Postcards from Bangkok: Recollections of WordCamp Asia 2023
What a disgrace, clearly after WordCamp Asia is the very best time to remain in Bangkok and have enjoyable, unexpectedly caught a chilly in 30 levels Celsius climate, with weak palms and ft, and was sick in mattress.
I’ve been to WordCamp in Japan, Taipei and Manchester Metropolis earlier than, this time WordCamp Asia 2023 is my fourth time to take part, and it is usually the most important one.
I usually really feel that the idea of Asia is fake. In fact, we will clearly draw the boundaries of Asia on the map, however I’ve a giant query mark about what number of international locations and cultures there have in widespread, and whether or not they have a standard origin. Furthermore, as a typical ignorant Hong Kong particular person, apart from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan in Northeast Asia, and Xingmatai in Southeast Asia, I’ve by no means set foot in locations comparable to India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. large portion.
Most of the attendees of WordCamp Asia this time are from the above-mentioned international locations which might be absent within the every day lifetime of Hong Kong folks, which may be thought to be a form of completion. Quite the opposite, after a number of days, I did not even meet a single attendee from mainland China and Korea, which may be very uncommon.
The venue of the occasion is ICONSIAM, and I scored 99 factors. The one level deducted will not be resulting from any shortcomings, however I’m nitpicking. I feel the venue is somewhat too grand and splendid, and I’m not used to it. I’ve by no means had impression of enormous buying malls and barely patronize them, however so far as buying malls are involved, ICONSIAM, which opened in 2018, immediately turned my no 1. Take the free ferry to the ICONSIAM pier. As quickly as you enter, you will discover a meals court docket, however the design is extra like an evening market, crowded with folks, air-conditioned however not like a fridge like Hong Kong, and it primarily makes use of paper dishes and may be recycled, though it’s nonetheless a one-off Intercourse, however at the least it’s higher than plastic. Most significantly, the meals is scrumptious.
Above the primary ground are the massive outlets and eating places of a typical shopping center. It’s a bit like Competition Stroll (it’s not like that, however I don’t know a lot about buying malls, so I can’t give a extra acceptable instance), but it surely’s rather more open, with very excessive flooring. Nice sense of area. Completely different from all buying malls in Hong Kong, the highest ground of ICONSIAM is designed as a venue for conferences and exhibitions. The primary lecture corridor can accommodate greater than a thousand folks. The assembly rooms, exhibition halls, audio and even bathrooms are all of top quality. Whereas I’ve at all times hated giant malls off the bottom, visitors from everywhere in the world collect for seminars and exhibitions in malls crammed with locals and vacationers, which is comparatively near the bottom.
All speeches in WordCamp Asia are concurrently performed on YouTube. Shopping for tickets is like supporting open articles. Paying will not be for content material, however extra for expertise and help. The truth is, a lot of the seminar individuals don’t care a lot concerning the audio system. The subject is simply an excuse for everybody to get collectively. Souvenirs comparable to baggage. Contributors like me who will not be socially savvy, drunken folks actually wish to drink, and spend most of their time “listening to lectures” could also be within the minority.
After listening to greater than ten sharings, three of them are significantly worthy of additional introduction.
Take Your WordPress Website To One other Stage Utilizing AI Translation
The speaker on this subject is Dario Jazbec Hrvatin who works at WPML. WPML is the preferred WordPress multilingual plug-in, however Dario will not be hard-selling, it’s thought of to be flat. He shared his views on a number of main translation engines DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Translate, and in addition listed issues to concentrate to when selecting a plug-in wait.
I’ve needed to translate my very own articles and books for a number of years, however I’ve by no means had the assets and time. Though Dario’s sharing is easy, it’s a good reminder that the standard of AI translation has been drastically improved, the associated fee can also be very low, and the velocity is near instantaneous. So long as we will embrace “imperfectionism”, it’s time to fulfill the want of translation.
I used AI to translate an article of this month into English with out human palms. In case you are , you’ll be able to see how the standard is.
The speaker, Saif Hassan, is a product designer in an internet site growth firm and has an in-depth examine of fonts. Saif first launched the idea of Human Laptop Interplay (HCI), then minimize into typography, after which shared the 6 main design ideas proposed by HCI grasp Don Norman, together with suggestions and consistency.
Concerning typography, Saif cited a lot of examples to elucidate how fonts can have an effect on the transmission of messages, and even change shopper conduct, which is widespread sense for designers. As well as, Saif additionally shared quite a lot of chilly data about fonts, comparable to tales about NASA and Coca-Cola fonts. I imagine that even a layman in design will discover it attention-grabbing.
If I had to decide on considered one of my favourite sharings within the two-day seminar, I might in all probability select this Coloration is an opinion introduced by designer Piccia Neri .
Piccia begins with the primary capabilities of colours, after which explains the 2 reverse however right colour theories of Newton and Goethe, after which talks concerning the widespread sense about colours such because the three main colours and the colour wheel.
The second half of the sharing started to echo the title, mentioning that colour preferences and even judgments are purely private emotions. Nobody has higher colour accuracy than others, and nobody has the authority to specify colour attributes. Though we’ve got been discussing colour and design, this subject will not be organized in Design Monitor, however Accessibility, so in the long run Piccia repeatedly emphasised to concentrate to paint blindness, do not rely solely on colour to precise that means, and efficiently concluded the whole sharing that may be referred to as Color 101.
See you in Taipei, Taiwan
On the finish of the symposium was the closing ceremony. Along with thanking the organizing committee, volunteers, audio system, sponsors and attendees and taking a gaggle picture, an Easter egg was added on the finish to announce the host of WordCamp Asia subsequent yr. The format of the announcement was ingenious. A number of basic scenes of this occasion have been edited, after which the digicam turned and the aircraft took off and arrived on the subsequent place.
It will be sentimental to say it, however after I noticed Liberty Sq. displayed on the massive display screen, I used to be really moved. What moved me was not that WordCamp could be held in Taiwan subsequent yr, however that the organizers regarded Liberty Sq. as one of the consultant surroundings in Taiwan.
