Category :: sxsw
Photos by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
SXSW is my favorite conference/festival/springbreakforgeeks event of the year and has been since 1998 for Music and 2001 for Interactive. I love Austin in early to mid-March.
For a few years now, I have felt that Nokia has missed a big opportunity to reach out to the North American and International web, mobile, gamer, and interactive creator & influencer communities by not participating, attending, or throwing a big open to all badges party at SXSW. Last year Nokia held two private by invite only parties that were kept on the low down, which was completely baffling for a company that is struggling in the North American market, as SXSW would be the perfect place to get all the influencers and bloggers to start talking.
More Text/Write-up/Thoughts plus Links just beyond the jump....
Continue reading #NokiaComp Goes to SXSW Interactive 2010.
Panorama photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 at the annual Wine & Cheese Party.
Every year at SXSW, I take tons of photos, many years I attempt to get most to all of them up here or at Flickr and don't quite make it to the end of the week's worth of photos. This year, I did and here they are, plus a few of my patented Ms. Jen transcribed session notes:
Day 0 - Thurs 03.11.10
Day 1 - Fri 03.12.10
Day 2 - Sat 03.13.10
Day 3 - Sun 03.14.10
Day 4 - Mon 03.15.10
Day 5 - Tues 03.16.10
The Day After - Wed 03.17.10
Per the usual, click on the photos to start the slideshow and read the captions. Big thanks to the WomWorldNokia folks for loaning me the Nokia N86 8mp camera phone so that I could take so many great photos.
Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 in panorama mode.
I unfortunately missed Danah Boyd's Saturday Keynote on Saturday, but above is an excerpted video. Danah has posted the notes/essay of the keynote: "Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity" at her website.
Watch and read it, provocative and thoughtful as always.
Photo of flowering tree at airport by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97, the rest with a Nokia N86.
Wed 03.17.10 - Happy St. Patrick's Day. Goodbye Austin, thanks for another wonderful SXSW Interactive!
Photo of Jeremy & Tantek taken with a Nokia N97 at the Convention Center, the rest at the annual Wine & Cheese Party & Closing Party with a Nokia N86. All by Ms. Jen.
Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Continue reading Off the SXSW Grid - Puff Puff Open Mic Comedy Night, SXSW Day 4.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Continue reading SXSW Day 2 : Kick! Or the Brits Run Wild.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97 and a Nokia N86.
Friday 03.12.10 - Friday used to be the Day 0, but now there are a full set of panels & parties, so welcome to the new SXSW Interactive Day 1.
Let the madness begin.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
Wed 05.27.09 - Or how Ernie, Ms. Jen, and hundreds, if not a thousand plus of us were given free Android HTC Magic phones today at Google I/0.
Or how Google quite brilliantly insured that hundreds of developers would write Android apps by making sure that they would have testing devices!
Craig Duff of Time.com video'd the Bloggies Awards Ceremony on Monday. Go watch it, the video is a great combo of performances and interviews.
The Bloggies were good fun. Great presenters, great performers (George, Jeremy, and Dan!), and tons of great bloggers! Big thanks to everyone.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Sun 03.15.09 - Showing the Nokia N79 to Kenyatta and Ella of Rocketboom on a stair landing at the Austin Convention Center at SXSW Interactive.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Here you go, the first day of Ms. Jen's panel transcripts:
Sat March 14, 2006 - SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX
11:30am - The Creative Path
Jim Coudal - Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes - Magnetic North
Gary Hustwit - Filmmaker "Helvetica", "Objectified"
Objectified premier is at the Paramount at 5pm.
Jim Couldal:
Creative Path: show don't tell.
Speaking on Joseph Conrad, literary theory, "we are complicit in our own corruption" By the time you have finished the book or movie, the narrative leads you through your own corruption much more powerfully than if Conrad was to write an essay.
Montessori - Teaching kids to learn.
Layer Tennis - Live on Friday afternoons, two artists swap a file back and forth in real time. Continue to add to the file on top each other's work. Ultimate end is to probably to reduce productivity on Friday afternoon. Restraint and freedom, creativity comes out of the balance between the two. Keep in mind that the act and result of creation is a conversation, not a lecture.
Gary Hustwit - Seventy-five minutes and thrity-six seconds.
I make documentary films, which are linear fixed forms of media. There is no way for the viewer of the film to change the plot line, characters, destination, or duration of the film, unless they get up and leave.
How do you make a fixed documentary film to be interactive?
1. use ellipsis... Intentionally leave out information, that the viewer of the film needs to put in themselves, a moment of discovery is more compelling than if someone tells you what the story is.
What is not there, what is left out. It leave the piece open to interpretation.
Delayed gratification.
2. Make it a game. bring in puzzles.
Dialogue going on between the viewer and the film.
Timing, juxtaposition.
"If all else fails, put a dog in the film." - Gary Hustwit
Brendan Dawes -
Made a flash video editor in 1998 - Pyscho Studio - See if folks could make their own version of the pyscho shower scene.
The danger is that when you give folks things to play with, you get some weird shit. Then you realize that people are weird.
Human beings versus machines. Computer would plot an efficient line from a to be. Critical Mass by Philip Ball is where he had folks walk across a park, before they put in the paths, to see how humans used the park.
Good design is about taking things away. Gives example of traffic calming in Brighton, by having the sidewalk & street be the same space with no directions & signs -> it makes drivers slow down to 10mph and be much more aware.
Makes sketches, as sketchbooks don't run out of batteries.
doodlebuzz.com - We get complacent with interface, why can't we create new interface.
"People think these days that if you can't use an interface in 2 seconds that it is rubbish. That is rubbish." - Brendan advocates making new UIs and making the user work for it.
You can start with Britney Spears and end up with the Pope. Any interface that allows you to do that is good.
"If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will never happen & your life will never begin..." Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Yes, it is that time of year again, time for SXSW Interactive and the 2009 Weblog Awards!
The Bloggies are the web's longest-running non-profit, reader voted blog awards. The votes are in and the Weblog Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 16th at 12:30pm (Central Time, GMT-5) at the SXSW Trade Show Day Stage.
Come join us in celebrating blogs and bloggers at SXSW Monday at lunch. If you can't make in person to the Bloggies Award Ceremony, join us on IRC, #Bloggies on irc.freenode.net, for live coverage and chat. After the ceremony the winning blogs can be found at 2009.bloggies.com.
The 9th Annual Weblog Awards Ceremony will be brought to you this Monday by Ms. Jen and George Kelly, with big ideas & help from Glenda Sims, as well as all the fabulous presenters and bloggers. Extra big thanks to Nikolai Nolan for all his hard work on the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards web site and managing the whole voting process.
If you are going to SXSWi, please come join us on Monday 3/16 at 12:30pm at the Day Stage for the Bloggies!
I would like to encourage y'all to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009.
Moleskine to Mobile :: Consume or Create!
"Mobile devices are the frontier consumption vs. creation for over 2.5 billion people in the world. Do we, the people, use our mobile devices to consume other's creations or do we create with our mobiles? As designers, developers, and creators, will we let the manufacturers & operators define the mobile space or will we?"
Sat 03.15.08 - SXSW Day 9 or The Ides of March - Hometown boys, CH3, at the Devil Dolls / Crawlspace / TKO / Hellcat showcase at Red 7. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Legendary Shack Shakers at the Ale House. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Aggrolites at the Batanga party at Habana 6. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Mick Jones is a great live interview, very funny. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
****
My thoughts on this Interview with Tony James and Mick Jones of Carbon/Silicon from my Twitter stream:
msjen: is wandering around Flatstock before the 2pm Mick Jones panel.
msjen: Amusingly, there was a line to get into the Mick Jones interview. Now that Joe Strummer is RIP, I guess Mick is the elder stateman.
msjen: Tony James on SXSW: "It is amazing, it is like they took Glastonbury and dropped it into a city."
msjen: Tony James, still hot... Mick Jones has a beer with him.
msjen: Mick Jones on pubs: "They are all gastropubs. The no smoking thing has ruined it for everyone. It is a class thing."
msjen: Mick Jones is on fire - cracking jokes & acting them out. "I don't want to talk about anything." Takes a pull on the beer.
msjen: Mick Jones on what he learned from the blues while growing up: "You have to live it before you can sing about it."
msjen: Tony James to Mick: "Do you know your username?" Mick: "goingpostal?" Tony to audience: "Mick Jones, the man with no username."
msjen: Mick Jones on mp3s vs. cds: "The problem is you can't roll a joint on it or make a line."
msjen: Mick Jones now is telling the audience Texas history. Tony, "How do you KNOW all this stuff?"
Thurs 03.15.08 - I <3 the Asylum Street Spankers. Hands down the best band of SXSW! Absolutely amazing show.
Thurs 03.13.08 - Photo taken on 6th Street by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thur 03.13.03 - Minipop, the 12:50pm band at the Noise Pop party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
... Have fun at recycling!
Tues 03.11.08 - The sentiments of many on the last night of SXSW Interactive.
Tues 03.11.08 - Photo of Andy Budd and Richard Rutter by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.
The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.
Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.
Mon 03.10.08 - SXSW Day 3 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen at the Great British Booze Up.
Mon 03.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen while crossing 6th Street to attend the Great British Booze Up with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Ernie, Shane, a friend, and Tom at Iron Cactus during the Fire Eagle / Flickr Party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Elizabeth Perry and George Kelly. Photo by Ms. Jen at SXSW with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Today is the Big Day. George Kelly and I will be conducting our Web Standards Confession Booth "Core Conversation" in the Ballroom E of the Austin Convention Center at 3:30pm.
Come on down, drop by, etc. to participate in the conversation and/or to give your confession. ;o)
Sat 03.08.08 - Towards the end of the annual Wine & Cheese party, Steve decided to have a bit of a lie down.
Sat 03.09.08 - After lunch. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat 03.09.08 - At lunch at Las Manitas. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat. 03.08.08 - SXSW Day 1 - I watch this tree, at the SW corner of 3rd & Trinity Sts in Austin, bloom and start to leaf out every year since 1998. It is fun to see its yearly show.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Friday 03.07.08 - SXSW 2008 Day 0 - View of West Austin at dusk from the hotel.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.07.08 - SXSW Day 0, View from the Hampton Inn pool deck. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.
One of the things that I miss from art school is the critique*.
Yes, the hoary, old institution of the critique. Bring your art or design work into a gathering of your peers and professors or visiting artists, either talk about it a bit or not, then everyone else talks about it and you listen. And listen, and filter, and then possibly ask a question or further explain and listen some more.
Sometimes the critique is right on the money and if you listen you will learn a great deal about your process, your art, that particular piece, and maybe, if you really are willing, you can grow from the experience. Sometimes the critique is a piece of shit, the assembled group is not mentally there or they are feeling off or don't care or at times unwilling to be anything but a bit vicious, and then there can be wounding or anger or ripping your piece to bits in front of them and throwing it at them (particularly effective when the piece is sculptural and has large sticks attached to it, crying while throwing can also add to the effect).
Most of the times, the critique was more than a bit boring or mundane with bits of transformative learning and bits of petty meanness. Lots of sitting, lots of listening to others, and lots of attempting to be present, and if you were letting the listening filter into your brain, then reverberations later that become gentle waves of "oh that is what they meant" awareness. A good lesson for life. Be attentive, listen, some of it may absorb and resound later.
As an adult in a design and art career, I miss the critique. Some clients, if they are artists or designers, can provide good feedback, but the average client either likes it or they don't and many times they don't have the language for why, at worst the client is vague, very vague** or is non-constructive in their criticism.
I have been blessed with friends in a variety of art and design fields who are willing to sit down and not just talk about the big ideas running around but about our work. I dearly miss Megan McMillan and Jessica Spengler, as both women are talented writers / artists and thinkers with excellent observations and insights, and wish that both of them were geographically closer or I had more air miles. In my immediate vicinity, I enjoy in person conversations with painters Dan Callis and Ryan Callis, as well as industrial/product designer Thomas Bertling.
One of my favorite parts of SXSW is sitting down one on one with a friend or a small group of friends and asking if they will give feedback. Last year at SXSW, Veerle and I sat at breakfast one morning and discussed the (then) new design of this site. Veerle was kind, thoughtful, and truthful. I thought over her major critique for a number of months, turning the idea over in my head, weighing it against my own design process and ideals, and ended up not using it. This year, I had the opportunity to sit and show Rob Weychert the in progress re-design of Barflies.net. Rob was thoughtful, asked questions, gave good feedback about design choices, as well as constructive ideas about color contrast. Yesterday, I tried Rob's color contrast suggestion and am now very happy with the new barflies.net color scheme.
* Broader definition of critique at wikipedia.
** Perhaps all business and computer science students should have to take one studio art or design class to learn how to talk in an informed, critical way about the increasing visual world we live in.
Me and Rob being very silly. Rob has the best beard ever.
@ Mongolian BBQ on San Jacinto and 2nd.
Breakfast - Overrun 5 mins before 10am closing by hordes of the Music folk looking a bit zombie-fied. Hung out with Ben and Dave. Around noon, Alex, Adeline, and Christina showed up, I printed the Austinist party list out for them and we all (LA + BP + Patrick Haney) went over the Iron Works for BBQ. Chris from Turbonegro joined us and Alex had a quiet fanboy moment. Good lunch, got my fill of beef. First bbq of the week. The Brits and PH departed to go to the airport and I sat talking with the LA crew.
Christina and Adeline together are a scream. Much like Ben and Dave should have their own tv show, Adeline and Christina should have one, too. It might be more amusing if we put them all in a house together... ;o)
Off we went to the convention center to get wristbands for Adeline and Christina. Chris went off to band related duties. After the wristband pick up, A, A, C and I went over to Moonshine for the Honeypot Radio and Heidi's Night of Beauty party. We got there just in time to see Piney Gir play with Goldrush. Excellent! Fun western swing-ish country meets indie rock, good stuff. Not at all like the Graham Parsons indie-country rock stuff that is so popular right now. Piney Gir is from Kansas but lives in London. Must buy some CDs. Brit friends - please go see her and her Roadshow.
Heidi gave me a fabulous jeweled cherry toe ring that I turned into a mobile accessory for Peek-a-Pooh. Lookin' good.
Another Brit band, The Height, played next. Good but I was not excited about them as I was with Piney Gir and Goldrush. Off I went back to the hotel to drink water and work on my computer. Here I am 4 hours later still tiptapping away. Now off to dinner.
I was walking down 1st St. (Cesar Chavez) to go to lunch with the Brit Pack jnrs and Alex, Adeline, and Christina, when someone in a car started yelling at me... Julia Johnson Britt!
Julia and I have been friends since I was 16 and she was 17. We went to punk and other rock shows together, we did the great summer of 1988 tour of London, France, Germany, Ireland, and London again as traveling partners. And now she is living in Texas. Wahoo!
What a great moment of serendipity.
SXSW - Day 5 - Wed. March 14, 2007 - The Post-Interactive or the Vacation Part of the Adventure
Breakfast with all the Hampton Inn Brit Packers and East Coasters before folks depart. Hung out talking with various and sundry folk from 9 am to past 1 pm. Got to spend a good amount of time talking with Aaron.
Had lunch at the Rio Grande (again, delightfully) with Aaron G., Craig C., Derek F.,Christopher S., Dave T., Steve M. and Ben W. Good laughter.
Then those who did not have to fly out in the afternoon went back to the Hampton to sit on the 2nd floor and work with our computers. The Brit Pack jnrs and Andy Budd went off to Halcyon in the late afternoon and I took a short nap before going over to the SXSW Music Awards.
The Music Awards started at 8pm and went along fine for a half hour until I got a call from Lauren, went out to the Creekside patio to call her back and she gave me an update on her mom's condition (still in ICU, another round of surgeries planned, blood donation, etc.). I cried. I tried to go back into the Awards but was unable to really appreciate the bands, so I left at 9:30pm. Squeek, thank you for the ticket, I am sorry I was unable to stay the whole night.
I was in the mood to have a bit of food, as I missed dinner, and to sit quietly with friends. I met up with Andy Budd, PPK, and the BP jnrs at Buffalo Billiards. Alex Hernandez and Adeline Wylie joined us. I ate and chatted with PPK, Alex and Adline while Andy, Dave, Steve, and Ben played foosball. Around 11pm plus, Alex and Adeline went to go see The Smoking Popes and the rest of us retired back to our respective rooms.
The waffle is still frozen on the inside.
SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007
10am - Web Typography Sucks
Richard Rutter - Clearleft.com
Mark Boulton - Markboultondesign.com
Vertical Rhythm -
Richard
Typographic Layout
Grid system
Rational Ratio - Rule of 3rds, 2:3, divides block into 6 sub-blocks of 1em
Because the grid is defined by the type size, there is a relationship between all the elements
Typeface and Fonts
The thorny issue of the web
Richard recommends that you first call your preferred typeface, even if a small percentage of folks will see it, and then use the font that come on any mac or pc.
Richard - new fonts shipped with Vista. Calibri, cambria, candara, constantia, corbel.
Mark - these are world class typefaces, start using them, extend the font stack.
Richard - 'They all begin with "C", which is just silly.'
Continue reading SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007.
Mark Boulton and Richard Rutter
SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007
I woke up fairly early rested. Called Lauren. Breakfast. Off to convention center for panels.
10am - Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui
Jeremy Keith
Derek Featherstone
AJAX Kung Fu - Jeremy Keith
Accessibility -
1) Making sites accessible for people and a device, ie screenreader
2) Device agnostic - universality - site that can adapt to the needs of the people using the site
Progressive Enhancement -
1) Begin with Content
2) Structure - semantic (HTML)
3) Presentation - add look (CSS)
4) Behavior (Javascript and AJAX)
The problem is that a lot of applications are built with AJAX first and you can't get to the content without AJAX. This does not work to well.
Continue reading SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007.
At the Great British Booze Up!
SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007
Woke up vaguely on time a bit discombobulated due to time change last night. Got ready to get over to the 10am panels.
10am - Every Breath You Take: Identity, Attention, Presence and Reputation
Christian Crumlish - Yahoo!
Kaliya Hamlin - Identity Woman
Mary Hodder - Dabble
George Kelly - allaboutgeorge
Ted Nadeau - Dot Line
I came in half way and tea did not engage brain until end. Mostly a discussion of privacy and reputation. I need to ready more of Mary Hodder's work.
"I don't wear my bathrobe to work and I don't wear my work clothes to bed" - Mary Hodder, on reputation, "Think of having multiple identities, it is more like who we are in real life. We present slices of ourselves as they are appropriate."
Continue reading SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007.
Photos by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
SXSW is my favorite conference/festival/springbreakforgeeks event of the year and has been since 1998 for Music and 2001 for Interactive. I love Austin in early to mid-March.
For a few years now, I have felt that Nokia has missed a big opportunity to reach out to the North American and International web, mobile, gamer, and interactive creator & influencer communities by not participating, attending, or throwing a big open to all badges party at SXSW. Last year Nokia held two private by invite only parties that were kept on the low down, which was completely baffling for a company that is struggling in the North American market, as SXSW would be the perfect place to get all the influencers and bloggers to start talking.
More Text/Write-up/Thoughts plus Links just beyond the jump....
Panorama photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 at the annual Wine & Cheese Party.
Every year at SXSW, I take tons of photos, many years I attempt to get most to all of them up here or at Flickr and don't quite make it to the end of the week's worth of photos. This year, I did and here they are, plus a few of my patented Ms. Jen transcribed session notes:
Day 0 - Thurs 03.11.10
Day 1 - Fri 03.12.10
Day 2 - Sat 03.13.10
Day 3 - Sun 03.14.10
Day 4 - Mon 03.15.10
Day 5 - Tues 03.16.10
The Day After - Wed 03.17.10
Per the usual, click on the photos to start the slideshow and read the captions. Big thanks to the WomWorldNokia folks for loaning me the Nokia N86 8mp camera phone so that I could take so many great photos.
Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86 in panorama mode.
I unfortunately missed Danah Boyd's Saturday Keynote on Saturday, but above is an excerpted video. Danah has posted the notes/essay of the keynote: "Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity" at her website.
Watch and read it, provocative and thoughtful as always.
Photo of flowering tree at airport by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97, the rest with a Nokia N86.
Wed 03.17.10 - Happy St. Patrick's Day. Goodbye Austin, thanks for another wonderful SXSW Interactive!
Photo of Jeremy & Tantek taken with a Nokia N97 at the Convention Center, the rest at the annual Wine & Cheese Party & Closing Party with a Nokia N86. All by Ms. Jen.
Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N86.
Photos taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N97 and a Nokia N86.
Friday 03.12.10 - Friday used to be the Day 0, but now there are a full set of panels & parties, so welcome to the new SXSW Interactive Day 1.
Let the madness begin.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95.
Wed 05.27.09 - Or how Ernie, Ms. Jen, and hundreds, if not a thousand plus of us were given free Android HTC Magic phones today at Google I/0.
Or how Google quite brilliantly insured that hundreds of developers would write Android apps by making sure that they would have testing devices!
Craig Duff of Time.com video'd the Bloggies Awards Ceremony on Monday. Go watch it, the video is a great combo of performances and interviews.
The Bloggies were good fun. Great presenters, great performers (George, Jeremy, and Dan!), and tons of great bloggers! Big thanks to everyone.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Sun 03.15.09 - Showing the Nokia N79 to Kenyatta and Ella of Rocketboom on a stair landing at the Austin Convention Center at SXSW Interactive.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Here you go, the first day of Ms. Jen's panel transcripts:
Sat March 14, 2006 - SXSW Interactive
Austin, TX
11:30am - The Creative Path
Jim Coudal - Coudal Partners
Brendan Dawes - Magnetic North
Gary Hustwit - Filmmaker "Helvetica", "Objectified"
Objectified premier is at the Paramount at 5pm.
Jim Couldal:
Creative Path: show don't tell.
Speaking on Joseph Conrad, literary theory, "we are complicit in our own corruption" By the time you have finished the book or movie, the narrative leads you through your own corruption much more powerfully than if Conrad was to write an essay.
Montessori - Teaching kids to learn.
Layer Tennis - Live on Friday afternoons, two artists swap a file back and forth in real time. Continue to add to the file on top each other's work. Ultimate end is to probably to reduce productivity on Friday afternoon. Restraint and freedom, creativity comes out of the balance between the two. Keep in mind that the act and result of creation is a conversation, not a lecture.
Gary Hustwit - Seventy-five minutes and thrity-six seconds.
I make documentary films, which are linear fixed forms of media. There is no way for the viewer of the film to change the plot line, characters, destination, or duration of the film, unless they get up and leave.
How do you make a fixed documentary film to be interactive?
1. use ellipsis... Intentionally leave out information, that the viewer of the film needs to put in themselves, a moment of discovery is more compelling than if someone tells you what the story is.
What is not there, what is left out. It leave the piece open to interpretation.
Delayed gratification.
2. Make it a game. bring in puzzles.
Dialogue going on between the viewer and the film.
Timing, juxtaposition.
"If all else fails, put a dog in the film." - Gary Hustwit
Brendan Dawes -
Made a flash video editor in 1998 - Pyscho Studio - See if folks could make their own version of the pyscho shower scene.
The danger is that when you give folks things to play with, you get some weird shit. Then you realize that people are weird.
Human beings versus machines. Computer would plot an efficient line from a to be. Critical Mass by Philip Ball is where he had folks walk across a park, before they put in the paths, to see how humans used the park.
Good design is about taking things away. Gives example of traffic calming in Brighton, by having the sidewalk & street be the same space with no directions & signs -> it makes drivers slow down to 10mph and be much more aware.
Makes sketches, as sketchbooks don't run out of batteries.
doodlebuzz.com - We get complacent with interface, why can't we create new interface.
"People think these days that if you can't use an interface in 2 seconds that it is rubbish. That is rubbish." - Brendan advocates making new UIs and making the user work for it.
You can start with Britney Spears and end up with the Pope. Any interface that allows you to do that is good.
"If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will never happen & your life will never begin..." Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Photo taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.
Yes, it is that time of year again, time for SXSW Interactive and the 2009 Weblog Awards!
The Bloggies are the web's longest-running non-profit, reader voted blog awards. The votes are in and the Weblog Awards ceremony will be held on Monday, March 16th at 12:30pm (Central Time, GMT-5) at the SXSW Trade Show Day Stage.
Come join us in celebrating blogs and bloggers at SXSW Monday at lunch. If you can't make in person to the Bloggies Award Ceremony, join us on IRC, #Bloggies on irc.freenode.net, for live coverage and chat. After the ceremony the winning blogs can be found at 2009.bloggies.com.
The 9th Annual Weblog Awards Ceremony will be brought to you this Monday by Ms. Jen and George Kelly, with big ideas & help from Glenda Sims, as well as all the fabulous presenters and bloggers. Extra big thanks to Nikolai Nolan for all his hard work on the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards web site and managing the whole voting process.
If you are going to SXSWi, please come join us on Monday 3/16 at 12:30pm at the Day Stage for the Bloggies!
I would like to encourage y'all to vote for my Mobile Creativity panel for SXSW 2009.
Moleskine to Mobile :: Consume or Create!
"Mobile devices are the frontier consumption vs. creation for over 2.5 billion people in the world. Do we, the people, use our mobile devices to consume other's creations or do we create with our mobiles? As designers, developers, and creators, will we let the manufacturers & operators define the mobile space or will we?"
Sat 03.15.08 - SXSW Day 9 or The Ides of March - Hometown boys, CH3, at the Devil Dolls / Crawlspace / TKO / Hellcat showcase at Red 7. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Legendary Shack Shakers at the Ale House. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - The Aggrolites at the Batanga party at Habana 6. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Mick Jones is a great live interview, very funny. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
****
My thoughts on this Interview with Tony James and Mick Jones of Carbon/Silicon from my Twitter stream:
msjen: is wandering around Flatstock before the 2pm Mick Jones panel.
msjen: Amusingly, there was a line to get into the Mick Jones interview. Now that Joe Strummer is RIP, I guess Mick is the elder stateman.
msjen: Tony James on SXSW: "It is amazing, it is like they took Glastonbury and dropped it into a city."
msjen: Tony James, still hot... Mick Jones has a beer with him.
msjen: Mick Jones on pubs: "They are all gastropubs. The no smoking thing has ruined it for everyone. It is a class thing."
msjen: Mick Jones is on fire - cracking jokes & acting them out. "I don't want to talk about anything." Takes a pull on the beer.
msjen: Mick Jones on what he learned from the blues while growing up: "You have to live it before you can sing about it."
msjen: Tony James to Mick: "Do you know your username?" Mick: "goingpostal?" Tony to audience: "Mick Jones, the man with no username."
msjen: Mick Jones on mp3s vs. cds: "The problem is you can't roll a joint on it or make a line."
msjen: Mick Jones now is telling the audience Texas history. Tony, "How do you KNOW all this stuff?"
Thurs 03.15.08 - I <3 the Asylum Street Spankers. Hands down the best band of SXSW! Absolutely amazing show.
Thurs 03.13.08 - Photo taken on 6th Street by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thur 03.13.03 - Minipop, the 12:50pm band at the Noise Pop party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
... Have fun at recycling!
Tues 03.11.08 - The sentiments of many on the last night of SXSW Interactive.
Tues 03.11.08 - Photo of Andy Budd and Richard Rutter by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.
The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.
Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.
Mon 03.10.08 - SXSW Day 3 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen at the Great British Booze Up.
Mon 03.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen while crossing 6th Street to attend the Great British Booze Up with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Ernie, Shane, a friend, and Tom at Iron Cactus during the Fire Eagle / Flickr Party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Elizabeth Perry and George Kelly. Photo by Ms. Jen at SXSW with a Nokia N82.
Sun 03.09.08 - Today is the Big Day. George Kelly and I will be conducting our Web Standards Confession Booth "Core Conversation" in the Ballroom E of the Austin Convention Center at 3:30pm.
Come on down, drop by, etc. to participate in the conversation and/or to give your confession. ;o)
Sat 03.08.08 - Towards the end of the annual Wine & Cheese party, Steve decided to have a bit of a lie down.
Sat 03.09.08 - After lunch. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat 03.09.08 - At lunch at Las Manitas. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Sat. 03.08.08 - SXSW Day 1 - I watch this tree, at the SW corner of 3rd & Trinity Sts in Austin, bloom and start to leaf out every year since 1998. It is fun to see its yearly show.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Friday 03.07.08 - SXSW 2008 Day 0 - View of West Austin at dusk from the hotel.
Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Fri 03.07.08 - SXSW Day 0, View from the Hampton Inn pool deck. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.
Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.
One of the things that I miss from art school is the critique*.
Yes, the hoary, old institution of the critique. Bring your art or design work into a gathering of your peers and professors or visiting artists, either talk about it a bit or not, then everyone else talks about it and you listen. And listen, and filter, and then possibly ask a question or further explain and listen some more.
Sometimes the critique is right on the money and if you listen you will learn a great deal about your process, your art, that particular piece, and maybe, if you really are willing, you can grow from the experience. Sometimes the critique is a piece of shit, the assembled group is not mentally there or they are feeling off or don't care or at times unwilling to be anything but a bit vicious, and then there can be wounding or anger or ripping your piece to bits in front of them and throwing it at them (particularly effective when the piece is sculptural and has large sticks attached to it, crying while throwing can also add to the effect).
Most of the times, the critique was more than a bit boring or mundane with bits of transformative learning and bits of petty meanness. Lots of sitting, lots of listening to others, and lots of attempting to be present, and if you were letting the listening filter into your brain, then reverberations later that become gentle waves of "oh that is what they meant" awareness. A good lesson for life. Be attentive, listen, some of it may absorb and resound later.
As an adult in a design and art career, I miss the critique. Some clients, if they are artists or designers, can provide good feedback, but the average client either likes it or they don't and many times they don't have the language for why, at worst the client is vague, very vague** or is non-constructive in their criticism.
I have been blessed with friends in a variety of art and design fields who are willing to sit down and not just talk about the big ideas running around but about our work. I dearly miss Megan McMillan and Jessica Spengler, as both women are talented writers / artists and thinkers with excellent observations and insights, and wish that both of them were geographically closer or I had more air miles. In my immediate vicinity, I enjoy in person conversations with painters Dan Callis and Ryan Callis, as well as industrial/product designer Thomas Bertling.
One of my favorite parts of SXSW is sitting down one on one with a friend or a small group of friends and asking if they will give feedback. Last year at SXSW, Veerle and I sat at breakfast one morning and discussed the (then) new design of this site. Veerle was kind, thoughtful, and truthful. I thought over her major critique for a number of months, turning the idea over in my head, weighing it against my own design process and ideals, and ended up not using it. This year, I had the opportunity to sit and show Rob Weychert the in progress re-design of Barflies.net. Rob was thoughtful, asked questions, gave good feedback about design choices, as well as constructive ideas about color contrast. Yesterday, I tried Rob's color contrast suggestion and am now very happy with the new barflies.net color scheme.
* Broader definition of critique at wikipedia.
** Perhaps all business and computer science students should have to take one studio art or design class to learn how to talk in an informed, critical way about the increasing visual world we live in.
Me and Rob being very silly. Rob has the best beard ever.
@ Mongolian BBQ on San Jacinto and 2nd.
Breakfast - Overrun 5 mins before 10am closing by hordes of the Music folk looking a bit zombie-fied. Hung out with Ben and Dave. Around noon, Alex, Adeline, and Christina showed up, I printed the Austinist party list out for them and we all (LA + BP + Patrick Haney) went over the Iron Works for BBQ. Chris from Turbonegro joined us and Alex had a quiet fanboy moment. Good lunch, got my fill of beef. First bbq of the week. The Brits and PH departed to go to the airport and I sat talking with the LA crew.
Christina and Adeline together are a scream. Much like Ben and Dave should have their own tv show, Adeline and Christina should have one, too. It might be more amusing if we put them all in a house together... ;o)
Off we went to the convention center to get wristbands for Adeline and Christina. Chris went off to band related duties. After the wristband pick up, A, A, C and I went over to Moonshine for the Honeypot Radio and Heidi's Night of Beauty party. We got there just in time to see Piney Gir play with Goldrush. Excellent! Fun western swing-ish country meets indie rock, good stuff. Not at all like the Graham Parsons indie-country rock stuff that is so popular right now. Piney Gir is from Kansas but lives in London. Must buy some CDs. Brit friends - please go see her and her Roadshow.
Heidi gave me a fabulous jeweled cherry toe ring that I turned into a mobile accessory for Peek-a-Pooh. Lookin' good.
Another Brit band, The Height, played next. Good but I was not excited about them as I was with Piney Gir and Goldrush. Off I went back to the hotel to drink water and work on my computer. Here I am 4 hours later still tiptapping away. Now off to dinner.
I was walking down 1st St. (Cesar Chavez) to go to lunch with the Brit Pack jnrs and Alex, Adeline, and Christina, when someone in a car started yelling at me... Julia Johnson Britt!
Julia and I have been friends since I was 16 and she was 17. We went to punk and other rock shows together, we did the great summer of 1988 tour of London, France, Germany, Ireland, and London again as traveling partners. And now she is living in Texas. Wahoo!
What a great moment of serendipity.
SXSW - Day 5 - Wed. March 14, 2007 - The Post-Interactive or the Vacation Part of the Adventure
Breakfast with all the Hampton Inn Brit Packers and East Coasters before folks depart. Hung out talking with various and sundry folk from 9 am to past 1 pm. Got to spend a good amount of time talking with Aaron.
Had lunch at the Rio Grande (again, delightfully) with Aaron G., Craig C., Derek F.,Christopher S., Dave T., Steve M. and Ben W. Good laughter.
Then those who did not have to fly out in the afternoon went back to the Hampton to sit on the 2nd floor and work with our computers. The Brit Pack jnrs and Andy Budd went off to Halcyon in the late afternoon and I took a short nap before going over to the SXSW Music Awards.
The Music Awards started at 8pm and went along fine for a half hour until I got a call from Lauren, went out to the Creekside patio to call her back and she gave me an update on her mom's condition (still in ICU, another round of surgeries planned, blood donation, etc.). I cried. I tried to go back into the Awards but was unable to really appreciate the bands, so I left at 9:30pm. Squeek, thank you for the ticket, I am sorry I was unable to stay the whole night.
I was in the mood to have a bit of food, as I missed dinner, and to sit quietly with friends. I met up with Andy Budd, PPK, and the BP jnrs at Buffalo Billiards. Alex Hernandez and Adeline Wylie joined us. I ate and chatted with PPK, Alex and Adline while Andy, Dave, Steve, and Ben played foosball. Around 11pm plus, Alex and Adeline went to go see The Smoking Popes and the rest of us retired back to our respective rooms.
The waffle is still frozen on the inside.
SXSW - Day 4 - Tues. March 13, 2007
10am - Web Typography Sucks
Richard Rutter - Clearleft.com
Mark Boulton - Markboultondesign.com
Vertical Rhythm -
Richard
Typographic Layout
Grid system
Rational Ratio - Rule of 3rds, 2:3, divides block into 6 sub-blocks of 1em
Because the grid is defined by the type size, there is a relationship between all the elements
Typeface and Fonts
The thorny issue of the web
Richard recommends that you first call your preferred typeface, even if a small percentage of folks will see it, and then use the font that come on any mac or pc.
Richard - new fonts shipped with Vista. Calibri, cambria, candara, constantia, corbel.
Mark - these are world class typefaces, start using them, extend the font stack.
Richard - 'They all begin with "C", which is just silly.'
Mark Boulton and Richard Rutter
SXSW - Day 3 - Mon. March 12, 2007
I woke up fairly early rested. Called Lauren. Breakfast. Off to convention center for panels.
10am - Ajax Kung Fu Meets Accessibility Feng Shui
Jeremy Keith
Derek Featherstone
AJAX Kung Fu - Jeremy Keith
Accessibility -
1) Making sites accessible for people and a device, ie screenreader
2) Device agnostic - universality - site that can adapt to the needs of the people using the site
Progressive Enhancement -
1) Begin with Content
2) Structure - semantic (HTML)
3) Presentation - add look (CSS)
4) Behavior (Javascript and AJAX)
The problem is that a lot of applications are built with AJAX first and you can't get to the content without AJAX. This does not work to well.
At the Great British Booze Up!
SXSW - Day 2 - Sun. March 11, 2007
Woke up vaguely on time a bit discombobulated due to time change last night. Got ready to get over to the 10am panels.
10am - Every Breath You Take: Identity, Attention, Presence and Reputation
Christian Crumlish - Yahoo!
Kaliya Hamlin - Identity Woman
Mary Hodder - Dabble
George Kelly - allaboutgeorge
Ted Nadeau - Dot Line
I came in half way and tea did not engage brain until end. Mostly a discussion of privacy and reputation. I need to ready more of Mary Hodder's work.
"I don't wear my bathrobe to work and I don't wear my work clothes to bed" - Mary Hodder, on reputation, "Think of having multiple identities, it is more like who we are in real life. We present slices of ourselves as they are appropriate."