Speakers in the News »

2/03/06
LYNNE d JOHNSON

What is the next killer application for the web? Video on demand says New York based writer and tech expert Lynne d Johnson in a recent post on her blog: "It would appear so, considering all of the recent activity in the marketplace. While Apple may have had the running start out the gate, landing major content coups (especially SNL and MTV) it doesn't mean that other start-ups won't be competitive. Apple already had a template, following it's strategy with the iTunes music store. Make a product that requires content, and then build strategic partnerships in order to provide the content to those devices. But what about the user who wants their VOD right where they are -- at their desktop? This is where Google's simple but effective debut of its beta google video comes in. Google foregoes the bells and whistles making content discovery just as fun as it is on youtube. Well, almost. The youtube model works best because it features a community aspect. And isn't that just what all the web's killer apps have done? Napster. Blogs. Flickr. Myspace. Just name any web tool that people have gathered around the water cooler to discuss, and there's one thing they have in common — community." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Johnson is scheduled to speak on the "Blogging While Black Revisited" panel on Sunday, March 12 from 5:00-6:00 pm.

12:10am CST | +

2/02/06
ANDY BUDD

"CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions" is the new book from Andy Budd (pictured above). The Brighton, England resident has employed an open source model to market the book. As explained in a post on his blog, "My new book hits the shelves on the 13th of February. However you don’t need to wait that long to get a glimpse inside. Simply visit the new support site at www.cssmastery.com and you can download a sample chapter and table of contents absolutely free." Budd will travel to Austin for SXSW Interactive to be part of the aptly-titled "How to Be a Web Design Superhero" panel on Saturday, March 11. After this session concludes, he will sign copies of "CSS Mastery" in the panel foyer. Cameron Moll, another speaker at this spring's event, is a co-writer of the new text.

12:09am CST | +

2/01/06
DOC SEARLS

Read the recent essay "The Revolution Will Be Reproduced" by Doc Searls to understand more about how mainstream corporate America is beginning to understand the open source, customer-driven approach to capitalism that Internet culture has long embraced: "Next step for both companies is to recognize that 'consumer' is meaningful only as a label for the massive passive population, and giving full credit as producers to all participating employees, customers and individual sources of "content", which now run in the many millions. (If you count bloggers alone. Add musicians, photographers, video artists and gadget hackers and you've see a massive producerist revolution going on). The final step is recognizing that all these producers, and reproducers, are independent. Orginizations will increasingly exist, and persist, at the grace of increasingly empowered individual producers of good work, good ideas, good services and good products." Co-author of the classic book "The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual", Searls will speak on the "Cluetrain: Seven Years Later" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:00am CST | +

1/31/06
KATHY SIERRA

Kathy Sierra, a co-author of the Head First Design Patterns series of books, writes about the failures that occur in all endeavors when you take the safe-and-easy route: "Risk-aversion is the single biggest innovation killer, and of course it's not just Microsoft that's been infected. Taking risks is... risky. But if not taking risks is even riskier, then WTF? Sure the big companies have it bad and may fall the hardest if they don't get a clue and a cure, but none of us is immune. You see the safe path everywhere. Today at lunch I had one of those conversations with a co-author about the cover of the next Head First book, and there I was suggesting a 'safer' cover model than the one he wanted (complete with all the logical reasons why people could complain about his choice). I still can't believe the words that were coming out of my mouth. Blogging has not made this easier... if anything, the idea that a gazillion bloggers and commenters (or even ONE loud one) will seize any opportunity to find fault with your ideas and attempts can dampen one's willingness to be brave. So here's my quarterly reminder to all (me included) that if you're not doing something that someone hates, it's probably mediocre." Sierra will dispense more strong advice during her "Creating Passionate Users" presentation at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

08:31am CST | +

1/30/06
JOSHUA SCHACHTER

Read about Joshua Schachter, the founder of the ground-breaking tagging service Delicious, in a story in the Technology section of Guardian Unlimited. He started working on the software for this project in 2003 while still working at a full-time day job for Morgan Stanley. In March 2005, Delicious debuted online and six months later Yahoo paid millions to purchase the company. Reading this article, one understands that Schachter is still a bit shell-shocked by the whirlwind nature of this entrepreneurial process: "I made a thing, right? So call me a producer. I produce things. I would not say entrepreneur - the enterprise of the thing was always dragged along by the thing itself. . . .I tried to do the right thing for the developers, the company, and obviously for me. But it was not really about the money. . . I still don't know how big of an idea this is." Hear more of Schachter's thoughts about what to do (and what not to do) when building a technology company at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, where he will speak on the "Sink or Swim: The Five Most Important Startup Decisions" panel.