Tech conference takes over IMU

Hundreds of Web developers from universities across the nation are at IU this week as part of WebDevShare, a conference that began in 1996 as a way for developers to share Internet ideas and resources.\nThe red, white and black signs scattered throughout the Indiana Memorial Union were hard to miss as WebDevShare took over many of the Union's rooms for its presentations, guest speakers, workshops, exhibits and discussion sections. Most aspects of the conference wrapped up yesterday, but workshops continue through Thursday.\nJohn Snowden, program committee chairman, has been involved with the conference for all five years of its existence.\n"The big task is already over, this is just kind of the grand finale to things," he said. "We started planning last January for the conference here this November."\nThe purpose of the conference is to share what universities are doing for their students and faculty on the Web, and how they are providing Web services, Snowden said.\nRichard Koshel, a Web developer for Mississippi State University, traveled hundreds of miles to attend the conference.\n"It allows me to integrate some new concepts into the systems we're developing," he said. "The general overall purpose is that you learn some new things that other people are doing and integrate them into your system."\n This year's conference drew more than 400 participants, along with a large volunteer support staff and representatives from various computer and Internet vendors.\n The vendors, including Apple, Dell and others, were open to the attendees as well as the general public.\n "They (the vendors) were here to exhibit their products to the IU community and WebDevShare participants," said David Taylor, UITS administrative assistant and the exhibit hall host. "They mostly wanted to showcase their products, so that in the future, many of the participants might choose them."\nThe conference was originally a collaborative effort of IU, the University of Minnesota and the University of Delaware. The conference was held here because of IU's "environment and intimate setting," Snowden said. Participants mostly unanimously vote to keep the conference at IU year after year, he added.