Speakers in the News »

6/30/06
CORY DOCTOROW

Talk about your declaration of independence. Or, more specifically, will the against the grain actions of Canadian-born prototype uber-geek Cory Doctorow harken a massive shift in cutting-edge computer culture? Writing on BoingBoing, he explains why he has made the shift from Mac to PC: "I've been a Mac user since 1984, and have a Mac tattooed on my right bicep. I've probably personally owned 50 Macs, and I've purchased several hundred while working as an IT manager over the years. I'm about to make the same switch, for much the same reasons. I thought about buying a MacBook Pro anyway, since they're nice computers, and they run Ubuntu, but after pricing them out, I realized that I could get a lot more bang for my buck with a Lenovo ThinkPad T60p. If I'm not going to run the MacOS, why spend extra money for Apple hardware? I ordered the machine last weekend, loading it to the max with two 120GB hard drives, 2GB of RAM, and the fastest video card and best screen Lenovo sells: it was still cheaper than a Mac, even though Lenovo makes me pay for a copy of Windows XP that I plan on pitching out along with the styrofoam cutouts and other worthless packaging. Once I'm settled in in LA, I'm planning on getting Ubuntu running on the machine and exporting all the data from my Mac to the new box. I'm also going to get Ubuntu running on my spare PowerBook. I get computers in pairs, and use one while the other is -- inevitably -- in the shop; the other Powerbook will remain my spare machine." Doctorow was part of the keynote conversation (with Bruce Sterling) at the 2002 SXSW Interactive Festival and he spoke on three panels at the 2004 event.

10:40am CST | +

6/29/06
LIZ DANZICO

Liz Danzico

The June issue of Fast Company includes a story about how picture phones may finally be coming of age -- more than 40 years after they were initially hyped at the 1964 World's Fair. The article quotes information architect and AIGA Director of Experience Strategy Liz Danzico, who says the slow path to adoption of this long promised gadgetry is partly a technological issue and partly an issue of re-programing traditional user habits. She explains that "new technologies are initially patterned on old models. So with the Webcam, the tendency is to sit in front of it and talk, because that's what you do on the phone. But then you realize you can get up and show people things, which is pretty transformative. My brother, who's overseas, showed us how he had taught 250 students how to do the chicken dance [via a Webcam], which proved that this enables more than just facial recognition." Danzico spoke on two panels at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival: "Traditional Design and New Technology" and "Wild Web Wrestling: Standardzilla vs Tabelella".

11:25am CST | +

6/28/06
CHRIS MESSINA

Serial BarCamp organizer Chris Messina reflects upon the implications of the new soldier-made documentary "The War Tapes" in an insightful post on his blog. He writes: "This is so curious to me because of how 'citizen journalism' enlarges the conversation. I mean, these stories now come from regular people, people who have left their families and their friends, on a mission to protect American interests and 'National Security,' who can speak openly, and without the kind of spin, hyberole or censure that you might find elsewhere. Regardless, I don’t know or even care much about whether this is propaganda, because what it is is the telling of stories by people living in the trenches who get up everyday and might kill other humans by the time they go to sleep the same night. And I just can’t fathom what that’s like. I do hope — somehow, again, perhaps naively — that this connected medium, someday, will make it increasingly difficult to substantiate the killing of other people. It just strikes me that the coming generation of always-on connected kids will be far too connected to people across the Earth — to allow for their friends to be fired upon, shot at, or bombed. The test may come soon enough, depending on what happens with Iran — given that it seems much more wired than Iraq (even as of a year ago) I mean, what if? Should the Bush administration decide to take military action, will the Iranian blogosphere inspire the sympathies of the liberal digerati and make an act of violence against the Iranian people political suicide? When we can directly connect with the people that our government intends to bomb, how does that change diplomacy and the ability of the government to act? These are not questions that I have answers to, but that this kind of documentary inspires." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, Messina spoke on the "Microformats: Evolving The Web" panel.

09:37am CST | +

6/27/06
JARON LANIER

Virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier -- he of the magnificent red dreadlocks -- isn't afraid to articulate opinions that run counter to standard thinking. First it was his recent essay titled Digital Maoism about the dangers of the new online collectivism in which he challenged the accuracy of wikipedia and the so-called wisdom of crowds. Then on Monday, in an interview posted on Open Source Radio, he voices less than flattering words about the quality of writing inherent in blogging. Claims Lanier, "It must at least be pointed out that writing professionally and well takes time and that most authors need to be paid to take that time. In this regard, blogging is not writing. For example, it's easy to be loved as a blogger. All you have to do is play to the crowd. Or you can flame the crowd to get attention. Nothing is wrong with either of those activities. What I think of as real writing, however, writing meant to last, is something else. It involves articulating a perspective that is not just reactive to yesterday's moves in a conversation." Lanier served as the keynote speaker at the 1997 SXSW Interactive Festival.

10:41am CST | +

6/26/06
MICHAEL VERDI

Michael Verdi

June has evolved into another big month for powerhouse new media conferences, with events such as Supernova and Bloggercom and (still to come) Gnomedex. Also attracting a lot of buzz was Vloggercon, which occurred June 10-11 in San Francisco. Watch Michael Verdi talk about the inevitable post-conference emotional letdown in a short video posted on his site: "I've been in a weird mood since coming back from Vloggercon. It feels like an end and a new start. Or a time for a new start. It feels like lower than regular life. . . But, the other side of that is that a lot of really great stuff happened. Stuff that I don't even know what to think about it except, 'wow, that was cool.' What does it mean? What do I want to have it mean?" Verdi, who is co-author of the book "Secrets of Videoblogging", was involved with the "How to Add Video to Your Blog" panel at the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival.