David Herrold

Some SXSW 2008 high points

Posted by Dave | Filed under Networking, Technology

1. Talking with Junyu Wang, an interaction designer from Google China, over dinner at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant.  We talked about the prodigious use of TOR, Google translate and other proxy services that allow the people of China to surf the web uncensored.  He also spoke about how the majority of the population doesn’t really care about the censorship. More importantly, he enjoyed Harry Potter and his cat doesn’t have a name.

2. Hearing Jason Fried & Jim Coudal speak frankly about their businesses and the creative process.  These guys are bright.  I took notes.

3. Frog Design party.  Fire dancers from Sangre del Sol Fire Troupe.  Neato.

4. Meeting a ridiculous number of fascinating technology professionals in various stages of inebriation.

I’ll be posting some of the things I learned after I decompress and read my feverishly-scratched notes.

It’s good to be home.

Tags: SXSW, sxsw2008

South by Southwest Day 1

Posted by Dave | Filed under Technology, Web design

The first day of South by Southwest was great.  I met a bunch of cool people from all over the United States who are possibly nerdier than I am.  Very cool.

There is a small area of the convention center filled with LEGOS called the “Interactive Playpen”

I posted a few photos here.

The highlight of the day was hearing Jeffery Zeldman and his crew at Happy Cog.  Hearing Zeldman speak is like hearing Yoda address his cadre of young Jedis.

Mmm…wise designer he is.

Tags: south by southwest interactive, SXSW, sxsw2008, sxswi

SXSW 2008

Posted by Dave | Filed under Design, Marketing, Technology, Usability, Web design

I’m officially registered along with Steve and Lina at the Chronicle.  I’m looking forward to meeting some great people and exchanging some great ideas at the conference.

Drop me a line if you plan on attending.  I think it’ll be a blast.

Tags: conference, interactive, SXSW, Technology, Usability, Web design

SXSW Interactive 2008 panels

Posted by Dave | Filed under Communication, Design, Marketing, Software, Technology, Usability, Web design

I was browsing the 2008 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive panels for some topics that sound interesting and I ran into a little problem.  It’s not the 3 hour drive to Austin.  It’s not the $400+ entry fee.  It’s not the dizzying array of ironic hipster t-shirts that I will likely encounter.

I found so many interesting panels that I will surely need to clone myself through some unearthly Lovecraftian manner to see everything I want to see.

I’m OK with that, as long as my clones wear pants (I’m not going through THAT embarrassment again).  Anyhow, it would be quite convenient if one of me could make a Taco Cabana run while the other me is listening to an interesting panel on building an audience for your social networking application.

Regardless of my cloned status, here are the panels I thought sounded interesting this year:

1. Business
10 Tips for Managing a Creative Environment (Bryan Mason)
Unconventional Collaboration: Tips for Local and Remote Teams (Jason Fried)

2. Content
Accessible Rich Media (Sharron Rush)
Behind the Scenes at the Onion News Network (Sean Mills)
Roll Over Gutenberg, Tell McLuhan The News (George Kelly)

3. Design
A General Theory of Creative Relativity (Jim Coudal)
Blood, Sweat, and Fear: Great Design Hurts (Michael Lopp)
Design Control in a Digital World: Getting It and Losing It (Khoi Vinh)
Design Eye 2008 (Keith Robinson)
God (and Design) is in the Detail (Naz Hamid)
Logos: Why They’re Irrelevant and Can Actually Hurt Your Business (Bryan Zmijewski)
Magic and Mental Models: Using Illusion to Simplify Designs (Jared M. Spool)
Make It So: Learning From SciFi Interfaces (Nathan Shedroff)
Meet The Architects (Molly Wright Steenson)
Social Design Strategies (Emily Chang)
Tools for Enchantment: 20 Ways to Woo Users (Kathy Sierra)
Wireframing in a Web 2.0 World (Richard Rutter)

4. Marketing
Self Replicating Awesomeness: The Marketing of No Marketing (Brian Oberkirch)
Totally Wired Teens: How Teens are Using Your Applications (Anastasia Goodstein)

5. Mobile / Wireless
Getting Unstuck II: From Desktop to Device (Liz Danzico)
How Many Clicks to the Center of…? (Conleth O’Connell)
Life after the i-Phone (Kate Ryan)
Mobile Phones: International Devices of Mystery (Michael Sharon)
Using Entertainment to Create Effective Mobile Advertising (Abam Zbar)

6. Next Generation
The Art of Speed (Tim Ferriss)
Hardware Mashups: Introducing the Long Tail of Gadgets (Peter Semmelhack)
Online Identity Crisis (Jason Levitt)
The Science of Designing Interactions (Andreas Weigend)

7. Programming
Catching up with Accessibility: The Basics Quickly (Shawn Henry)
Content Management System Roundup (George DeMet)
Creating Findable Rich Media Content (Jennifer Taylor)
Creative Collaboration: Building Web Apps Together (Paul Hammond)
Everything I Know about Accessibility I Learned From Star Wars (Derek Featherstone) Filching Design (Lindsey Simon)
Getting There Faster By Using Open Code (Jack Moffitt)
Make Your Client-Side Code Ready for Internationalization (Jon Wiley)
Scalability Boot Camp (Jakob Heuser)
Secrets of JavaScript Libraries (John Resig)
Web Service APIs Your Mom Will Love (Ben Vinegar)

7. Social
Building Portable Social Networks (Jeremy Keith)
Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting! (Annalee Newitz)
Social Networking and Your Brand (Jina Bolton)
The Supercollider: A Hero of the Social Network (Souris Hong-Porretta)
The Suxorz: The Worst Ten Social Media Ad Campaigns of 2007 (Henry Copeland)
Taking Over the World: the Flickr Way (Simon Batistoni)
True Stories from Social Media Sites (Rashmi Sinha)

Let me know if you’re planning on going to SXSW this year and maybe we can hang out with Lou Reed, the original rock-n-roll animal.  He’s this year’s keynote speaker for the music festival.

SXSW Interactive 2008
SXSW Interactive panels
SXSW main site

Tags: 2008, south by southwest interactive, SXSW