Author: shacker

Posted on

Jaron Larnier Presentation

Loose notes from the SXSW 2010 session Untitled by Jaron Larnier.

Wasn’t sure what to expect from this session, which had no title and no description. But a few weeks ago, the photo professor at the J-School handed me a copy of Larnier’s new book You Are Not a Gadget, a sort of backlash manifesto against the digital age. Well, that’s not entirely fair — it’s not so much a backlash as it is a reasoned, thoughtful wander through some of the gotchas and backwaters of the digital age. Larnier talks about dignity, culture, black boxes, the history of our relationship to technology, mean-ness in online communities, and everything in between. His talk was as meandering as the book is, but inspirational and amazing at every turn. Though difficult to encapsulate, Larnier and his thread is something I feel everyone and tech should be listening to.

Continue reading “Jaron Larnier Presentation”

Posted on

RIP Content Management System

Loose notes from SXSW 2010 session RIP Content Management System by Drupal creator Dries Buytaert.

Unfortunately, the “R.I.P. part of the session title was never addressed, nor were any of Drupal’s core shortcomings or architectural annoyances. This was unfortunately just a 30-minute informercial for Drupal.

Would really have preferred to have heard Dries talk about plans to address Drupal’s deep archtitectural problems like lack of object orientation, lack of an ORM, lack of MVC, and annoying templating system. Took notes anyway.
Continue reading “RIP Content Management System”

Posted on

Evan Williams Keynote Interview

Loose notes from SXSW 2010 session: Evan Williams Keynote Interview

Director of the Havas Media Lab Umair Haque interviews Twitter founder Evan Williams (@ev). The interview began with technical difficulties, segued into a way-too-brief introduction to the new integration platform @anywhere, got interesting for a little while, then became mired into  me-centric, smug ramblings of an interviewer who appeared more interested in showing off his own intelligence than in extracting juicy bits from the interviewee. Eventually the whole thing turned into a train wreck, with audience members walking out in droves. The back-channel was brutal to Haque, and attendees were walking out in droves. A full third of the audience left out of boredom after half an hour. Almost embarrassing to watch.
Continue reading “Evan Williams Keynote Interview”

Posted on

Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps

Loose notes from the SXSW 2010 session Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps, hosted by :

Gina Trapani of Lifehacker and now author of Google Wave book. Also made BetterGmail and ThinkTank;
Matt Haughey – Fuelly – public social miles per gallon site, also creator of MetaFilter (now a 4-employee corporation); Adam Pash – MixTape.me (playlist/music sharing site). Also Belvedere and Texter.
Continue reading “Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps”

Posted on

Joi Ito: Untitled (Saving the World)

Fantastic way to end the first full day of SXSW sessions, with a talk by Japanese activist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist Joi Ito Untitled (Saving the World)

Social software hasn’t solved all the world’s problems, but the long term effects will be bigger than you think.

Key difference between the way the world was messed up in the past and the way it’s messed up now: Nonlinear complexity. It’s not necessarily better for the world in the long run if you make everything more efficient.
Continue reading “Joi Ito: Untitled (Saving the World)”

Posted on

Is WordPress Killing Web Design?

Loose notes from SXSW 2010 session: Is WordPress Killing Web Design

Good question – I’ve been asking myself this lately. Unfortunately the session quickly devolved into a lot of platitudes and stating of the obvious. Yes, design has been commoditized and is no longer an “elite” activity. Yes, your site is as creative as you make it, it has nothing to do with the CMS you use. All pretty much goes without saying. Took notes for half an hour, then headed to the HTML5 discussion… which was full and not allowing more people in.
Continue reading “Is WordPress Killing Web Design?”

Posted on

danah boyd: Privacy and Publicity

Loose notes from SXSW 2010 session by social network researcher danah boyd: Privacy and Publicity

Just because people put info in public places doesn’t mean it was meant to be aggregated. Just because something is public doesn’t mean people expect it to be publicized.

What people mean by privacy is more complicated than what can be summarized in a sound bite. A conversation with a friend could be spread by that friend. *Trust* is what allows us to go forward with the conversation. We don’t always navigate privacy well.

Continue reading “danah boyd: Privacy and Publicity”