about
about ben buchanan
I entered the web industry the same way as most people: by studying something else. I made a hobby into a profession when I realised people were willing to pay me to stuff around with computers.
I'm passionate about accessibility and web standards. The technology exists to provide rich web communications which remain accessible to all people... I believe the web industry just needs to wake up and start creating sites for users, not in spite of them.
I currently work as Frontend Architect (Business Integration) at News Digital Media (Sydney, Australia). Previously I spent six years as Web Standards Developer at Griffith University, Brisbane.
you may remember me from such events as...
You can usually find me at WSG Sydney, BarcampSydney, Webjam or in fact anywhere that web geeks have gathered. I've started Geeks on the Grass along with my partner in picnic crime Ajay. I also...
- Presented at Web Standards Group (Sydney) on Thursday, 21st February 2008.
- Presented at Open Standards 2007
- Attended Web Directions South 2007
- Presented at Web Directions South 2006: "Moving your organisation to standards" (full details available at the WD06 website).
- Presented (via VOIP) at OZeWAI 2005
- Attended Web Essentials 2005
- Organised the WANAU Brisbane Web Accessibility Forum (August 29, 2005)
- Presented at Web Standards Group Brisbane meeting, 14 June 2005.
- Attended OZeWAI 2004
qualifications
- More than ten years experience creating websites. Plus a short course or two.
- Currently working on a Graduate Certificate in Information Technology (Web Management) from the Queensland University of Technology.
Bachelor of Arts (Journalism & Philosophy) from the University of Queensland.
memberships
about the 200ok weblog
content
The 200ok Weblog is a space for me to write about Web Stuff™. Web developers are multi-skilled beasts, so it's a multi-faceted topic. It usually strays back to standards and accessibility, though.
tech
The 200ok Weblog is published using Blogger, since I am more interested in writing the blog than maintaining the blog tool.
Blogger occasionally hard-codes dumb things, which makes the markup less than ideal at times. But, on balance it's still the best tool for what I want.
200ok?
200 OK is the HTTP status for "The request has succeeded." (RFC 2616 10.2.1). Need I say more? :)
about the stamp
So, what's the deal with the stamp you see on the site, various avatars, my business cards, stickers and maybe even on a badge? It's a stone stamp/stone chop with "200ok" translated as closely as possible in Chinese.
The top two characters are a direct translation of two hundred; the bottom two form "you can" in the sense of "you have permission" which I felt was a reasonably close interpretation of OK in this context (apparently there's no direct equivalent).
The translation and stamp were created by a lovely gentleman in Sydney who makes these stamps for a living.
I do in fact stamp every one of my business cards, by hand, with the stone stamp. So, each card is slighly different.
disclaimer
opinions
Views expressed are my own and not associated with any view of an employer, client, associate, acquaintance, barista, busker or random person I met in the lift.
copyright
All material is copyright Ben Buchanan unless attributed to another source.
privacy
This site doesn't collect private data, but even if it did I would only use it for good and not for evil.
duh!
Yeah I know, I shouldn't have to point any of this out.
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