SXSWi Speakers in the News2006-07-31T11:00:55-05:00adminhttp://sxsw.com/interactiveshawn@sxsw.comtag:sxswispeakersinthenews,2006:sxswispeakersinthenewsPivotCopyright (c) 2006, Authors of SXSWi Speakers in the NewsSTEWART BRAND2006-07-31T11:00:00-05:002006-07-31T11:00:00-05:002006-07-31T11:00:00-05:00tag:sxswispeakersinthenews,2006:sxswispeakersinthenews.217
Stewart Brand has high praise for Rainbows End, the new novel by Vernor Vinge. Writing in Technology Review, Brand notes, "Vinge has a high old time with the conventions of science fiction and fantasy. Of course, the fate of everything is at stake. The world is in a permanent state of dread that some evildoer might convert one of the innumerable new cyber- and bio- and cogno- and nanotools into a weapon of annihilation. Even the coolest new technologies are beset with problems. Yes, you can absorb a skill like a new language with "just-in-time training," but the process is so immersive you might get permanently stuck in it. Yes, you can live a lot longer, but different ailments are differentially susceptible to cure, and some people are more fully rejuvenated than others.Fantasy fandom is a huge force in Vinge's world, where massively multiplayer games are the dominant entertainment medium, and the legions of enthusiasts in "belief circles" can not only project their fantasies onto the increasingly attenuated fabric of the real world but pit their fictional worlds against each other in epistemological combat. Heroic figures like Dangerous Knowledge and Librarians Militant (both from a Terry Pratchett-like fantasy domain) and the Greater Scooch-a-mout and Mind Sum (from a Pokémon-like franchise) duke it out in front of a real library and an online flash crowd of millions." Brand served as a keynote speaker at the 2000 SXSW Interactive Festival.STEWART BRAND
Stewart Brand has high praise for Rainbows End, the new novel by Vernor Vinge. Writing in Technology Review, Brand notes, "Vinge has a high old time with the conventions of science fiction and fantasy. Of course, the fate of everything is at stake. The world is in a permanent state of dread that some evildoer might convert one of the innumerable new cyber- and bio- and cogno- and nanotools into a weapon of annihilation. Even the coolest new technologies are beset with problems. Yes, you can absorb a skill like a new language with "just-in-time training," but the process is so immersive you might get permanently stuck in it. Yes, you can live a lot longer, but different ailments are differentially susceptible to cure, and some people are more fully rejuvenated than others.Fantasy fandom is a huge force in Vinge's world, where massively multiplayer games are the dominant entertainment medium, and the legions of enthusiasts in "belief circles" can not only project their fantasies onto the increasingly attenuated fabric of the real world but pit their fictional worlds against each other in epistemological combat. Heroic figures like Dangerous Knowledge and Librarians Militant (both from a Terry Pratchett-like fantasy domain) and the Greater Scooch-a-mout and Mind Sum (from a Pokémon-like franchise) duke it out in front of a real library and an online flash crowd of millions." Brand served as a keynote speaker at the 2000 SXSW Interactive Festival. ]]>hughdanah boyd2006-07-28T11:02:00-05:002006-07-28T11:02:00-05:002006-07-28T11:02:00-05:00tag:sxswispeakersinthenews,2006:sxswispeakersinthenews.216
By a vote of 410-15, the US House of Representatives has passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA). If approved by the Senate, this resolution will force schools and libraries to block social networking sites and chat rooms else lose their federal Internet subsidies. Online activists decry what such a measure will mean for social networking sites such as MySpace. We recall the words of danah boyd, who posted these comments about the bill in May: "This legislation will not protect minors, but it will continue to erode their (and our) freedoms. There are so many amazing things that teens do with social technologies. To lose all of this because of the culture of fear is terrifying to me. I found out about my alma mater talking to strangers online in the 90s. I learned about what it means to be queer, how to have confidence in myself and had so many engaging conversations. Sure, i found some sketchy people too, but i learned to ignore them just as i learned to ignore the guys who whistled and honked from their cars when i walked to the movie theater with my best friend. We need to give youth the knowledge to know the risks of their actions, the structures to be able to come to us when something goes wrong and the opportunity to grow up and connect to their peers. Eliminating cultural artifacts because we don't understand them does not make our lives any safer, but it does obliterate so many positive interactions." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, boyd moderated the "Designing for Global and Local Social Play" panel.danah boyd
By a vote of 410-15, the US House of Representatives has passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA). If approved by the Senate, this resolution will force schools and libraries to block social networking sites and chat rooms else lose their federal Internet subsidies. Online activists decry what such a measure will mean for social networking sites such as MySpace. We recall the words of danah boyd, who posted these comments about the bill in May: "This legislation will not protect minors, but it will continue to erode their (and our) freedoms. There are so many amazing things that teens do with social technologies. To lose all of this because of the culture of fear is terrifying to me. I found out about my alma mater talking to strangers online in the 90s. I learned about what it means to be queer, how to have confidence in myself and had so many engaging conversations. Sure, i found some sketchy people too, but i learned to ignore them just as i learned to ignore the guys who whistled and honked from their cars when i walked to the movie theater with my best friend. We need to give youth the knowledge to know the risks of their actions, the structures to be able to come to us when something goes wrong and the opportunity to grow up and connect to their peers. Eliminating cultural artifacts because we don't understand them does not make our lives any safer, but it does obliterate so many positive interactions." At the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival, boyd moderated the "Designing for Global and Local Social Play" panel. ]]>hughDEREK POWAZEK2006-07-27T11:50:00-05:002006-07-27T11:50:00-05:002006-07-27T11:50:00-05:00tag:sxswispeakersinthenews,2006:sxswispeakersinthenews.215
A blog entry from Derek Powazek makes it into the August issue of Wired. According to Powazek, mid-30s tech professionals such as himself should be tagged as Generation M: "The 'M' is for Multitask. We like to do two things at a time, minimum. We listen to music while surfing the web and having four IM conversations at a time. We check our email on crackberrys and hiptops under the table during meetings. We don't feel fulfilled unless there's more than one thing going on. The closest thing my parent's generation had to this kind of multitasking was reading the paper on the toilet. The 'M' is also for Mashup, my favorite example of multitask culture. What's the appeal of a song that mashes together the Scissor Sisters, Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and George Michael into 5 minutes of seamless ear candy? I have no idea. I just know that I can't get enough of 'No One Takes Your Freedom' by the amazingly talented DJ Earworm, which does exactly that. Finally, the 'M' is for Media, with emphasis on the 'me.' My generation, we make media. From the Xeroxed zines of the 80s, to the homepages of the 90s, to the blogs of the 00s - there is no corner of our lives that goes undocumented. No niche topic gone unexplored. And as a result, we know how to talk, to think, to find connections with like minds, no matter where they are." Powazek participated on the "Bloggers in Love: Intimacy, Technology and Mask-Making" panel this year's SXSW Interactive Festival.DEREK POWAZEK
A blog entry from Derek Powazek makes it into the August issue of Wired. According to Powazek, mid-30s tech professionals such as himself should be tagged as Generation M: "The 'M' is for Multitask. We like to do two things at a time, minimum. We listen to music while surfing the web and having four IM conversations at a time. We check our email on crackberrys and hiptops under the table during meetings. We don't feel fulfilled unless there's more than one thing going on. The closest thing my parent's generation had to this kind of multitasking was reading the paper on the toilet. The 'M' is also for Mashup, my favorite example of multitask culture. What's the appeal of a song that mashes together the Scissor Sisters, Beatles, Aretha Franklin, and George Michael into 5 minutes of seamless ear candy? I have no idea. I just know that I can't get enough of 'No One Takes Your Freedom' by the amazingly talented DJ Earworm, which does exactly that. Finally, the 'M' is for Media, with emphasis on the 'me.' My generation, we make media. From the Xeroxed zines of the 80s, to the homepages of the 90s, to the blogs of the 00s - there is no corner of our lives that goes undocumented. No niche topic gone unexplored. And as a result, we know how to talk, to think, to find connections with like minds, no matter where they are." Powazek participated on the "Bloggers in Love: Intimacy, Technology and Mask-Making" panel this year's SXSW Interactive Festival. ]]>hugh