#DrupalCon Amsterdam: Day 3
Welcome to Annertech's DrupalCon Amsterdam blog: Day 3. What did we get up to today? As it turns out, lots ... but more importantly (at least for me as the blog editor), we were at Cory Doctorow's keynote speech and then Annertech's Alan Burke's presentation on "Grid Style Sheets" (GSS).
Keynote by Cory Doctorow - key take aways
This presentation was a real eye-opener, and I say this as a dedicated open source evangelist. Two great items of open source elevator pitches included:
Scenario One
You are building a shopping centre and ask the architect, "what girder system are you going to use to make sure the shopping centre doesn't collapse?". He answers, "I can't tell you ... but believe me, it won't collapse". You would probably say, "I'm not hiring you" (in less polite language). You need to be able to investigate and validate what your suppliers are doing.
Scenario Two
Your parents have a computer running a proprietary operating system. There is a flaw in this system that allows their financial data to be stolen and reused. The company whom created this system are legally mandated to NOT tell you what the flaw is. Should your parents continue to use such a system?
Looking at the two (paraphrased) examples above, it's quite clear that people should not be forced to use systems and software that they are not allowed to investigate. Open Source Software is the answer to this issue. We in the open source world say, "we can build you something great, and then you can get other people to validate this work to ensure its security, quality, and extensibilty".
Alan Burke on Grid Style Sheets
Well, this session was a packed house - no room for sitting, no room for standing, and no room for some of the people that came along to it (apologies). Alan talked about a revolutionary approach to using JavaScript to layout page elements instead of CSS. This will lead to super cross-browser compatibility, less debugging headaches, and ... basically, there was too much in the talk for me to recount here, so let's just look at the presentation instead:
Mark Conroy Director of Development
When not promoting sustainable front-end practices at conferences across Europe, Mark leads our development team to create ambitious digital experiences for clients, so they, in turn, can have success with their clients.
