Speakers in the News »

11/11/05
MARKOS MOULITSAS

Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos

According to a recent mediachannel.org article by Doug Thompson, the White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 "political enemies" -- including left-wing bloggers such as 2006 Interactive Festival speaker Markos Moulitsas (the Daily Kos) and 2005 Interactive Keynote Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). "How is that you think Karl (Rove) and Scooter (Libby) were able to disseminate so much information on Joe Wilson and his wife," alleges an anonymous White House aide in the article. "They didn't have that information by accident. They had it because they have files on those who might hurt them. If you want to know who's sleeping with whom, who drinks too much or has a fondness for nose candy, this is the place to find it."

11:04am CST | +

11/10/05
DOC SEARLS

Doc Searls, who will speak on the Cluetrain 7.0 panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, writes about recent Internet-related Microsoft memos in an insightful essay published on Linux Journal. As opposed to what Bill Gates said 10 years ago, Searls contends that the software giant is finally coming to the realization that the Internet cannot be owned: "This time around, it's clear that The Net is The Environment, and that what matters in that environment are services. . . Now that everything is being built by everybody with fewer and fewer dependencies on any one vendor as a sole source of technology, it will be harder and harder to build silos for people and companies that are losing their willingness to live in them. Which is why I see this whole thing as an adjustment of Microsoft to reality, rather than a call by Microsoft for the reverse."

10:04am CST | +

11/09/05
LAWRENCE LESSIG

Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig talks about the battle for control of the Internet in an interesting interview posted on foreignpolicy.com. This question of control is particularly relevant to the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society. Asked whether he thinks the biggest challenges and questions that facee the Internet are social or political, Lessig replies, "The fundamental point I’ve conveyed in my writing and teaching—apparently no policymaker has yet learned this—is that policy is a function of technology. You can’t do policymaking in cyberspace without thinking about the interaction between technology and policy. It’s as ridiculous to be a policymaker and believe that you can make policy without thinking about the technology as it is to be chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and think that you can talk about competition policy without thinking about the economic consequences of the rules you impose. A smart policymaker asks, 'What technology will my policy produce?' and 'Will the net result of that technology in my policy be the policy result I want?'" Lessig served as a feature speaker at the SXSW Interactive Festival in both 2002 and 2003.

11:27am CST | +

11/08/05
JANE McGONIGAL

Jane McGonigal

In a post on misbehaving.net, social networking expert danah boyd writes about the increasing presence of women at SXSW Interactive: "Last year, SXSW made a conscious effort to include women at the conference. They also became an active supporter of Blogher and encouraged attendees to propose topics and attend. They worked with bloghers to devise manageable and interesting topics. And wow did the community respond . . .There are also numerous other panels being organized by women and *tons* of women speakers. . . It should be an amazing event full of wonderful female energy. I suspect there will be lots of women bonding so i strongly encourage everyone to plan on coming and causing a little bit of feminist trouble!" At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, boyd will lead a panel titled "Designing for Global and Local Social Play." Other speakers on this session include Jane McGonigal (pictured above), Irina Shklovski and Amanda Williams.

10:50am CST | +

11/07/05
JIM YOUNG

The popular diversionary website HotorNot.com recently celebrated it's five-year anniversary. Started by Jim Young (pictured above) and James Hong in 2000, the site now hosts more than 20 million photos of men and women who are eager to be "rated" by their peers. According to a recent Knight-Ridder story, "While hundreds of start-ups rest in peace, Hotornot continues to thrive. In its five years, 11 billion votes have been cast on the site, and 20 million photos have been uploaded for judging. . . . These days, the entrepreneurs are busy deciding which way to take the business: They rate people, so why not cars or movies? Whatever it is, it'll most likely be hot: It is estimated, according to Hong's market research, that more than half of America's 18-24 year-olds have been on the site." These two founders have both spoken at the SXSW Interactive Festival. Hong was part of the "Trends in How the Internet Connects People" panel in 2003, while Young spoke on the "Web Entrepreneurs" session in 2004.