Blogs

March 12, 2008

Some of the coolest things at this year's SXSW were the "graphic interpretations" of the keynote addresses by Sunni Brown and Marilyn Martin. They were stationed at both sides of the front of the hall and did something akin to giant whiteboard versions of what was taking place on stage. Great theater and very helpful in visualizing (and remembering) the presentations.

March 10, 2008

As I blogged my notes from yesterday's Mark Zuckerberg's "keynote," the four of us from Hammock were all sitting together (along with my 17-year-old son) and we each grew more and more uncomfortable as the interviewer headed off a cliff by breaking "every rule in the book" on how to conduct a good interview. I didn't want to go "too negative" on this topic here on this blog, so I posted my rant version of the event over on rexblog. Also, after the event, Jeff Jarvis prepared a future lecture for his students on how not to conduct and interview.

March 9, 2008

I had intended on doing this live, but all forms of connectivity failed me. After the jump, you'll find my very, very rough notes.

I'll be updating this post through the keynote -- the old school way. The wifi in the room is being slammed and I'm online via 3-G. Should start in a few moments.

2:00: The music is very loud so something must be about to happen. Are they trying for a Stevenotes thing? If so, poor Mark.

After the jump, read my "raw" notes:

Okay. We're going to try an experiment using a service called Coveritlive.com. You can join in (sorry Safari users) via the box at the bottom that says Your Name, however, this is the first time we're using this, so I apologize in advance for having no idea of how this works if it's not working for you.

How to get people to do what you want on your site. Great panel on how to design for particular interactions, and the consequences to consider.

Todd Sieling, Corvus Consulting, Ma.gnolia
Daniel Burka, Delta Tango Bravo, Creative Director at Digg, founder of Pownce
Joshua Porter, Bokardo.com
Chris Messina, Citizen Agency

See my notes....

March 8, 2008

We've been posting photos from today's activities in this Flickr set.

I ended the day with a light, but instructive session: Worst Website Ever: That's So Crazy, It Just Might Work, moderated by the incredible Andy Baio of Waxy.org.

Read about it after the jump:

Brewster Kahle who's a huge proponent of open source devices is apparently a huge proponent of all things digital.. refrigerators, cars, doorknobs. Pretty out there. Basically the panel was really talking about the increase in digital accessibility as we move from traditional desktop computers to touch sensitive mobile devices.

There was some discussion about Microsoft's multipoint advancements (Minority Report). And the guy who invented Guitar Hero was also there pushing the need for hacking for hacking's sake. Reminded me of the argument of art for art's sake. I've got to wonder sometimes why we're willing to go through so much trouble to replace a simple notebook.

Here's what the guide has to say about this session: Lingo from web 2.0 and social media are irresistible to ad hacks seeking to stay buzz compliant. 2007 saw a boom in ad campaigns abusing jargon like widget, blog, mashup, and "consumer-generated-whatever." This panel of bloggers and marketers will dissect ten terrible ad campaigns that abused the ideals of people-powered media, then award The Suxorz Trophy to the worst. Bring your rotten tomatoes.... Panelists: Henry Copeland (Founder, Blogads.com), Steve Hall (Publisher, Adrants), Jeff Jarvis (Blogger/Prof, Buzzmachine/CUNY), Rebecca Lieb (VP & Editor-in-Chief, The ClickZ Network), Charlotte Selles (Global Brand Mgr, Beam Global)

I'm always skeptical of "the 10 worst" or "the 10 best" lists because I think some people will throw something in just to be inflammatory. I do like Jeff Jarvis -- who's always interesting -- so I'm hoping this panel will turn out to be good, though.

The room's nearly SRO....let's see what they have to say.

For the 4th year in a row, a few of the Hammock crew are attending the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Tex., March 8-11. Follow along as we surf through a weekend of ideas, buzz and geek fun.