Add an eventSessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 in Hilton Austin Downtown
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- Venue: Hilton Downtown
Friday 11th March 2011
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3, 2, 1, Twitter: The NASA Tweetup Shuttle Discovery Launch
by Andrew Cochrane, Pamela Greyer, Phylise Banner, Sophia Dengo and Stephanie Schierholz
150 Twitter users were selected, from over 2,500 entries, to attend NASA's STS-133 Discovery shuttle launch, with special access at the press site, and two days of programmed events -- meeting crew, talking to astronauts, exploring NASA -- and to top it all off, to view the launch from the countdown clock.
We formed an instant community (within hours of being selected) via Twitter, created a Google group, FB group, email lists, and 15 of us who had never met before rented a house, and started sharing space knowledge, social media knowledge, etc. 4 other shared houses came together. Our house, the Big House, was the hub of all activities. Never having met meant nothing to us. Our first night there we gathered (over 70 of the 150) and formed our space tweeps family.
Astronomers, scientists, NASA workers, digital storytellers, educators (k-12 and higher ed), videographers, all passionate about space.
The shuttle never launched. The communities which were formed out of this experience are still going strong. The entire week was broadcast on JustinTV by one of our colleagues -- sharing the entire NASA learning experience with thousands of folks. We're invited back to watch the launch when she's scheduled to go in February.
This was an amazing use of Social Media, and a perfect example of the power of these tools, and how they can be used to market, share, teach, grow, explore, inspire.
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Big Brother on a Big Screen
by Chris Conley, Cindy Cohn and Tim Edgar
Can the NSA really do that? Um, yes. Join ACLU and EFF at the movies to take a close look at how government surveillance has caught up with the fables dreamed up for Hollywood flicks. From location tracking to sensor networks, we'll discuss what’s technologically possible, what’s legal, and the impact on business and society. Jaunty tin foil hats and popcorn will be provided!
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Cargo Containers: The Next Big Social Network?
by Tom Stitt
The clothes you wear. The electronic gizmos you use. Much of the food you eat. These physical payloads were delivered by a complex, standards based, slow-moving packet switched network that uses cargo containers as packets and container ships as the network pipe. The containers, ships and ports are going digital and getting smarter. How containerization rules commerce. How new container technology is changing 40 years of no change. Hear why containers will become an integral part of emerging human social networks.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up
by Tammy Lynn Gilmore
Whether you are a first-timer to SXSW Interactive (who needs a little more guidance on how to navigate the event) or you are a South By veteran who wants to introduce yourself to new members of this global community, attending this session is a great way to network with a wide assortment of digital creatives. Only requirement for the SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up is that you not be shy about talking to other people who you don't know yet (but will likely soon become friends). Cash bar onsite.
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Technology in Education Meet Up
by Steve Amos
As the SXSW Interactive Festival continues to grow, it often becomes harder to discover /network with the specific type of people you want to network with. Hence a full slate of daytime Meet Ups are scheduled for the 2011 event. These Meet Ups are definitely not a panel session -- nor do they offer any kind of formal presentation or AV setup. On the contrary, these sessions are a room where many different conversations and (and will) go on at once. This timeslot is for registrants to network with other SXSW Interactive, Gold and Platinum registrants who are interested in how new media technology is reshaping education. Cash bar onsite.
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Unleashing Employees: Empower Innovation From The Ground Up
by Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler
Groundswell technology comes to consumers first. At home, we get social, mobile, video and cloud services pitched to us 24x7. Empowering technologies will always come to consumers first because it's a wide-open market. A single developer can build an application that changes the world from a broadband-connected bedroom.
All this technology puts tremendous power directly into the hands of customers and they often have more information than your sales or services team does. You'd better make sure you give customers better information than they can get elsewhere.
The only way to do that is to empower employees to directly engage the needs and expectations of customers. Fortunately, they are not standing still. Your innovative employees are already building new solutions using these same technologies to solve customer problems. In fact, 37% of US information workers use do-it-yourself technology to get work done. It's covert innovation – your employees solving your business problems at the ground level.
The challenge is to support this innovation while keeping the company safe. That takes a whole new way of thinking and acting. It takes an empowered IT organization working under a new set of principles.
Empowerment is chapter 3 in the Internet story. Chapter 1 was the Web. Chapter 2 was Social Computing. It has that feel of inevitability. Companies like Best Buy that empower employees to solve customer problems will win. Companies that don't will lose.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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App, Shmapp, Tell Me What Works Across Platforms!
by Aaron Forth
The mobile market is flooded with fun, useful and engaging applications. These apps are
becoming increasingly important to a company’s success but many companies are simply
recreating their product for mobile without giving adequate consideration to the differences in
mobile and Web based usage patterns. Additionally, specific benefits that the Apple, Android or
BlackBerry platforms offer are commonly not fully leveraged.During this session, Aaron Forth, director of product design at Intuit’s Mint.com, will discuss
how companies can analyze customer usage patterns to develop the best possible mobile
application and mold the app to harness the advantages of each platform.LEVEL: Advanced
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Expressing Yourself Musically with Mobile Technology
by Ge Wang
The mobile landscape as we know it is focused heavily on gaming, productivity and social media applications. But as mobile technology continues to advance and phones become smarter, people will search for even more intimate, immersive and interactive ways of expressing themselves. Today, mobile technologies have made music creation easy, affordable and accessible to the masses, enabling users of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, to create and share music, regardless of previous musical knowledge.
Whether you’re a fan of hip hop, classic, pop or video game theme music, there is an app for everyone. And the entertainment industry has taken notice – almost every big name artist or brand has an app for mobile devices. Most of them are just fancy message boards providing information, but some are pushing the limits of what it means to interact with the artist or brand. From the palm of your hand you can Auto-Tune your voice to sound like your favorite hip hop star, play an instrument designed by Jorden Ruddess of Dream Theater or join a virtual Glee club. Each of these artists and brands are building communities thru mobile apps that provide anyone the ability to explore their inner star.
This presentation will discuss how advances in mobile technology have opened up a new world of expression to everyone and enabled users to broadcast their own musical talents across the globe.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Promiscuity or Private Groups: Mobile Photo Sharing
by Louis Gray and Mayank Mehta
We all know photo sharing is nothing new - it's been around as long as photos have been around and that's a long long time! So what's all the buzz around mobile photo sharing now? Are people all jumping on the bandwagon to share their mobile photos? Instagram just passed 1M users within 3 months of their launch. Path introduced somewhat controversial private group sharing with 50 friends limit. And LiveShare by Cooliris just launched the first flexible private group sharing service for photos. Which brings us to question, are users more likely to resort to private streams? Is that where we are headed - small, intimate groups? What does it mean for the overall social graph(s) we have been building for the past years?
Come and join in on the discussion around mobile photo sharing, the hottest topic in Silicon Valley.
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SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up
Whether you are a first-timer to SXSW Interactive (who needs a little more guidance on how to navigate the event) or you are a South By veteran who wants to introduce yourself to new members of this global community, attending this session is a great way to network with a wide assortment of digital creatives. Only requirement for the SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up is that you not be shy about talking to other people who you don't know yet (but will likely soon become friends). Cash bar onsite.
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Technology in Latin America Meet Up
Meet, network, share new ideas and make new friends with other Latinos and Latin American attendees at the 2011 SXSW Interactive Festival. Bar onsite.
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Thin is In. The Future of Digital Wallets
by Christina Nguyen White
The growing hole in your back jeans pocket is getting a bit too personal.
No need to swipe anymore. Just scan.
When can we get rid of our wallets without losing the cash? We know mobile is here. Now learn how far we can take it. Digital wallets are within very close reach. With RFIDs, QR codes, and Big-Brother-like tracking, the technology is already in place.
Checkout with your phone. Instantly grab coupons when you checkout. Scan your digital ticket at Friday’s ballgame. Digitally split the bill with your friends.
The possibilities that we’ve always wished for are now within reach. Get a glimpse into how retailers are edging towards digital, understand the impact of how this will change the way we buy, and ultimately, as designers, understand how this will change the way we interact with our mobile phones.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Asleep in the Classroom: A Wake Up Call from Tomorrow
by Molly Wood, Jim Shelton, Ralph Santana, Scott Goldman and Stacey Childress
America’s students are bored. According to the Gates Foundation, boredom is the number one reason they give for dropping out of school. How can creativity, innovation and technology address this growing crisis in education? If technology is a driver for shorter attention spans, can it also be the solution to bring back the wonder of education? Can we extend the reach further and engage our students more both inside and outside of the classroom, to reawaken a love of learning?
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Bootstrapping Meet Up
As the SXSW Interactive Festival continues to grow, it often becomes harder to discover /network with the specific type of people you want to network with. Hence a full slate of daytime Meet Ups are scheduled for the 2011 event. These Meet Ups are definitely not a panel session -- nor do they offer any kind of formal presentation or AV setup. On the contrary, these sessions are a room where many different conversations and (and will) go on at once. This timeslot is for registrants to network with other SXSW Interactive, Gold and Platinum registrants who are interested in bootstrapping. Cash bar onsite.
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SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up
Whether you are a first-timer to SXSW Interactive (who needs a little more guidance on how to navigate the event) or you are a South By veteran who wants to introduce yourself to new members of this global community, attending this session is a great way to network with a wide assortment of digital creatives. Only requirement for the SXSW Newcomer / Veteran Meet Up is that you not be shy about talking to other people who you don't know yet (but will likely soon become friends). Cash bar onsite.
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The Singularity is HERE
by Todd Marks
This presentation contrasts the new movie, the Singularity is Near, with how singularity is actually HERE. In the movie Ray Kurzweil’s alter ego, Ramona, sets off on a quest to pass the Turing Test, a milestone that would signify the singularity of biology and technology. Learn what milestones we have already reached toward singularity and how location based services that deliver digital information based on location, preferences and bio-feedback make singularity all about the HERE, and not the THERE, WHERE or NEAR.
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U.S. Military's Mad Science Revealed
by Christie Nicholson, Christopher Mims and John Pavlus
For more than 50 years the mad scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—aka DARPA, the outrageous research arm of the Pentagon—have been launching the most disruptive technologies on earth, living up to their mantra of “high risk—high payoff.” We have DARPA to thank for the personal computer, the Internet, the Berkeley Unix system, most of NASA, and countless crazy military innovations. Their mission is to think beyond the possible and forever be three decades ahead. In this talk we will dig into, and present the relevant parts of, DARPA’s $3 billion-dollar budget, pulling out the most amazing and most-likely-to-reach-fruition projects. Think electromagnetic bazookas, telepathic soldiers, ape-inspired robots, memory chips in brains, shapeshifting planes and boats. It might sound like sci-fi, but given its inspired history it seems that analyzing DARPA’s current projects will give us one of the clearest views into our future reality. Fasten your seat belts.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Will Your New Technology Win? Ask a Tree
by Ross Mclean
Picking the right new technology to bet on and be on is a fundamental challenge in just about any business. But separating the future blockbuster from the flash-in-the-pan early enough in its lifespan to matter often baffles many of the smartest among us.
This presentation proposes a simple analogy to help us dramatically improve our ability to predict which new technologies are destined to be the next Facebook, and which will be the next Second Life.
By taking the audience on a historical tour of successes and failures in human technological innovation and filtering the cases through core principles of psychology, anthropology and other social sciences it makes two core points.
First, it helps us understand why we are often blind to truly great and novel ideas and how we can learn to see them better.
Second, it lays out a set of simple principles and a shockingly simple core analogy that anyone working in a field that requires getting humans and technology to interact can use every day.
LEVEL: Advanced
Saturday 12th March 2011
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Dawn of the Data: Future of Consumer Lending
by Douglas Merrill, Jessica Jackley, Paul Leonard and Ryan Gilbert
Technology and mathematics are transforming consumer lending. Historically, it has been nearly impossible for people with bad credit to get loans. Yet, these are often the people who need it most - to buy groceries or pay bills.
Until now, lenders determined who should get loans through a simple underwriting function based on a small amount of credit data. When this data is missing or wrong, banks deny the loan, leaving people to payday loans or pawn shops - very expensive options that put people further in debt.
Millions of people are being denied credit because underwriting hasn’t evolved. Why use only a handful of variables when we have vast amounts of data provided by the customer, the Internet, and social media? All data is credit data and we should use it all to make better underwriting decisions.
Analyzing vast amounts of data, however, requires complex machine learning more akin to search engines than your corner bank. The future of financial services is to become more like a recommendation engine, and less like a place where you stand in line to deposit checks.
The panelists will discuss how to use large-scale data analysis to re-invent underwriting and replace today’s antiquated methods. Better underwriting will open up good credit to people who don't have a lot of good options and materially improve the financial lives of the people who need it most.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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How Progress Bars Change the Way We Live
by Evan Jones
Once upon a time slow connections begat the Progress Bar - bloated sites would taunt us with '15% loaded' screens. High-speed promised to kill the beast and free us from their tyranny but yet it lives! Progress bars are being used MORE lately to direct user actions. Look to Farmville and LinkedIn which push their users to collect 100% of their personal information. Incomplete progress bars are an itch that needs to be scratched. They carry the implicit language that declares 'You are here' but more importantly 'The end is in sight'. Game design motivates us through incremental, measurable progress towards a tangible goal but is this the way real life works? Is the progress bar's ubiquity in technology starting to affect the way we measure progress in meatspace? This panel will reach far across time and space to look at the story of progress bars, why they hypnotize us and what we need to do - slay the beast once and for all, or throw ourselves into its partially-complete embrace...
LEVEL: Beginner
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iPad Design Headaches (Take 2 Tablets, Call Me in the Morning)
by Josh Clark
The iPad and its entourage of Android tablets have introduced a new style of computing, confronting designers with unfamiliar aches and pains. Learn the symptoms (and fixes) for a range of new-to-the-world iPad interface ailments, including Greedy Pixel Syndrome, the dreaded Frankeninterface, and the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" bait and switch. Explore practical techniques and eye-opening gotchas of tablet interface design, all grounded in the ergonomics, context, psychology, and nascent culture of these new devices (both iOS and Android). The presentation inoculates you against common problems with close-up looks at successful iPad apps from early sketches to final design. Genial bedside manner is administered by Josh Clark, author of the O'Reilly books "Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps" and "Best iPhone Apps: A Guide for Discriminating Downloaders."
LEVEL: Advanced
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Stop Listening to Your Customers
by Nate Bolt and Mark Trammell
A common assumption among startup entrepreneurs is that listening to potential customers is the best way to find out whether your product or idea will succeed in the market. Honestly - don't bother. In our ten years of user experience research for startups and big companies alike, one thing we've seen time and again is that it's behavior, not opinions, that tells you whether people want to use your product.
The main problem with opinions is self-reporting bias: Opinions are often inconsistent with behaviors or other attitudes, especially when discussing hypotheticals. Remember Clippy, the little character that appeared in Microsoft Word years ago? That little bastard arose, in part, from Microsoft asking users if they wanted help working on their documents - everyone said, "Sure, sounds great." But once people started actually using it in the real world, they hated it - it might be one of the most hated features in the history of computing. But Microsoft employs hundreds of researchers. So where did they go wrong, and how can you avoid making the same mistake?
It's simple. Never ask people what they think of your product or idea. Instead, I'll walk you through the world of researching people, including what you need to ignore customers effectively, just like Apple and 37 Signals. I'll go over examples from our research with Volkswagen, Electronic Arts, and Wikipedia, and show how to use remote research to construct behavioral scenarios and eliminate poor research.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Stop the Bleeding! Immersive Simulations for Surgeons
by Frank Sculli, Gregory Wiet, John Qualter and Charlene Zvolanek
Surgery simulators let medical students experience the adrenaline rush of a real operating room in a way that practicing on a cadaver cannot. Blood and guts aren't new to gaming, and simulators aren't new to training. But when the game is played on the human body, it offers exciting new opportunities for medical students to perfect their hand skills before they ever see their first patient.
At the Center for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning at Stanford, the lowest-performing students in a surgery simulator outperformed the highest-ranked students trained by traditional means. In this panel, we will briefly look at the history of simulation training, explore some simulator interfaces, experience a demonstration of a surgery simulator, and allow (at least) one lucky audience member to put his or her hand on the virtual knife. Panelists will discuss how what we traditionally think of as a game environment can be used to dramatically improve the training surgeons receive, change how surgeons receive accreditation—and ultimately improve their performance in practice.
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Tools and Processes for ADD Project Managers/Entrepreneurs
by Jason Ford
Ever since grade school I've been told organization is my number one problem. Like most people involved in the web, I'm creative, technically proficient, and often lacking in focus. I've had to balance managing my personal disfunction with managing huge web projects and now running a startup business (FeedMagnet). More than once I've been introduced with the disclaimer, “Jason is really smart and talented...but he's kind of all over the place.”
Nevertheless, I've determined to master my disfunction—and I've tried everything. Inbox Zero. GTD. Scrum and Agile. Countless systems involving whiteboards. Moleskines and the Hipster PDA. CRMs, RTM, and other TLAs. I won't claim I've found the holy grail of organization but I've made a lot of progress—and life and business are much more manageable now.
This session is not for beginners. I'm going to assume you've already tried, or at least heard of, most of the popular project management and personal organization techniques out there. This session is for folks who have been fighting the same fight as me and are looking to learn from my mistakes and successes.
Specific topics to cover: Why systems work (or don't) for individuals. How to map your individual profile of disfunction. Putting custom-tailored systems in place to meet your specific needs.
If you have enough focus to have read this far, this session may not be for you—or maybe you are just desperate to figure this out and the session will be perfect.
LEVEL: Advanced
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What We Can Learn from Small Town Entrepreneurs
by Barry Moltz and Becky McCray
The economy for small business has changed. You can't count on: a job, an income, a loan, the government. Resources are limited. Things no longer always go up. Society has changed. It is cycling away from big: big companies and big retail. Geographic advantage is shrinking, and competition is everywhere.
In order to thrive under these conditions, it is essential that every business build a community. Businesses are increasingly using social media to build their reputation and market their business. Companies spend their marketing dollars to find and participate in online communities based on a specific interest. In fact, social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are frequently compared to the old time country store, where everyone knew everyone, and friendly conversations lead to doing business together.
Small town entrepreneurs have been building communities to grow their businesses for hundreds of years. We will unlock the secrets of rural entrepreneurs that can now be used to help anyone build a business regardless of where you are located.
Why small town entrepreneurs?
If every customer can talk to every other customer now, is there anyone who knows how to do business this way? Small town businesses.
If building community is the new way of marketing, who is still living by community and can teach us? Small towns. If the old country store is the model for social media, where do we find them? Small towns.LEVEL: Intermediate
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A Bootstrapped Geek Sifts Through the Bullshit
by Jason Cohen
After starting three companies, I've found that some widely accepted advice lead me to failure while trusting my (inexperienced) gut lead to success. So many business philosophies profess they're the One True Way, yet different business face different hurdles. With stories, six actionable lessons, and a workshopping of 37signals' philosophy, you'll learn when to follow the rules and when to go your own way.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Banks: Innovate or Die!
by Bob Weinschenk, Brett King, Joshua Reich and Rob Garcia
Are big banks too big to...innovate? It's clear that big banks have lost their innovative edge. Strict new government regulations and frustrated customers walking away haven't even sparked creativity from them. Luckily for consumers, there is a new wave of financial service innovators pushing the limits. Incorporating cutting edge technology, social media and -- believe it or not -- genuine customer service, this new group of financial players are giving traditional banks a run for their money. The Banks: Innovate or Die! panel will discuss why big banks are failing with today's Web 2.0 consumers, and will examine the new players in the space who are stealing customers away due to their innovation.
LEVEL: Intermediate
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Hadoop Meet Up
As the SXSW Interactive Festival continues to grow, it often becomes harder to discover /network with the specific type of people you want to network with. Hence a full slate of daytime Meet Ups are scheduled for the 2011 event. These Meet Ups are definitely not a panel session -- nor do they offer any kind of formal presentation or AV setup. On the contrary, these sessions are a room where many different conversations and (and will) go on at once. This timeslot is for registrants to network with other SXSW Interactive, Gold and Platinum registrants who are interested in Hadoop. Cash bar onsite.
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I've Never Met My Coworkers: Running International Teams
by Jason Lengstorf and Thomas Sturge
I work with three other guys, and I've never met any of them. In fact, none of them live within 1000 miles of me. However, we manage to work together on 5-10 simultaneous projects and my business is up 300% from last year.
Building a team to help you with sub-contracting is easier than you might think. I'll tell you how I took Ennui Design from a one-man (severely overworked) effort to a four-man collective in less than three months while continuing to increase my company's gross income and my own take-home pay, all while opening up hours of my own time to enjoy life.
LEVEL: Beginner
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Life After Y Combinator
by Dane Hurtubise, Brian Chesky, Drew Houston and Jessica Mah
Programs like Y Combinator have garnered much attention in the media. Many of the startups are highlighted and critiqued upon launch, but how do these programs fare over time? What lessons have graduates of Y Combinator learned in a post-Y Combinator world? How do they turn ideas into real businesses?
LEVEL: Beginner
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