South By Texas State

This blog has moved - sxtxstate.com

2011-01-18T18:38:00.002-06:00

This blog has moved. If you happened here through the magic of the Internet, you will find much more recent content, as well as the archived content from all the years the Advanced Online Media class at Texas State has done the South by Texas State project. Please visit us at our new and permanent home sxtxstate.com.

And we hope to see you at the next SXSW!

South By Texas State: Behind the Blog

2008-04-14T16:37:00.004-05:00

Part I

Part II

Many thanks to all the students who took part in this exercise. It was fun!

If you are having trouble with any of the embedded videos on this blog, visit our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/sxtsu

Music Conference Begins

2008-03-13T12:03:00.006-05:00

Call me a glutton for punishment...the Interactive Conference concluded on Tuesday, but I was back at the Convention Center on Wed. for the opening of the Music portion. Two panels peaked my interest. The Best Online Resources for Musicians included a power panel of social media execs, folks from MySpace, SonicBids, YouTube, Bebo, Last.fm, and iLike. Brad King, who teaches at Northern Kentucky University was the moderator. This is fascinating to me, both from a teaching perspective, and because many of my friends are musicians looking to use these tools to advance their careers.

Brad King plays talk show host and takes questions from the audience.

The SonicBids person (Panos Panay) was particularly eloquent in saying that its not just the music business that musicians must understand, it is also the online business. In a new band, he recommended that someone in the group be designated as in charge of learning all there is to know about online options.

The panel discussed the concept of "life streaming," which is not the same as live streaming. It's about engaging the social media community to promote your band, your fans can do it for you, if you just give them the tools.

And, I thought it was quite important that the panel discussed the positive opportunities that this environment now provides, downplaying all the negativity about free music. There's more than one track that a musical act can take now. Getting signed by a giant label was very lucrative, but only available to a few. Now musicians can take their careers down a variety of tracks. It reminds me of how in Austin, people can be working musicians, because there's an infrastructure here that supports it. Some of them may never be massively famous, some of them don't even want that, but they can pursue their passion for music as a career. Now, those opportunities are broader.

The next panel featured Rob Glaser of RealNetworks, who also owns Rhapsody, the digital music service, interviewed by Tamara Conniff of Billboard. RealNetworks has been around since 1994, pioneers in the music player and streaming environment. I think the most interesting aspect of this presentation was his description of the three models for digital music and his prediction that they will coexist.

Free Streaming with advertising
Subscription
Pay

My take, however, is that he missed some of the opportunity described by the previous panel. When talking about the need some people have to express themselves via their music libraries of book collections, the new way to do that will be via a social networking site, like Facebook or a music delivery site like Last.fm, that allows you to create an identity via the pop culture in which you engage. It an be fluctuating and dynamic, but all your friends can see with what you are most currently engaging. So, I think he missed the social aspect of the engagement.

Then, it was out to hear some music. I'll be moving my music experiences to my personal blog at cindyroyal.blogspot.com, so be sure to drop by if you are interested my rock adventures.

Closing Thought: Flawed McGonigal

2008-03-12T20:32:00.003-05:00

You may want to catch up on the Dr. Jane McGonigal talk before reading this.

I want to start by saying I hold a great deal of respect for Dr. McGonigal, her passion, and her drive. However, I believe her premise as stated at SXSW contains fundamental flaws.

She believes that ARG's should exist to provide a gaming environment over our life that creates a sense of happiness (read accomplishment or self-actualization) by allowing us to 'know the rules.' We get points for doing the designed tasks and achievements. Basically, she contends that life is unfair, many of us are 'bad' at it, and that by having gaming rules overlaid upon our life all this will change. Game designers can design you into happiness.

That's great if you're a designer.

However, I hope people will think twice, three times, and more about handing over their sense of worth to any designer, no matter how talented and benevolent. No one knows what you want more than yourself. Generalized metrics can help point our way, but surrendering our sense of self to an automated construct that restricts our ability to customize individual modes and measurements of success isn't one step removed from tyranny, it is tyranny.

And dismissing corporations as only the money people that allow designers to create whatever they want is foolishness. I think we can confidently accept that the company funding the project also gets a say in the rules and thus gets to make the rules we must then play by.

So if you want to make life a game, you better first make damn sure you like the process of design that creates the game. If it isn't democratic and wholly responsive to the voice of the gamers, count me out. I can make up my own rules and live up to them just fine.

I'll be quite happy doing so.

Podcasts!

2008-03-12T17:43:00.002-05:00

Podcasts of SXSWi panels and keynotes are now available, so y'all can hear ones you may have missed.

Wrap Up and Kudos

2008-03-12T13:17:00.005-05:00

Pictured above, Dee and Jon chat live during Jane McGonigal's session. Read the full transcript.

Although this is likely not the final post, I'd like to do my wrap up by thanking all the students who worked so hard during this exercise. They gave up part of their Spring Break to participate, and I hope they all found it enriching. This was really the best of both worlds, a fun experience where a good bit of learning occurred. There was networking, confirmation of knowledge, introduction to new topics... good times.

I am deeply impressed with the professionalism and creativity in which this project was approached. We were able to cover the conference with unique breadth and depth, from a students' perspective. Using computer, basic digital camera, and/or handheld low-end camcorder, we have been able to create a vast amount of interesting and engaging content, over 120 posts!

I'd say it's been a success, and I hope to be able to continue again next year. Thanks to SXSW for providing the access and for being super accommodating. I'm still reeling from it all!

Student Blog Producers:
Cooper Cherry
Theresa Fore
Philip Hadley
Dee Kapila
Jac Malloy
Fazia Rizvi
Marc Speir
Anna Tauzin
Michael Trice
Chris Troutman
Sunday Udoetok
Jon Zmikly

Thanks for all your hard work! Enjoy the rest of Spring Break. Stay tuned to this blog. In a few days, I'll have Behind the Blog: The Movie.

Considerations for Scalable Web Ventures

2008-03-12T13:00:00.003-05:00

I went to this panel, frankly, because Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, was on it. I've been a fan since his TechTV days. But, he was just the moderator of this panel. He was supported by Joe Stump, his lead architect from Digg. Other panelists were Chris Lea from Media Temple, Cal Henderson from Flickr (official title is Badass MC), and Matt Mullenweg from WordPress.

This is not really my area, but I like to attend a few of these developer/networking panels, just for the exposure to the issues. In a nutshell, they discussed what happens when your traffic explodes...how do you handle it and the new features that are being deployed in Web 2.0? They talked about things like load balances and the limits of open source. They talked about MySQL databases and storage issues. They also discussed a few organizational issues - like organize a strong team and do good documentation of code.

Cal from Flickr was particularly funny, as he frequently noted that at Flickr, they serve a good amount of photos (understatement). And, I'm going to steal his answer to the person who asked where he could find more resources on this topic....Ummm...Google.

Lunch Break on Tuesday

2008-03-12T12:31:00.002-05:00

Dee, Jac, and Chris grab a bite before heading into the final stretch on Tuesday.

Tuesday Morning

2008-03-12T10:54:00.006-05:00

On the last day of the Interactive, I am beginning to feel a bit wistful about the conclusion. I'm exhausted, yet sad to see it go. I must make the most of it! The first two sessions of the day, that I attended with former student and current employee Jordan Viator, were some of the best of the week.

Future of Corporate Blogs
The first session on the Future of Corporate Blogs, was fascinating in that it had panelist representation from some of the places with the most experience in this area. Mario Sundar, the Community Evangelist (yes, that's his title) at LinkedIn and Lionel Menchaca of Dell had the most interesting things to reveal. They spoke about the usage of comments and the difficulties in measuring success. The key to both was in the ways they articulate the power of the community. You need to be where they are, instead of trying to force the community to you, whether it be a blog, or Facebook, or Twitter or something else. And, they felt you needed to send employees in to these communities to engage. Wow, how different is that from a few years ago, when companies were concerned about employees wasting time in these spaces.

Menchaca from Dell said that the keys to success are listening, analyzing, and then taking action. He said a couple of times that he felt "blessed" to have the support at the top of his organization from Michael Dell, but that the culture throughout the organization must embrace the value of these activities. If you don't affect the culture, your job is only half complete. Another thing that I found interesting was his mantra "Get it off email," basically saying that these email threads are not as effective as going to a community in another forum.

LinkedIn articulated three goals: user education; product demos; and feature benefits.

Some additional resources can be found at http://del.icio.us/kamichat/sxsw2008

Peas in a Pod: Advertising, Monetization, and Social Media

I liked this one because it had the guy from Ask a Ninja on it, Kent Nichols. He keeps it real. The other panelists were Tim Kendall from Facebook, Ellen McGirt from Fast Company, and Seth Goldstein from Socialmedia Networks. There was a bit of disagreement, because the Facebook and Socialmedia guys were all about getting users to organically engage with products and services that would be displayed as advertising, a word-of-mouth strategy, just online. Ninja has short pre-rolls on their online videos, and they have mega page views, so it's working for them. But, their strategy is unique in that they can mention products in the pre-roll, usually funny, by the Ninja. It's part of the entertainment. It's not that easy for everyone, and only certain products would want to be associated like that. Ninja grosses about $100k/month in advertising, licensing, and merchandise. Not bad...

Goldstein from Socialmedia said to always provide context for users and allow them to easily invite friends to do things (in a not too spammy sort of way). The apps are the big driver on Facebook, and opening up the development and the sharing of revenue is the key to their strategy.

An example of good and bad context: feeding TechCrunch articles to your page vs. seeing how your friends were reading and commenting on specific TechCrunch articles.

One takeaway: for social media, metrics are hard. OK, they've always been hard. I'm still amazed that online advertisers are still fixated on click throughs. That is a much higher expectation than we have for any other form of advertising. And, anyway, read Convergence Culture. It's not even about exposure, it's about association and usually in The Long Tail.

Someone used the term "peerfluence," sorry I can't attribute, but that's a term to mean being influenced to do something based on what others you trust or know have done. That seems to be what these sites are banking on, and how they execute on this will define success.

An audience member asked about whether or not this was the "Amway-itization" of social media, the use of what the were calling "social ads." I had never heard it put that way before, but I think it is valid. Do I really want to be constantly barraged by what my friends are doing and how awesome it all is? Panelists agreed, and responded that these strategies work best for things like music and movies, things people already share, not so much with consumer products, like toothpaste. Those guys need to figure out something else. Try Convergence Culture... But, they said that social ads have about 2-4 times higher click through rates than regular ads.

And one final interesting comment, and this was alluded by Mark Z. Kendall said that in 2007 Facebook's strategy was about deep engagement with the platform. In 2008, it's all about seamless integration across the Web (can you say Open Social?).

Ninja at the Web Awards on Sunday night.

Perfect Timing!!

2008-03-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone

Hope you are enjoying your Spring Break. I happened to be watching PBS last Thursday and won't you believe it - Chris Anderson of Wired and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch were both on Charlie Rose. Talk about perfect timing!

Cell phone rings, evil guy laughs

2008-03-11T17:22:00.003-05:00

I'm attending my last panel of the day-Can Wii learn?-Wiimotes in e-learning and I just wanted to state two things:

1. Not a single cell phone has gone off during a panel I've been in today and I have been super impressed. Then BAM, one just went off, and of course the owner couldn't find it and it was rumaggey chaos.

2. They guy sitting directly behind me has an evil super villain laugh. And it is one of those brilliant ones that gets progressively louder. I wish y'all could hear it.

Just thought you'd like to know!!

ps. This is a cool panel and they're talking about some really interesting hacker-type stuff. I'll have a full report later.

This may be my final interactive post

2008-03-11T17:15:00.004-05:00

The future of Internet radio?!

Is it the same ol' same ol'?

Or are we living in the long-Tail?

Or simply the best damn radio station in the land...click here

These Internet radio guys argue about radio as much as terrestrial radio people do.

The online music market is so massive that it affords itself to have many different operating platforms.

Monetization. Is the pricing structure to pay artists for their music correct or does it still need to be tweeked? The ability of small independent Internet radio operators will be determined on the outcome how this question is answered. One issue facing online radio is the ability to monetize online advertising. All the effort of creating national ad campaigns is going into online interactive content. Audio ads are not the focus.

Quarterlife: Making Television History

2008-03-11T17:13:00.004-05:00

Quarterlife: Never seen it, have no idea what it's about. But, it made history and that's why I'm here. Here's the story of a man named Marshall Herskovitz who, among other things, changed the flow of media content. Instead of the typical "go to the web to supplement TV content," Herskovitz moved his show from the web to television. For once, TV execs knew they were in uncharted waters and gave him much more creative control and freedom. "It was entirely our show," he said. He was able to make this happen partly through mega-expensive ad campaigns and using the work of quarterlife's loyal community.

Some points he made during the QA portion:

The progression of mediums is changing. You really have to start on the web. Don't start on TV. It's changing very quickly, but we haven't yet figured out how to get advertisers to spend the kind of money they spend on the web. It's coming soon though!

For his next season, he plans to hire writers that visit the site. People are adding content all the time with stories and screenplays

Is trying a new release pattern (not twice a week for 8 minutes a pop)

Online audience is so fragmented and unpredictable that there are things that would work on the internet that would never work on TV

Regardless of future television shows or internet programs, the social networking aspect will stay

From a TV background, it is really interesting to see how the process of television content is changing. He initially created this show to attract a niche audience. It's also important to see his evolution from television to film to the Internet. Now it seems like instead of being a "last resort" for your content when trying to enter the professional film making or television scene. It's really a starting point today.

Omar who shot the Lacy video!

2008-03-11T17:10:00.004-05:00

The Statesman reporter who got Sarah Lacy's post-interview tantrum showed up at my latest panel.

He shot that with his own handheld camera. Did the editing on the spot. Re-edited after posting to youtube because Lacy dropped an f-bomb. Then re-posted the whole thing to Austin360 from his own youtube spot. Johnny on the Spot all the damn way. That's a journalist.

The panel itself was an interesting, if downbeat, examination of what newspapers can do to remain relevant. Newspapers have created some coooooooool apps for the web.

More on that later!

Can Wii learn? -Using Wiimotes in e-learning.

2008-03-11T17:02:00.007-05:00

Hi All, I'm listening and blogging so please excuse my choppiness.
---------------------------------------------------------------

The panel opened with a brief description of the Wiimote and its components.

They moved on to talk about the 4 e-educator's challenges/needs:
attention
motivation
participation
retention

The panelists discussed that in a good learning game design, those 4 behaviors are not difficult to achieve. Most game designers are able to seek those behaviors through emmersive play in a game. The went on to talk about the concept of "flow state".

"flow state"--when you enter that state you are intrinsically motivated, no external reward necessary-you are there because you want to be there. The panelists talked about how bullets on a slide in a power point with some narration just doesn't motivate students to want to be there. One of the panelists, a game designer, just stated that
"Halo designers aim for 30 minutes of flow state at a time. In e-learning, I aim for about 10 minutes, because these are adults and the learning environment is a bit different."

They discussed second life and how their companies have bought islands, but they are not yet sure if this will be successful. The talked about how the 2nd life space is flawed and results in cognitive overload. They are trying to work on some stuff and 2nd life does have lots of promise but it goes back to immersion. So they feel the highest opportunity is in using the Wiimote and that their companies should devote their resources to that.

They talked about how a Wiimote can simulate resistance and the possibilities of this is architecture, math, physics, chemistry programs.

Question from audience: should e-learning be fun?
Pittman: why not? its as simple as this: if something is fun, more people will want to do it.

"We recognize that some people just want the information and might not want such involved immersion."

Lots of people are hooking the Wiimote up to the internet and using it instead of the mouse in places like Secondlife, using it as lazer pointer.

The panelists are discussing all the amazing things you can do with a Wiimote and how all of this can be brilliantly applied to learning.

Go to wiibrew.org to see the multiple uses.

Why Wii?
1. the Wii has some cache as a game console right now, more than the other two competing consoles and ppl want to get in there cause its cool
2. theres a lot of functionality packed into it and if theres not there are ports built into the bottom
3. lot of openness, Wiimote uses blue tooth, standard infrared, the infrastructure exists for you to hack with it.
4. Relatively cheap.

PITTMAN: At first I thought and kept becoming increasingly convinced that Wiimotes had no place in math but then Nintendo invented a game called big brain academy and I'm being proven wrong.

Sitting with the Cool Kids

2008-03-11T16:50:00.005-05:00

Here's my teaser for a longer post on McGonigal.

She's passionate about the subject of games, but I have to admit that the idea of turning self-actualization over to an outside designer as opposed to taking direct action for my own self-actualization freaks me out. Something very 1984 about it no matter how benevolent you paint the happiness quotient.

Either way, I'm emailing her to have lunch next week in San Fran. So here I am with her and the cool kids in the front before the speech:

But my later post may focus on the glory that emanates from Sunni Brown:

She drew this during the keynote!

Think my wife should be jealous?

MASH Notes

2008-03-11T16:48:00.013-05:00

After the Mexican Manifesto, I attended the panel MASH Notes: A Military Surgeon's Videoblog from Iraq.

A United States Navy trauma surgeon shares his experience caring for combat casualties in Ramadi, Iraq during a seven month stretch of the Iraq War. He describes the challenges in caring for critically wounded American troops, Iraqi civilians and security forces, and enemy combatants in an austere environment with limited resources and personnel. All the while he is able document his combat experiences and communicate with his family and friends back in the States with a videoblog maintained throughout his deployment.

The speaker was Carlos V.R. Brown M.D., currently the Trauma Medical Director for Brackenridge Medical Center, and local Austinite. Previously he worked at an LA trauma center and was in Iraq from August 2006 to March 2007.

He'd been deployed before, but always as either a single or engaged person. Never before had he had to deal with being deployed and leaving behind a wife and three small kids. His brother, who works for Google and YouTube, suggested he set up a blog as a way to deal with the situation. The blog allowed him to communicate with his family and, as a side effect, forced him document his experience. He talked about how the blog changed his experience in Iraq.

This was very, very well presented. He's probably done this for some medical conferences as well.

First, he gave the audience a bit of a background, which was useful since most of us had not read his blog. He was deployed to a Level II medical facility Ramadi, Iraq, which is equipped to handle resuscitation, surgery, blood and transfusions, and critical-care holding. (Level III facilities are more like full hospitals, Level IV is a hospital in Germany and Level V is Walter Reed and Bethesda back in the U.S.) His presentation included images and videos from his blog, T*R*A*P*P*E*R 'L*O*S, M.D..

The experience of trauma surgery in a war zone like Iraq is very different, for many reasons. For example, causalities could come in on tanks, not ambulances and instead of getting 24 injuries in one day, as with the L.A. trauma center, in Iraq they could get 50 in fifteen minutes. In fact, they might even know when they were getting a lot of causalities if they heard an explosion that seemed louder or closer than usual. He also dealt with enormous injuries and much more severe trauma than at a U.S. based trauma center, with people sharing the same uniform as himself. He showed some very graphic images of wounds.

He mentioned that he would not have taken these videos and pictures had he not setup the blog. Now he's really glad he did since it really documented his experience. The original purpose, however, was to share his experience back home through the blog and stay in touch with his family.

He did sometime have a hard time figuring out what he could and couldn't put on the blog. To help him decide he put up only things he felt he could share with his kids. (Keep in mind that you might have different ideas about what your kids can handle.) The military knew of his blog and allowed it, and the pictures he took of injuries fell under informed consent. (Medical professionals do this all the time in order to help teach the next generation of physicians.)

He wanted to give some operative footage on the blog because it highlighted how surgery in a facility like his was so very different from how it would be done in the states. For example, having to use manual tools (a hammer and chisel to break open the sternum) rather than the tools used back in the states because of the lack of electrical power. Also, often multiple people would be operating on the same person at once. The surgeons did their own cleanup.
One of the ironies was that he was using a high tech blog to communicate, but didn't have a lot of the basics (like a blood bank) needed for the kind of surgery done. It was a very different professional experience and he was able to share that.

To deal with the situation he read, and worked out. He had a Netflix account and they deliver straight to the base! He was able to catch up with favorite shows like Arrested development and The Sopranos. But overall, the video blog was critical to maintaining his sanity while he was there. He spent the bulk of his extra time on preparing his blog. To do that he used an Internet cafe across the street. The picture is amazing, since most folks aren't used to blogging with computers covered in sand!

His "mustache contest" got the most comments of any entry in the blog. Some celebrities stopped by the facility, including a well known photographer who was kind enough to share some of his photos. His best friend John Spong came out to Iraq report on it for Texas Monthly.

After lots of pictures, videos and text, he started getting a bit creative. He put some of his pictures and videos to music, and did some special stuff for his kids to celebrate birthdays, Halloween. It made it easier for his kids to see, via photos, that he got a birthday cake on his birthday. He did video for his blog with Star Trek theme and him in a costume for his kids. The blog allowed him to participate in family events like Thanksgiving or Christmas. His voice broke talking about the pictures of Christmas.

He still keeps in touch with the people he worked with in Iraq. The only thing he didn't post was pictures of those who had died in his area during his time there, but he did show us during the presentation. He then opened for questions.

My sister is a pediatrician at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. She'd had a chance to tour medical facilities and nearby areas in Kashmir after the earthquake in 2005. She shared her photos with my family at Thanksgiving and it was absolutely fascinating, but almost 2 years later. It's the kind of thing that would be excellent for a blog, so I was curious about whether Dr. Brown's blog had an effect on other physicians or interested them in doing the same and asked him during the Q&A. He said that, at presentations at medical conferences, there was a lot of interest but that generally they just didn't know how, so he'd be giving them advice on how to get setup and started.

All in all, a very nifty presentation.

Jane McGonigal's Keynote

2008-03-11T16:48:00.004-05:00

I defer you to Dee's post about the content of Jane's aw3some speech and my thoughts on that. Thus, all I have here is a youtube clip from the premier of her latest ARG trailer. Enjoy!

Here it is---Jane McGonigal dances to Soulja Boy!

2008-03-11T16:46:00.002-05:00

I apologize for my uh "skillz" in the shooting movies category. I know it makes all you RTF kids jealous.

Piracy as Marketing! Finish Them!!!

2008-03-11T16:41:00.002-05:00

How Piracy Will Save the Music Industry in a nutshell… sort of.

Jason Schwartz of Angelsoft records.

He described a clandestine Fight Club type group called “The Scene” who are responsible for the best quality and first released pirated content.

These are people who are deeply embedded within the entertainment system.

According to Schwarts, the Scene is comprised of multiple release groups that focus on specific media and genres. Each release group is five people who don’t know each other. Very secret. Assembly line type systems.

First person- content; steals the original physical or digital content

Second- ripper

Third- encoder

Fourth- packer

The ultimate goal is to work faster than the other groups.

They encode NFO files.

These include info about the release and “brand” of the release group.

Why? It’s a game

1. who can release first among the groups

2. beat the record companies

3. prestige- geek prestige

4. access to top sites

The pirated material disseminates like this:

The scene> to top sites (holy grail of content)>private bit torrent sites (invite only)>public bit torrent>peer to peer networks.

What Schwartz proposes, is that record companies willing release their material into the piracy loop. He says they should release just as high quality material as The Scene.

He then states that the record companies should add a “ChipIn” file to take donations. He referenced Radiohead’s pay what you want experiment.

He said that the ID3 tags should be well taken care of. In the comments section of the ID3 tag add the donation info.

He also suggest labels should spend time on the album art and embed the album art in the mp3s and add the donation info to album art.

Labels should then:

Upload to torrent sites

Speed the torrent

Strip out the IPs from the tag

Map out the IPs.

From the mapped out IPs the labels can plan more strategic tours and then when booking venues, labels can point to local area listener data.

Randy Saaf is the CEO of MediaDefender Inc.

He was not very popular.

His group is trying to reach the people who will not buy records. His approach is to push advertising on the Peer to Peer networks. He does this by substituting the album art with a brand logo.

He says that to advertisers, downloaders are a great demographic: young and tech savvy.

“It’s a win-win situation.” Downloader gets content- record company gets paid- advertiser gets demographic exposure.

His group is also responsible for pushing out the fake files. They flood the networks with these fake file and then allow the advertiser backed files to get to the top.

“Advertising in album art and flooding fake files” was not popular among the audience.

People were much more responsive to Schwartz’s idea of forward thinking in piracy.

Saaf- $.99 is a fair price point

Schwartz- “I don’t think $.99 is a fair price point

Audience agrees.

The Q&A got a bit tense as lawyers and over zealous reporters hit Saaf hard and heavy.

Schwartz went into a “piracy as boycott” theory. He suggested solving this by involving a monthly fee for downloading and applying an Economy of Attention model for revenue dispersement in which the artists/labels would get a percentage of revenue based on their downloads.

Schwartz also encouraged the idea of labels providing music blogs with free MP3s and permission to post for download on the sites.

The panel ended on a downer as an artists’ lawyer “from D.C.” who showed much annoyance while waiting in line, attempted to hijack the panel, tout her own opinions, plug her music panel for Wednesday and to the panelists’ annoyance, never ask a question.

Gmail Chat Transcript between Jon and Dee @ Jane McGonigal Keynote!

2008-03-11T16:28:00.003-05:00

me: Jane McGonigal chat
Jonathan: YES!!
me: So what do you think of her so far?
Jonathan: So, happiness is the new capital?
me: Is that sarcasm?
Jonathan: I really think her ideas are innovative
me: Because she's awesome
Hahah okay good
I really love that she is talking about how happiness is defined
Jonathan: yes, it's really neat to think that gaming is kind of changing how people use new media like this
me: Yes and I think its fascinating that she is talking about creating a space that enhances reality instead of the other way around
which is usually how its viewed
Jonathan: right...like taking gaming into life
me: and she talks about what games give people that real life doesn't
Jonathan: it's also interesting to see that she's not only focused on happiness per se, but on all human emotion
me: she just admitted that she personally doesn't get certain things out of real life
but does in games
Jonathan: right, so we are kind of living vicariously through these games? do you think that might be a little harmful?
me: well yes i think there are always risks of losing touch with reality
but i think because gaming is relatively new
that's a concern
they said the same thing about tv
they're still saying it about the internet
heck they said it about the beatles and rock music sort of in the same vein
Jonathan: well, she's mentioning how people are using gaming to create community where they may not otherwise be able to
me: there! she just said she's not an alarmist and is not critical of kids playing these games for hours and hours and hours
"we are witnessing what amounts to no less than a global mass exodus to virtual worlds..."
Jonathan: so it's really just the same as finding friends through the internet with common interests
me: yes and then it creates an online economy and basically, just life
on your terms
Jonathan: I think it really allows people with an opportunity to learn how to learn things they can't find in schools, regular life, etc
me: an MMO player spends an average of 16 hrs per week
she just said
yeah that's a good point, its filling in the gaps
Jonathan: right
me: Oh that's awesome how she again said lets take what we love about gaming and bring it into the new world so we're not escaping all the time
"for many gamers today, in terms of perceived quality of life, virtuality is beating reality"
"i look at it as a moral and ethical obligation to take the lives of people who are missing out on adventures and give them an adventure"
Sent at 2:25 PM on Tuesday
Jonathan: Yay for technology

{ at this point Jon realizes that he needs to plug in his computer because he is almost out of battery life, and he dashes off}

me: cool where did you find an outlet?
can you see the stage?
Jonathan: (I just had to move to an outlet - laptop was dying)
I really like what she's talking about gaming that actually allows you to help people, like giving people wishes, turning the world into a game
I can barely see the stage [smile] that's fine though
me: that's amazing
that game she just talked about
GROUNDCREW
with the gps
and being in places in the world while playing and interaction online with other users
Jonathan: yes, it seems like it's making things that would be previously impossible into reality
me: and having interaction with people online and they tell you how to help people in the area you're in
oooh check out these kill slides! [from Jane McGonigal’s powerpoint presentation]
games kill boredom
games kill alienation
games kill anxiety
games kill depression
Jonathan: don't you think that this may be just hiding the problem instead of actually solving the underlying problem though?
Sent at 2:32 PM on Tuesday
Jonathan: She's saying they are used as a part of life, and not really as an escape
me: YEAH
Jonathan: so I think it's justified

[Jon and I sidetrack here as Jane expounds on some definitions]

me: have you been to the screen burn room yet?
Jonathan: no I have not, I'm not sure what that is, can you tell me more?
Sent at 2:34 PM on Tuesday
me: ok apparently we have a room here
somewhere in the conference
where its basically an arcade
of cool developing videogames
cindy said its awesome and we should go
they close at 6
so i might skip a panel to go check it out or leave one early or something
Sent at 2:36 PM on Tuesday
me: sorry its called the screenburn arcade
Jonathan: Ohh right, I really want to make a point of going there
I saw it Sunday
I haven't been in there though
we'll go after this!
me: yeah and i want to see the legos too\
and the interactive playpen
and shoot some video in there and take some pics
Jonathan: http://2008.sxsw.com/img/ia/jane_mcgonigal125.jpg
by the way, that Jane is a looker
Sent at 2:39 PM on Tuesday
Jonathan: Adapt, react, re-adapt, apt
me: hahaha yes she's super cute
i like what she's saying about failing
the game environment allowing people to fail without fear
and how gamers have developed that SKILL
and it would be useful in the real world
NICE!
i was just arguing that with someone the other day
about how being a gamer you learn to filter out all kinds of distractions and that too, is a skill
i love this chick!
Jonathan: haha that is really interesting to think about, I guess I haven't really thought of that before
me: its also a bad thing for me sometimes though because i totally filter out things i maybe shouldn't
i like that she is talking about the community of gaming
all the other panels i've been to, they are very adamant about separating communities within genres and worse, genders
Jonathan: Another interesting technique gaming developers are using is open-authorship. It's a really innovative technique. As they develop this openness, users feel like they play a larger role in creating the gaming experience and being more actively involved in the process. It also helps with a sense of being part of a larger thing
kind of like the whole being greater than the sum of each part, but it;'s more than that
me: yeah its really wholistic
holistic
which is it ha i am listening and typing at the same time this is rad
Jonathan: you are asking the wrong person
haha
me: good thing neither of us taught mc1313
[smile]
hahahaha
Jonathan: WOW are you listening to this neurotransmitter?
me: she has a theory for a game that involves people she hates
so she can destroy them with her brain
that's awesome
not theory, idea rather
it reminds me of when i played oregon trail in elementary school and named the characters after my friends that I was mad at and then one of them would get dysentery and I’d be like HA serves you right!
Jonathan: this neurotransmitter stuff is very interesting - it hooks up to your brain that can tell if you're angry
whilst you are playing a game
me: yeah that's amazing
and all that stuff she was saying about gps gaming too
gps seems to be a recurring theme in her keynote
gps gaming rather
rather*
'okay here's her important stuff slides
1. soon enough, most of us will be in the happiness business
Jonathan: heh
I'll get the next one
me: 2. games designers have a huge head start
oh oops
you got the next two
Jonathan: good job, I couldn't see the screen anyway
haha
me: ok ill get them
you can do the commentary
3. alternate realities signal the desire, need and opportunity for all of us to redesign reality for higher quality of life
Jonathan: this can really improve our realities, since a lot of times, like we talked about earlier, our lives often have gaps that need to be filled
ask her a quesiton
Q&A
me: her email is jane@avantgame.com for all reading our blog that want to contact her
gosh
my question i want to know is so dumb
i want to stalk her after the speech so i can ask her
Jonathan: haha I think you should ask it
the question just asked is "Does gaming prevent war?"
me: yeah I should
Jonathan: while the military has been creating games to help with their skills and stuff, but she doesn't think this is the best direction for turning gaming into reality...but it lets people do things they may not actually do
me: that's interesting that she is talking about where the line is blurred…what kind of realities are we talking about and where is the line ethically and artistically?
Jonathan: She thinks games might actually prevent wars and physical violence
me: i do
i know there are times i wanna smack somebody but i'll play mortal kombat instead. And then im zennnn. Plus I’ve solved lots of arguments by playing smash brothers against someone. I always win.
Jonathan: Next quesiton "To what extent does gaming/blogging substitute things from your life?"
me: interesting she is talking about how it worries her when gamers replace reality with gaming
some people have opted out of reality
that's fascinating
Jonathan: right
so far a lot of ARGs are narrative driven and less interactive with actual people
she is addressing this statement now
me: yeah
Jonathan: She's giving an example of how people just jumped out of a car and did the Soulja boy dance
I'm not sure how she answered that question
Haha

[At this point, the audience convinces Jane to end her keynote with a solja boy dance. We have footage of this hilarious moment…to come}

me: cindy and i are going to try to get the video of the end when she does it on stange
stage
Jonathan: lol
awesome
me: kerri is obsessed with that song
she knows the dance
i hate it
Jonathan: oh i really despise it as well
it is so nasty
!!
me: cindy and i just talked about how cool she is and how we'd like to have an alternate reality game where we're her
Jonathan: lol
me: hahaha yes it is nasty
Jonathan: i just literally laughed out loud
me: i can't help but feel all WOMEN POWER!! listening to her
Jonathan: and the girl next to me gave me a "look"
me: hahaha oh goodness
me: see i knew that lost ring thing they showed was what Kristen had for news last week in class
me: ohh i love this question
Jonathan: you would
please tell us what this question is?
me: how do you reconcile the fact that you're creating a game like the lost ring which is sponsored by a huge corporation-mcdonalds with the fact that you're in the happiness business as you say.
Jonathan: ohh that is a good one
me: yes and i like that she talks about the purpose of the art and not who pays the bills
Jonathan: right, and if it gets out there to a mass audience, all the better
me: that those partnerships are necessary for artists in today's 'ecosystem' so that they can make and we can be subjected to----this art.
yeah im all about mcdonald's paying for my gaming stuff
just subsidize the cost for me a lil puhleeze (woop woop chris Anderson)
[smile]
i like that she's both an academic and a gamer
Jonathan: The most powerful thing about art is that once you've had an experience with it, it changes your perspective and allows you to see life in a different way. It's like you're changed forever. I think this is true, especially when you're able to "go" different places and experience new sports and things through gaming
me: yeah that's really a great way to experience and i don't think most people have respect for it, reality is overrated.
Jonathan: While it may not be the same as "real life" you are still learning a lot
me: okay i totally did not understand this last question
so you down for the burn room or screenburn room after this?
Jonathan: yes
me: excellente!!
me: i have 15% left on my laptop.
Jonathan: ain't nothing to it but to do it!
me: girlfriend needs an outlet soon
Jonathan: ohh, I'm at 37% now
Sent at 3:07 PM on Tuesday
me: what?
what's happening?
what did that guy just ask?
Jonathan: no idea
me: lolz
Jonathan: I think a lot of this panel can be summed up with what she just said."The whole world shouldn't be a game, but gaming provides a type of engagement that is better than disengagement"
me: yes
excellent quote
she's very thoughtful
Jonathan: too bad she's married
me: lolz
Jonathan: she's too cool for me anyway
ohh, I bet you really like this question
me: yes!
haha no she loves you
she’s all about you, i can tell
Jonathan: lol thanks
TWIN sister!?
me: hey shes got a twin!
Jonathan: well, maybe she's free
me: you're still in the game my man
Jonathan: nice (in a kevin malone tone)
okay, time for Soulja boy
Sent at 3:13 PM on Tuesday

Jonathan is offline. Messages you send will be delivered when Jonathan comes online.

Jane McGonigal rules

2008-03-11T16:03:00.002-05:00

You heard it here first. Videos to come of her general awesomeness and also, a chat transcript between the infamous Jon Zmikly and I as we watched Jane's keynote. Stay tuned!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: Thoughts after her Keynote

I still maintain that Jane is awesome and her keynote was great but there are a couple of points I didn't really subscribe to.

First of all, I am into what Jane considers "escapist" gaming and I think her talk about being in the happiness business was much more closely related to this type of gaming than the type Jane works on. I'm not saying reality based games don't fall into her definition of happiness, but she discussed scientific research and the results of this research pointed towards gaming as it is usually defined. I also didn't like when she discussed women in gaming and talked about how designers should design specifically for women (this is a recurring theme at the conference) because I think that is alienating a huge set of women who DO play these games and who DO excel at them. I think she failed to express the real problem and that is that there are not a lot of women developers in the industry today, and those that are, don't seem to realize that women like a lot of the same types of games that men do but because a lot of these games created gender biases around their players from the start, they are considered primarily male territory and women wanting to enter see lots of obstacles they are unsure how to overcome. I'm thinking of the LAN parties I've been to and the backlash I've gotten from attending and attempting to play certain types of games. It is important for women in the business to stop subscribing to and selling the research that finds that women cannot play certain types of games because it is a gross generalization. That really upset me and I expected better from her, to be honest.

I loved when she talked about how happiness is the new capital and that gaming is the ultimate happiness engine. Her enthusiasm and passion are infectious and she is definitely a rarity in the industry.

Filmmakers on Demand

2008-03-11T15:37:00.003-05:00

Video on demand (VOD) as a distribution model for content. TiVo has already done that, by allowing a linear platform to shift the content to another time frame. How can that time shifting of content such as VODs be done to monetize the content being created by users. It is in the early stage to determine how this is going to happen.

The platforms to deliver VODs will probably see a growth within the next five years. The ways to watch films and re-watch films is a growth industry. It is a long-tail business model for the independent films shown at various festivals that don't get picked up by major distributors. Smaller distributors pick them up and market them on iMovie, cable, VODs and DVD.

Every film is different on how it will be supported on different platforms. But, genre driven content (documentaries) seem to do well on all channels or platforms.

Programmers within the VOD network are still learning and crafting the content for viewers, unlike programmers that are in the linear television business. That my not be bad news, it leaves the VOD programmers unencumbered in the structure they must follow to create programming. It is such a new media format that it does not restrict programmers to a template or set of predetermined formulas to follow. The newness allows for experimentation on what genres of independent or user generated content works best on a particular platform or channel.

Independent Film Channel

ON Network

Less than 15% of a film's gross income comes from the theatrical release. The money is in the ancillary products like hats, t-shirts, lunch pales, VOD and DVD sales.

It was also discussed why you can't simply search a video and watch it on you television. The main reason this type of convergence has not yet happened, technologically it could, is there are currently no business models in place to make it profitable. Network television is not willing to make it possible for a large captured amount of eyeballs to be diluted into a fewer smaller set of eyeballs. Large amounts of captured eyeballs watching programming is what advertisers are looking for in television content.

It is estimated that by 2012 the sales of DVDs will be equaled by the sales of VODs.

A quick story on how much people like to have a physical hard copy of book, CD or DVD in their hand as opposed to a digital copy. When Ken Burns released his 12 tape PBS series The War on VHS it sold around 600,000 copies. About a year after its release a viewer wrote to say that on tape 8 there was a glitch in the tape. They sent him a new copy and a month later he wrote back saying the same thing was happening. After a little investigation they determined there was a literal drop out of audio on the master. Over half a million copies sold and only one person had actually watched enough of the discs to realize there was a problem. People just wanted a physical hard copy of the series on their shelves.

Mexican Manifesto

2008-03-11T15:21:00.013-05:00

The Mexican Manifesto was an interesting panel, though sparsely attended by SXSW standards. Too bad for those who didn't attend, since they served shots of tequila at the end of the panel. No kidding.

The Usability and Accessibility for the Web International Seminar, organized by the State Government of Nuevo Le-n and the Universidad de Monterrey, was held in July 26 2007. At the conclusion of the two-day conference, the organizers issued the first Manifesto on Usability and Accessibility for Mexican Government Websites. With input from conference participants and experts of UA web 2007, the Manifesto was signed by 23 Mexican states and 3 municipalities. The Manifesto states that , 'It is the duty of the creators and administrators of new technologies to improve people's quality of life. As administrators, our objective is to create and maintain websites that are both useful and easy to use for the widest possible audience: usable and accessible websites. We believe that government, academia and the private sector should work together to achieve this objective.' In this session we will look at the 10 point commitment contained within the Manifesto, meet the people who led the development of the document and learn more about the barriers and successes of implementing the Manifesto.

Panelists: Sharron Rush (Exec Director, Knowbility.org, Marta Sylvia del Rio (Dir of Graduate Studies in Design and Engineering, Universidad de Monterrey and Javier Hernandez (Director of Projects for Internet, Gobierno del Estado de Nuevo Leon, a Mexican government portal for the State of Nuevo Leon)

I've met Sharron Rush before, when Knowbility had only been around for a short time and I was hoping they could hire me. (The money wasn't there at the time unfortunately, but it was great to get to talk to her.) It's gratifying to see how much they've been able to accomplish. I highly recommend taking their accessibility courses from Access U.

We were given headsets for this panel. Because of the bilingual nature of the panel, there would be live translation of the panelists. Unfortunately the headsets didn't work out, so the translator used a microphone at the front of the room. It worked out just fine.

Last July, Sharron was invited to the University of Mexico, Monterrey to participate in an initiative called Usability and Accessibility for the Web. She felt that it was such a unique and exciting endeavor that they should present about it at SXSW.

Unlike the U.S. and Section 508 of the American with Disabilities Act, there is no legislation on accessibility in Mexico. Still, the state government of Nuevo Leon was very concerned about the issue, so they approached a citizen watchdog council in an attempt to improve the quality of information and access to government business through the portal. The resulting group was made up of specialists, non-specialists, technologists, government representatives, etc.

Through their efforts, a lot of things were put in place. First, a statement of ten points to meet with regards to usability and accessibility was drafted and then shared with other state governments, encouraging them to commit to the effort.

The ten points:

1. To ensure the democratic access to government information and services by everyone, including users with disabilities, by embracing W3C recommendations
2. To facilitate the creation, archival and management of information with systems that are accessible
3. To ensure that information and services are easy to find, discover and use, following best practices in web design and development
4. To ensure the transparency of public information, and specifically information on the use of public resources
5. To facilitate and promote citizen participation in governmental decisions, as well as collaboration between governments
6. To promote the convergence of systems in the national, state and local levels so that users can navigate between them without barriers
7. To take full advantage of information technologies to better serve citizens
8. To make content easy for everyone to understand by following Lenguaje Ciudadano (plain language) recommendations.
9. To promote the ideals and concepts expressed in this manifesto
10. To continuously improve the methodologies referred to in this document

Twenty-three of thirty-two state governments have signed on so far. It was published in the newspapers so all could see the commitment. (Check out the original ad in Spanish in this downloadable PDF.) That's a pretty incredible level of commitment. But they didn't want to project to be just a lot of good intentions; they wanted to follow through. Since the governments that signed on also turn over through elections, they formed a non-profit organization to see the mission through - the Usability and Accessibility Web (UAWeb).

In order to achieve the goals of increased web usability and accessibility, the people making the web sites needed training in these areas. UAWeb provides that training, and it's not limited to just the government agencies that were initially concerned with improvement. Corporations are also getting involved, and programs in these areas have been incorporated into undergraduate and graduate programs that deal with technology. Other universities from other countries have approached them about doing similar things.

Accessibility raining is an extremely important part of achieving the goal of an accessible web. Hernandez pointed out that, on the Nuevo Leon portal site, over 90 agencies must be coordinated, in order to update the site. There are close to 250 people who have access to constantly update information in the portal. An accessibility problem might be fixed at one point, only to be reintroduced when information is updated. Designers and developers must all be trained in order to avoid this sort of thing. (Cool note: Many of the laws are available on the site in mp3 format.)

The involvement of university curricula is just one of the things that makes this effort unique in the world. Another is the fact that they drafted the initial document to address both usability and accessibility at the same time. They wanted the two to remain linked, an approach I think is invaluable to making this sort of thing succeed. I'd love to see that happen at Texas State.

Also unique is the fact that there is one standard across the country, in plain language (citizen language as it was referred to) so that it could be understood by the average person. As the former University Webmaster for Texas State, I had to be aware of not only Federal rules (The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 508 of the Workforce Investment Act), but also State rules regarding accessibility (Section 2054.454 of the Texas Government Code and Title 1, Rule §213.37 (a) of the Texas Administrative Code). On top of that Tina Schulz, the Director of the Office of Disability Services at Texas State, and myself, wrote the University's own Web Accessibility Guidelines.

None of these is really in "plain language" either, though Tina and I did try to make our guidelines a little friendlier to the folks who were developing web sites with HTML.

They wrapped up the session by answering a few questions, then pulled out the Don Julio Tequila for everyone:

Some Guy Interviews Mark Cuban at SXSW

2008-03-11T14:35:00.003-05:00

Fazia I had a seat next to me at the panel that included the Mark Cuban interview. Some guy named Michael Eisner did the interview and it was very interesting. Of course, I've said that about all the panels. Someone said after the interview that the Eisner guy had worked at Disney for awhile, I guess that's why he did the entire interview using a Mickey Mouse voice.

Funny thing is Mark Cuban started the panel off by referring to the Lacy interview with The Zuck and how NOT to do an interview. With a great response from the crowd. It is now being referred to as "The Lacy" interview in many SXSW circles.

Eisner discussed the Internet as the new distributing stream of content. He also stressed the importance of content as being the key to what will drive the Internet within the next five years. Most panels have stressed the importance of content and its ultimate power of rising above the others. He states that the big move to Internet content has not yet "hit," but whe it does it will produce both primary and secondary viewing.

In Eisner's opinion 99% of the user generated content available online is awful and 1% is great. But, that even the worst content available is trying to tell a story and that is what will translate to viewers. Young 20-30 year-old professionals are doing interesting work at creating user generated content. and that is where he is looking for the next generation of storytellers. He says if you are in the Internet business to go to where the new young people are at trying to get recognized and honing their craft.

He did mention that the new distribution stream of content over the Internet would not eliminate television or any other medium. As with any other functional displacement of a medium, a new course will be found.

He mentioned the release of a new book in which his company did a series of related stories to the book on YouTube. The series ran 52 straight days and concluded with the release date f the book. And talked about other projects such as Prom Queen and The All for Nots. The All For Nots online series even developed a band that will be playing at SXSW at Club de Ville.

One story Eisner did share about his one time attempt as an interviewer. He was replacing Charlie Rose talking with John Travolta and was told to go to a break at :32. In what he described as an eternity he realized he was only at :16 and had no questions left to ask of Travolta.

All-in-all it was a good interview. Cuban did a good job of playing devil's advocate to some of Eisner's points with no disrespect.

Thick as Thieves

2008-03-11T14:08:00.002-05:00

This was an interesting panel dealing with fair use and copyright issues of content on the Internet. It's been a topic that has been brought up briefly in almost every panel I've been to so far.

The panel existed of a copyright attorney, a Warner Brothers representative and a guy named m dot Strange, no seriously, his name plate said dot Strange.

One key point talked about in avoiding copyright infringement is the transformation of the original work. The copyright attorney did say that in parody cases of infringement, if you make the judge laugh at the content you have produced, odd are you have won the case.

The Lord of the Rings is to Long video is a good case of parody and transformation. The creative content put into editing, writing and filming transformed the original into new content.

However, as pointed out by the Warner Brothers rep, if someone is loading an entire episode of a show to YouTube in small clips they will asked that it be removed. But if a fan were to post favorite shots of an actor/actress to YouTube they would not have it removed. They regard this as fan usage of the product. Trying to sell the content in any way of course opens an entire new can of worms.

As small independent filmmakers are concerned with using copyrighted material in films on a small budget Warner Brothers was willing to either eliminate licensing fees all together or other them at a lower price, more like a tiered pricing scale. Clips of a song or other movies within movies, depending on length used was key in deciding when to charge a nominal fee for licensing rights of simply look the other way. The other key point in all of this is non-commercial use.

In Bambi Meets Godzilla instead of suing the creator the producers of Godzilla simply bougts the rigts to it and used it in a trailer for the movie in the late 60s.

About the DRMs (Digital Rights Managing) that are in place now the Warner Brothers rep said they are there to keep the honest people honest and the dishonest people working harder.

Successful, Independent Bloggers

2008-03-11T11:59:00.010-05:00

I gave up standing in line for the Michael Eisner panel when it was obvious that they may have chosen too small a room. Instead, I headed over to the panel, Independent Success: Bloggers Who Made It:

What makes a blog a success? Not the famous giant "here's $100 million for your startup" kind of success, but a business that's big enough to let the founders do what they intended, remain independent and provide great editorial quality and strong communities online. Meet four publishers who've done just that in diverse topic areas: Tech, Autos, Design, Celebrities. We'll dig into why they're successful, pry secret tips out of them, hear about their failures along the way and try to use their experiences to build a recipe for guaranteed success. Or at least a way to improve the chances. These four have been at it for years (two of them for a decade now) so they've learned plenty of lessons.

Of all the advice given and observations made, I especially liked Fisher's comment that blogging forums are perhaps the least monetized and least respected aspects of blogs, but absolutely the most valuable to the blog in terms of knowing what people are looking for and where to take your blog. Related advice was to participate in your forums, poll them, do surveys and basically engage your forums.

In my opinion, these bloggers - having started out with something they were passionate about, then having added other bloggers to their site - are doing the next step in magazines. Take the basics of a magazine - a specific topic, provide great content by great writers and toss in the convergence factor.

Fehrehbacher noted that what makes blogs interesting, as opposed to traditional journalism, is that they tend to take a stand, or have a particular position and voice. That's reflected by the fact that the content producers tend to be people in the field the blog is covering. The challenges tend to be the editorial process, fact checking, etc.

I found this an especially good panel because they focused on audience questions to drive the discussion, rather than Powerpoint presentations or taking most of the hour talkign about their blogs. The audience obliged with some great questions about creating content, attracting good bloggers, getting advertisers.

I also liked the fact that there was some mention of the difficulty of work-life balance. These are small business owners after all. Even though they love it, it's hard to turn the switch off - they're always thinking about the blog and growing the business.

In the end, what Friedman enjoys most about the business is being an entrepreneur. Fisher commented that the reason he does it is because he's so passionate about what he's doing.

My dear Chris...a counter

2008-03-11T11:36:00.003-05:00

I don't think they were at all saying that teachers are replacable. Infact, they applauded the audience member who very emotionally asked for the 10k it takes to develop a game to be used instead to increase the salary of 10 thousand teachers by 1k each (though that hardly rewards them what they're worth). The education system is not failing because teachers are underpaid. The panel was looking at why it is that learning is no longer engaging and motivating students and developers are arguing that perhaps videogames are the solution. The panel discussed at length the importance of teachers as facilitators in this new game-learning environment. They were more concerned about issues such as learning assessment and the importance of integrating the goals of curriculum into interface design.

The strongest point I think they had was adressing the differing levels of the various students in the classroom and the strength of videogames to detect skill level and increasingly challenging the student from their personal level upward. Another strength the panel mentioned is the ability to relearn a concept that was at first try, difficult to grasp. While classroom learning moves on at this point, videogames allow students to repeat skill sets they might need a bit more practice on.

I agree that videogames should not replace the current system completely. But I do thing it should be a substantial component in education, to engage students and make them comfy with technology.

More to come on this. Interesting stuff.

Mark Cuban VS Michael Eisner... FINISH HIM!

2008-03-11T11:34:00.003-05:00

This may have been the most interesting panel I have attended so far.

Very genius to pair the old media mogul visionary Eisner with the young Net savvy cynic Cuban.

The pair’s dynamic was very entertaining.

The interview began with Cuban making some jabs at the Zuckerberg/Lacy interview.

He garnered an audience chuckle.

Cuban asked Eisner about his new enterprises and three person empire Vuguru.

Eisner began to elaborate in grand visionary fashion about using broadband as a new distribution stream and how it won’t eliminate old technology.

The subject of financing for his new Web entertainment came up frequently, and at one point he solicited Cuban for financing. Cuban said they would talk. Product placement was a big thing. Chrysler. Verizon. And some type of fruit drink. I missed the brand. Sorry.

Eisners comments on funding:

“When it first started we actually got paid for our content, now they want to own all the content.”

“Yes we pay for content. No we don’t pay for content. Maybe we’ll pay for content.”- Distributors.

“There is no unique business model.”

Eisner touted user generated material as the new Hollywood (my words, not his). He said he is looking for “people with cameras trying to do something intelligent.”

Then something about “99% of it is awful and 1% is amazing.”

“My theory is to find the people who are doing interesting things on their own”

Eisner projected that in five years Web content shows will be directly broadcast over broadband to the Television.

“In five years content on the Internet will be as important as content on satellite and television.”

He elaborated that it will be primary content. Just distributed differently. Made for big screen and small screen.

Mainly, it will be distributed through a broadband format.

Cuban is anti-broadband content and challenged Eisner’s Web content future with some technical questions and points.

Mainly, that people spend more on big TVs than computers, the average entertainment user does not know how to view their broadband content on their TV, and there is no universal technology for doing so yet.

As Cuban gets down to the nuts and bolts of broadband content and the hurdles, Eisner replies “That’s why I am into content cause I don’t understand any of that.”

Eisner definitely showed his visionary qualities and possibly his visionary blindness to reality, where Cuban can’t get over the reality. The two make for a very interesting conversation.

As Cuban, or someone from the audience, I cannot recall now, brought up Chris Anderson’s Free Market idea Eisner, like the media mogul he is, vehemently denied it with comments such as “I just don’t buy it”, “You should move to Russia”, and “This is not a socialist system.”

Overall, this would have made for a very interesting keynote and the lucky hundred or so of us in the too small room all left very satisfied with our 11am choice.

Video Games VS Teachers... Finish Them!

2008-03-11T11:18:00.003-05:00

“Let's Get Serious: Should Video Games Replace College?”

Hmm… Sorry Link and Dee, I think I disagree.

A more apt title for this panel should have been

“Let’s Get Serious: Should We Be Investing More Resources into Video Games Than Teachers?”

On the video games for education panel Aliza Gold, Coordinator of the Digital Media Collaboratory (DMC) in the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin stated “we wouldn’t really be talking about it if school was doing well.”

On the side of teachers we have one of the few critically thinking audience members asking “Is it worth investing the money into to educational video games when teachers are being underpaid across the board?”

On damage control for the panel we have Michael Anderson who leads the Course Technology team for the UT System TeleCampus stating (summarized) “Part of the educational game’s purpose is to go globally and it would be optimal if less were spent on bombing and more on education.”

So… albeit an exciting new use of a young medium, I think we have more pressing problems in the educational system than adapting video games for learning.

Although some say video games could be part of the solution to the educational system, I see it as more as a creative addition that could be investigated once the more pressing issues have been addressed.

Tuesday panel: Should video games replace college?

2008-03-11T10:36:00.003-05:00

Hello All! I'm sitting here in my first panel which explores the question: "Should videogames replace college?"

It's super duper interesting and its a really great mix of panelists, which include game designers, administrators and even a young high school student.

How To Greenify Your Digital Life

2008-03-11T10:14:00.004-05:00

Now that I've finally loaded the Mac, all the awesome facts we were just reading are gone. A summation:

With all the corporate computers running through the night, you can just imagine how much energy is wasted. We can all do our part. For example, look at this slide on how much we waste physical materials that can easily be recycled:

We usually focus on saving money by turning off lights and conserving water and resources, but why don't we think about ways use computers/technology more efficiently? Here's what several companies are focusing on going Green with:

MOBILITY: Visit websites like iHitchhiking.com, itrago.com, and zipcar,com which basically allow you to connect with others to carpool and use car-sharing services. Couple this with Smart Charging, and you're completely ready to Go Green.

HOMES: Devices like MyTemp and LagoTek provide services to selectively save energy and view energy use in your homes (via Smart Metering, Consumer Powerline). You can control energy use yourself, tweak it, or have a computer control it for you.

GADGETS: Green companies like Remix Modular Design allow you to recycle the base materials in products like cell phones so you don't have to throw away as many materials when you get a new one. One alternative energy company called M2epower makes a microgenerater which captures your movement and actually converts this into kinetic energy. A device called High Mini attaches to bikes and stores and captures wind energy for later use!

MATERIALS: Some ways companies are converting materials into energy: Ferro Solutions takes waste CO2 and turns it into plastic. The Space-age looking car made by Intera puts solar cells on the roof that power the AC. There's also a company called Voltaic that makes backbacks with solar panels which charge batteries, cell phones, and lap tops (cost about $200 right now).

HIDDEN CITIES: It's kind of like a recreation of the Matrix or something - creating atmospheric data into visualizations. Nokia EcoSensor sees how people interact within cities by giving users a SimCity-like interface on their cell phones that provide real-time access to emissions, pollutants, pollen counts, vapor levels, etc. Google Earth and Google Maps is used to plot and visualize hazardous areas or avoid potential destructive paths. Google is actually making great progress in actively seeking green ideas and organizations to use in tandem with their product.

Now for some specific Green Gadgets:

An energy-saving adaptor (didn't get the name) that measures the amount of energy your device is using. Basically, it's an Apple-looking power strip that plugs into the wall and tells you when the devices are charged. She also talked about an electronic device called Wattson by DIY Kyoto measures home energy use in unit of currency or wattage.

A pull-cord generator made by Potenco gives about 20 minutes of talk time on a mobile phone or 1 hour of ultrabright LED light just by pulling a cord for 1 minute.

One company is creating wind-up cell phones called Bamboo Phones. The material is actually made from bamboo (go figure). But seriously, bamboo! It uses an internal manual crank to generate power - they don't generate a lot of power right now, but we can see a lot of potential here.

This one was probably my favorite - a hybrid solar lighting system which uses solar collectors that stretch from your rooftop into your building via fiber optic cables. It provides mood-boosting daylight wired into any room in your house.

Look for more Green Gadgets here

Greenwashing: The act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The Six Sins of Greenwashing can be found at http://www.terrachoice.com

Non-Profs on the Web

2008-03-11T00:42:00.008-05:00

[Adapt or Die: Volunteerism in Web 2.0. Maybe the best panel so far.]

Well, it's late but I can digest a bit of the two panels from earlier today.

The big news seems to be that non-prof heavies--like the American Cancer Society, March of Dimes, and National Geographic--have realized the value in user generated content and social networks to bring people together so they can donate time and money to a cause. The panelists talked a fair amount about creating narratives for communities. ACS and MoD both had video sites where people could tell their own stories and share those stories with others.

[I was encouraged by the long line of Q&A people]

While a great sign for the non-profs, it also shows the main challenge to youtube: once content sharing technology leaks to other hosts, people may flee for like-minded communities. Imagine sites that specialize in certain genres or content level. That's what lies underneath these movements, a growth toward specialized content. Hopefully people are wise enough to realize the content itself can define the community and they don't resort to old gate-keeping mechanisms to 'protect' their community.

[Clouds Over Austin]

Frankly, the second panel disappointed me a bit. Beth kinda dominated the show because the other panelist seemed intent to get out of her way.

However, the N2 contest looks cool. Check it out if you have a great idea for a new web-based non-prof idea.

Overall, this panel focused more on the top down model of driving non-profs, which shocked me given how user-focused the old school non-profs had been. It was much more about celebrity and design to motivate people rather than shaping communities for lasting effect. Given the first panel's focus on their communities, I'll chalk one up for the new visionaries in the old school non-profs over the second panel's celeb du jour. Not that the celeb doesn't do awesome work for the people--but the people can do more for the people with the right tools and community.

[Panel 2: Pimp My Non-profit. I think the non-prof I work for would have flipped out over the theme. Bit questionable in choice given the activist audience--maybe if the mod hadn't jokingly (and uncomfortably) referred to the panel as 'my bitches.']

Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook Developers' Garage

2008-03-10T21:45:00.003-05:00

In a previous post, I discussed the poor quality of the interviewer during the Mark Zuckerberg keynote. Now, I'll take a moment to discuss his comments during the interview and the subsequent Developer Garage on Monday.

First of all, I am extremely impressed with Zuckerberg's intelligence and thoughtfulness. He seems like a very insightful young man, with an amazing amount of passion for what he is doing. Not crazy, obnoxious, sales person-type hyper-enthusiasm, but a strong belief in that what he is doing is important as much as it is gainful. He was uncomfortable with questions about his youth (23 years old) and his wealth (some say $15 billion), saying that they are not that focused on those sort of things. He clearly articulates Facebook's mission as to "help people connect and communicate more efficiently." He is careful to give a nod to the audience by saying in both the keynote and the subsequent session that it is "built by you guys," the developers of Facebook's apps and those creating content.

Lots of questions about privacy and being able to manage friends. He mentioned the phrases "granular privacy controls" and friends lists on several occasions. The biggest mistake they made with Beacon, the system that broadcasts your activities throughout the site and outside, was that they did not give users as complete control over their info as they should have.

He didn't think that Facebook was going to be the "iTunes killer" with a music application, as had recently been reported in the press. He again pointed to the music apps on the site, but admits that they hadn't really touched on it. I sensed that he was being a bit vague on purpose.

As far as being CEO, he seems to feel that the high expectations of him are tough, but he balances that with the excitement he has for building a business and attracting talented people. I liked when he said "How many times in your life do you get a chance to do something like this? Zero or one." As CEO, he feels he can still be involved with product, although they recently hired someone to build a product organization.

When the question was asked about how Google felt that Facebook was "trapping information," Zuckerberg said "Those guys are nice," giving a sense that he wasn't too concerned about those implications.

So, even though the interviewer was quite possibly the worst I have seen, I was able to get a better sense of the person behind the phenomenon. Articulate and brilliant, with passion for a pet project that has changed the world...I'm impressed.

Graciously, Zuckerberg agreed to field more questions from SXSW attendees the next day at the Facebook Developer Garage at Pangaea. The video above shows him tactfully handling the question about what actually happened at the interview. Then, he quickly switched gears and addressed questions for about 30 minutes, dealing again with privacy issues and company direction.

And, later, our little group saw him at Ironworks. He was nice enough to briefly pose for a photo with one of my students. We have been talking about Facebook and Zuckerberg for a few weeks, so this was a pretty valuable opportunity.

Mark Zuckerberg Likes BBQ

2008-03-10T21:20:00.006-05:00

After a long day at SXSW the group and I decided to end the day in true Texas fashion with some Que and beer at Iron Works BBQ. It seems Mark Zuckerberg had the same thing in mind, proof that great minds really do think alike. After settling his tab he humbly walked passed our table when Jac called out to thank him for his second appearance at Pangae earlier that day. I quickly seized the opportunity to ask him for a pic. He timidly agreed while Cindy nervously fumbled with the camera and snapped our photo. Truly a great way to end a long day of interactive jubilee. Thanks Mark, this ones going on my Facebook!

Textbooks of the Future

2008-03-10T21:06:00.005-05:00

The main emphasis of this panel was to discuss the future of textbooks, and how online and digital technologies can resolve many of the problems that students and schools face in providing this information. The panelists were Melissa Hagemann from the Open Society Institute, Richard Baraniuk of Rice University, Samuel Klein from the One Laptop per Child program that was started by Nicholas Negroponte, and Erik Moeller of the Wikimedia Foundation. When you consider that in some cases the cost of textbooks exceeds the cost of tuition or that in some schools students are forced to share textbooks, you know something is out of whack. Not to mention the difficulty in providing current and updated information in this dynamically changing environment. The panelist discussed the ways that publishing needs to embrace the changes that are currently happening in the music industry regarding digital distribution. Publishers know they have to change, but that change is very slow. Publishers need to channel their expertise and specialization into this area. Klein likened it to the fact that developers can download Linux for free, but many clients choose to pay $99 for Red Hat to get the service and support. That is the suggested model for publishers.

Integration with tools was another important concept. Using the proper technologies, like XML to create "lego block" styles of development and apply a level of customization are trends for the future. Print on demand of books was also discussed.

Another thing that I thought was particularly interesting was the brief discussion on the direction of open access journals. I saw a John Willinsky in October at the Association of Internet Researchers discuss this topic, and I think it is the appropriate direction for the most efficient dissemination of knowledge.

Baraniuk provided a list of considerations:

Roles - should be mixed, not rigid
Blurring of lines between teacher and student
Context - personalization and customization of learning.

We 'Met' Zuckerberg

2008-03-10T20:22:00.004-05:00

Okay, I plan a big post on the volunteer panels, which had some excellent bits and gave me multiple leads on a Texas Monthly article I've been kicking around since September. Been held up by lack of a Texas focus, but that largely changed today.

Anyway, about Mark. We had dinner at Iron Works after the Monday sessions and Zuckerberg's entourage was in the next room. Jac and Philip did a great double team on The Zuck as he left. I'm sure those pictures will follow.

Here's one of the table til then.

Let the Lacy Coverage Begin...

2008-03-10T19:32:00.004-05:00

Published this morning on AdCritic.com. A pretty accurate account of the interview with some specific reactions of industry leaders, including the director of SXSW - Hugh Forrest.

http://creativity-online.com/?action=news:article&newsId=125596

Feeding Your Startup

2008-03-10T18:10:00.005-05:00

Thinking about a startup? It crosses my mind quite often. The panel on feeding your startup was very informative. It delved into the logistics of finding the money and the crew to take a startup to the next level.

Chere Heintzmann, chief marketing officer for Walt Disney and venture capitalist, said teams that are passionate and like each other are most likely to succeed.

Blair Garrou, a venture capitalist, said it is inappropriate for startups to seek venture capitalist money in the early stages of business. Garrou said getting investors involved too early would shift the focus of the company.

"When the capital comes in, the ears come in," Garrou said. "You end up spending too much time on board meetings that have nothing to do with users or developing your product."

Eric Smith, Unwired nation, said you must have a team that inspires you.

"Find people who motivate you and compliment your skill sets," Smith said. "The first year of your startup is the hardest. If you have a good team it will make everything easier."

Global Mood Ring

2008-03-10T17:20:00.002-05:00

Three really smart guys trying to launch a social network based on smiley faces and HOWDIES! Two guys are from Carnegie-Mellon. A lot of this didn't really seem to hit a note and I don't think it was just me. The panel did not seem to be to prepared to deliver their message. They did mention that their project was in the experimental stage and they were still looking for ideas.

How ya doing?

They kept referencing FaceBook but the concept didn't appear to be as well thought out, even with FaceBook as an operating model. And keep in mind, I don't know anything about this stuff. A social network based on moods?

One reason to join their network is you could tag every particular subjects with a specified smiley face depicting your mood. They state that FaceBook or Twitter takes to much time but in their network you are supposed to rate subjects with smiley faces and determine moods on different issues and events. Or if you have a bad day or need a hug you can go online to let people know your having a bad day or in need of a hug. You rate things based on the Mood Index. My mood is poor and dropping at this point.

This is stupid.

Twittering SXSWi

2008-03-10T17:05:00.004-05:00

Digital Natives is reporting on the Twittering and Digging in Action at SXSWi.

For those who aren't familiar with Twitter, check out this explanation. And feel free to "follow" me (faziarizvi) if you add Twitter.

Adapting to Pimping

2008-03-10T16:54:00.002-05:00

I'm in the midst of two talks about volunteerism in the new media age. Posts and pics to come, but I'm off to the second half right now.

For those in the Visual Media seminar last year, I did have a chance to talk with the National Geographic webmaster about the PhotoVoice project. While unfamilar with the project, he wanted to contact Dr Wang and Dr. Burriss.

So fragments still need a little offline push now and then.

Also got invited to this group to help push coders to volunteer at smaller non-profs.

Like mine!

Abc's of DVDs

2008-03-10T16:42:00.002-05:00

This was an interesting panel regarding distribution of DVDs, primarily from the independent filmmakers perspective. One mega-distributor was on hand and took a few shots from the small guys. Gotta put it to the man whenever you can. The talk was mostly centered around the independent and documentary filmmakers getting their material released to an audience. In fact that was one point that was brought during the panel, and that is, almost every film has an audience or community that can make it profitable for distributors and filmmakers.

When DVDs first came on the market, small distributors where able to take unknown titles with unknown talent and make a profit selling in the dump bins at Wal-Mart. That's no longer the case with so many titles that have since flooded the market. Consumers are no longer willing to buy a discount DVD without a recognizable title or a star name.

Distributors can help independent filmmakers find a market for their films. Smaller distributors can get specialty films into venues like schools or museums to sell stock. Distributors know the market and can better steer the specialty films in the right direction. The panel did stress it was important that DVD distribution not be the only avenue to create a revenue stream. Online distribution is important to supplement earnings.

Cooper's post also stated that all panelists agreed that DVDs were not going anywhere anytime soon. There would probably be a collaboration of a hard copy DVD with multiple formats and online release of a product. Panelists seem to believe that consumers like the hard copy of a DVD with accompanying liner notes and supplemental information.

And the winner is...

2008-03-10T16:34:00.005-05:00

Cindy and the SXSW team were awesome enough to put Sunday, Jon, and myself on the guest list last night for the Web Awards (or "Webbies" as Sunday says is the industry term). Eugene Mirman hosted the event and was pretty hilarious. Not quite as funny though as the Ninja that accepted awards for those not in attendance. On that note - it was a shame that the winner of the Student category was not there to accept - what an honor to even be nominated as a student for SXSW, but to not show up?!?

And the winners are...(by category)

Activism: World Without Oil (www.worldwithoutoil.org)

Amusement: Elf Yourself (www.elfyourself.com)

Art: Viscosity (www.windowseat.ca/viscosity)

Blog: Passive-Aggressive Notes (www.passiveaggressivenotes.com)

Business: Wikinvest (www.wikinvest.com)

CSS: Ficlets (www.ficlets.com)

Classic: Wired (www.wired.com) WOO HOO!!

Community: Flock (www.flock.com)

Educational Resource: The Story of Stuff (www.storyofstuff.com)

Experimental: MetaNotes (www.metanotes.com)

Film/TV: Animoto Productions (www.animoto.com)

Games: Launchball (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball

Mobile: Mosio (www.mosio.com)

Motion Graphics: HL2 (www.hl2.com)

Music: Minuit (www.minuit.co.nz)

Personal Portfolio: JLern Design (www.jlern.com)

Student: Paper Critters (www.papercritters.com)

Technical Achievement: Twiddla! (www.twiddla.com)

THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE: Kongregate (www.kongregate.com)

BEST OF SHOW: Launchball (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/launchpad/launchball

Fun times and very cool! Thanks Cindy!!!

The Web Agency: There Will Be Blood

2008-03-10T16:29:00.002-05:00

Chris Bernard User Experience Evangelist, Silverlight/Microsoft Corp

Kevin Flatt Exe Creative Dir, Tribal DDB

Garrick Schmitt VP, User Experience, Avenue A | Razorfish

Brooke Nanberg Exec Creative Dir, ip pixel

Peter Eckert Chief Creative Officer, Projekt202

The panel was sponsored by Microsoft. Due to seating, it was difficult to hear a lot of the discussion, but I included as much information as i could.
Bernard-The economy is changing. Are we in trouble? Convergence is creating a disruption. Whose blood will be spilled and how much blood will be spilled?

We are in trouble, but it depends on who your company is and how well you are prepared for the future.

There is cross-pollination. Old agencies are embracing digital and digital agencies are doing some old media.

What do people new to be good at to be competitive? Have a mastery over data and how the consumer operates over different touch points. How do you adapt to what people are saying about you online.

When the moderator asked the audience how many people are hiring right now, and probably 70% of the room raised their hands. The concept of platforms is very important too. There is a bit of a disconnect. Marketers tend to like to optimize channels.

The skill set for an agency is very broad. Can the industry keep up with demand?

Feeding Your Startup

2008-03-10T15:56:00.001-05:00

Keynote - Frank Warren

2008-03-10T15:48:00.002-05:00

Warren says that secrets have a wisdom to them. After three years, he's collected more than 200,000 postcards mailed to him, each with a different secret. Postcards are listed anonymously - whether cruel, sad, embarrassing, humorous, etc., and really say something human, usually in one or two lines of text and often accompanied by photos or artwork.

Many people filled out cards minutes before the speech began. Warren announced a handful of those, including one that admitted the person who wrote it was there to steal ideas from startups.

Another said, "Work paid for me to come here but I'm actually looking for another job."

Warren's site at www.postsecret.com contains many of the cards, all provocative. He says there are two themes to his work: one is the idea that secrets keep us instead of the other way around by undermining our relationships and the way we see the world. The other is that we all have the potential to change our lives by admitting a secret that has hindered us in some way.

What started as an art exhibit with 80-90 postcards became a phenomenon worldwide when picked up in a viral environment. A music video followed and then a series of best-selling books. The idea feels genuine even though it might not always be so and is rather artistic and innovative.

Warren has supported suicide prevention groups and sees his collection as an extension of that. The process of people admitting to things anonymously has been a form of therapy for many.

Audience members even came up to the microphone and told secrets about themselves. One of those was a marriage proposal. Another was a girl who cried and said her sister was terminally ill. Warren seemed to really have a good time and said he'd love to come back. He was an extremely engaging keynote speaker and I'm sure he more than made up for the debacle at yesterday's address.

True Stories from Social Media Sites

2008-03-10T15:29:00.003-05:00

Philip and I went to see Guy Kawasaki (sounds like a motorcycle) moderate a panel with seven members about their experiences - good, bad, profitable, embarrassing, etc. Some of the ethics in journalism came up.

One of the better stories was from Kathryn Finney, the owner and creator of www.thebudgetfashionista.com, who received pictures from Sara Jessica Parker's media people to promote a new line of clothing she was endorsing and posted them on their site.

When Parker was given a spot on Oprah, the media folks demanded that budget fashionista take down the pics, as they had promised Oprah an exclusive. The blog and pics surrounding the new fashion line actually went relatively unnoticed until the site refused to take down the photos and it became news. The site was threatened with legal action and budget fashionista used their blogs to ask their fans what they should do.

One fan even said they would start a legal fund to defend the challenge made by Parker's people and the traffic on the site increased six times its normal amount, capturing numerous new users. Parker's people dropped the threat and the site came out of the ordeal much richer from the exposure.

"The lesson is to engage your community and throw it back to them for feedback," said Finney.

ABC's of DVDs

2008-03-10T15:22:00.002-05:00

Brent Hoff Exec Producer, Wholphin DVD

Patrick Kwiatkowski Founder, Microcinema International

Liz Ogilvie Head of Programming, Docurama Films

Scott Shooman VP of Acquisitions and Productions, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group

The last format war was won by VHS, and created home video. Now DVDs account for 60% of profit for major studios.

DVD has become more and more relevant. You don't make a profit on a theatrical release because you are spending so much on producing and distributing the film to theaters. Theatrical campaign is now the ad blitz for your DVD release.

DVD is the best way to get independent films exposure. Its a viable business. 2007 domestic DVD sales were $16 billion which was a 3% drop from 2006. The big studios are noticing this trend and they can feel the 3% loss.

Hoff and Ogilvie agreed that the internet is not hurting business at their levels, which is more geared to independent films and documentaries, it is actually beneficial for their businesses.

Shooman-our business (Sony) is feeling competition from the web. Shelf space is getting harder to hold onto. There are a lot of problems in the DVD market. Distribution is changing as well.

When DVD first started, they could throw anything out there. They could use the same marketing team they use for major releases to create a product that would be purchased. They could be sold in the dump bin at Wal-Mart. Now, those bins are filled with theatrical releases.

Shooman spoke about BlueRay-its better than going to see a film. DP's need to know how to shoot for BlueRay. Its a format that requires higher precision in production. Sony's focus is on Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, etc.

Hoff-BlueRay is amazing.

Kwiatkowski-BlueRay is extremely expensive. Sony charges a $2,000 licensing fee and there is a charge per disc. DVD shouldn't be your only focus; there are a lot of options. iTunes is already behind the curve.

Ogilvie-retail space for films is getting smaller.

Kwiatkowski-The future of DVD is exciting. They are not going to go away.

Shooman-DVD is not going away.

Hoff-People want the physical object, especially in terms of ancillary footage, etc.

Ogilvie-DVD is going to be here for a while.

Browser Wars

2008-03-10T14:00:00.002-05:00

It was difficult to even find a corner to squeeze into because there was standing-room only for the panel. Panelists came from Firefox, Microsoft, and Opera. Apple was a no-show. One of the panelists actually invented javascript.

Creating a great user experience is the key to the browser wars.

Opera has nothing that's proprietary. IE has Silverlight and Firefox has Firefox extensions.

Opera-no iphone browser yet. Web standards that are open are needed to open up development on mobile and other devices.

Silverlight-C Sharp-cross-platform. Microsoft doesn't want Javascript to expand, they want C sharp to take off.

Javascript 2.0 is on the way.

Opera puts browsers on all kinds of phones. Opera does get distribution deals, and its being shipped on products. The mobile space should be part of the browsing experience. Opera won't be releasing a browser for the iphone. Windows mobiles is actually a more open platform.

The move is towards a complete web and not a mobile web and a regular web. In China and India people can't really afford the desktop web experience; they have to have something cheap and mobile. Of course, their are huge amounts of potential growth in these markets

Firefox is going to mobile devices.

HTML 5 is the next generation.

There was a lot of good natured teasing among the different browser representatives which was good to see. The audience roared with laughter several times when the panelists picked on one another pointing out flaws in each browser.

Pimp My Film's Website

2008-03-10T13:41:00.002-05:00

Tim Nolan was speaking at the Pimp My Film's Website panel. His company, First Born Multimedia, did simply that, pimped out websites for independent filmmakers. He referred to it as a way for them to extend their Web tentacles out into areas of social networking.

The film Marconi Bros. is debuting here at SXSW. The premise of the film is two carpet laying brothers that decide to go into business as wedding videographers. Tim Nolan found the film's website a month ago and decided to use it as a demonstration of what his company can do in order to enhance a film's website. As independent filmmakers, Tim Nolan realized the budgets were not normally in place to develop these sites in the early phases of production, but filmmakers needed to be aware of the importance of a Web presence when the time came.

As an independent filmmaker it is important to not put off creating a Web presence for your your film. Embrace the Web as a way to promote your film with social networks and use the Web to your advantage. During the fist couple of stages of production a simple template can be utilized to gain Web presence. But once a film gets closer to distribution it would be recommended to hire a Web designer to maximize a Web presence.

Nolan suggests that during filming extra content can be shot specifically for Web content. Unless it is shot specifically for Web use, it can't just be "webified" for Web use. Even production stills can be utilized for use on the film's website.

A good Web presence should include wide screen trailers, bios for performers and producers, press ares and links for social networking sites with embedded tag information for bloggers. The websites should also have a branded feel to it as well. Sell the film as a brand.

YouTube, he stated was a great repository to store your content. it saves money and supplying the space on your own. Besides it also offers an additional layer of distribution for your material.

The panel was geared specifically towards building a film's Web presence, not towards film distribution. The line filmmakers walk is if they try and distribute independently, they risk not having the film picked up by larger distributers as a conflict of interest.

As far as the social networking aspect of creating a Web presence goes for independent filmmakers Tim Nolan puts it like this: It's easier to reach 100 people by using 10 people then talking to each person individually.

Beyond the Blogosphere

2008-03-10T13:05:00.003-05:00

This panel dealt with dealt with creating or becoming Internet stars. With the onslaught of consumer/user generated content the panel proclaimed content as "king."

If the content is good people will find it and it will rise to the top. They also discussed the importance of "branding" the content you produce. Serve your online audience. Create content that reaches a specific target audience, once this is done the possibility exists that it will fit a niche product. If so, contact the company producing the product, take the product to the product. It is important to know what you want to develop in terms of video content, this will help in refining your audience and creates the brand.

The importance of social networks is key in finding the audience you are looking for. If your content deals with "soccer moms" seek those social networks out and target the subscribers to build your audience. However, it was stressed to avoid the temptation of spamming techniques. Building the social networks allows you to create the interactivity with your audience.

It was also pointed out that online stars make not see success as getting a television deal. In their eyes the future is not in television, but Internet and Web content. In their mind success was not measured on whether or not one broke through to television. The panel agreed that the possibility to earn money via Internet video blogging was just around the corner. The infrastructure for Internet video is on the way and whoever figures it out first will C-I-L-L. Sorry, I couldn't resist that Saturday Night Live reference.

A CNN representative was on-hand to talk about their iReport.com site for user generated content. It offers users the chance to host their own content and brand it as their own. It creates an on-demand world. The legal aspects were also discussed. On-line content does not always relate to being picked up by network television. They encouraged users not to use copyrighted material or cut and paste video material that was not theirs.

The bottom line of the discussion was content. Most people that visit a particular video blog site will probably not visit any other site. They are there for the content you are offering them, serve them with the brand you have created.

If your audience is everyone, then your audience is no one. You have to find what you want to be. Find your brand.

Friend Me! Vote for Me! Donate Now! (Sunday, March 9)

2008-03-10T11:33:00.008-05:00

Panelists: (L-R) Adam Conner, Facebook; Julie Barko Germany, Director, Graduate School of Political Management, George Wash. Univ. (Moderator); Colin Delany, epolitics.com; Tanya Tarr, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and Patrick Ruffini, Ruffni Strategies.

So this one was a no-brainer, even if you've just met me for a few minutes, you know I was going to be at this panel and my gosh, it was worth every minute of it.

Where do I start? The moderator was one of the best I have seen throughout the conference, she really seemed to have done her homework on the panelists and she was very aware of their areas of expertise and thus knew where to direct her questions. She conducted it in a Gwen Ifil style (Washington Week on PBS Fridays at 7pm - Check your local listings)

Germany began the panel by giving a "very brief" summary of how Politics has evolved on the Internet - In 2000, John McCain was the first to use the Internet to raise money. in 2004, Howard Dean reinforced and redefined fund-raising over the Internet and also used it to create communities (Meet-up groups). In 2004, George W. Bush also used the Internet to Get-Out-the-Vote. In 2006, the Macaca moment happened on Youtube (George Allen of VA lost) and by 2007, every candidate running for President now have profiles on both MySpace and Youtube.

Delany - On Ron Paul and Obama

The classic political world is very top-down approach. You want to stay on top and make sure no mistakes are made. In tech-world, the re is a bias for this kind of approach. There is more peer-peer conversation going on.

Ron Paul filled a void for people that needed to be filled. His main campaign has not really done a lot. rather, it has been his followers who have taken up the mantle to promote Ron Paul via Youtube, Meet-ups, and online fund-raising drives.

The Obama campaign has gotten some criticism from purists for being top-down. However, it is fascinating how Obama mixes he models - Fundraising, volunteers, meet-ups, individual pages, etc. But the Internet also brings up the darker side of peer to peer sometimes. Early on , the Obam campaign had to confront a viral email message that was being circulated that suggested Obama was a secret sleeper muslin who will be a Manchurian candidate. The first two people he hired for Opposition Research were tasked with neutralizing this false message.

Ron Paul showed the power of individuals taking it upon a task on their own, while Obama showed the savvy of marrying intensity of support under central guidance.

Today, the new political activism is creating content online, citizen content. We have seen this with the Obama girl, Black Eyed Peas Video, the Parody of the Blackeyed Peas Video on McCain, etc. The cycle of creativity is very short.

Patrick Ruffini

Talking about top down campaigns, Clinton would be the best example and she has had mixed results. Overall, it has worked for her. The vast majority of activity is going to the candidate’s website and registering their email. Then you can email them and fund-raise from the list. Clinton has done well with her email list.

Adam Conner

Looking at 2008, it is more an evolution than it is a revolution. In 2004, Howard Dean was the revolution, today , there is a mass adoption that is going on.

At Facebook, we have the idea of the Social graph - if you can map everyone’s social graph, then you can make the flow of information much better. Campaigns have seen the benefit of this and are takng advantage of it.

We also know that peer-to-peer communication is more influential, Facebook harnesses this. you should integrate Facebook into your campaign, the Obama campaign has done well. By running one Facebook ad, you can reach more people and it is cheaper than 3 days worth of TV ads.

---------------

Moderator Question: How many people here have “friended” a candidate online? There were a significant number of people who had done so and some ho had also donated money and eventually voted for the candidate.

----------------

Tanya Tarr

Presentation: How Men and Women Engage Online (How Web 2.0 r u?)

- Women use emotion to gauge language online
-More men get friends to donate online
-More men use online to get people to volunteer
-Men claim to have more friends online

Points to Note
- Men are likely to lie about their list
- Small is beautiful, a smaller list is more passionate and involved

The goal then is to drive people to your list, political campaigns can use this list to bypass the traditional media.

------------------

Ruffini - The Blog, “A Thousand true Fans,” talks about the long tail effect in politics. The first few people who flock to your page are going to be your die-hard fans (super-activists/core supporters..) The challenge is how you persuade people when they start to number in the thousands

Delany - Sometimes, we do run the error of focusing too much on presidential campaigns. They are also other campaigns going on even at the city level that may not have the resources of huge campaigns but that can equally use the Internet to succeed.

Tarr - Women are lurkers , in the sense that they are more willing to give you their opinions

Delany - If you have a product that no one is willing to buy, you are doomed. Ron Paul raised 30 million but was never able to get beyond is 5-8% of core supporters.

Germany - Elected officials in Washington have admitted themselves, that they do not actually have a good understanding of the Internet and technology.

Question: How do you measure failure?
Delany: If you win or Lose!

The Long Tail of Gadgets

2008-03-10T11:24:00.019-05:00

Peter Semmelhack-Founder/CEO, Bug Labs.
Father refuses to use an ATM.
Home Depot as a platform, beginning of diy model.
Has own version of Long Tail, the Pizza Tail.
Idea began after 9/11 when he wanted a gps device in NYC.
Difficult to bring a gadget to market feasibly.
Gadgets are a hit based business, you have to sell millions if you want to price it at a reasonable price point.
Wal-Mart and Best Buy are basically dictating prices.
Toshiba lost HD-DVD wars. Stock actually went up upon that announcement.
Sony PS3 troubles.
Nokia pretty successful company. 30% of 07 revenue came from products releases in Q4. How many companies can actually be this successful?
"I want control."-Semmelhack
Old model-especially when you see how things work in the software space.
Enable users to build what they want. Shouldn't have to go out and buy $15,000 proprietary systems.
Make world of atoms behave like world of bits. Open source and open models are powerful ways to motivate people.
It was difficult to get suppliers to even supply chips because they weren't going to buy huge quantities.
If you want a platform play in hardware you have to have a company. Lego has provided a platform for robotics with Mindstorms. People can focus on what they really care about. Gadgets give us something we want in the form of data. Mindstorms community. Begins to look like the software model. "You can take that model and apply it to other areas."
Being cheese (Long Tail) will be profitable.
Bug Labs puts braille on their devices. 2 millions completely blind people in the U.S. The blind can use a gps device to navigate the environment(GPS trecker knockoff).
The future is connected. Social networks made up of devices. Facebook of gadgets. Going to based on open platforms; both hardware and software. Microsoft would not be successful if they started out today. Everything is moving towards open source. The community is more valuable than the revenue stream. "We want to be radical." Everything on Bugs Labs is open source-EVERYTHING. Friends with Red Hat founder, they made $5 million giving away free software. Bug Labs will resemble the Linux model. "There is nothing stopping someone from knocking us off." They want to become profitable by providing services around the platform. They have a community of developers who will create software for their hardware platform.
There is nothing stopping someone from creating software for Bug hardware that can be ported out to other platforms. "Writing it once and spreading it."
In the existing world, its difficult to start out with an idea and actually get it to market. Its getting cheaper to build electronics. Right now there is only one market in consumer electronics, but Semmelhack thinks that there is another one. The community will solve a lot of the problems in terms of optimizing the product. If someone comes up with better power management software you can download it to improve your device.
The modules are accessible via url. Semmelhack demonstrated this by hooking up the camera and taking a picture of the audience. You can access other people's devices through http.

Semmelhack was an excellent panelist. He talked a lot about the importance of The Long Tail business model and how important the open source community is.

Ouch!

2008-03-10T11:24:00.010-05:00

At the first panel of the day on Monday, during the Q&A portion of the Beyond the Blogosphere panel, audience member takes shot at Sarah Lacy.

I'll expand on the panel later.

jac

User-generated video and Word of mouth

2008-03-10T10:12:00.003-05:00

This one is about how advertisers can leverage word-of-mouth via user-generated video. The solo panelist is Daphne Kwon from ExpoTV. She had some pretty interesting insights about engaging users that I think are as relevant for corporate blogs as they are to video. It really is about giving up control and providing tools to support users. Wow, what a novel idea...let's provide good customer service, so our customers will say nice things about us, engage us in their communities, and express enthusiasm for your products...

New user review, it's personal - how does it effect what is happening on the Web? The social Web makes connections beyond just those you know.

Which is word of mouth?

Friend telling you about a new camera, that is obviously word-of-mouth
Blogger you like is paid to write about a product?
Colleague got a free camera, absolutely loves it.
Online guy writes review about a camera he loves

What makes something word of mouth? from a friend, unbiased, authentic, unpaid, spent your own money on the product... People have different opinions about this.

She went through a few sites to determine if they are considered word of mouth - Yelp, CurrentTV, Facebook Beacon.

This is what advertisers need to know:

You need to be transparent
Know your users -know the line you can't cross
Listen more than talk. Change metrics to reflect engagement as opposed to page views
Grow a pair - need to get much more brave; consumer has messaging, voice, and power. Advertisers have to understand that's what they have to let go of. Invite them into the conversation with disclosure and without bias.

Kathy Sierra Returns

2008-03-10T08:23:00.003-05:00

Kathy Sierra of the blog Creating Passionate Users, returned to SXSW after a tough year. Just after last year's conference, she received some graphic online threats which caused her an understandable amount of distress. She canceled some appearances and stopped blogging. It is terrifying to think that these are the things with which one has to deal online. She returned, however, and continued with her theme of optimism. Her thing is that we should help users, not make them feel stupid. I blogged after her keynote last year that I felt that I was "creating passionate users" in my students who often come to my Web Design classes with a feeling of trepidation. I have been mindful since then to emphasize their experience and make it as positive as possible. I think I have had some success in that.

So, this year, Sierra provided a list of things that you as a Web company or service or software product could do to better engage and enlist users.

Use telepathy - sense what they are feeling
Serendipity-add randomness
The Dog Ears design principle - add some physics to your design (iPhone bounce)
Create joy
Inspire 1st person language - this I found to be most interesting; don't just think of your customer blog as free advertising; they should be talking about themselves and their own experiences
T-shirt 1st development
Add Easter eggs and other surprises
Provide tools for evangelizing
You are a...
Exercise the brain
Give them superpowers quickly - love this one, too; get them doing something cool within 30 minutes
Speed knowledge of acquisition
Make product reflect their feelings
Help with reinvestment of mental resources
Create a culture of support
Do not insiste on "inclusivity"
Practice seductive opacity - add mystery
Atoms are not old skool
Do what this guy does - Gary Vaynerchuk of tv.winelibrary.com

Photos/video to come. Welcome back, Kathy!

Sarah Lacy Speaks About The Debacle

2008-03-10T01:48:00.010-05:00

I have not yet had a chance to prepare my thoughts on the Zuckerberg keynote, but I couldn't resist getting this posted. Sarah Lacy makes so many inaccurate comments here. She incorrectly categorizes SXSW as a "developer conference," when it is attended by a diverse, intelligent, and insightful audience that includes designers, journalists, students, educators, executives, professionals, enthusiasts, and yes, developers. So, her first mistake was not knowing her audience. And, SXSW has had some very high profile speakers in the past including Jimmy Wales, Craig Newmark, Lawrence Lessig, and Will Wright. Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson aren't exactly nobodies. None of these people discussed APIs, and I find the majority of SXSW panels to cover broad strategic insights.

Perhaps Lacy's heard of a Mr. Dan Rather...he was interviewed by female publisher Jane Hamsher last year. And while that interview was slightly off the mark for the SXSW audience, no one blamed the interviewer. Not to mention that SXSW hosts the top musical acts and film celebrities every year, so they have some experience with dealing with those of high profile.

Lacy is in a damage-control mode in this video. When SXSW releases the video of the actual interview, see for yourself. I became irritated with her style from the beginning. She talked about herself too much. She giggled and twirled her hair. She made silly insider comments about their previous interactions. She interrupted him on multiple occasions, just when he was getting into interesting territory. Eventually, you could see she was annoying him, with his short answers of "Sure" and a pause, before giving a more thoughtful response. I was hoping throughout that she would become self-aware at some point and dial it back a notch, but she never did. A quiet backlash was brewing, and the crowd erupted when first an audience member ("ask something interesting") and ultimately Zuckerberg ("you have to ask questions") articulated the mass frustration.

And, in terms of the gender implications of her participation in the industry, it is unprofessional and amateurish behavior like this that makes it harder for women who are trying to do good work and be taken seriously. Yes, there is room for fun and even flirtation, but this was way over the top and inappropriate for the venue.

I have to say, I admire her false sense of confidence. She blames the audience for not getting it, she blames SXSW for being too amateurish to handle a speaker of Zuckerberg's caliber, and she makes us feel sorry for her because "it's the price of being high profile, unfortunately." Geesh...it never occurs to her to admit that she did a bad interview?

Before this, I probably would have considered reading her book, that is yet unreleased. But, having this insight into the author, I doubt I'll pick it up. The irony, however, is that this ineptitude will probably garner her more attention and result in better sales.

If this debacle hinders SXSW's ability to secure high profile speakers in the future, it is Lacy's fault, not that of an audience that was merely excited to hear from someone they respected and revered so highly.

Images from the Trade Show

2008-03-10T00:31:00.016-05:00

Wandered around the SXSW Tradeshow, getting my geek on:

Knowbility is a great organization and I've had a chance to go to their Access U several times now. "Knowbility's mission is to support the independence of children and adults with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology."

Here some folks who regularly use assistive technology were helping web designers and developers with questions about accessibility and how the blind use the web. I also voted for one of their AIR competitors. I recognized one of the people at the booth, and was blown away by the fact that she recognized me. (She's only met me once, at Access U, and surely had to recognize me by my voice, since she's at least legally blind.)

Sunday! he and I bumped into each other at the tradeshow and took pictures of each other. :-)

Opera, one of the best browsers out there, aside from Firefox. I did use the Opera browser for a few years before Mozilla Firefox came along when I was using a Linux-based machine.

This was hilarious. Monstor Mimbots are jump drives (flash drives, stick drives - they're known by many names) in "limited edition" designs. Remember all our discussions in class about personalization being a key part of the definition of new media? While I was looking at one of these I overheard someone saying, "I like the personalization of these."

I couldn't NOT take a picture of the Google booth.

Being a geek, I found this next booth fascinating. Make is one of two magazines aimed at the hacker, computer programmer and developer culture. Most of the folks I know who develop the kinds of technologies we're here at SXSW to talk about, tend to like to build things, but it's beyond just the simple model rocket or simple science kit.

Some folks trying out the kinds of gadgets and things that readers of the magazine make.

Craft is the other magazine. While this magazine has a more female-dominated audience, and Make has a more male-dominated audience, they aren't exclusive of each other. The idea of building things from scratch appeals to both male and female developers who regularly build technology from scratch.

One of the more popular crafts is knitting. It quite possibly appeals because of the binary nature (there's only two stitches, knit and purl) and pattern orientation, so similar to programming.

Other geeks find creative expression in building technology that feels more like it came from the Victorian era.

Finishing up with a shot of the Creative Commons booth.

The Second Life Herald

2008-03-10T00:29:00.013-05:00

I checked out one Book Reading at SXSW: The Second Life Herald

When a virtual journalist for a virtual newspaper reporting on the digital world of an online game lands on the real-world front page of the New York Times, it just might signal the dawn of a new era. Virtual journalist Peter Ludlow was banned from The Sims Online for being a bit too good at his job--for reporting in his virtual tabloid the Alphaville Herald on the cyber-brothels, crimes, and strong-arm tactics that had become rife in the game--and when the Times, the BBC, CNN, and other media outlets covered the story, users all over the Internet called the banning censorship. Seeking a new virtual home, Ludlow moved the Herald to another virtual world--the powerful online environment of Second Life--just as it was about to explode onto the international mediascape and usher in the next iteration of the Internet. In The Second Life Herald, Ludlow and his colleague Mark Wallace take us behind the scenes of the Herald as they report on the emergence of a fascinating universe of virtual spaces that will become the next generation of the World Wide Web: a 3-D environment that provides richer, more expressive interactions than the Web we know today. In 1992, science fiction writer Neal Stephenson imagined the "Metaverse," a virtual space that we would enter via the Internet and in which we would conduct important parts of our daily lives. According to Ludlow and Wallace, that future is coming sooner than we think. They chronicle its chaotic, exhilarating, frightening birth, including the issue that the mainstream media often ignore: conflicts across the client-server divide over who should write the laws governing virtual worlds.

The author was Peter Ludlow, but I caught only part of him speaking. He had with him Mark Wallace, who gave a bit of background into the crazier world of Second Life that we rarely hear of in the mainstream media, but that Ludlow reported on in his virtual tabloid newspaper.

It was a throughly entertaining description of a wacky, but fully virtual world situation. Here's a clip from towards the end, when the he was explaining how corporate America, coming into Second Life, just didn't "get" it. This was around the time SL started getting a lot of attention in traditional media:

He was asked any differences in virtual journalism versus traditional journalism. He said that sometimes he spends a little more time getting to know the person behind the avatar, but otherwise it's much the same, talking to the person and listening, following up. To the question of whether he was being a journalist, or role-playing a journalist in the virtual world, his answer was "both". He was being a journalist and role-playing a tabloid journalist.

Another clip where he makes a good point about the relationships themselves not being virtual:

The book at MIT Press: The Second Life Herald, with endorsements by Julian Dibbell and Henry Jenkins.

Redrum in the Rue Morgue

2008-03-10T00:28:00.007-05:00

As an anthropologist, this panel was, of course, intriguing to me. Expanding beyond your own comfortable perceptions of the world is a difficult thing for most people, and the software and gaming industry are running into the usual (and some unusual) problems as they expand beyond the U.S.:

'Redrum in the Rue Morgue': Collaboration in International Communities

Do Italian citizens of Second Life stand physically closer than Canadians? Are Portuguese more prone to blog than French? Why was a game with ugly 'bad guys" a commercial failure in Korea and a success in the US? As a programmer/computer game designer/web 2.0 guru working with or for international communities and markets, you must have wondered about the cultural models you use and how dangerously close to stereotypes they sometimes feel. If you have read thru this, we assume you belong to the group of those for whom this is a concern. In other words, for you culture does matter. Whether you work with markets to target, video games to market, developing countries to help or academic communities to engage, you must have thought about that thin line between cultural models and stereotypes. Can you design/develop environments and spaces, whether they are virtual or real, that are global without being amorphous? Whether you are interested in designing the web presence for such-and-such company introducing products in international markets or whether you are interested in understanding what makes collaboration thrive or die in international communities, this is the panel where you should be.

The moderator, Ana Boa-Ventura, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, is Portuguese. She talked about trying to find appropriate clip art for a Portuguese site on women's health, breast feeding and smoking. She had a difficult time finding images that would accurately represent a white collar working class Portuguese. Instead, what she found was either a stereotypical and bucolic images of what others thought the Portuguese were like, or images of women who were blond and white. She'd found she had to search for images of Latinas to get something that wouldn't look out of place on her site.

The other panelists gave very brief presentations which, quite honestly, could all be valuable full-length panels on their own:

Aaron Marcus does a lot of work on usability for companies like eBay and AOL. His company spent some time looking at cultural differences in the use of the Federal Expresses user interface and have done some work on creating multi-cultural and multi-racial images for travel sites. He's the editor of User Experience.

His company found important differences in the use metaphors, mental models, navigation, interaction, and appearance for web sites and online applications. He pointed to the work of
Geert Hofstede who's study in the 70's and 80's determined five "culture dimensions". Marcus's company did their own study, and came up with 29 "dimensions of cultures" and a ranking for the most important dimensions.

His conclusion was that Web 2.0 is "reeking" with cultural differences. Marcus wants to develop a database to help web developers know what is important to keep in mind when designing. He sees culture-centered design making progress and thinks it has to.

I have to admit I was surprised that there was no mention of anthropologists or ethnography, and therefore a bit skeptical of these "dimensions of culture". But without knowing more about them or how these studies were done, I can't really judge if they result in effect guidelines for web developers trying to do interactive design for cultures other then their own. My suspicion is that they are of limited help, since class, race, gender, and a whole host of other factors affect cultural experience. It seems to me you'd need to know your audience in a much more granular way (Portuguese working-class women, ages 20-35 who are pregnant) and work from there first, which will always require some time getting to know your target audience's habits and perceptions.

The next panelist was Prentiss Riddle a senior systems analyst at the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. He considered the cultural models harmful and saw problems with national cultural models. he talked a little bit about the granularity idea. He also pointed out a truism in web design - "Don't pattern your IA after the org chart!" and semi-joked about how nationalities are just a kind of org chart. He offered an alternative he called the Sixth Sense Theory, "I see subcultures." (Cute.) He talked about how this was perhaps a little more scary approach for designers to take because sub cultures can be hard to pin down. He also mentioned class divides, and that cultural models are really hard to operationalize. (i.e. Does it really mean that we should use a blog versus a wiki because of the Portuguese national model!?)

He also added that basic access trumps culture - electricity, hardware, bandwidth, literacy, and usability are all issues that have an impact long before cultural perceptions of the design. And then there's individual personality. Adoption of a technology depends on an individual in a certain context (for example, early adopters.) He advised that it's best to follow the usual best practices, i.e. talk to your users, be agile, and be prepared to iterate.

To me, Prentiss made a lot more sense, both as a webmaster and as an anthropologist.

Steve Howard, senior manager of 50x15 Initiative was next. His organization aims to have 50% of the world's population connected to the Internet through affordable Internet access and computing capabilities by 2015. He had some fabulous photos of thier efforts around the world, including an Internet cybercafe tucked inside a shanty town in Nairobi. He pointed out that
emphasis may still need to be placed in web 0.2 rather than 2.0 (Yes! Thank you! Not everyone in the world is an early adopter with high speed connections and the latest technology! Even my parents don't the kind of access needed for some of the highly touted Web 2.0 applications.)

He also mentioned a need to build expertise in these. For example, their organization uses tech savvy youth to train Sao Paulo seniors. he made about about how connectivity must sustainable. he showed a photo of some folks in Uganda, standing in front of their satellite. Unfortunately, it's pointing to ground, probably knocked out of alignment by winds, tree branches, children playing, etc. They were proud to show them the link to the world, even though it was no longer working. Through other photos he showed how they needed reliable structures to house the equipment (a facility in Nepal), and usable equipment. He showed a photo of children in Malawi looking at one of the XO devices, part of the One Laptop Per Child program, as an example of a device and said that it was imporant to remember that it'll take many types of devices to get the world connected.

Afterwards he showed off the XO device, which answered some questions I had about literacy rates as a barrier to using the technology.

A frind of mine and former co-worker, Sean McMains, got one of the XO's in the original "Buy One, Give One" effort. You can check out his thoughts on the XO on his blog.

Lastly we heard from Tim Langdell, a professor at National University and founder of Edge Games. He noted that game designers are really having to look harder and harder at cultural differences to design games that will be successful. Development teams themselves may be in different countries and the gamers are playing together across cultural boundaries.

He stated that video games have a push-pull effect on world cultures (i.e. American English has taken a dominant role over British English). Using World of Warcraft as an example, he pointed out the way developers had setup the choices gamers could make in picking a character. WoW characters are divided into two groups: "Alliance" versus "Horde". The "races" in the Alliance group were Dwarves, Humans, Elves, etc. and all styled to look somewhat attractive. The Horde included groups like Orcs and were styled to be somewhat ugly. In the U.S. gamers pretty much chose to play Alliance or Horde with a 50/50 split, keeping game play balanced and interesting.

Then Blizzard looked to launch the game in Korea. Apparently it bombed, so some research was conducted. (After launching the game. Tsk, tsk.) It turns out that Korean game players didn't like playing ugly looking characters. (There's a much higher affinity for "cuteness" in a lot of Asian culture.) Blizzard had to add "pretty" characters and "ugly" chracters to both divisions in order to get balanced play.

I found this interested, since I'd recently had a lunch discussion about some of these same issues with an archaeologist who also consulted for a game company.

They opened it up to Q&A afterward. Langdell made mention of how the American and Japanese design cultures tend to dominate the world, and neither really considers where it's going to play in the design process. He pointed out that hackers often would break in to replace the language and replace the images with ones more culturally appropriate to them. The reaction from gaming companies was both annoyance and "hey cool". He laughingly suggested that game companies should use hackers to help design. (Honestly, this might be a very good idea. At least, it's very web 2.0 appoach, and very collaborative.)

Marcus pointed out that peripheral stuff will need to be looked at too. While many are concentrating on addressing cultural issues in the technology or applications, we also need to be looking at things like the documentation and help files.

I asked a question about whether any of the gaming industry has considered doing what IBM did, hiring anthropologists to work with their software development teams. Langdell answered, that gaming companies haven't really considered this, and are just stuck in translating games they've already developed. (Play is fundamental to cultural groups. Games really ought to be developed from the ground up, not just relabeled and translated.)

Also mentioned was the reaction of Orkuts when the U.S. based developers went nuts about the heavy foreign use of the product.

I never did quite figure out the reference in the title of this panel.

Catch the podcast here: 'Redrum in the Rue Morgue': Collaboration in International Communities

Behind the Scenes @ SXSW 2008

2008-03-09T19:36:00.012-05:00

Thanks Theresa for helping get these pictures up!

Optimizing Search and Social

2008-03-09T18:53:00.002-05:00

In Google rankings, roughly 80 percent is what people are saying about you and 20% is what you are saying about yourself. (Biggest thing is your title tag)

Good content gets links, don’t let Search Engine Optimizers (SEOs) write your content. SEOs are basically made up of failed journalists. Write it yourself or hire a good writer.

SEO Trends #2 - Link Baiting

• Good Content
• Four main hooks
o Funny hook
o News hook
o Resource hook
o Controversial hook e.g attack an ad company
o Flame hook (not generally a good strategy)

SEO Trends #3 - SEO/PR
• Press releases can be excellent SEO fodder
• How best to do it
o Frequent
o Keyword embedded
o use the Internet wires
o Internet-only mention of press are good

• Online Reputation Management - You need to control your image on Google. SEO30.org is a good place to start.

SEO Trends #4 - Local - Use more local resources.

SEO Trends #5 - Universal
In the future, your text results will be blended. More opportunities to be found. If you have a video, post it. SEOs are not just about ranking, if someone clicks on a video, they are going to be more involved.

More Hype than Real in 2008
• Virtual Worlds - Second Life. If you look at the numbers (when you take out the really active people) it has been able to only recruit about 100,000 people in the U.S. Down the road, something like this will work, but Second Life isn’t working
• Mobile - is not materializing as planned. the only exception is the Apple iPhone, but it is still really painful compared to real interface.

Here’s What is Real in 2008
• More and more videos - People respond to pictures and videos plus broadband is improving
• Social Media Optimization - Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising
• More convergence and cross-channel marketing

Teh Internets

2008-03-09T17:42:00.006-05:00

The LOLWUT (icanhascheezburger.com) panel is giving out cheeseburgers. LOL no wai! Teh Internetz R serious biznes.

For more on the Lolcat phenomenon, check out the entry at Wikipedia.

This was a fantastic (and funny) panel on the contradictions of this successful site.

Data as Art: Musical, Visual Web APIs

2008-03-09T17:19:00.009-05:00

Peter Kirn cdm: Create Digital Media

Joy Mountford VP Design Innovation, joymountford.com

Jon and Theresa here at the Data As Art panel, in an extremely packed room and a British-accented panelist. Her name is Joy Mountford and she's the vice president of Design Innovation. Peter Kirn of Create Digital Media is with her. We are going to write this in real time, just for fun...

Theresa: I like her point that many people search better using visual representations or images. She is showing her development of a web archive of over 250,000 images digitized from 18th century books. It's pretty amazing. Each photo is alphabetized and then in chronological order. Now she is moving to image software that captures live traffic feeds...

Jon: They are currently showing a video that shows how they use this animation to view traffic and activity on a computer animation. It really makes things like the flow and interchange of activities (e.g. flights) become real and they are more able to analyze the data. They are now showing an animation of the entire globe with these same flight paths. Back to Theresa...

Theresa: We are going to Q&A for Joy! A longer-haired man is asking about the end goal for turning data into these types of images. Joy thinks that it depends on how much money is put forth to this type of initiative. She doesn't think that the U.S. puts enough importance into the arts which doesn't make it a priority in the web world either. She is aiming to bridge the gap between a lack of understanding of data and viewing it in an easier format. (Plug for processing.org.)

Jon: Now Mr. Kirn is talking about how people can make these kinds of animations by downloading the program out of processing.org. He is saying that it works through text commands and codes. By using key words like "width" and "height" and "elipse," you immediately see a circle. Instead of writing lines and lines of code, you can get an immediate result to what you're doing! Typically, you will try to be as minimal as possible - most of it is not fancy or intricate. Though this may be old news to real programmers, this makes it extremely easy to bypass the tedious steps programmers have to take. This way, whenever you want to add videos, pictures, and even 3-D, you just go to the Internet and find it.

Theresa: Okay, this looks really cool, but it's hard to explain. He is moving a bit above our technical expertise here. He did just make a whole bunch of images from Flickr fly around in an interface. Now he is playing a music file of his Spam folder. It is actually sounds put to his email inbox that illustrate how often one hits his Inbox. (Laughs from the crowd.)

Jon: Basically, it looks like what we can get out of this panel is that by using programming, we can join together technology with visual images and music. This ability to join the creative with the mechanical really encompasses most of what we see throughout this whole interactive section of the SXSW festival. We are constantly seeing how people that would normally "engineer" these technologies are now finding ways to incorporate art.

PEACE OUT!

Jon and Treese

Who Is Inpiring Who? (Hollywood)

2008-03-09T16:31:00.002-05:00

This was my first session, so I missed a good bit and most of the stuff being discussed went over my head, but one of the panelist did succeed in catching my attention.

Joe Sanders , a writer for books, magazines, TV and the Website.

Sanders wanted to try out a new theory - basically that people are changing and changing really fast. Entertainment is changing as well.

Facts:

#1 - Sixty percent of people today are watching TV while online
#2 - Traffic to web magazines are up, while subscription to print is down
#3 - Social networking is globally the fastest growing thing in technology today.

Also, by 2010, half of the videos online will be user-generated.

Story telling in Hollywood has not kept up with these changes.

Hypothesis: We need to think of stories as platforms - that are dependent on an audience.

Types of Audience
1) People who watch
2) People who want to share your work
(Lawyer, lawyers, lawyers)
3) People who want to create content themselves

Places
Where watchers go: Hulu, Genius
Sharers: DailyMotion.com
Creators: Metacafe and Jump Cut

Keynote Speaker Mark Zuckerberg

2008-03-09T16:25:00.004-05:00

Some interesting points Mark Zuckerberg made in his keynote speech:

Facebook's goal is to help people communicate more effectively and to extend relationships beyond face to face
The best way to make a site is from the bottom up, from the users and not necessarily from the "creators"
Facebook is launching in France tonight
The main goal of Beacon was to build a platform that allowed users to take actions outside of Facebook and share that with their friends on Facebook. This is an effective ad system because it shows you habits of your friends and it's not a company trying to sell you something. However, Beacon bombed mainly because only few used it and those that did saw it as a concern for privacy. They didn't necessarily want to share their non-Facebook buying habits.
Mark mentioned that it's best to give people control over their information (cell phone numbers, addresses, etc.). He said that all mistakes they’ve made at Facebook have stemmed from not giving people enough control.
They are in the process of changing some aspects about current applications on Facebook. Mark said that they really haven't touched a lot on making music a part of their site because users take care of that with applications. While he's always conversing with several different companies regarding music, they haven't reached any deals or anything (yet).
Mark is now taking a more active role as CEO and not as much in product management. He says this is a good fit for him because he said that the CEO sets the tone of the organization.
Facebook considers itself a technology company, not a media company. Every one of its management positions have a technological background. They want to enable other people to make companies.

Here's a video I took of the interview. Take from it what you will. I'm sorry for the sub-par video-taping skills!

Some Interesting Interactive Sights

2008-03-09T16:14:00.004-05:00

Interesting Sight #127: Probably the most Legos I have ever seen in one place

Interesting Sight #128: Panelist Pat Ramsey from "Cooking Up Accessible Video For Web" wearing a kilt

"You have to ask questions."

2008-03-09T16:06:00.003-05:00

There have been a couple posts already on the infamous Mark Z interview with Sarah Lacy. My thoughts - I have never been more proud of the 23 year-old Facebook genius. His answers to what were kind of questions, were smart, casual, and consistent. He never strayed from the Facebook mission - to help people communicate more efficiently and effectively. He reacts very naturally and honestly to all things floating around the media by reminding us that he isn't focused on the net worth of Facebook or going public and he is striving to create an open environment that gives users the highest level of control over their information as possible.

When we circled around the Microsoft partnership and advertising focus (which is my interest), it was actually refreshing for me to hear that he plays the role of CEO for the reason of making sure that people do not stray from the mission and do not become greedy (my words, not his) in their endeavors with the company. It seems to me that advertising models can either go terribly wrong or they can be effectively done. He is headed the effective route if he can ensure that Microsoft is very accurate in their targeting and planning capabilities. Although it is way too easy for advertising to get out of control, I am a little less concerned than I was before hearing Mark today.

I also like to hear that Mark and his company believe that people are inherently good and they are focused on ways of sharing that build trust. He discusses how the open platform will work by saying that applications shared by users that produce the most informative and useful tools will be given more access to post further applications. (Sounds a bit like the search criteria for Google, yeah? BTW - he gives Google a few kudos by saying "I like them")

If I could predict a bit of future - it would be that Facebook is approaching the online music category. Although Mark says that the Facebook community is providing the apps for music, he doesn't deny that there are talks with companies to build music apps.

And the coolest thing?!? He still writes longhand in a journal keeping notes of visions for Facebook and opportunities. Although... he does go Mission Impossible and gets rid of them after he writes them down. Someone is still old-fashioned like me and writes with a pen and paper!

Now - the gossip side of it: he couldn't have gotten a worse interviewer than Sarah Lacy. She was more concerned about plugging herself and her new book about him that she forgot that the audience came and paid hundreds of dollars to hear him talk - not her. The turning point in the interview? When Mark Z said "You have to ask questions." The crowd gets up, applauds, and the egg throwing continues through the rest of the hour. I'm amazed how calm and cool he kept it even when the crowd was about to have that girl turn in her press pass. He even tried to take a bit of the heat at one point.

All-in-all - loved to watch him speak. Print doesn't do him justice when it comes to his strategic and smart thinking. His reasons for the moves he makes are reasonable and smart. I'm excited to see where Facebook is headed in the next five to ten years. Hell - I might even go get a Facebook account now - I think the one I started two years ago without logging on once since then is probably deleted by now.

Cheers! Theresa

Do I really own my sword?

2008-03-09T16:02:00.004-05:00

Human rights in a virtual world?

MMOs. WoW. Second Life. GoPets. Live Gamer.

This panel was discussing what types of rights people have in these types of games.

Are they only “renting the objects” in the games?

If they want to sell an object “what are they really selling?”

Are there full trappings of ownership or limited trappings of ownership?

What if a person dies? Is there inheritance?

Full ownership doesn’t exist because publishers and authors are scared. Scared of the legal ramifications? Being sued? Being responsible for hacker theft, crashed servers, and random bugs within the MMO worlds?

Do you have the legal right to enforce punishments?

There was an example of a person being hijacked by “screw driver to your head” in a PC room for their character. This was used as an example of when criminal law might come into play.

The panel was sightly out of my sphere of interest. I suppose that's why you should read the panel description before hand.

Succinctly put, this is still very much a grey area and there is not much initiative for the law to be involved.

The opinion of the panel overall, was that it is up to the publishers of the games to protect the personal rights of their players.

All about blogging!

2008-03-09T15:37:00.004-05:00

Okay - it's Theresa - time to pause and blog for a bit between the hours of chaos. Earlier I went into a Core Conversation meeting room all about blogging. Instead of the panel format, these are more like 6 or 7 different tables with small groups carrying on open dialogue between experts in the field and people learning to use or take advantage of all things New Media!

The table closest to the door that I ran into first with a few beads of sweat on my forehead was led by Ed Shull, the CEO of NetResults. He discussed "monetizing," or making money as we non-techies say it, as a blogger. He says that video blogging is the way things are headed currently. He says it doesn't even matter what you video, just shoot it and blog it! He also discusses Adwords and how to make money when people click on certain links you place on your blog.

The next table I hit was "I'm Internet Famous" and Alice Marwick, a PhD candidate at NYU discussed different formats of blogs and how important it is that there is diversity present on the Web. One man discussing that in the group said he received a personal invite a few years back to attend SXSW simply because he was an African American blogger and there were not very many on the Web at the time. One woman got a round of applause in this group once she revealed that she ran a popular fashion blog that many people in the group were aware of....I was not. But I'll look for it now!

My personal favorite in this room was the table with Rohit Bhargava, an SVP of Digital Marketing at Ogilvy. It was called "10 Easy Ways To Piss Off a Blogger." Just to name a few that I caught, it is BAD to:
1. Pretend to be a frequent visitor to a blog and comment after only reviewing a few of the previous blogs.
2. To be too SPAMMY and not provide an Opt-out choice for your visitors, people who comment, or bloggers on your site.
3. To not provide an opportunity for bloggers to talk about themselves (Mark Z's interviewer would have a heart attack without this option, but we'll get to her later)
4. To treat bloggers like journalists - they don't like to be seen as a journalist.
5. To not be relevant!
6. Creating too many hurdles or points of action in order to post or comment. Less hassle - the better.
7. Not being TRANSPARENT! Lori Bergen would have liked that part of the discussion. :)
8. To not give credit where credit is due. Attribution is a huge deal in the blogging community!!!

Here is a pic of Rohit Bhargava - he was really engaging and welcomed a lot of discussion.

Stay tuned for more cool pics, some highlights, and, of course, my thoughts on the Mark Z interview! Cheers!

Keynote Interview with Mark Zuckerberg

2008-03-09T15:11:00.007-05:00

Keynote Interview with Mark Zuckerberg

I couldn't get a wireless connection during the keynote, so no live-blogging. But that's okay, I seem to prefer to be able to collect my thoughts a bit anyway. Here's the scoop, post-interview:

I did NOT like it when they started with some chest thumping music. I had not taken my asthma inhaler and the bass hit me square in the middle of my chest. I swear it felt like my sternum was jumping. For a moment I thought I was going to have to leave the room. At least some others enjoyed it much more.

The dynamics of this interview were very different from yesterday's opening remarks. There was lots of awkwardness, and although the interview was interesting, it didn't get me as excited and inspired as the opening remarks with Henry Jenkins. I'm not sure why.

I was also not terribly impressed with Sarah Lacy, who interviewed Zuckerberg. For some reason I found her extremely annoying. Extremely. Really. (It didn't help that the camera angle was not flattering to her seated position either.) I think perhaps it was because her dynamic seemed so different from Zuckerberg's. The whole exchange seemed a bit ... off. (The pairing of Stephen Johnson and Henry Jenkins yesterday seemed to work much better.) Even so, I was stunned at the negative audience reaction to her later in the interview. Whoa. I had a little sympathy with her at that point. It's gotta be tough to be up there and get that much negative reaction.

Zuckerberg himself still seems much like a college student at the top of his class, at least with his speaking ability and comfort level with being interviewed. But he was earnest and faced the crowd when talking about many of the anecdotes he used to explain the effect of connections through this medium. He reminds me of many of the software developers I've worked with before, even in so far as his short, simple and somewhat awkward-moment-producing answers to some questions.

I tapped into the parts of the interview that touched on the effect of Facebook on communication, connections and culture. For example, Zuckerberg talked a lot about Facebook going international, in different languages. he mentioned they just launched their first Spanish-language platform. It's doing very well in Columbia where it apparently has been used for political activism. Zuckerberg seems to feel strongly about the effects of keeping connections across distances and that's something I can relate to, having extended family all over the globe while I was growing up. I can only imagine how a technology like Facebook, or even good 'ole email might have helped my parents and myself maintain closer connections with my grandparents. Zuckerberg offered another kind of effect of keeping those connections easily accessible when he talked about the effect of young people in Lebanon keeping connections with friends who'd gone abroad.

Of course, this is not new. This is the kind of observations made early on as a revolutionary effect of email as early as the late 80's and early 1990's. But Zuckerberg's point of how Facebook has made this much easier is well taken. After all, that's exactly what the World Wide Web did for an Internet composed of arcane commands and disjointed communicating and sharing technologies like telnet, FTP, archie and uuencode.

There was also some discussion of Facebook launching in other languages, the Beacon fiasco, how Facebook sees itself as a technology company versus a media company, and privacy issues. In fact, one of the first questions was from a female user of Facebook who was interested in when more granular control of what certain groups of friends have access to on Facebook would be available. I did get a sense that Zuckerberg's answer was more concerned that this was something the company needed to do or it would fail, rather than a fundamental problem of maintaining control over connections, which was odd, given his very strong sense of the users and connections in the early part of the interview. I also got a little insight into how the developers are trying to solve this, since he mentioned a sort of Bayesian type of learning filter for the news feed.

Towards the end, the audience seemed to revolt against the interviewer. There was some heckling, and there was definitely a moment of tension before it was turned over to questions.

What I learned from watching Mark Zucker...

2008-03-09T15:11:00.002-05:00

1. He can withstand a barrage of flash photography and still keep his cool.

2. He cannot withstand an over zealous interviewer and keep his cool.

3. He plays the drums on his knees when he speaks. Or maybe he is practicing patty cake.

4. Facebook does not have a proactive approach to changing the world… just helping people communicate better.

5. He used to sweat more?

6. The Internet and subsequent applications should replace large organizations.

7. Is ok to be in an abusive relationship with his interviewer.

8. Facebook and social development are in a long-term relationship… like decades long.

9. He is sorry for how Beacon came out.

10. All of his/Facebook’s mistakes were based on lack of user control or awareness of control.

11. He/Facebook isn’t thinking about money/business.

12. “It’s not necessarily about value”

13. “We’ve made some management changes”… don’t cross Mark.

14. It is hard to hold an “Interactive” audience’s attention when you get into financial and business issues.

15. HE STILL USES PAPER!

16. If you’re a snarky interviewer he will snark back.

17. He might have control issues.

18. And privacy vs openness issues.

“These aren’t the text sizing widgets you’re looking for”…

2008-03-09T12:44:00.003-05:00

Everything I Know About Accessibility I Learned From Star Wars

with Derek Featherstone

I got to this panel a little late (thanks for nothing daylight savings time!).

I walked in as Featherstone, adorned in a Jedi Robe and wielding a microphone like a lightsaber (a more civilized weapon) explaining that if you steal something, make it better and more accessible and then compared the Abominable snowman from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer with the Wampa in Empire Strikes Back.

He then subjected us to the intro to the much loathed yet adored Star Wars Holiday Special. He used this as an example to show that a good thing can be too much.

Iterations- Featherstone showed early drafts of the script and concept art. The Jedi cloaked speaker encouraged us to keep our core, our html, but to continue to go back and add to the appearance and presentation just like George Lucas continued to readapt his story even 20 years later.

He used the Han Solo/Greedo cantina confrontation change as an example. In the original story Solo shot first, thus creating his beloved pirate-esque personality. He said this is an example of changing the content and changing the core for worse.

“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for"

Jedi Mind Tricks in accessibility design? Featherstone discussed using the power of suggestion in your design. For example it can be used with text resize widgets… I guess.

“These aren’t the text sizing widgets you’re looking for”… not as catchy.

Han Solo- “Good against remotes is one thing; good against the living, is something else”

Derek Featherstone- “At the end of the day it’s about the people… it’s good against the living that matters”

Lastly, Featherstone encouraged us to heed Yoda’s dying words, “Pass on what you have learned”. As Accesibilty Jedis we must pass on what we have learned…

“No, try not. Do or do not. There is no try”

There is no difference from moving stones to moving X-Wings. When it comes to accessibility, we have to actually do it. There is no try.

Responsible Web Design

2008-03-09T12:21:00.005-05:00

Hey, it's Jon again...sitting here in a packed room of web coders and Dreamweaver lovers. I feel a little out of place at this one, as I'm not completely sure what they're talking about. However, I did get a lot out of this panel before they started with this crazy coding jargon, using words like "hoverclass" and such. Some intersting points they made:

When coding, it is vital to have standards since there are so many browsers out there. Some organizations that seek to make decisions on these standards are the WWW Consortium and WaSp. They do so because browsers are creating their own standards, and it is becoming almost impossible to get the same results with all browsers.

Another interesting suggestion they made that I will use when (possibly soon) making my own web page is to use several "flash areas" of my site instead of making it completely flash-based. Also, when coding I will use general names for my sections of information such as h1, h2, h3 for headings instead of saying "right column" or "left column" to make it more standardized in case someone else tries to code the same page which would do a lot for consistency on the page.

Stephanie Sullivan, one of the panelists, makes the templates for Dreamweaver and is a coding expert. She was talking about how the general pages aren't meant to be pretty, just functional and used as a strong base for making almost any kind of Web page.

I have a video here of her calling Internet "Exploder" and talking about which browsers are best for Web creating. So, I'll let you watch that for yourself...and then I will say, "see you after the next panelist (Mark Zuckerberg)."

Social Design Strategies

2008-03-09T10:16:00.005-05:00

Hey it's Jon here at the Conference Center, above is what I am seeing RIGHT NOW! in room 18ABCD, listening to a panel called Social Design Strategies. The panelists are talking about "leverage reciprocity" in a social networking site....

DEF: Leverage Reciprocity - when making a web page, users will put more into the site when you give them kind of initial positive comment or help. LinkedIn uses a great example of this on their site called Recommendations. When someone gives someone else a professional recommendation, then they will get positive comments made about them. This kind of reminds me of ebay feedback...when someone gives you a positive review, you usually give them the same.

Ok, next topic. Daniel Burka (Digg.com & Pownce.com) is now explaining the balance between privacy and community. He's talking about his Facebook experiences and how it walks the line between Public and Private content. He says the closer you get to that line, you have to be a lot more careful - private messages can easily become public and vice versa. He's saying that Digg has a feature similar to the Facebook wall called the "Shout." This allows people to know for sure that their information is public, while most other messages are private

Daniel is now discussing tracking site activity. Digg.com does it pretty easily because you can follow someone's "digs" - that's a main tenet of the site. When you are creating a site, however, where this isn't a main feature, and it's just one of many, it becomes a bigger issue. People sometimes don't realize they can be tracked easily and you end up walking that public/private line and can be dangerous.

He recommends that if you start a site, it's easier to add features as you see the need instead of utilizing mounds of features. However, don't get in the habit of adding more and more features (like Facebook - he says it's reached this threshold). He also mentioned that it's good to give users control but not to use it as a crutch.

A question from the audience:
Is there a legitimate way to monetize social networks without advertising. MONETIZATION!

ANSWER: It needs to be indirect...allowing the passionate ones to get full recognition like how Facebook is using Beacon (what is that? I'll have to look that one up)

Ok, they're getting kicked off the stage...time to go to the next seminar!! TTYL

Intro.. to a fun filled day

2008-03-09T10:12:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I just got here a few mins before 10 O Clock, but I was lucky enough to find Cindy who immediately took me up to the press booth to get my credentials.

My name is Sunday Udoetok and I am a grad student in Mass Communication and also taking the New Media Class with Cindy this semester.

Right now, am in the first panel discussion, "Who is Inspiring Who," and we are in the middle of watching a video montage with lots of clips of famous movies - Spider Man, Start Wars, etc. Not very sure what its all about - but shhhh 0 the panel is about to start...I ll find out what it was all about later.

Here is my schedule for the rest of the day

11am - Friend Me! Vote for Me! Donate Now!

2pm - Zuckerberg Keynote

3pm - Blogs, Buzz and Buddy Lists

5pm - Optimizing Search and Social

BRB!

Go For It! Attracting Girls to Technology

2008-03-08T23:39:00.000-06:00

This was a great panel, got me rethinking something that came to me during my first SXSW experience in 2005. The panelists included people from Girlstart, MentorNet, and UT Computer Science. They discussed the long-standing problem of attracting women to math and science careers. But, as a teacher of technology in a Communications discipline, I see women engaging with technology every day. Yes, they come to the lab with a lack of confidence in their abilities, but over the course of a semester, I get the privilege of seeing them transform into confident and highly skilled individuals. There are men in my classes, too, but since women dominate in the communications departments at campuses across the US, it is not unusual for my classes to consist of 80-90% women. I say let's bring the technology to where the girls are, communications, education, and humanities. Females tend to engage with technology best when they feel what they are doing is important and that it is related to something they enjoy. Given that the Web has developed into a social and communication tool, we should increase technology literacy and competency in departments that deal with these phenomena. I'd love to hear anyone else on this.

I love what places like Girlstart and MentorNet are doing, would love to have someone from each of these organizations as a guest speaker in my classes (had a great one from Girlstart several years ago at UT). And, I love what UT and other computer science departments are doing to attract women to their majors. But, I think a parallel strategy could be in order, across other university departments like Comm, Ed, and Humanities.

I wrote a piece for Online Journalism Review about this a while back, but I think it is worth brushing off and revisiting.

1st Day SXSW Wrap-Up

2008-03-08T21:28:00.005-06:00

I have to start out by thanking Cindy Royal for giving us the chance to cover something as cutting edge as SXSW Interactive. The event was my first real press-like event to cover and it turned out to be a great learning experience. The Onion panel was definitely the highlight of the days events. I had heard about The Onion previously, but I have never really paid much attention to it. They take fake news to the nth degree, including one video that included some pretty hard core pornography. They definitely are unafraid to push the envelope, and have some great videos that I embedded in my blog post about the panel. I'm really looking forward to going back this Monday.

Jenkins' Opening Remarks

2008-03-08T20:19:00.000-06:00

I'm a huge fan. I read Convergence Culture to do a review on it for Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, and I got to see Henry Jenkins at the Association of Internet Researchers in Vancouver last October. I have been evangelizing about him ever since. I am most impressed with they way he talks about and holds respect for fan communities, those who are putting great effort into personal endeavors, exercising vast talents and engaging resources and collaborative networks. Jenkins discussed how, as a society, we need to figure out how to get people to be that inspired in their work.

He says our challenge is to figure out why some of these activities are so meaningful to those engaging in them.

He mentioned his new Knight Foundation funded endeavor the Center for Future Civic Media, and this is specifically interesting to me, as I work in an environment in which I am often justifying the importance of studying social media in relation to journalism and traditional mass media.

He also discussed the participation gap. 60% of our young people are engaged in producing media and 1/3 are producing content for those that are not their immediate family or friends. But, what about the 40% that are not? What are the issues around this participation gap?

And, I love his optimism. He said that if he sees a glass that is 1/4 full, he thinks it is 1/2 full. What a breath of fresh air!

If you haven't read Convergence Culture, get it now and do so.

Images from Screenburn

2008-03-08T17:46:00.011-06:00

Walked a bit around Screenburn Arcade an open platform of exhibitors and tournaments, part of SXSW's presentations on the newest developments in the gaming industry.

I'm glad to see that SXSW has a gaming element to it. (This wasn't much a part of SXSW when I attended in 2000.) The convergence of new media and online communities in the gaming industry makes it a natural for SXSW.

The panel on Pro Gamers: New Extreme Athletes of the 21st Century brought up a few interesting issues. From the Screen burn site:

SXSW Interactive’s [...] panel brought together catalysts from the burgeoning world of e-sports this afternoon to pontificate on the current state of professional gaming. Xfire’s Richard Boyden moderated discussion between LA compleXity founder Richard Lake, Team Pandemic founder Chris Lemley, Team 3D/E Sports Entertainment founder Craig Levine, and FIFA Interactive champion Matija “Jevrej” Biljeskovic. So ARE pro gamers really the new extreme athletes of the 21st century? Most everybody on the panel concurred that as American life becomes more and more wedded to technology, our digital age calls for a new digital sport. With the gaming industry’s well-documented meteoric rise over the past few years, an entire generation of kids now truly turn to gaming for entertainment rather than traditional organized sports, pointed out Lemley: “We’re going to pass on videogaming to them like we passed on football and baseball. This is our generation’s sport, this is what we have to offer, and it’s only going to change and grow.” Though gaming has made the breakthrough to TV on SpikeTV, ESPN and the Championship Gaming Series on DirectTV, the next few years will be a make-or-break time for that aforementioned change and growth, since key corporate advertisers with sufficient dollars to advance the sport “just don’t know what to do with it” yet, said Levine. Generally speaking, “people who play games aren’t watching TV and people who watch TV don’t play games, so if you put something on tv about gaming, who’s watching it?” But the puzzle of watchability might just be trumped by videogames’ all-consuming popularity, according to Lake: “Television advertisers are begging for a new medium, and gaming is that medium. This generation does not watch television. Gaming is the best way to hit this generation.” While the pioneers of pro gaming push to establish their leagues, their visibility and their livelihoods, at least they know they can look forward to a bright future if Asia’s embrace of pro gaming is any indication: “I need to hire security for my gamers when we go to Asia,” said Lake. “They wanna rip their shirts off like a pro basketball player or a rock star.”

As gaming seeks to enhance compelling stories while providing an environment for competition, might the watchability come from the unfolding of the story in the same way that reality television keeps so many Americans glued to their seats? Only this time, you might also be able to be part of the action? I think this will be an area to watch, considering the convergence of film, music, technology and community.

The Onion

2008-03-08T17:36:00.004-06:00

Here's a video the Onion showed at their presentation. Among the best lines was, "Big budgets stifle creativity. A smaller budget forces creativity."

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

"in anticipation for the Onion panel”

2008-03-08T17:16:00.001-06:00

This is my “in anticipation for the Onion panel” post.
Since looking at the schedule a few weeks ago, this has been the one panel I have looked forward to the most. I think I may have done that embarrassing get-excited-when-you’re-by-yourself jump and semi-squeal when I saw it on the schedule.

I have a had a semi-dull afternoon. I attended the panel on the radical Muslim presence on the Internet and enjoyed it. I took very good notes and began formulating a post in my head when I checked the blogged and found that Anna had been live blogging it. And she did a very good job. So I abandoned my notes and just listened.

Then I attempted to get a quick video interview with panelist Shaarik Zafar, but as he is from the Department of Homeland Security, he had to get the proper permissions to give an interview and was unable to obtain them over the phone. Kudos to him for trying. And he gave me a business card with brail on it.

I then attended the panel about the book The Myth of the Rational Voter. I did not know it was a book panel. And the title of the panel and the book were both tons more exciting than the actual panel.

I left a bit early (ten minutes into the speaker's diatribe of how economists will interrupt him and how his father doesn’t believe him) and went down stairs to the gaming convention. I don’t have much to say for it. I guess if I was into Dells and Guitar Hero I would have enjoyed it.

OK, the panel is about to begin.

(makes excited jump and squeal without knowing it… gets embarrassed).

Where in the world is Cindy?

2008-03-08T17:02:00.001-06:00

I know I've been a bit absent on the blog over the past couple of days. Saturday, I distributed equipment to the students attending, which left me with only a camcorder to record the days events. But, I am so proud of the work that the students have accomplished so far. The breadth and depth of coverage, with humor and insight, has been amazing. And, I think they are having fun! The content this year has been overwhelming and fantastic, and a clear validation that what we have been discussing in class is important and timely.

So, now I've found a little corner of the convention center, with electrical outlets and a strong wireless connection. So, I'll fill you in on my activities. On Sat. morning, I attended a Design is in the Details panel, which had a helpful design checklist, but the presentation was less than engaging.

Experiment
Choices
Stay Consistent
Completeness
Step in, step out, step back: balance - this was the most controversial, he suggested taking 7 days away from working on any design project. I like the idea, but wonder how feasible. I liked when the speaker said he "lets the design percolate."
Be your own critic
Complexity in simplicity: less is more
Obsession is healthy

Then I went to the Suxorz, worst social media mistakes of 2007. Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine was on this one. Nominees were a Molson ad that encouraged students to put pictures of themselves "engaging with the product" on their social networks. Jarvis mentioned that pay-per-post activities were "evil," with examples of an HP video of a family crushing a competitors' camcorder with a hammer.

They also mentioned Austin's own Whole Foods CEO and his debacle with blogging false accounts of a competitor as his company was trying to acquire it. And, they talked about a Vespa blog in which Vespa grew bored with it, left the bloggers hanging, which ultimately led to a shift in the discourse (frustration with being abandoned). Vespa didn't notice the negative comments for two years. Another was the agency.com video they did for Subway, a lame attempt at making fun of themselves as a viral video.

The Homogeneous Intern'l Panel

2008-03-08T16:59:00.017-06:00

Hello again,

Okay, the audience of the international panel was a lot more diverse than the panel. In fact I had to get Fazia in the shot to get a little global rep in my photo:

The panel on international communities included 3 Americans, a Brit, and a Portuguese moderator. Hey, two continents is kinda global. That said, they offered some insights in how to bring national technologies global.

AMDs 50x15 project is something to check out. They intend to have half the world with some kind of reliable access by 2015. Not sure how closely defined reliable access is gonna be by the time the project hits.

However, Steve Howard of AMD did give a chance to see this:

Yep, the One Laptop Per Child in the flesh. And it takes pictures! I'll post more on this later.

Off to user revolts, but here's a shot of Austin while I'm gone. Had a certain very Austin aroma of reefer out there. Couldn't stay, sadly.

We're turning into a real city!

The Revolting Users

2008-03-08T16:52:00.002-06:00

Analee Newitz is the moderator of the Social Networking Coups panel. She says there are three kinds of user revolts:

anarchist-style pranks
grassroots protests
op-ed / open letter from high-profile users

Also on the panel is Jessamyn West, Jeska Dzwigalski (aka Jeska Linden, as in Linden Labs, as in Second Life. Duh), and Gina Trapani.

Newitz did an experiment to see if her phony blog could be on the front page of Digg if she paid people to digg it. It worked. She used that as an example of an anarchist-type prank. An example of grassroots projects was the AACS key posted to Digg.

Next, Jeska talked about revolts on Second Life. A month after beta, Linden tried to tax individual people. Users on Second Life were upset by this and staged a revolt in the Americana region, where users threw crates of tea into the water.

Another revolt was in November 2006, a group of open source developers were working on something, and a user created the code to export things from Second Life out to the real world. Users were upset about the Copy Bot and protested it on Second Life. Some store owners actually shut down their stores for a day of silence in protest of Copy Bot.

Another protest was done by designers in Second Life who were upset with people trying to steal their designs, so they created advertisements protesting said acts. Linden called it the resident-created IP Rights Campaign, 2008.

West is with MetaFilter, and she actually posted her speech online. See it here.

Trapani spoke next. She's from Lifehacker, and talked about Toto's ads. Toto has a product that's like a toilet seat with a bidet... anyway, the ad included a photo of naked butts. Naked smiling butts. A lot of people took offense at this, apparently. Users wrote in protesting, saying that Lifehacker was getting blocked from their work computers and such. And so, since Lifehacker is supposed to be a blog about getting things done, and has nothing to do with sex, they decided to pull the ad on Lifehacker.

It's kind of cool to know that even though people worry about moderators of their social sites, users still have the power to do something about it. I'm glad they've gottn more clever than just a firmly-toned email.

Behind the scenes of The Onion

2008-03-08T16:51:00.004-06:00

The Onion does all of its web video in house because they didn't want to lose creative control. They wanted to have high quality production to rival the evening news. The majority of anchors are actual reporters with news experience because actors couldn't successfully reproduce the blandness of news anchors. One Onion anchor actually ended up leaving and working for CNN. They often recruit people off the street to be actors in their sketches.

The panelists are delighted by user comments on their online video offerings. The panel shared many of their clever stories including

Child Bankrupts Make-A-Wish Foundation With Wish For Unlimited Wishes

Another clever video covered a ninja parade.

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

The Onion wants to be about what's on people's minds.

The Onion has to compete with the bizarre programming of "legit" shows such as Nancy Grace, and they sometimes find it difficult to take the comedy further. They get much of there inspiration from Fox News and CNN.

Some of The Onions videos actually come true such as op-ed by Gillette in which a Gillette executive announced a five blade razor. Some time later, Gillette actually created such a product.

Video Production for the Web and Mobile Devices

2008-03-08T15:30:00.004-06:00

Four men walk us through the essentials of video production on the go, whether film, clips or television. Moderator Hank Blumenthal covers what it means to produce content across different platforms and what kind works best in which medium. The second part of the speech is more of the technical aspect of what to do with your content for the widest audience.

Jason Meil from currenttv (Al Gore is chairman) talks about how currenttv has become all things to all people - news junkies, music folk, comedy. He says revenue model of TV is an oddbird - the content is created for both tv and the web but primarily for use on the web - make it more interactive and create a world around the story. However, paying for content is sticky. The business model follows that of television and a portion is paid - that which is broadcast. Most companies still won't pay for content until the market settles on what to pay. Meil echoes the sentiment that we heard in the film panel earlier this morning - you must have a good story or don't do it anyway!

Meil - "Now anyone can do anything but 99 percent of it is still shitty."

David Todd works in many fields of new media, most recently working with bands and getting their tunes noticed. He says piracy is on a worldwide scale and is often an introduction to media for poorer people. In his video work, he tries to get interactivity between professionals and amateurs to exchange ideas and questions.

Todd - "I have to totally agree (with Meil) that 99 percent of it is shitty." He went on to say you can still find people that may have not have gotten into the online content video industry but now are - and are telling stories in a way that is outside the box.

Jason Nunes, film producer for Evil Dead III: The Necronomicon and consultant for numerous failed and successful online tv ventures, currently runs an online tv soap opera which is driven by audience opinions. The production, therefore, is very guerilla-like. Questions are asked to people of where they want the show to go - which is often the lowest common-denominator, aka pornography. So, asking the right questions becomes important. Turnaround is usually a week for the show and is therefore, partially audience-driven. The outcome is a choose-your-own-adventure style of story.

Nunes - "There's a sea of crap with diamonds floating in it." He says digg lets the masses decide and that is a new way of doing things. He offers a long tail description of the people that could be your fans - 1,000 of them, that if able to pay you one day's worth of their salaries - could allow you to survive and exclusively produce your art.

Hank Blumenthal, the moderator, is a film producer with an anime background who says realplayer was the way to go 10 years ago and now flash is the preferred video player, though not without its own compatibility faults. Working between companies can also cause friction on what gets published on the net, including any legal implications.

Blumenthal - "Maybe 10 percent of it is good but only one percent gets distributed."

Video Production for the Web & Mobile Devices

2008-03-08T15:19:00.001-06:00

Two topics where discussed: what it means to produce content for several platforms and technical constraints when producing video online.

Meil works for currenttv, and oversees a few units of content production. Content acquisitions, and vc squared which is user generated content. Al Gore-chairman of current.

Todd-worked for Mp3.com, Mp4.com, Msn music. Started ispot, became marketing arm for studios.

Jason Nunes-worked as a broadcast designer in San Francisco. Recruited to join BBC consulting. Works for Adobe systems and as well as Podopera brooklyn.com, which foucuses on user generated stories.

Blumenthal-producer, worked for Sputnik 7, among others. Works with Microsoft on a project.

Todd-toured Vietnam and Cambodia- In Hanoi hotel desk clerk watching clips using Microsoft media center. People are consuming media in very different ways. Told the story of an old lady rowing him down river in a boat whips Nokia phone and texts someone.

Nunes-podoperabrooklyn.com-5 min episodes. They ask the audience to vote on what happens next, have no idea what's going to happen next. Have to be very fast with production and editing, and distribution. Had to deal with struggles with lcd content which ultimately led to development of a voting system.

Todd-worked on filmocracy, using online video mashup concept but wanted to go beyond what's been going on in the mashup arena.

Meil-no one has figured out good model for mobile video content in terms of revenue.

Todd-Ispot, told users to do whatever you want with content.

Meil-u still have crap, but its allowing people to express new forms of content and there is a bit of compelling content.

Nunes-mentioned Long Tail.

Meil-most content is created to make sense on both platforms-tv and the web. T.V. has well understood ad model, web video-still a tough nut to crack. Utilize interactivity to create community around content. Not a lot of successful examples of web specific platform. If current didn't have T.V. business model, couldn't do as well with paying people for video. We're not there yet in terms of monetizing online video.

Todd-cultura-competitor with ispot, based on groups working together. They have tools to help you use it.

Nunes-nokia-mosh.

Nunes-many obstacles to putting video to mobile devices.

Meil-is content compelling? engage, interact, watch content.

Semi_Live w/Jenkins

2008-03-08T14:36:00.008-06:00

On my way in, I saw some remediation in law enforcement:

Almost like being at GenCon ;)

Okay, now I'm listening to Jenkins discuss how the culture of Blood Elves in WoW can lead back into the collaborative movement of interactive democracy he sees manifested in Obama's campaign.

It's a wild, but insightful talk.

I wish we didn't view collaboration as new, however. Te technology is more about allowing us to use our age-old, local tendency to collaborate on a global level.

The collaboration isn't new, the size of the village is new. Now our shared oral stories and gabfests are among billions rather than hundreds. It's a significant matter of perspective.

Speaking of perspective, here's how I'm watching it in the overflow room.

Slightly Big Brother lookin'?

The social mechanism as gaming platform for learning is a huge area to rewrite learning as collaborative again. Games have a seminar-like feel. One more reason to consider RPI for my doctorate. Ah, options...

The question on these democratic processes being owned by corporation sis a big one and overly Utopian views can be an issue. This needs to be a panel issue next year. And not because I'm giving a paper on the subject at C&W in Atlanta. ;)

Okay, I need to go find the Internat'l collab room!

First Floor Convention

2008-03-08T14:24:00.005-06:00

There is an entertainment and gaming convention on the first floor. Participants and sights include a Magic the Gathering playing card setup, Dungeons and Dragons playing card setup, Guitar Hero III play station and a championship gaming series contest for serious gamers. There is even a guy dressed up in Halo gear to take pictures with fans. We'll post that soon.

Opening Remarks with Henry Jenkins and Stephen Johnson

2008-03-08T14:17:00.011-06:00

There was so much of interest to me in the opening remarks with Henry Jenkins and Stephen Johnson that I couldn't possibly speak to it all. It was both validation of things I'd pondered, back in the 1990's and new questions and issues to think about. I'm looking forward to when this one is available as a podcast so I can go back and listen again.

I ended up in one of the overflow rooms during the discussion, but that didn't stop me from approaching Dr. Jenkins afterwards and asking him a bit about the Comparative Media Studies program he co-chairs at MIT.

Some random bits from the discussion:

Testing for collaborative skills
Jenkins pointed out that we tend to teach and test in school for individual expertise on all information, rather than the ability to know only some information on a subject and contribute to and collaborate with others in order to build a complete whole.

Fandom
Jenkins has written about fans and fandom before. I loved his comments on fans, and how quick we are to pathologize the effort put into fandom by fans. Jenkins would rather ask why it is that this is the only creative outlet for these people, who tend to be extremely intelligent. He's observed that often these folks tend to be working in the pink collar workplace - industries that require a great deal of ecucation, but tend to use only a small subset of what these folks are capable of intellectually. In other words, why is the workplace not better engaging these folks fully and using this creative and intellectual energy. Follow up question: What would we be able to do if our bosses assumed we were smart, creative, capable and empowered us to create etc.

We versus I messages in politics
Here Obama was used as an example. Obama has tapped into the "we" idea with his message, the "yes we can" slogan and the way he positions himself, talkign about "what we can do" rather than "what I can do" if elected. This reflects his previous background as a social organizer in Chicago and speaks to this convergence culture and youth. Jenkins points out that Obama is building a movement versus conducting a campaign. Win or lose, he's has brought together something lasting - voters connected to each other, rather than just connected to the campaign and the candidate. Jenkins noted that some of this began with Howard Dean and his ability to embrace the Internet in his 2004 campaign.

Social connections
Jenkins is emphatic that we are not investing less in social connections because of the time we spend online and with our technologies. Instead, he suggests we are simply carrying them with us. (Like a tortoise carries his home with him wherever he goes?) The implications are really for our local communities.

This led to some discussion of a geolocation/geographic web. I have to admit that, as a woman and an ethnic minority, the sort of stuff that "On My Radar" does, tying Facebook status to geographical locations scares the hell out of me. I so do not want some of the guys I end up having to engage with (whether I like it or not) online to know anything about my physical location. Period. In fact, every one of my close female friends online - who were on the bleeding edge of the Internet in the 1990s - went out and got mailboxes at post offices or Mailboxes Etc. in order to obfuscate their physical location. Because of what they spoke about so freely online, what they so freely created online and the freedom with with you can engage frequently made them targets for verbal harassment and scary threats. (All of us have recieved serious threats online.) In my opinion, the Kathy Sierra situation shows that this kind of innovation is still not thought about deeply enough or, perhaps, shows the consequences of the lack of female and minority input into new media innovation. I fear that we'll need a high profile tradegdy for us to consider this well enough. I hope I'm wrong.

By-the-way, as a society, we do tend to talk about this sort of thing with regards to children. Cyberbullying, predators online, etc. are a part of our ongoing discussions and something we think about seriously when developing new technologies. But we don't tend to extrapolate this to adult women's experience and the violence that can ensue.

Cyberaddiction
I've read this before, but I'm glad that Jenkins pointed it out - cyberaddiction as a problem is really just an expression or symptom of another problem - depression. We should also be wary of citing China when it comes to cases of cyberaddiction, since some of this is indicative of the government's efforts towards controlling Internet use and behavior on the Internet for political reasons.

One last thing: while the conversation was going on between Jenkins and Johnson, artist Sunni Brown was creating a visual representation of the discussion:

Online Extremism

2008-03-08T14:09:00.004-06:00

I decided to skip the keynote and check out the panel on Online Extremism.

2:13 pm- Mohamad Hluchan - Jihadists and Cybercrime: Emerging Synergies

(That's him there on the left.)

iDefense is his company, and they focus on cyber-based intelligence. They have more than 30 full-time researchers and more than 400 contributors throughout the world. He says they focus on gathering intelligence and neutralizing the dangers of hackers, trojans, etc...

On Cyber-Jihadist Websites... He mentioned Al-Buraq, Cihaderi.net, Jeish Al-Mujahidin

2:17 pm. Hluchan talks about emerging trends among cyber-jihadists... Programs that encrypt information used to hide activities. Secure communication, website design, use of audio and video editing software, preparation and dissemination of training and indoctrination materials.

Hluchan describes Cybercriminals... "Black hats" are malicious hackers who engage in data theft, industrial espionage, etc... Also, "Carders" who specialize in obtaining and using credit card number for fraudulent activities.

2:21 pm- Synergies between Cyber-criminals and Jihadists. Criminals are often unaware that their client may be a terrorist group. Jihadists follow a very strict moral line, so dealing with criminals might be reprehensible to some of them. Besides money, terrorist groups often good sources of weaponry.

2:24 pm- There are risks for when terrorists work with criminals, exposure being a main one... "carders" are notorious "rats."

2:25 pm- Mohammed Suleiman Khan is introduced. He formed Hadithuna.com, basically a platform for Muslim bloggers.

Type A bloggers... blogging about their day-to-day lives.

Type B bloggers... the Muslim activists. Not posting everyday, but thinking critically about politics and current events, and the importance to the Muslim community.

After a year, they started noticing more radical posters. No one at Hadithuna.com anticipated that. They started to monitor all the blogs closely. They started noticing trends... Slow change from advanced to more radical posts. Others quickly followed the trend.

2:34 pm- Hadithuna.com was faced with a very tough issue. They didn't want to censor speech, so they changed their mission goals: Adding an opinion, Adding to diversity.

Finally they decided they needed to shut the radical bloggers down. They realized that not all speech is protected speech. Some of the opinions were not constructive ones... cheering on the Muslims in Iraq, etc... Kahn says that by taking away the blogs it wouldn't hurt the diversity of their site.

2:37 pm- The FBI approached Kahn and Hadithuna.com to establish an understanding of cooperation. They continue to work with the FBI today.

2:39 pm- Frank Cilluffo is introduced. Homeland Security expert, basically.

"The way we need to think about al-qaeda is very different for how we thought about it a year ago," said Cilluffo. "We simply can't kill and capture our way to win."

"These are their ideas. This is really about ideas." Cilluffo says we are dealing with a media campaign. He looks to the audience in front of him to mobilize for the good and find a roll to play. He says it's more about the chat rooms, not the websites... the websites, he says, are static. Many people are often recruited before they are radicalized, so we need to delegitamize the adversary story.

Tenants on how to think:

Solutions must come from within. We need Islamic scholars to show how some are taking Islam out of context.
Take religion and ideology and separate them. We should use our own terms, not theirs. Criminality is protected by the shroud of a religion
Need to expose the narrative. Dissect it. Unpack it. Help accelerate it falling upon its inconsistencies and violence. Expose it for what it is.
Do not shy away from emotion. What's drawing people in? Emotions. We need to put together a video showing exactly what this is doing. Why are Muslims killing so many Muslims?

2:49 pm- Challenge people to be aware of what's going on. has written a book renouncing terrorism. Also, we need to make this [terrorism] LESS cool.

2:51 pm- Shaarik Zafar is introduced.

Very little the American government can and should do. He asks for help from citizens. "There are times when speech is not protected by the first amendment and it is a true threat," Zafar said. "We don't want to infringe on people's rights to express themselves. But I'm worried about a kid in a chat room just stewing. We want to introduce sunlight as the best disinfectant."

2:57 pm- I want to give an example.. I came across a video "This is not us." A bunch of famous Pakistani stars came together to show that terrorism is not Pakistan.

(naturally, I went and tracked it down...)

2:59 pm- Questions from the audience.

WHEW!! Very interesting conversation, but I think they packed too many people onto the panel. I would much rather have seen this as a dialog.

Scenes and Thoughts from SXSW

2008-03-08T13:39:00.004-06:00

Well that's cute.

Jeff Jarvis and his son. WOW identical.

Myself and the Jarv-ster.

At the first panel, a video blogger filming himself asking a question.

A note on style at SXSW... Interactive isn't the most glamorous or trendy place to be, style-wise. A lot of people dressed for comfort (I'm in jeans and chucks), most with a sweater on their arm just in case it gets blustery. But I've also noticed this kind of half-popped collar thing going on. Two (blurry) examples:

and

Who thought that one up?

Geo-cahe-a-whaty?

2008-03-08T13:30:00.004-06:00

I couldn’t find the room for the panel about getting users to contribute content so I ducked into a panel about Geo cache games… which ended up being very interesting.

I had heard of the traditional GPS treasure hunt type thing, but these guys took it way beyond that by meshing GPS, new technologies, and very wild imaginations to create real-world digital games.

Like these:

Mob Zombies

and

Pacmanhattan

Much of the panel was spent discussing “how the iPhone may change the shape of geolocaiton gaming?”

Jeremy Irish- “Still waiting till iPhone actually has GPS in it.”

Audience- [chuckles]

Also, the term “fuzzy location” was tossed around frequently.

One interesting point that Pacmanhattaner Denis Crowley made was that “the games get a lot of attention but they’ve only been played by a handful of people...for all the press that Pacmanahattan got only ten people played it."

Interesting stuff.

Lisa Donavan

2008-03-08T13:10:00.002-06:00

I spoke with Lisa Donavan briefly Saturday morning…

She was nice.

From her Youtube content she got a gig with MadTV.

These are some other guyz who also got picked up due to their own content.

They are on SNL now.

They also made a movie.

Quit Your Day Job - Lisa Donavan

2008-03-08T12:20:00.000-06:00

Lisa Donavan took a popular YouTube presence and turned it into a job with Mad TV and several online shows she contributes content towards.

The Suxorz!!

2008-03-08T11:33:00.002-06:00

The Suxorz

This panel featured Steve Hall, Jeff Jarvis, Rebecca Lieb, and Charlotte Selles. Moderator Henry Copeland went down the line, letting the panelists nominate one ad or campaign that was either unethical or just plain crap from companies during 2007.

ROUND 1

First nominee is Molson. They used their Facebook account to get people to send in phtos of them "using" their product, i.e. "Getting f-ed up," said Charlotte Selles, the panelist nominating Molson for the Suxorz award.

Second was nominated by Rebecca Lieb- the Carlton Beer "very big" ad. She mentioned that everyone online has seen it, but no one knew what it was advertising. "I've heard Carlson.. Carls... No one seems to know the actual name of the company," Lieb said.

"Pay per post is evil!" declared Jeff Jarvis. "It's a human spam blog." Jarvis cited a mom who wrote blog posts for Pay Per Post who had her kids smash an HP camera on video and then put it online.

Steve Hall introduced Wal-marting across America, a fake folksy blog about a couple who went across America visiting different Wal-Marts.

Winner... Hewlett-Packard

ROUND 2

Selles introduced the famous Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey, who posted negative things on the message board of his competitor under "Rahodeb," a scramble of his wife, Deborah's, name.

Jarvis- CISCO and the "Human Network." They went into Wikipedia and wrote their own article promoting their own business, which is completely unethical. They showed a clip from a CISCO executive explaining that they "organically" suggested the Wikipedia article to consumers. "I love to be organically socialized!" said Jarvis.

Hall- Mentos and Diet Coke. People had already been combining Mentos and Diet Coke for the fun explosion effect, and originally the companies avoided the issue. However, once they realized they could cash in on consumers' interest in combining the two products, they did just that.

Lieb- Vespa Blog. Vespa found people who used Vespa and loved it and had them blog about it. Until one day when Vespa lost interest and stopped paying attention to their bloggers... and the bloggers started posting negative things about Vespa's level of service. The last post, blasting the company, actually stayed online for two years before being taken down by the company.

Winner... CISCO. 2 for 2 for Jarvis.

ROUND 3

Lieb- Going to Work for Subway, by agency.com. Video of a creative director going to get a job at Subway... the ad agency lost employees and were made the laughing stock of the advertising world. The video actually disappeared from YouTube.

Hall- Target Rounders. Rounders was a clandestine project by Target... they had young consumers promote Target projects but told the participants not to talk about it with their friends or on their Facebook groups. "Keep it like a secret!!"

Jarvis- The Giuliani campaign. He created a MySpace page to try and get in touch with young voters. "Giuliani was defeated by his lack of savvy on the Internet," said Jarvis.

Selles- All I Want for Xmas is a PSP. A fake blog by a kid who supposedly really wanted a PSP for Christmas. Everyone found out it was fake and were extremely critical of the company's tactics.

Winner... Agency.com FTW! (or... FTL? depends on how you look at it)

(this next one was tossed in at the end)

MarieDigby, who recorded an acoustic version of Rihanna's "Umbrella" and posted it on YouTube... she got tons of hits and visitors and was sooo shocked at her popularity. Only... the filming was done by her record company trying to promote their artist. Previously she had said she didn't have a record company.

"To make up things and fake us out, it's just terrible!," said Jarvis. "How insulting is that to us? The truth is you can't buy us."

"It's not hard to tell the truth... it really isn't. It's a whole different world and they're still trying to figure out and it's just a matter of time. There's going to be enough screw ups that eventually we won't have any more screw ups," said Hall. He said that wouldn't be fun, because then we couldn't sit around and make fun of them.

The final result from all the "winners" is... HP! Good job, guys.