Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about PBS

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Saturday 12th March 2011

• Designing Stuff Kids Will Use and Love

  by Chris Bishop, Dan Willis, Rick Pinchera and Silvia Lovato

  PBS KIDS has been designing non-commercial websites and interactive games for kids for over 10 years. Making an interactive product that appeals, engages and is usable by a child is not as simple as using Comic Sans and replacing an “S” with a “Z”. Children's abilities change rapidly and producers need to ensure that products are developmentally accessible. This session will focus on designing for two audiences: pre-readers (3-5) and readers (6-8), through four case-studies revealing how and why design choices were made based on experience, user testing and informed guesses.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Children
  • Design
  • PBS

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Saturday 12th March

  In Ballroom B, Austin Convention Center

• Putting the Public Back in Public Media

  by Andy Carvin

  Think NPR and PBS are just broadcasters? Think again. Public media is no longer just a one-way street. In many towns, NPR and PBS stations are the only locally-owned broadcasters, and their mission to serve the public demands that they develop new ways of engaging and strengthening those communities. They're convening Barcamp-like unconferences called PubCamps all over the country, allowing local techies and citizen journalists to forge collaborative projects with NPR and PBS stations, both online and offline. Public media staff work with volunteer coders, creating software for public media organizations that otherwise lack the capacity to develop it on their own. Public media engages communities in new ways that go beyond those annual pledge drives, challenging them to work together for the common good. They're putting the public back in public media - right where it should be. This ain't your father's public broadcasting. Come learn how people are plugging into public media - and how you can get involved.

  LEVEL: Beginner

  • BarCamp
  • National Public Radio
  • PBS
  • Public Media
  • Unconference

  At 9:30am to 10:30am, Saturday 12th March

  In Capitol View Terrace, Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol

• How PBS and NPR Can Support Local Journalism

  by Kevin Dando, Amy Shaw, Jan Schaffer and Tom Davidson

  As the digital revolution decimates traditional local news media, a variety of new organizations are emerging – fitfully – to fill the gaps. Some of their challenges, such as content creation and technology, are relatively easy to solve. But others – building an audience and finding sustainable revenues – are much harder. In this session, you’ll learn about current and upcoming experiments, partnerships and models – and how PBS, NPR and their member stations can support this new local-news ecosystem.

  LEVEL: Intermediate

  • Journalism
  • National Public Radio
  • PBS

  At 5:00pm to 6:00pm, Saturday 12th March

  In Capitol View Terrace, Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol