Add an eventSessions at SXSW Interactive 2012 of type Future15 on Monday 12th March
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Structural Defects in the Software Ecosystem
by Sebastien Zany
There are deep-running problems in the way current software systems are structured. Perhaps the most visible symptom is an unacceptably high barrier to creativity (programming). To produce anything significant, redundant structures must be rebuilt from absurdly low levels of abstraction. Thus what may seem conceptually trivial often requires a tedious exercise in implementation, prone to human error. This is because our abstractions don't faithfully reflect the concepts they are meant to represent, which in turn is due to an unfortunate shortsightedness in seeing computers ultimately as machines for mutating state in a desirable way, instead of as a medium for expressing mathematical ideas. This talk will attempt to illuminate some of these largely unaddressed fundamental issues in computer science, and introduce some of the theoretical and design work being done that may point the way to solving them.
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Light and the Unexplored Communications Frontier
by Travis Rich
Free-space optical communications stand to fundamentally change how humans use wireless networks. Whereas fiber-optic communications enabled the formation of the global network, free-space optical communication will facilitate the explosive growth of local, infrastructure-free networks. Leveraging LED bulbs, displays, phone screens, and other ubiquitous light sources, we can create scalable, local networks. These networks will not be used simply to gain Internet access, but rather, will be used to facilitate communication between humans and devices in an interactive way that cannot be achieved with RF. Light (and thus data) can easily be covered, focused, diffused, and directed - allowing the user a unique level of control regarding where and how data is sent. The shift from RF to optics is not an evolution, but rather a revolution in the way we think about wireless networking and device interaction.
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Do Gamers Dream of HTML5 Sheep?
The recent wave of social and mobile games has been a boon for the game industry by making games more accessible to new players. However, this has only intensified fragmentation, making it difficult for developers to deploy on many platforms. This then prevents players from enjoying their favorite games on any device, whether at home or on the road. Emerging technologies like HTML5 and WebGL provide the ideal solution to solve these problems with true cloud gaming in the browser. This talk will discuss the present and future advantages of HTML5 game development, why HTML5 is on course to become the prevalent medium for cross-platform game development, and the roadblocks that still remain before we reach this ultimate future over the next few years. The talk will also look at the emerging tools and engines that will put HTML5 games on par with other platforms. I will conclude by talking about the kinds of games to expect as well as multiplayer’s role in all of this.
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Disrupting the Entrepreneurial Process
by Jonathan Van
Since when did university become places to churn out mindless working drones for BFC’s (Big F**kin’ companies)? The verticals that have been built in universities that are based on profession have completely deviated from the humanities, which teach skills transferable to any job. Unfortunately, students, like me, have been put through a system that encourages herd behavior instead of a culture of innovation and leadership. We have been so closed from each other that we rarely get to work with people of different skillsets until we hit the “real” world. I believe projects should be cross-disciplinary. Perhaps, a business major teams up with a computer science major and an advertising major to create the next best IPhone app that you’ll be Tweeting about tomorrow. Maybe a fashion designer joins an architect to build an art museum with inspiration from the history of fashion. There’s no end to the combination of creativity that can occur when diverse minds come to bear. It’s the system itself that has given students a hard time finding the expertise they need for competent cofounders. Schools like Babson have turned initiatives into full blown colleges where every student has their own venture; a trial by fire. Now finding mentors is even harder. The city is the “real” world and has an ecosystem of its own, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are millions of interactions made possible by an open accessible campus and city that allows students to get out of its “bubble”. Imagine a platform that could bridge the gap from capitalism 1.0 into capitalism 2.0, where resources are distributed and democratic. I dream of a world that doesn’t stand for stop-gap solutions, but gets to the heart of the problem and proposes many solutions, and allowing anyone to learn how to create wealth. No longer a world where you are born at the top, but where anyone can share their idea, find a team, execute, and prosper. There will be less for-profit focus and more for-benefit focus. So far there are many scattered solutions springing up: Startup America Partnership, Angel List, Y Combinator, but what will horizontally integrate them all to make one hub for easy collaboration and action?
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Secrets to User-Centric Social Experience
by Jack Jokinen
People have certain fundamental wants and desires that drive them to take actions every minute of every day. Businesses, to be successful, must understand their consumers’ wants and desires, and must be able to subtly and seamlessly incorporate them intro branded marketing efforts. Here, we’ll pinpoint the set of innate wants and desires that resonate most effectively in digital and social, discuss how to leverage those desires to generate engagement, and share examples of how campaigns have successfully mapped user flows, business objectives, and consumers’ desires to drive results for brands in the space.
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5 Reasons You Should Stop Investing in Facebook
by Niki Weber
Brands have been diving head first into Facebook over the past few years but their social reality has failed to live up to their lofty expectations. Guided by a sea of experts who can say "social" but can't do social, brand pages often resemble online ghost towns with engagement that consists of mere small talk and fake smiles. To make matters worse, Facebook went from a friendly handhold to a ruthless chokehold of world-wide-web domination. This Future 15 session will help you put Facebook back in its rightful place.
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The Future of Innovation and Young Entrepreneurs
by Shahed Khan
Entrepreneurship has been growing exponentially, Teen Entrepreneurship has been rising alongside. What motivates teens to start their companies at such a young age? I would like to share the statistics of successful teen entrepreneurs who started at an early age, and encourage younger entrepreneurs to start pursuing their dreams at an early age.
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Sharing Privately in the Context of Health
by Michael Nichols
Social sharing about all topics is now commonplace, and the trend of increasingly open sharing about historically “private” aspects of our lives reflect changing standards about what’s appropriately public information. At the same time, for certain subjects – including health – privacy and confidentiality concerns often keep us from open sharing.
At the same time, we now know that sharing health information, particularly in an online social context, can have significant benefits (for all who share and others), especially when practiced in large groups/communities.
This session will explore how to create environments where participants receive the benefits of sharing, while also enjoying the peace of mind of privacy: secure sharing. It will address emerging trends in technology (including mobile sharing and privacy/security technology), products (including online and mobile services that allow anonymous sharing of health information), privacy controls and sharing trends, and current (as of the time of the talk) law, which collectively support the new and exciting prospect of "secure sharing" and the related benefits it creates.
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Startup Balance: Being Awesome Outside the Office
by Ankit Shah
The startup scene preaches hustle more than anything. It's all fun and great. You have to make sacrifices, yes. It's risky, yes. You're bound for failure, yes. It's freaking awesome while you're doing it, yes.
Then you spend time with your friends and you have nothing to talk about except your work.
Then you forget to call mom to tell her you love her.
Then you play tennis and realize that you suck and can't last for more than 30 minutes because you are totally out of shape.
Then you realize you're not the same awesome person you were before the amazing, amazing startup you're working on took over.
It's kinda like spending all your time with a new girlfriend. Your friends are concerned you're changing. Startups can often become unhealthy relationships, but it's important to stay focused while managing the rest of your life too. It's hard, but there's nothing more important for your sanity.
Let's talk a bit about sanity.
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Startup Finances For Dummies
by Jessica Mah
Entrepreneurs are throwing their money at solutions to the wrong problems -- they aren't using metrics to drive what really matters to their strategy. I'll talk about how inDinero has wasted a huge chunk of its investors money, chasing the wrong problems, building features that we thought had value but actually had negligible impact, among other things the company should have done differently.
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The Open-Source Cult(ure) of Hatsune Miku
by Alex Leavitt
When the Web unites millions of users into large networks around creative and free new media practices, how does this "open source culture" challenge assumptions about the production of content and the use of online social platforms?Vocaloid is a music production software from Japan that synthesizes voices for songs. In 2007, Crypton Future Media released Hatsune Miku, a young, female version of Vocaloid. Thousands of musicians use the software and character to make innovative songs and videos, which are circulated on Nico Nico Douga & YouTube for free, and many receive millions of hits within weeks. Vocaloid has helped amateur musicians land professional contracts, produced live concerts with holographic singers, and made Miku into a global virtual idol.This talk looks at one case study of a peer-produced media franchise that exploded into a global phenomenon using social media and free distribution, and the issues and successes of networked creative production.
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Integrate the Best of the East into Social Gaming
by Charles Park
Asia cultivates a very lively and active gaming community. Known for their strengths in MMO and RPG style games, they have made large strides in mobile gaming as well. As US companies look to the East to integrate best practices and find top developers, they must understand the differences in gaming models, user behaviors, and social hooks.
Charles Park, co-founder of Gaia Interactive, will break down how the social gaming market is growing and maturing, and how companies can develop the right combination of game dynamics to attract the universal 'social gamer.' Many developers are looking East to find that special flare – but each Asian market offers its own costs and benefits, which can be best learned firsthand. Gaia Interactive has partnered with top gaming producers around the globe to create mobile and social games. Learn tips and practices to fuse the best of the East and West with dual development at home and abroad – to create a new breed of social game for everyone.
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CrowdTV: Crowd-Sourcing Documentaries
by Kylee Ingram
CrowdTV is steaming ahead with the next iteration of crowd-sourcing, and is asking viewers to collaborate in deciding the direction and content of the documentary. For our pilot we gave the online community bare bones topic - water issues in Western Sydney. But beyond that, we threw open the doors to anyone who wants to have a say with the hope the result would be fun and a little bit gritty, but when starting out we had no idea what the outcome would be.
Participants gain points for contributing, such as through posting ideas or voting, and these points equate to credits in the film. This community involvement continues through every step of the production, with users also able to contribute research, vote on edit choices, and contribute or choose graphics and music.
Getting funding bodies interested in the idea proved difficult, as it was hard to pitch an idea for which the very point is that no one knows what it will look like yet. But it was the government and community partners got it immediately. They could see the value of community involvement as an end in itself, whereas the other bodies had been solely focused on the documentary.
We believe CrowdTV has the potential to encourage a broader level of community involvement than other approaches that are all about UGC- the model can be applied to any factual production.
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From Collegiate Soccer to Professional Business
by Garrett Gee
Garrett Gee will be speaking on the 7 FACTORS that can make you fundable in the eyes of the world's top investors. Hear the unique story that took him from small-town boy playing collegiate soccer at BYU in Utah, to successful Silicon Valley funded founder and CEO of Scan. Scan creates web and mobile tools which enable both enterprises and individuals to benefit from mobile transaction technologies (QR codes, NFC, and more). These benefits include mobile commerce, social media, lead generation, analytics, networking, and more. Their iPhone app, generated 7 million+ downloads in their first 10 months of operation. Their site, scan.me, launched in January of 2012. More information can be found about Garrett online at garrettgee.me.
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An Emerging Solution to How We Teach Our Students
by Efrin Carrion
Besides the Great Depression, we are living in what I believe is the hardest time to be a student. The reason for this is that we are going through a revolution. For the last 150 years we have lived in an industrial economy, which was sparked by the Industrial Revolution. But now we are coming into the information stage and what some people call the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary change, the people who succeed are those who live their passion, invest in relationships, and start movements that matter. The “one-size fits all” track to educating our kids is no longer relevant in the new economy. Public schools were created in the industrial age to train people to work for the companies. The more education you got, the better corporate job you received. But now, jobs are declining so there are a lot of qualified candidates who remain unemployed. In fact, college was never created for the majority. Over 62 percent of America high school graduates went to college this year. This number sounds great but a scarier number is that nearly 81 percent of college graduates this year are moving back home with their parents. I went to public school and I remember how my school functioned: assembly lines, long hallways with rows of lockers, and loud bells to tell us to change shifts. This system had many benefits for students whose strengths were conventional academics but even now those students are falling face first in the new economy. I look back at my high school days and say, “If only there was a class in school called Success—who knows where I would be today.” I believe that there is a difference between being educated and being successful. I think school gives us the subjects and basic skills to think for ourselves. But we are not taught how to succeed with the skills given to us. In this session, I will explain the importance of teaching our students the subject of success. I will also talk about how online learning can allow all students to have their own personal life consultant that allows them to personalize their curriculum. As adults, we can teach students to be indispensible no matter the state of the economy.
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Independent Manufacturing with Social Media
by DL Byron
Ten years ago, we had this idea to make a product that'd keep our coffee and chips fresher. We researched, designed, and manufactured it all with sweat equity and many late nights on the Internets. Today people call that being a Maker. Back then we were just trying to make a buck. This talk will share how our product ended up in the Space Shuttle, Antarctica, pantries, and Grandma's looms.
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The Dark Art of Digital Music Recommendations
by Michael Papish
People have always been the primary vehicle by which music spread around the world – from the days of the wandering minstrels to the heyday of radio DJs and then on to tight-knit circles of fans rallying together around photocopied ‘zines. Fast forward to today digital’s world and social networks as well as social music services such as turntable.fm have dramatically changed the way people share music. Recommendations technology guru Michael Papish will dive into the different approaches to deploying recommendations—from tools to match our mood to the personal touch of editorial, the impact that the interplay of computer-generated recommendations within social networks will have, and the importance of tagging/curating data as part of the recommendation process. Michael will also tackle the million-dollar questions for music recommendations: Are we making good recommendations? How do we make them better? Do we possess tools to evaluate success or do recommendations remain a Dark Art?
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Why Women Fail to Rule the Social Networks
by Tanja Gabler
Too bland, too bored, too busy? Why women fail to rule social networks.
Women see themselves as "social" by nature, they claim to have better communication skills than men do - and mostly they are right. They even hold the majority in all big social networks except LinkedIn. But when it comes to using Social Media for marketing themselves, they fail. While men boast proudly about their achievements in status updates women write birthday wishes to others and ask for private advice. What's the reason behind that phenomenon? Answers from statistics, psychologists, marketers, gender experts and the users themselves.
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Adprovising: Agile Marketing Made Easy
by Tim Leake
Thanks to digital and social media, Marketers and Ad Agency folks have gone from having a one-way conversation with customers into a million-way conversation. We’ve added capabilities to create digital work. But that misses the point. What we really need to do is learn how to create work for a digital world. We know we need to be agile, but we don't know how to do it. "Moving quickly" doesn't play well with "covering your ass." We want everything: work that's creative, gets noticed, maximizes results and minimizes risk. (And, preferably, is affordable.) Adprovising is a simple set of rules to help us get there – joyfully stolen from the world of improv comedy and repurposed to suit our own needs.
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How One Will Change the World
by Cory Levy
How many times have you seen someone you wanted to talk to, but did not quite know how? This is the question that led to the creation of One, a mobile application that notifies you when there is someone right next to you with similar interests. People meet their best friends and their spouses by coincidence. Why is that? I found that people are aware of very little around them. At the University of Illinois, I used to walk down the Engineering Quad every single day. Hundreds of people pass me, and I do not know any of them. This is so silly. Technology is replacing face-to-face interaction. Technology is making people unsocial. One is the opposite. I am trying to turn coincidence into a science. One helps you create face-to-face interactions. One connects you to the 99% of the world you haven’t met yet. The implications of the product are boundless, being utilized by students wanting to connect with classmates, people seeking new friends, businesses seeking customers (or vice-versa), or helping potential lovebirds meet. One helps remove the barrier that often exists between people and reveals meaningful opportunities you would have otherwise been unaware of. For example, if you list a major interest as smoothies, you may be alerted that another smoothie-lover is in the room. Or, that a local Smoothie King is giving away discounted smoothies. If you receive no notifications, you can simply click on “smoothies” and learn about a new blend receiving awards, or read recent reviews on popular mixes. Right now, people around you are strangers. This is not by choice, but by technical limitations. We think one day very soon, our kids will say "there was a time when we you didn't know everything about the people right next to you?" One allows you to fill in the blanks. One helps you form meaningful connections with people who would otherwise be strangers.
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Brands That Believe in Sex After Marriage
by Noel Franus
We work so hard to get people to like us. Buy this! Click here! Love me! So why is it that so many people—and most brands—suck at keeping things lively once they have us on the hook?
Customer service generally stinks. Products rarely evolve with our needs. And loyalty programs are usually no more than a carrot on a string.
A marriage isn’t supposed to be this dull.
We’ll take a look at the nitty-gritty psychology and behaviors associated with keeping things exciting long after buy-in, explore left-of-center approaches to bringing customers back and serve up inspiration for designers who want to to create experiences that build customers for life.
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How to Live Forever
by Laura Deming
It’s been decades since we first made an organism live longer. What have we done in the interim, and how does it affect you? Can we slow human aging? Covering everything from the secrets of the centenarians to hacked lungs and livers, this talk will illustrate how we plan to tweak genes and engineer tissues to extend the human healthspan. Laura Deming, Thiel Fellow with the 20under20 program, stopped out of college to start commercializing anti-aging research. Find out why the science is exciting enough to take the leap.
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A Bigger World: The Dreams of Youth Realized
by Benjamin Yu
There is more opportunity today than at every point in the past combined. As technology and innovation drive us forward, the scope of human potential increases exponentially. But the amount of time we have to experience such opportunities stays constant. And that's the heart of the dilemma - as the world becomes more expansive, we're forced to keyhole ourselves ever more into narrower and narrower domains. I don't think that's right. My dream is for everyone in the world to be able to experience as much or as little of it as they desire. There are two ways to do this: increase the amount of time we have, and increase the amount we can do in the time we have. And so those are the two first life goals I'd like to present to everyone here: longevity and cognitive augmentation. Solving these two problems opens the gate to everything else. This is the leap humanity has been waiting for to take us to the next stage in our evolution. So how do we do it? We don't have all the answers, but we know the problems, and we know that they're solvable. Physical aging is 100% biological just like any other disease (and really - it is a disease. "Age-related" diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, cancer, heart-disease, and more are all better seen as "symptoms" of the over-arching disease of aging which is the true cause of our ailments). And as such, we can cure it just like any other disease. There are numerous promising leads as expounded on in the stellar exposition "Ending Aging" by leading biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey. The problem is - we're not going to be able to tackle any of them at the level of intensity we should without mainstream support. Not only is funding critical, but so is widespread acceptance. Drugs that treat aging won't even be approved by the FDA as aging isn't recognized as a disease. The same is true for cognitive augmentation. Until we come to terms with the possibility of a technological singularity, we won’t be able to prepare for it to the extent that we need to. And so now is the time to begin our movement. If we truly want to live in a world where freedom of all opportunity is extended to everyone, this is where we start. Come hear the talk and connect with likeminded dreamers!
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A Tale of Loyalty: Virtual Brand Currency Wars
Loyalty used to be simple, drink a soda and get rewarded for it. As brands expand their “social currencies” into a virtual Federal Reserve, based around larger partnerships, what will the future look like? Consumer loyalty is being targeted in exchange for virtual cash. From the utopic to the dystopic, we’ll take a look at alternate futures: The idealist agency perspective that each brand should have its own economy. What could go wrong? We’ll explore visions of consumers making transactions with 50+ currency options. “I’ll pay with ‘widget’ points ma’am, they’re trading well today.” Then let’s shift into brand-based personal economies, with each consumer having their own “virtual exchange.” What happens when brands go to war over your “loyalty economy?” Lastly, what if everyone cashes out, flooding our economy with virtual cash? Complete devaluation of our current economy? I’m sure we’ll be fine, I’ll just drink a bitcoin and shut the %@! up.
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Connecting with Your Future Customers, the Net Gen
by Lane Sutton and Lane Sutton
Calling all marketers: we know it’s key to know how to reach the brains of the future, the social savvy net generation (the millennials). Millennials influence their friends or “followers” into buying decisions, or “what’s cool”. Actually you may not think so, but teens know marketing very well, and if they like an advertisement or funny commercial – they instantly love the brand and become ambassadors or advocates by promoting it to their friends, and so on. 93% of teens and young adults go online. They consume so much media, almost 11 hours of it a day! Social media plays a big role in where kids spend their time online, so we will use other brands as examples proving how they connect and engage their fans over such networks. We’ll also take a look at current trends and analyze many successful branding and marketing campaigns that are well liked by myself and other kids. Learn the demographics of the future customers, their consumer behaviors, tips to implement for any business along with best practices, what millennials expect from businesses like authenticity, how they interact with brands, & why they like marketing campaigns. Learn all of this from a 14-year-old with an innate sense of social media and technology offering an unusual, unique perspective.
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Demographics Are Dead: Unlocking Flock Behavior
by Amit Avner
Trends rise and fall in a matter of minutes across the social web as consumers flock from one hot topic to another. Pair that with the savvy and skepticism of today’s consumer, and brands have a huge problem on their hands: How to find and engage consumers in a meaningful way online? Gathering and analyzing the massive streams of data (public and private) to predict trends and being able to react in the moment are keys to getting in front of the flock online. Demographics are dead – or at least mean very little as it relates to engaging consumers on social networks. It’s all about unlocking flock behavior. Great opportunities are being missed every day because marketers can’t get in front of the right people at the right time with a relevant message.
This session will provide actionable insights on how to tap into social trends and highlight recent success stories of what’s working right now.
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Rise of the Social Spammers
by Scott Briggs
Are you a social spammer? Is the social sphere simply supplying brands with new and interesting channels in which to spam people? Brands want to be relevant to their audience, but many marketers believe personalization of every message and interaction is far too difficult, time consuming, and too expensive. So some have just settled for second best, making do with their current “mass blast” marketing systems – are they now going to try that via social channels? Engaging marketing isn’t as hard as you think...In his presentation, Scott Briggs, Sr. Director of Social Strategy and Insights, will provide hard facts and examples indicating how consumers call out specific brands to address the issue of relevance. He will show how marketers can become more relevant quickly by utilizing data assets they’ve been capturing, storing, and all but ignoring. The presentation will also provide practical social insights into how brands can measureand refine their strategies immediately.
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DotAnything 101: Demystifying New Domain Extensions
After months of discussion and debate, ICANN, the governing body that oversees the use of domain names, has finally approved the creation of suffixes based on brands, hobbies, political causes, and just about anything else. This means that major brands like Apple can create addresses ending in ".ipad," Citi and Chase could compete over ".bank" and cities like New York can—and are— leveraging “.nyc”. However, starting a new registry to manage a new gTLD (generic top level domain) will be expensive ($185,000 for the application alone), and many people still have questions about if, or how, these new extensions will ultimately benefit their brand. This session will discuss the most important things entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketers need to understand in regards to the new gTLDs, the impact they will have on search and SEO, and the unique ways companies and organizations can use them not only to increase brand awareness but also to improve customer loyalty.
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Raise the (Sweep)stakes: Story of Social Actions
by Boris Revsin
Social actions is the future of engagement marketing. Looking through the lens of the classic college drop-out turned entrepreneur, we will explore how user experience and game dynamics can generate remarkable action around real-world memes. As disruptive forms of marketing begin to fall away more and more brands turn to marketing as interactive content. Find out how the next wave of advertising isn't really advertising at all.
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Big Data + Social Graph
by Eric Wheeler
All we read about these days is the promise of “Big Data.” Companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are just beginning to tap into the mass information they possess, and one shudders to imagine just how much these companies know about what we’re up to online. There’s no telling how much data there currently is, and may become available in the future, and still no clear path on how to balance the opportunity with the risk. The only thing that is certain is that data is the hottest topic this industry’s seen in a long time – and all of the data in the world won’t help marketers without the right filter. The real power lies here: in the Social Graph. The Social Graph is the missing link between advertising and our interactions on the Web. By tapping into the social connections and relationships between a brand’s loyalists and her closest friends, the Social Graph revolutionizes the degree of advertising effectiveness, with infrastructure that respects consumer privacy.
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