Speakers in the News »

6/09/06
WAGNER JAMES AU

Wagner James Au

As noted in a recent story in Wired, University of Nevada art professor Joseph DeLappe is using the multiplayer war game "America's Army" as a platform for his protest against ongoing US action in the Persian Gulf. Taking advantage of the game's text messaging system, DeLappe types the names of soldiers killed in Iraq, and the date of their death -- and this information then scrolls across the screen for all users to see. He says that this activity helps bring "reality into the fantasy," thereby reminding other game users of the extreme consequences of current US policy. The Wired story on DeLappe includes a quote from Wagner James Au (pictured above), who worked on early versions of this "America's Army. According to Au: "It's totally reasonable and laudable to provoke debate on whether the U.S. Army should be in Iraq in the first place, and doing it via the Army's game has a lot of potential." A former embedded journalist in Second Life, Au delivered a presentation titled "Blogging Down the House" at the 2006 ScreenBurn Beta Festival, which occurred during SXSW Interactive.

11:35am CST | +

6/08/06
MARK CUBAN

Mark Cuban, the loud-mouthed dotcom billionaire whose Dallas Mavericks begin battle tonight with the Miami Heat for the NBA championship, says that mainstream journalism isn't dead. But, writing on his blog, he argues that the only way for traditional media to awake from its coma is to become part of the revolution that has sparked massive interest in relevant online content: "The perception from traditional media seems to be that “media savvy youth of today” dont read , or need newspapers. They dont need the traditional 6pm news. They dont need news networks. Thats true, they dont need them. They do want them however . . . Want to get younger viewers ? Go out and hire the very best recent college journalism graduates you can find. Give them a camera, a computer and an area of specialty; Business, local politics, national politics, whatever. Better yet, ask them what they think matters. Enable them to be the new 'mike wallace and 60 minutes.' Tell them their only requirement is that they are equal parts journalist and adrenalin junkies. Focused on fearlessly finding the truth behind stories that matter to them, their families and friends. Guess what, even for a 21 year old, its not just about Paris Hilton, Bradgelina and the latest Rap feud." Cuban was a keynote speaker at the 1999 SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:11am CST | +

6/07/06
JASON FRIED

"Getting Real isn't about rock stars at all," says Jason Fried (pictured above) of 37 signals in a recent interview with Kohi Vinh, "It's about a few good generalists. We actually don't advocate building a small team of gurus. Instead we suggest a small team of people who are passionate, motivated, curious, and willing to learn. Sure, they have to have skills, but they don't need to be the best of the bunch . . . Bigger teams afford more specialists, but they also increase overhead, muddle communication, and put up more walls. When one person has to toss something over the wall to someone else, and they have to toss it over another wall, and then yet another wall, things quickly get confused. It's like a game of telephone—the more people you have the more garbled the message gets by the end of the line. So we think it's better to find people who are good at a few things, not just great at one thing." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Fried (and fellow Chicago resident Jim Coudal) delivered the Opening Remarks.

10:56am CST | +

6/06/06
MARKOS ZUNIGA

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga blasts teleco industry lobbyist (and former Clinton staffer) Mike McCurry for his corporate spin on the drawbacks of net neutrality. Writing on Daily Kos, he shouts: "What a dishonest piece of shit McCurry has become. This is an anti-corporatist jihad, is it? Is that why we are aligned with Microsoft, Google, and eBay? And when did the Christian Coalition and the Gun Owners of America join the 'left'? What a pathetic attempt to marginalize those of us working for net neutrality. You see, from K Street (and its environs), anyone who dare oppose the exhalted lobbyist class must be anti-corporation. The riff raff from the hinterlands (i.e. outside the Beltway) must bow to the wisdom of those writing the million dollar lobbying checks. . . McCurry, lying sack of shit that he has become, continues to claim that he's fighting for the Clinton-era status quo. But that is what we demand, and what a growing bipartisan army of allies in Congress are working toward. We want the Clinton-era rules. Not McCurry. He and his allies are working to gut those regulations to allow the telcos to run roughshod over a free internet. And now, ever more brazen in his dishonesty, he wants to make this a 'left versus 'centrist' battle? It's all just par for the course for the new, bought-and-paid-for McCurry. The millions his clients have spent on this issue are being sucked down the drain by genuine people-power (not the astroturf his company specializes in creating), so he must marginalize and lie about the opposition. SOP for the K-Street Gang. The reality, of course, is much different. McCurry is enabling an extremist, out-of-the-mainstream effort by a few obscenely powerful telcos to hijack one of the most successful creations in human history." The author of "Crashing the Gate", Zuniga spoke on the "Revenge of the Blogs: Election 2008" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.

10:50am CST | +

6/05/06
TIM ZIEGLER

Veteran SXSW speaker Tim Ziegler has penned the essay "Get Your Feet Wet with WordPress," which appears on Webmonkey. He notes that the strength and weakness of this powerful personal publishing system is its extreme versatility: "The best thing about WordPress (apart from it being free) is that plug-ins are available to do all manner of things, from inserting tag clouds into your blog to adding surveys and shopping carts to integrating YouTube videos. Not to mention the fact that you have serious control over the design of each section of your site. But here's the rub: WordPress' system for messing with your blog design and site functionality is powerful, but can be confusing and awkward until you figure out how all the pieces fit together. This article will pull apart the templating system and make you a WordPress Grand Wazier or your money back! (Not really on the money back.)" Ziegler directed the "Startupland: A How-to Guide to Starting Your Own Company" panel at the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival.