Speakers in the News »

6/23/06
ZACK EXLEY

Congrats to Zack Exley, the former MoveOn.org organizer whose web talents have now found an international arena. Notes a story in the London Times: "The Labour party has turned to an American internet guru to teach it the tricks of voter interaction and cyber fundraising ahead of next year’s election. Zack Exley, a “cyber activist” who was hired to work on John Kerry’s American presidential campaign in 2004 as director of online communication and organisation, will meet Labour leader Pat Rabbitte and the party’s election strategy team later this month. The new recruit will remain on board until next summer’s election, tutoring the party in online canvassing. According to senior party sources, the alliance is based on “political solidarity” rather than a commercial payout . . . Over the coming months, Labour’s website will undergo a radical overhaul to make it more appealing to voters. Election candidates will be encouraged to host their own online blogs inviting questions from the public and updating the site with details from their political diaries. Exley, who pioneered the use of e-mails to supporters appealing for money, a tactic used by the British Labour party last year, will also use his expertise to help raise funds ahead of the election." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Exley led a panel titled "Online Politics: Fast, Cheap and Allows for Control"

11:35am CST | +

6/22/06
DAVID GALBRAITH

Don't want to be left on the wrong side of current online design trends? The consider the list of "Seven Deadly Sins of Web 2.0", as mandated by Scottish-born Internet innovator David Galbraith. Notes the co-founder of Moreover.com and the co-author of RSS 1.0, "A list of recent web design trends that are about to jump the shark: 1) Obsession with rounded corners everywhere; 2) Pastel colors; 3) Linear blends; 4) Fonts bigger than 15 pixels; 5) Avoiding tables, when they are the best solution; 6) Stretchable text columns that are too wide to read comfortably; 7) Ajax use that makes things difficult to link to. These things are so commonplace now that sites designed this way seem like the web design equivalent of a fashion victim. When the bubble bursts there will be big pastel shade mess." Galbraith spoke on the "Semantic Web: Promising Future or Utter Failure?" panel at the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:47am CST | +

6/21/06
WENDY SELTZER

Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and a former staff attorney with the Electronic Freedom Foundation, debates DRM with Fritz Attaway of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in a Wall Street Journal online forum. During the discussion, she makes it clear that more flexible copyright standards would encourage a more creative culture, "Fritz, I have not been asking for media free of charge. I have been asking for it free of usage and interoperability restrictions that go beyond copyright. The difference is critical -- I fully support a market in which creators are compensated for their works, but not one in which a creative industry can monopolize cultural reference and the technology around its works. The copyright balance is that both creators and the public get the returns on investment, neither to the exclusion of the other. None of us creates from scratch, rather one creative work is input to the next. I'd gladly pay more for fully usable media. The problem is that I don't just want to see my own creative output, but the works of the public around me." Seltzer was part of the "Blogging and the Law" panel at the 2004 SXSW Interactive Festival.

11:36am CST | +

6/20/06
ZE FRANK

Sunday's edition of the New York Times profiles Ze Frank, creator of the irreverent video blog "The Show" which allows viewers to submit the content they want to see on the broadcast. Writes Warren St. John, "Since mid-March, Mr. Frank has also been producing daily video shorts for his site, starring himself. The shorts typically feature a bug-eyed Mr. Frank talking directly into the camera about subjects like MySpace, government wiretapping and Iraq. He also indulges in the occasional stunt, like pouring chocolate milk all over himself. His site draws around 10,000 viewers a day, and many of them use the site's comments section to praise, argue over or eviscerate his abilities as an entertainer. So Mr. Frank turned the tables. With help from a programmer friend, he set up the comedy-writing equivalent of a Wikipedia page — an online site where anyone could write a joke and edit or even delete the jokes of others — and told his viewing public that if they were so brilliant, they could collaborate to write a script for his show. If they did so, Mr. Frank promised, he would faithfully execute it, no matter how absurd, and post the resulting video on his site." Frank participated in the 2005 SXSW Interactive Festival, where he spoke on the "Blogging Without Borders" panel.

10:18am CST | +

6/19/06
JASON TONEY

In honor of the official Texas holiday of Juneteenth (a day which recognizes African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement), we spotlight the writing of Jason Toney. His recent essay "The Wayback Machine: My Fruit Has Not Root" seems particularly appropriate to commemorate the bittersweet victories of June 19. This blog entry concludes: "I am a man without ancestors to celebrate. And see this is the thing: All my life I've been told to just be a proud American, that the American history is my history. And I agree. African-American, Black, Negro history in this country is amazing. It is incredibly harsh but it is amazing. But it is also very short. And nobody else here is just 'American.' Everybody else hyphenates with a country and with a history and with a story. To me that African-American hyphenation might just as well read 'former slave' 'civil rights' 'pissed off.' It certainly doesn't read 'Family from Japan,' 'Made in Korea,' 'Probably Cooks a Mean Pasta Because Her Family is from Italy.'" Toney was part of the "Blogging While Black Revisted" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.