In this week's edition Responsive Design makes a comeback, our latest Drupal Code Sprint gains prominent support, and a story from the UK shows how deeply embedded Facebook has become in daily life.
Drupal
Drupal.org: Google announces Summer of Code results for 2012 - Drupal gets 13 projects!!
Among the 13 accepted Drupal projects for Google's Summer of Code there's one that might be familiar to you, our dear reader. A new feature to the "Translation Management Tool" has made the cut.
Responsive Design
Palantir: Scalable Navigation Patterns in Responsive Web Design
Fellow Drupal agency Palantir shares some of their Responsive Web Design learnings regarding scalable navigation patterns.
Webmonkey: Responsive Web Design: What Not to Do
This is an addition to .net magazine's article Five responsive web design pitfalls to avoid.
Technology
BBC: Bouncers 'checking Facebook on phones' as identification
A pragmatic approach to verify if the person is the actual owner of the ID. As practical as it appears it shouldn't creep in as a common practice.
Advertising
Monday Note: Advertising: The trust Factor
Frédéric Filloux gives his opinion on what the results of Nielsen's "The Global Trust in Advertising" mean.
Dear reader we hope you had a great week. Here are five stories that caught our attention:
Food for thought
Wired: French tweeters use WWII-inspired codes to post election results
Evidence, once again, that the kids who branded history lessons as a waste of time missed a trick.
Project Management
Dev.Opera: Responsive web design: a project management perspective
What does responsive design mean for project-managers. This comprehensive blog post by Rudy Rigot tries to shed light on this topic.
Technology
Guardian: Financial Times passes 2m users for its HTML5 web app
When Financial Times released its HTML5 app it created some attention for ditching the traditional native app approach. 10 months later it has passed the 2m users mark.
Opinion
Dries Buytaert: Microsoft's investment means Open Source is no longer a community, it is a movement
Dries Buytaert, creator of Drupal, shares his thought on what this investment means for the future of Open Source.
Drupal
Krimson: An overview of changes in Display Suite 7.x-2.x
One of the contributed modules we like to use is Display Suite. The module will receive improvements with the release of version 7.x-2.x. Here is an overview which includes a 15min screencast.
As Picasso said, "Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal". Keep that in mind when reading one of the items in this weeks edition of an Essence of a web week...
Copycats
Amazee Labs: Copycat Hall Of Shame
Our website has often been shamelessly copied in the past. This week we started a Hall of Shame on our Facebook page. Expect the collection to be extended in the future.
Drupal
DrupalCon Munich: Call for Papers
The European Drupalcon has published a reminder that you can propose a session until May 11.
Blog worth subscribing to
swisstype | Typography seen in Switzerland
Switzerland is renowned for it's contribution to the world of typography. This blog is dedicated to beautiful typography on the streets of Switzerland.
Technology
Economist: Patents into ploughshares
Twitter announced this week, in a quite public manner, the " Patent Agreement". This is what the Economist makes of the move.
Wired.co.uk: RapidShare's anti-piracy manifesto would make users guilty until proven innocent
While filehoster RapidShare published its anti-piracy manifesto. Which according to Wired journalist Mark Brown is against the presumption of innocence.
Most items in this week's edition are in some way related to our beloved Drupal. Regardless of that the buzzword of the week "Instagram" also managed to make an appearance.
Drupal
hojtsy.hu: Navigating your way in Drupal core development
Gábor Hojtsy, Drupal 8's multilingual initiative leader, has created a overview on what you have to look out for when contributing to the Drupal Core.
Bluespark Labs: Do you want a PM day at Drupalcon?
Ever wondered how other project managers cope with Drupal's specialties? Shannon Vettes has published a blog post on this topic to give project management more exposure at Drupalcons. Additinally she added published this post this week.
Responsive Design
Advomatic: Responsive Design Tips from DrupalCon
A round up of the responsive design related events at Drupalcon Denver. And if you missed Michael & Kathryn's BoF you can watch the Acquia webniar they co-hosted last month.
Opinion
.net magazine: Nielsen is wrong on mobile
Jakob Nielsen's blog post saw some heavy reaction on Twitter this week. Josh Clark argues that regardless of a mobile devices size it can do more than the traditional computer.
Food for thought
BBC: Has Instagram made everyone's photos look the same?
This week pretty much started off with the Facebook taking over Instagram story. This BBC article asks itself if Instagram has made photos on the web look monotonous.
With the Easter weekend ahead of us this week's edition comes a day earlier than usual. Hope you enjoy it:
Opinion
Wired: Google gets transparent with Glass, its augmented reality project
The must watch video of the week was the Google Glass teaser. The excellent Wired mag have taken a quiet minute to reflect what this concept video means for the future.
Responsive Design
.net magazine: Testing the responsive site for BBC News
When the largest broadcaster in world decides to move to a responsive design the prospect of testing must be a daunting task. David Blooman, test engineer at BBC Future Media, talks about the experiences they made.
Open Data
Leumund: Daten für besseren Verkehr!
Last week Micheal and Vasi spent two days at the Swiss Open Data Camp here in Zurich. Here is Leumund's, one of Switzerland's best known bloggers, round up of the event. (Unfortunately the post is in German)
WiFi in Zurich
Foursquare: Wifi & Coffee Spots in Zurich
As mentioned, in a previous edition of this series, an open Wi-Fi can be a scarce good in Switzerland. Joel Bez has started a Foursquare list that might help you if you're in a pickle someday.
Blog worth subscribing to
Little Big Details - Your Daily Dose Of UI Inspiration
A blog dedicated to small details that can make an UI a joy to work with.
In this installment of an Essence of a web week we take a look at the opening Keynote of the DrupalCon Denver, see which social media platform satisfies which need according to Maslow and what one of perks is when working for Amazee Labs.
DrupalCon Denver
OSTraining: Dries Buytaert's Keynote from DrupalCon Denver
One of the standout events at a DrupalCon certainly is the traditional "Dries-note". OSTraining have published a round up of the keynote so you can learn in which direction Drupal will go and what the current state of Drupal 8 is.
Infographic
Social Media in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Project Management
.net magazine: The Agile Waterfall
Agile development methods have gained momentum in recent years. Jon Arnold, a strategic consultant, argues that despite all of its benefits there are elements of the traditional waterfall model that shouldn't be underestimated. Why not cherry pick the best of both?
Technology
Webmonkey: CSS Regions: Coming Soon to a Webpage Near You
When Adobe announced the CSS Regions proposal a year ago it was one that caught reasonable attention. Webmonkey has an overview of what happened since then.
Amazee Labs Extreme
The Trek: Johannesburg to Cape Town
After three years of full-time employment our employees get one month off to free their mind and do something really extreme. Managing Director Gregory Gerhardt will challenge himself on the roads of South Africa with a 1400km (870 miles) walk. You can follow the latest steps of his preparations on his website. Starting Monday he'll give us regular updates from his trek - including blister report.
And we finally got around to fix the blog's RSS feed…
During this week's European Trend Day it was mentioned that Zurich, besides being one of the most expensive cities, apparently also has the highest density of smartphones in the world.
Enjoy this week's essence, regardless of your viewport.
Technology
TechCrunch: Why Google’s Plan To Make Maps Pay For Itself Could Backfire
It shouldn't come as a big surprise that Google's announcement regarding the Google Maps API limits didn't bode well with some of the big users. Some of them started to jump ship.
Cloud Four: How Apple.com will serve retina images to new iPads
As mentioned in last week's edition the new iPad will affect the web when it comes to image resolutions. Cloud Four has analysed how Apple is preparing its website for the launch of the tablet's latest iteration.
(via @borisbaldinger)
Drupal
Forum One: Why We're Excited for DrupalCon and Drupal's Future
In the week ahead Denver will be the center of the Drupal communities' attention. The capital of Colorado will host the one of the biannual Drupalcons. Kurt Voelker's blog post sums up nicely how the future of our CMS of choice looks bright.
By the way Michael, Kathryn and Andrew will represent our Labs in Denver.
Food for thought
Mashable: How Iceland Is Rebuilding its Economy With Social Media
Interesting to see how a country like Iceland identified social media as an opportunity rather to treat it like a threat.
Events
Amazee Labs Events: 2nd Web Monday Zurich in 2012
On Monday 19th March it's time again for the monthly Web Monday Zurich. This month, in contrast to other editions, it will take place with the Mobile Monday community and focus on Native vs. Hybrid vs. Web Apps.
How time flies. This is already the 10th weekly-versary of an Essence of a web week. Find the latest product announcements and all the rest you didn't want to miss.
Drupal
SEO Agenten: Infografik Drupal SEO Module
An infographic on SEO Modules for the different Drupal versions provided by Munich based "SEO Agenten". (via redpanda.ch)
Opinion
.net magazine: Apple's new iPad will transform web design
Craig Grannell's take on what Apple's introduction of a retina display in the latest iPad will mean for the web.
Responsive Design
Webmonkey: Adobe Shadow Simplifies Mobile Web Testing
On Wednesday we quickly tested Adobe Shadow. Here is Webmonkey's longer analysis of the tool.
Insight
TED: Kevin Allocca - Why videos go viral
Hear straight from the horse's mouth why some videos go viral.
Business
DollarShaveClub.com
Combining the power of Drupal and the essence of Kevin Allocca's TED talk on viral videos.
A picture is worth a thousand words: This week's edition with an extra image and the hottest industry topics. Enjoy!
Drupal
Blue Drop Awards 2012
Until Monday, 5th Thursday, 22nd March (Update: The deadline has been extended), you can nominate your favourite Drupal site for the inaugural Blue Drop Award. Categories range from "Best Marketplace Website Built With Drupal" to "Best Personal Website Built With Drupal"
Acquia: Keeping Drupal Secure
Read the entire blog post here.
Business
BBC: Twitter partners with Datasift to unlock tweet archive
Nothing wrong with that but it is a swift reminder that if something is free on the web, you are the product. (via @robert_t)
Business vs UX
The Brads: Ad Dollars
The eternal battle between business and UX goals.
Responsive Design
Smashing Magazine: Is There Ever A Justification For Responsive Text?
James Young asks himself if the concept of responsive text makes any sense. If copy isn't relevant for smaller viewports why should it be on larger ones.
Pages
Latest comments
Essence of a web week: Week 19
0Trying to shun the rumblings created by the upcoming Facebook Initial Public Offering (IPO) would have been a hard task. So in this week's edition two of the five items are dedicated to the most anticipated IPO of the year. Enjoy.
Facebook
Wired: Facebook 'App Center' lets developers sell web and mobile apps
Probably not that much of a surprise that Facebook made this monetisation related announcement one week ahead of its Initial Public Offering.
New York Magazine: No, Facebook Has Not Already Peaked
If you are skeptical what the future has to offer for Facebook once it has reached it's peak. This article might remind you that the mass is one of the social network's key assets.
Infographic
Wake Up Call – If You Spend It, They Will Come
While the mobile app hype machine got refueled with the Facebook announcement this week. App Promo's info graphic gives an overview on the current state of the market from a developer's view.
Tweets that cut through the noise.
Don't call it "Mobile Web"!
Utilise pain to generate revenue