Mike’s upcoming schedule

DigiCol Dev Summit

Semantic Versioning is one of those concepts almost every web team encounters, but many teams only partially understand what version numbers are actually telling them. In higher-ed environments—where websites depend on CMS platforms, contributed modules, plugins, design systems, APIs, and custom code—misreading version numbers can lead to upgrade anxiety, broken dependencies, avoidable regressions, and poor release planning. This 5-minute poster session will give attendees a practical, fast-moving introduction to Semantic Versioning (SemVer) through examples that feel familiar to higher-ed web teams. I will briefly explain the meaning of major, minor, and patch releases; show how SemVer helps teams estimate risk; and demonstrate how version numbers influence maintenance, testing, and communication across developers, content teams, and stakeholders.. Attendees will leave with a clear mental model they can immediately apply when reviewing updates, discussing change risk, and creating more predictable maintenance practices.

28 April 2026

MIDCamp 2026

“Shifting left” means integrating testing and quality checks from the very start of a project, rather than near the end. This approach helps detect issues sooner, reduces rework, and improves overall quality—an especially important factor in higher ed digital projects with multiple stakeholders. In this session, we will demonstrate practical ways to embed testing into daily development tasks, such as automated code checks, static analysis, and continuous integration pipelines. Attendees will discover how to foster a quality-focused culture within digital teams to deliver more reliable and accessible experiences.

13 May 2026

Digital Collegium Annual Conference

AI tools can boost developer productivity, but only if used with intention. In this session, we’ll explore how to responsibly adopt tools like GitHub Copilot, Claude and ChatGPT in web development — without outsourcing our critical thinking. Drawing from real-world examples, we’ll cover how to use AI for writing custom code, troubleshooting and reviewing pull requests while avoiding overreliance and knowledge erosion. You’ll learn how to integrate AI into your daily workflow to accelerate output, improve quality and sharpen your skills — not dull them. We’ll also talk about when not to trust AI, how to evaluate generated code and what boundaries help teams retain shared knowledge. Whether you’re curious about getting started or looking to level up your AI-assisted dev practices, this session will offer a thoughtful, practical and slightly humorous guide to balancing human judgment and machine assistance in the web development ecosystem.

20 October 2026