OddBird is a small company – a shared vision and brand that transforms seven remote contractors into a Web Software Agency. 2016 was a year of big changes for us, individually and as a company. We can’t distance ourselves from the world we work in, or the lives of our members, colleagues, and clients. Software is never neutral, and neither are we. There’s work to do.
OddBird is a small company – a shared vision and brand that transforms seven remote contractors into a Web Software Agency.
2016 was a year of big changes for us. Carl took a job with Instagram, Sondra came on full-time, and we added David, Stacy, and Kit to the team. We’re writing more, speaking more, taking on more clients, re-designing our website and brand in the open, and contributing to more open source projects.
It was hard to lose one of the founders (and a sibling!) from our daily work, but we’re glad that he still drops by – an active outside eye when we need advice. This is the first time our founders have been outnumbered, but I couldn’t ask for a better team. They all have impressive skills, but more importantly: they are all kind, empathetic, thoughtful, and generous. To me, these are not only the most important qualities in a colleague I see every day, but the most important skills for any software developer.
We know that our tools have an effect on the lives of the people we work with, in real and lasting ways. We know that software is never neutral, and assumptions we make as developers can cause real pain if we aren’t thoughtful about every aspect of design and development. We have a responsibility to consider how our products are used by diverse people, long after we move on. We can’t build for the center; we have to build for the edges.
OddBird may not be a political organization, but we can’t distance ourselves from the world we work in, or the lives of our members, colleagues, and clients. 2016 was a hard year for many us, and the people we care about. We expect 2017 to continue that trend – with threats to health insurance, immigrants, people of color, LGBTQAI+ people, muslims, women, native people, and so on.
I don’t have any magic words, but it’s important to all of us here that OddBird double-down on our commitment to people in all their diversity, especially when they are pushed to the margins. We know that we have work to do – that our code of conduct and donations are only a start. We’re here, we’re listening, and we’re not neutral.
The three types of browser (and CSS!) magnification
I’m working on an article about fluid typography, and relative units. But instead, I fell down this rabbit hole – or a cleverly-disguised trap? – trying to understand ‘zoom’ in the browser (not Zoom™️ the software). Since I couldn’t find any up-to-date articles on the subject, I thought I shoul…
Catching up to the spec
Our sponsors are supporting the continued development of the CSS Anchor Positioning Polyfill. Here’s a summary of the latest updates.
Take your time with new CSS, but don’t sleep on the essentials
Several people have asked recently why container queries aren’t being used more broadly in production. But I think we underestimate the level of legacy browser support that most companies require to re-write a code-base.