Kia Ora, My name is Natalie Richards. I am married, and mum to 2 boys aged 12 and 3.

I am a Trustee on the Te Roro o Te Rangi Marae Committee, and the Secretary of a newly formed stroke support group here in Rotorua.

I am the Personal Assistant to the Director and Financial Administrator of Mana Social Services Trust in Rotorua, a charitable organisation that specialises in providing Social Services to the community. I am also the ‘unofficial’ IT person — the first port of call when there is any sort of technical problem — before we call in the big guns.

Outside of work, I am the Content Manager for the Te Roro o Te Rangi Marae site on the NaumaiPlace Website. I oversee the upkeep and maintenance of our site.

Since so much of my work is computer based, I am looking forward to learning many new tips and tricks at the conference and hope that a lot of what I learn will be put to use in both my work and my other interests.

What happens when you mix webstock with Craft2.0? You get CraftStock, a very special, very exclusive crafty event on Feb 14th.

Post PowerPoint Karoke Idol, Webstockers will get to hang in the custom cocktail lounge, listen to the delightful tunes of Twinset, shop, make, and most probably lust after some very special crafty wares

Why so special? Well to start off with we handpicked 20 of the hottest Craft2.0 makers to bring their creations to you.
Most of them, like us, know how to get their geek on in style, which means you can expect creations made with the discerning Webstocker in mind.

From computer chips to keyboards and birds the Craft2.0 posse has spent summer creating things to make you smile.

But they also know you spending 2 days at a conference is keeping many of you away from your nearest and dearest, so you can use CraftStock to pick up presents to take home. Handmade in NZ presents, which means you can feel all smug about buying something made with love and not mass produced for a shed type selling environment.

But wait there’s more! You can get your craft on yourself. Yes, there will be the opportunity for you to make things yourself, both at CraftStock and in easy to pack take home kits.

Oh, and did we mention the cupcakes?

It’s great to be able to fill our last speaking slot with another Kiwi. Among the ranks of New Zealander’s doing well overseas, Craig must rank near the top as Director of Engineering at Google New York. Recovering from an early setback in 1998 when he famously turned down a job offer from Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Craig didn’t make the same mistake twice and joined Google in 2000.

Here’s Craig’s full bio, and we’re very pleased to have him speaking at Webstock!

We thought it might be interesting to let you know some statistics from site visitors.

Browsers and operating systems

The browser breakdown is:

• Firefox – 61%
• Internet Explorer – 21%
• Safari – 13%
• Opera – 3.00%

Of the Internet Explorer visitors, 51% used IE7 and 49% IE6

68% of visitors were on a Windows platform and 30% on a Mac. For Windows visitors, 84% were using XP and 11% Vista.

Where are you from?

People from 150 countries have visited the Webstock site, although the visits haven’t been evenly distributed among them! The top six countries for visitors are:

• United States – 29%
• New Zealand – 21%
• United Kingdom – 5%
• Australia – 4%
• Canada – 4%
• Gerrmany – 4%

The top five states for USA vistors are:

• California – 18%
• New York – 8%
• Texas – 7%
• Florida – 5%
• Illinois – 5%

Of New Zealand visitors, 45% are from Auckland and 41% from Wellington.

How did you get here?

19% of visits were direct traffic, 74% from referrals and 7% from search engines. The referral traffic reflects that Webstock has been mentioned a number of times as an example of great design (yah!). The top six link-love sites are:

• linkcssremix.com – 13%
• linkwebdesignerwall.com – 11%
• linkbestwebgallery.com – 11%
• linkthebestdesigns.com – 9%
• linkwebcreme.com – 8%
• ilovetypography.com – 5%

For search engine traffic, the first non-Webstock-related search term has been “Sam Morgan”.

How many times and for how long?

Well, in general not many! 77% of visitors have only been the once and 64% have only visited one page. But we do want to give a huge shout-out to the 158 of you who’ve visited more than 100 times and those 317 people who’ve seen more than 20 pages on a single visit.

Stephen Blyth is optimistic about using the internet to better the lot of people and the planet. He works with community organisations and government departments on web content development, online participation and capacity building projects.

Prior to becoming self-employed in mid-2007 Stephen worked for 15 years in advisory and management in government and NGO sectors. Since 2005 he has been a Trustee of Wellington Region 2020 Communications Trust, a charitable organisation running many innovative community-based ICT projects.

For updates on Stephen’s latest work, gardening and other enthusiasms visit his blog.

Stephen writes

Here’s what Webstock means to me:

Normally when learning about new things I like to be able to gestate, cogitate, dilly-dally. But because the web and online tools, applications and the latest and greatest change so fast, I struggle to find the time to keep up.

I’m working mostly with community and voluntary groups and I don’t think it is fair that they miss out on all the internet has to offer. So, by coming to Webstock, I’m seeing it as a speed date with trends, standards and new ideas, plus I want to converse with others inclined towards using ICTs for social justice and environmental protection.

I’ll pass on any gems I glean to the groups and networks I’m working with.