footer is also designed to be as simple as possible. Many site footers brag about the W3C web standards-compliancy of their HTML markup or style sheets. Tech-related footers brag about the time it took for the page to render on their server. I used to think this was all useful or fun myself, but that was when it still mattered. If that information is really worth sharing, include it on a separate "about" page.

I'd even be willing to argue the usefulness of the popular "back to top" link, but I suspect it has a newfound place on mobile devices or is required by assistive technologies, in which case it should only be visible in those instances.

The web, however you prefer to tag or version it, is forever evolving and maturing. But the adoption of new ideas will unfortunately always rely on usage patterns evolving with it.

It's unfair to argue that it's the sole responsibility of any user to familiarise themselves with the necessary skills and tools required to become a comfortably proficient web user in the first place. And as the current online trends reveal, some unfortunate and regretful decisions by those of us building the web over the years have already suppressed the perfect user experience. For now, at least.

(Side-note: I have a particular site in mind that partly prompted this post, but I'll leave that for a follow-up.)

Starting Monday Red Hat will have an SA-based country manager who will be responsible for the Southern Africa market on behalf of the company.

Red Hat previously had no offices in Africa, preferring to work through local partners. Paul Holt, Red Hat regional director, says South Africa and Southern Africa is a market with growing opportunities for Red Hat.

And again via Tectonic, South Africans don’t understand OSS - Microsoft:

“Deep dev of the core OS” was not likely to happen in South Africa where students were “still grappling with coding skills”, says Matusow. They are “not going to dive into the inner workings of Linux”, says Matusow.

“Any innovation on Linux that is broadly applicable will immediately be picked up by Red Hat or Novell and commercialized globally with little economic benefit coming back to SA.”

One response to Matusow points out that a number of key open source projects have South African roots. Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution, was founded by South African Mark Shuttleworth while OpenBSD and OpenSSH are the brainchild of ex-South African Theo de Raadt.

What a gem. Dugg here.

We're trying to figure out whether there is demand for a web and technology conference in Southern Africa, and we'd really appreciate your help if you can spare a few minutes.

We're convinced that there should be web and technology growth in Southern Africa, so we're really interested in getting together a bunch of leading, internationally respected speakers and thinkers from the industry to discuss what's happening and what's possible.

Some of the things you can expect:

• International speakers and authors presenting in your own back yard
• Discuss what the global web and technology opportunities are over the next 5 years
• Understand what technologies are making the biggest impact
• Thrash out how the web can positively play a role in the development of (Southern) Africa
• A fun, informative event where you can meet and interact with like-minded individuals

Call for feedback! Please visit the site at technologyforafrica.org and take a minute to fill out the questionnaire, and then spread the word on your own blog, e-mail, social networks, etc.

Thanks/Dankie/Ngiyabonga/Enkosi.

More at Gareth's blog and Technovated Soapbox.

I feel like a lot of people with a digicam, the 2mp camera capability is an inconsequential bonus. Having said that however, tonight I stumbled on an eye for beauty, a mini promo site for the phone. Click through to view the 'best features', and then view the '4x digital zoom' animation demo.

Now assuming that their digital zoom is the kind which resizes the bitmap in the firmware - the same kind of ineffectual digital zoom that I'd advise anyone to disable on their digicam, and assuming by 'Digital' they don't imply Smart Zoom, and assuming I know what I'm talking about, this animated demo is complete bullshit! The demo, along with the accompanying copy:

Reach out and get 4x closer when taking pictures.

Spot the Difference: below is how it should look. On the left is their false claim, and on the right is my best attempt at a 4x Photoshop crop from the 1x image. I never been a Helena Christensen fan anyway, but seriously...

For further comparison, I found this comprehensive review which contains accurate photo samples taken at the different digital zoom levels along with the following text. No Smart zoom, then.

The digital zoom produces relatively poor quality photos when used in the 2 megapixel mode, since the camera basically has to guess at what the pixel data should be.

It may be a little demo, for a camera phone, but I still think it's a big deal to market a phone feature so inaccurately.

It is the third centre of its kind in the world, with the other two in Scotland and India.

Chris Pinkham, managing director of the centre, co-founded South Africa's first internet service provider, UUNET, in 1993. In 2000 he joined Amazon.com in Seattle as director for the network engineering group and later as vice president responsible for worldwide IT systems infrastructure.

The launch of the Amazon centre in Cape Town is "testament to the calibre of the highly-skilled talent pool in South Africa", according to Pinkham.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online

UPDATE [20/07]: Gareth has covered this in more detail, along with posting a link to the site: http://za.amazon.com, and I can't agree with him more:

This also has to send a message to the techies in SA - stop burying your head in the sand and take a look at the rest of the world. Take part, get involved, tell people about your skills, stop thinking the world ends at the Limpopo.

If you're looking, they're hiring!

This page contains what I believe to be one of the highest resolution, most detailed stitched digital images ever created. It is the view from Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. It consists of 196 separate photographs taken with a 6 megapixel digital camera, and then stitched together into one seamless composite. The final image is 40,784 x 26,800 pixels in size, and contains about 1.09 billion pixels...a little more than one gigapixel.

Hectic.