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Q&A Launch

Wayde Christie—21st May, 2008 | 12 Comments

OK. Since we still don't have a proper blog of our own just yet, where else are we supposed to talk ourselves up other than here? Nowhere – that's right.

So today Newism launched our biggest and highest profile site to date: Q&A. Q&A is a new show for ABC TV which is hosted by the spectacularly handsome, side-leaning, Tony Jones. It's similar to Insight on SBS, but differentiates itself by allowing ordinary punters to ask questions of the panelists. This will likely make for some rowdy TV, and with a bit of luck we'll see some Taiwanese Parliament style biffo. Come on!

It's got loads of cool stuff like:

Streaming live video
Video commenting and rating (via KickApps)
Tasty jQuery effects and transitions
Message Boards
Vodcasts
You name it!

We were charged with designing and building all of the HTML templates, and integrating KickApps (which was no mean feat), and we're quite pleased with the result, and ourselves.

We're looking forward to talking ourselves up even more at the next Bits & Pixels meeting, so if you've got any questions about techniques, or would simply like to point out the multitude of typos we lit slip, fire away in the comments.

Comments (12)

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Yay for us!

It should also be mentioned that if you’re a member of Bits & Pixels and launch a new site, contact us with the details and we’ll post them up for the world to see.

Leevi Graham—21st May, 2008 at 7:15pm | Permalink

That site was very slick guys. Would expect nothing less

I particularly like the cool effect used when sorting the politicians and the minimalist use of flash within the design. Very tasty as Wayde would say.

If you would hurry up and finish the Newism site you could do some blogging of your own

Anthony Short—21st May, 2008 at 8:38pm | Permalink

Nice, clean and balanced. Always a challenge to organize that much information and still retain order. Nice one!

Did you get a chance to use the built in WYSIWYG KickApps editor

MichaelT—22nd May, 2008 at 9:41am | Permalink

Thanks guys

@Michael I’m sure Leevi would love to tell you alllllll about his experience with KickApps at the next meeting.

I’m looking forward to the show tonight. The homepage will change to a ‘live streaming’ configuration, and scrolling SMS comments will be displayed as they come in. I expect there to be a lot of activity on the site also, as the first official guest will be none other than the Prime Minister. Will be great viewing no doubt.

Wayde Christie—22nd May, 2008 at 3:43pm | Permalink

@Micheal Oh man don’t get me started! KickApps is the worst platform in the world. The code output is crap… The interface is confusing and the integration between an existing site and the KA components is worse…

I’ll stop the rant there… Come to the next Bits & Pixels to find out more about working with KickApps and how it should be improved!

Leevi Graham—25th May, 2008 at 1:14pm | Permalink

not to be the predictable graphic designer but i love the logo guys.. and the whole site design looks great

Amanda Cole—28th May, 2008 at 11:09pm | Permalink

Nice work dudes. Who’s the clever mongrel what done that logo?

Mark Davies—29th May, 2008 at 12:52pm | Permalink

@Mark - that was I. Their design, my super-sweet Flash animation skillz

Your CeBit stall was tasty. Leevi’s presenting at a conference in Brisbane in September - we might get you in as a consultant to help with our expo stall. Up for a bit of moonlighting?

Wayde Christie—29th May, 2008 at 2:28pm | Permalink

Oh man!...CeBIT....the prep for that certainly kept us busy - short notice ‘n all. It all came together reasonably well considering it was our first trade show of that scale - we certainly learnt a lot from the experience - even looking foward to the next one (if you know me, you’ll be aware of my usual lack of interest in events like CeBIT).

If you are exhibiting in Bris. more than happy to share what we’ve learnt from our experience.

What’s the nature of Dr Graham’s presentation?

Rock on Maestros!

Mark Davies—29th May, 2008 at 9:04pm | Permalink

@Mark - Leevi’s doing a 45 minute presentation (plus 15 minutes of questions) to a 500 person audience of pest inspectors at Jupiters Casino. His topic is “Building a Better Website”.

It’s in September, so he better get cracking right Leevi?

Would love to pick your brain on the whole expo thing - bout time we all caught up anyway

Wayde Christie—30th May, 2008 at 10:36am | Permalink

@Mark - You should come along to Bits & Pixels next month and share some of your wisdom on trade shows. The Grand still does a mean chicken schnitzel burger!

Leevi Graham—30th May, 2008 at 10:49am | Permalink

sounds like a good idea....when’s the next one?...send me an email reminder.

Mark Davies—30th May, 2008 at 1:51pm | Permalink