Speakers in the News »

12/16/05
JULIE LEUNG

How does our virtual personality differ from our non-virtual personality? How does our online presence enhance our offline presence? These are questions explored by Julie Leung in a recent post on her blog Seedlings & Sprouts: "Ted told me the other day that he misses my posts when I don't have time to blog. I found his comment curious. We spend hours together each day, including time every night set aside for our relationship. Yet there is some aspect of me expressed on this blog that he misses. . . As I've said in my Making Masks presentation we reveal different aspects of ourselves in different situations. In survival mode, I think only of the next minute. Typing seems tiresome. Naps are what I need. But as I begin to enter into health again, I find desire. I find dreams. I find creativity. I find the pieces of me that are here. And I find the ways I connect with others that don't happen in any other aspect of daily life, perhaps even with the person who knows me most intimately." Leung will explore similar topics during the "Bloggers in Love: Intimacy, Technology and Mask-Making" panel that she is leading at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:49am CST | +

12/15/05
JIMMY WALES

Jimmy Wales

A report published in Nature finds that entries posted in the popular online, open-source encyclopedia Wikiepedia are only slightly less accurate than the professionally-written entries printed in Britannica. According to this story, "An expert-led investigation carried out by Nature — the first to use peer review to compare Wikipedia and Britannica's coverage of science — suggests that such high-profile examples [of inaccuracies] are the exception rather than the rule. The exercise revealed numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three." Responding to these findings, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales comments, "I'm pleased. Our goal is to get to Britannica quality, or better." Hear more of Wales' insights when he participates on the "Commons-Based Business Models" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

10:43am CST | +

12/14/05
HEATHER GOLD

Listen to the always-entertaining thoughts of subvert.com's Heather Gold, as interviewed by Dr. Moira Gunn of National Public Radio's Tech Nation. These two discuss the oft-misunderstood notion of high-tech humor in this 22-minute conversation. At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Gold will lead the panel "Vulnerability: If Cluetrain is the theory, Live Corporate Therapy is the Practice." SXSW will also see the debut of Gold's new interactive comedy "The Law Project" in which she teaches law with the audience while exploring her own experience in law school and the often-invisible rules that bind our society. These performances are scheduled to occur on the evenings of Monday, March 13 and Tuesday, March 14.

10:29am CST | +

12/13/05
PETER MORVILLE

In a recently published interview," "Ambient Findability" author Peter Morville talks about new design challenges presented by recent advances in technology, "Ambient findability describes a world, at the crossroads of ubiquitous computing and the Internet, in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime. It’s not necessarily a goal, and we’ll never quite reach the destination, but we’re sure as heck headed in the right direction. . . the book spans the practical and the conceptual. If you’re a designer working on a website or any other physical or digital product, you can think about them as findable objects, and there are all sorts of ways we can go about making them more or less findable. But then there’s the big picture of “ambient findability” (this brave new world of ubiquitous computing that’s rushing upon us), and the book explores the cultural and societal impacts of that disruptive technology tsunami." Morville is scheduled to talk more about this concept at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival. Published in "Voice: AIGA Journal of Design," the interview was conducted by Liz Danzico, another scheduled panelist at this spring's event.

12:48pm CST | +

12/12/05
JOHN ALLSOPP

John Allsopp, whose daughter Zoe Kate Allsopp Lander was born on November 22, offers the following advice for new fathers in a recent post on his blog: "Be as flexible as possible with everything - don't try to follow rules. Don't have in your mind the one way things should be. Don't have an ideal labour in mind. Don't have an ideal baby in mind. Nothing is likely to go smoothly, and if you are fixated on specific outcomes (drug and intervention free labour, a child who sleeps when you put them down for the night, whatever) then you are only going to make it harder on yourselves. Yes it might happen. That's a bonus. Be flexible." While these suggestions are clearly aimed at those who are starting new families, his words also seem very applicable to all grand projects and new beginnings. A founder of the Australian-based web applications company Westciv, Allsopp is leading the "How (and Why) to Podcast an Event" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.