Kiwi team gears up for Geek Olympics

Kiwi team gears up for Geek Olympics

On Saturday 18 August 2007, web teams from Australia and New Zealand will compete in Sydney to build a fully-operational website for a non-profit organisation in 24 hours.The All Blacks have held on to the Bledisloe Cup. Can our 'Code Blacks' match their success and come home winners?

All will be revealed in the FullCodePress 'site in a day" competition, when New Zealand's top web talent take on the best Australia has to offer.

Also known as the 'Geek Olympics' the trans-Tasman event is the first of its kind and will be followed by an international competition, to be held in Wellington in February 2008.

The Kiwi team was announced on 16 July, the final seven selected from hundreds of applicants. Reflecting the Capital's reputation for creativity and innovation, all hail from Wellington – apart from Hamilton designer Steve Dennis.

The full team is:

• Steve Dennis (Enlighten) - Designer
• Zef Fugaz (Provoke) – User Experience /Information Architecture
• Alison Green (Shift) – All Rounder
• Peter Johnston (Sorted) - Writer
• Mark Rickerby (Coretxt) - Programmer
• Thomas Scovell (Shift) - Project Manager
• Jeffrey Wegesin (Xero) - HTML/CSS

(Bios available at http://www.codeblacks.co.nz/the-team/ )

Team Captain Thomas Scovell says the 'Code Blacks' will be going into the challenge with the attitude of a sports team.

"Rather than each of us just doing our bit we're all going to work together as a team and help each other out for the whole 24 hours. That's provided we can find enough good coffee in Sydney to get us through the weekend…"

The team is currently working hard to refine their strategy, get to know each other, design that all-important t-shirt and secure sponsorship.

"The Aussie team is sponsored by Adobe so we are keen to get some big local names on board to support us," says Thomas. "We're open to offers!"

ENDS

BACKGROUNDER

The team name and logo

The Kiwi team's name "Code Blacks' follows the grand tradition of the All Blacks, Black Caps and Tall Blacks – while also reflecting the web industry's notorious appetite for consuming copious quantities of short blacks. long blacks, and whatever other caffeinated beverage is at hand.

The team's logo (warning – geek talk ahead!) features the hexadecimal code for the colour black, in the style of the Olympic rings to give it a sporting feel.

A copy of the logo can be found attached to this release or at http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1152/895129110_ffd369cf77.jpg?v=0

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