March 14, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of March 14th

	RT @sarahannlindsay: I’m liking cineplex’s liveblog of the #oscars better than the program http://bit.ly/cxylrk [fuzzz]
	RT @modernmod: I so miss John Hughes stories. – me 2 [fuzzz]
	RT @unbrelievable: Ohhh. Royal bank please please get the same iPhone app as CIBC. – Yes please.. [fuzzz]
	Damn think I might need a reboot. Everything is chug chug chugging right now. That’ll be 30 minutes wasted. :-S [fuzzz]
	OMG OMG OMG The new Ironman2 trailer is awesome [fuzzz]
	Wow Bad Religion is giving away a free live album to say thanks for 30 years of support. http://www.badreligion.com/ [fuzzz]
	Listened to In Hate – The Almighty Trigger Happy.
	RT @larrylarry: OMGAWESOME! On iPhone? This NextBus page automatically shows you the times for TTC streetcar stops closest to you! http: … [fuzzz]
	Oh work internet connection… if you are down my team has to sit on their hands. #GAH! [fuzzz]
	The Tron Legacy trailer looks amazing. [fuzzz]
	Checked in 3 times. Cineplex fairview Eaton’s Centre Cineplex fairview
	OK busy night ahead. Gotta make dinner then SXSW laundry and a haircut. [fuzzz]
	Laundry and haircut complete. Gonna wait and pack tomorrow night. #sxswi [fuzzz]
	hey gang what’s the best twitter client for blackberry? [fuzzz]
	Shared 2 links. Beastie Boys’ Sabotage As Battlestar Galactica D*Face Goes Big In Los Angeles During The Academy Awards
	Shared 2 links. Adam Savage’s Blade Runner Blaster Google adds a “Bicycling” option to their online maps in honor of the National Bike Summit
	Awesome looks like Google Maps now has a bicycle option for routing and directions [fuzzz]
	Too bad the bike option does not appear to be enabled for Toronto/Non US at the moment [fuzzz]
	Sooo full of burrito… need to find my happy spot for #sxswi packing. [fuzzz]
	So who going to be up for a late dinner tomorrow in Austin? Not getting in until after 9 or 10… #sxsw [fuzzz]
	YES! Managed to pack a week worth of clothes, hackintosh, and my backpack in one carry-on. Travelling light tomorrow. [fuzzz]
	Fancy new @foursquare and @gowalla apps in app store… [fuzzz]
	Checked in 3 times. McLeary Park Burrito Bandidos Burrito Bandidos
	Stoked the weather looks good enuf for shorts in Austin! [fuzzz]
	RT @spangley: halp the rvip’ers! RT @rviplounge: RVIPmergency! Who can transport essential gear in a car/truck from LA>AUS this week? RT! [fuzzz]
	Shared The Arm Sleeper’s Pillow.
	Blurgh they changed my first flight departure time. Gonna be a mad dash to make my 2nd flight on time. :-$ [fuzzz]
	Oh man travelling so light. Hope I can get by with the Hackintosh + iPhone combo. Suitcase is 1/2 empty too. This could backfire horribly. [fuzzz]
	Blurgh. Was just about to by the 37Signals new Rework book on iPhone Kindle but it’s optimized for larger screens which will suck on iPhone. [fuzzz]
	Fingers crossed I get on this earlier flight… #sxsw [fuzzz]
	Made it to IAD with time to spare. Fingers crossed next flight is smooth. [fuzzz]
	Wow IAD is not messing around. Boarding now. Austin here I come. [fuzzz]
	RT: @lulula Want some sexy iPhone Magnets? Find me at #SxSw and play sxswyearbook.com to get some. http://bit.ly/d7Nqjl [fuzzz]
	Going offline. Tweet at ya from Austin! #sxsw [fuzzz]
	Landed in Austin. Now to get to the hotel… [fuzzz]
	Ok where is everyone? Gingerman? Just on my way to hotel. [fuzzz]
	Gonna see if I can get my reg stuff finished then head over to gingerman [fuzzz]
	In line at Gingerman… [fuzzz]
	Back at the hotel early. Super tired after all the travel. [fuzzz]
	Checked in 4 times. Texas YYZ Toronto Pearson International Courtyard By Marriott Roppolo’s Pizza
	Checked in 9 times. Concourse C – Dulles International Airport Courtyard Marriott Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) Courtyard Marriott Courtyard Marriott Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) The Ginger Man Pub roppolo’s pizza
	Checked in at Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill
	I have a new temp phone number in Austin DM me if u need it! [fuzzz]
	Sitting in the BattleDecks session. Room 18 at the back [fuzzz]
	RT @AdamSchwabe: I’m liveblogging SXSW2010: Understanding Content on @scribblelive http://scrbliv.me/13363 #sxsw #stuffwedesignfor [fuzzz]
	Ballroom B fail. Huge line. Who knew people wanna listen to the @foursquare gang [fuzzz]
	Conf center is being evacuated. Maybe the fire alarm is for real #sxsw [fuzzz]
	SXSW pals. We’re planning on meeting outside Iron Cactus at 7.30 and then roving for food and fun. [fuzzz]
	Ok heading over to the Hilton to meet up with @lulula and @evilprguy then off to Iron Cactus to find the others at 7.30 out front. #sxsw [fuzzz]
	Waiting to see some burlesque at Emos. The band on stage is creeping me out… [fuzzz]
	Checked in 26 times. Sobe Lizard Lounge Austin Convention Center Driskill Hotel Ice Cream Man SXSW / ACC – Room 7 Hilton Austin Hotel Hilton Austin Hotel Emo’s Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill The Belmont SXSWI Registration Java Jive SXSW Foursquare Court on sidewalk Driskill Hotel Emo’s Battledecks Iron Cactus Starbucks Courtyard Marriott SXSW / ACC 18ABCD South Congress Cafe Courtyard Marriott Hilton Pool BD Riley’s Irish Pub The Mighty Cone Pepsi Refresh Café
	I’m up. Shower and coffee then off to conf ctr for all day panel madness! [fuzzz]
	Live blogging first panel of the day on creating your own IA process http://bit.ly/cPckMf [fuzzz]
	RT @EvilPRGuy: Even though I’m in Austin for #sxswi I secretly wish I were at Paris-Nice. Shhh. #bikedork [fuzzz]
	Live blogging the Pen and Paper Tools session http://bit.ly/cvsN3c [fuzzz]
	Bailing on this panel… not doing it for me. Gonna head to the mobile web API discussion in Hilton at 11.40 [fuzzz]
	Halp! Where is everyone? [fuzzz]
	Checked in 31 times. Courtyard Marriott El Sol y La Luna – 6th St. Digg Bigg Shindigg Stubb’s BBQ MetroRail Downtown Station The Corner of 5th & Congress SXSW Interactive Trade Show Frank Austin Convention Center SXSW / ACC – Ballroom E SXSW / ACC – Ballroom B Opening Remarks – Exhibit Hall 1 Hilton Austin Hotel Starbucks Stubs SXSW – Hilton Room K Scoot Inn Sxsw Microsoft Lounge Stubb’s BBQ SXSW – Hilton F hilton austin lobby The Jackalope Digg Bigg Shindigg RVIP Lounge / Karaoke RV Austin Convention Center Courtyard Marriott The Jackalope Kevin Rose and web 2.0 crew being obnoxious on stage SXSW Interactive Trade Show Chevrolet Volt Recharge Lounge SXSW / ACC – Room 12ab
	On the @rviplounge with the Toronto Nerd Herd and friends! [fuzzz]
	Hey adobe if u sponsor a 10am breakfast, running out of food by 10.10 is not cool #breakfastfail #sxsw [fuzzz]
	Where are u now? I’m debating btw this panel on building sites cross device vs a design one… In ballroom F now. [fuzzz]
	Frak sorry about that there DM fail [fuzzz]
	Gonna be looking for lunch pals after this session finishes at 1.30. #hungry #sxsw [fuzzz]
	Thinking about a walk over to REI/Whole Foods at lunch… [fuzzz]
	RT @somnambulant: Thinking about walking to Whole Foods for some food in 20 minutes or so. [fuzzz]
	Walking over to Whole Foods in a bit [fuzzz]
	Checked in 18 times. SXSW Interactive Trade Show Drake Bridge Hilton Austin Hotel Casa Chapala Hilton Austin Hotel Austin Convention Center Mellow Johnny’s SXSW – Hilton Room G SXSW / ACC – Ballroom F Hilton Austin Pool Courtyard Marriott SXSW / ACC – Screen Burn Arcade SXSW Adobe Day Stage Cafe – Ballroom G Austin Convention Center Chevrolet Volt Recharge Lounge Courtyard Marriott Whole Foods Market Flagship Store Sxsw Block Party

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andreg

March 14, 2010

SXSW 2010 – Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?

Does the one-size-fits-all approach of “One Web” meet the needs of all groups of web users, as web content becomes more complicated? We will discuss strategies for improving accessibility across different devices, covering current issues with mobile accessibility, and potential solutions such as geolocation and CSS3 media queries.

2:25 PM: AndreG Presenter – Chris Mills – Opera Software
2:33 PM: AndreG How do we extend Accessibility across all of the web enabled devices out there?
2:33 PM: AndreG What opportunities do new technologies offer us? (HTML5 and CSS3 in terms of accessibility)
2:33 PM: AndreG Accessibility as Universal Design
2:34 PM: AndreG Improve things for everyone from a screen reader to a tiny little mobile phone
2:35 PM: AndreG We are now building for smartphones, tablets, TVs, game consoles, etc. The web is everywhere now
2:36 PM: AndreG iPhone paved the way for a great standards based UX support for phones
2:36 PM: AndreG There is even a good screenreader on the iPhone 3GS
2:37 PM: AndreG WAI-ARIA support is making its way into mobile browsers
2:37 PM: AndreG Mobile IE is the big exception to mobile accessibility
2:38 PM: AndreG Android has great standards support thanks to Webkit
2:39 PM: AndreG If you have a mobile device based on Webkit you are probably going to be in an OK situation with accessibility. Need to be careful though since there are a lot of fragmented version of Webkit out there at the moment.
2:41 PM: AndreG Outside of the rich west, most “feature phones” are pretty crappy. We are not the same as our users. Need to really make sure we are targeting our mobile dev for our target market.
2:43 PM: AndreG A lot of TVs and consumer products have chosen to leverage Webkit or the Opera SDK. Good accessibility in the background but not implemented on the front end.
2:43 PM: AndreG Beyond browsers there are lots of problems with the actual devices they run on
2:44 PM: AndreG General lack of assistive technology on most devices. Mobile devices are almost like where we were ten years ago in terms of desktop support.
2:44 PM: AndreG Screen sizes are ALL over the place.
2:45 PM: AndreG Devices cannot support heavy processing or bandwidth intensive activities at the moment
2:45 PM: AndreG Controls tend to vary pretty widely across devices…
2:46 PM: AndreG Current mobile devices not supporting plugins, but not a huge deal thanks to forward thinking support for HTML5
2:46 PM: AndreG Overall Accessibility on alternative devices is “a real pain in the ass”
2:47 PM: AndreG How are we addressing this and solving things? Going back to the old school.
2:47 PM: AndreG Since ARIA Javascript is not widely supported we need to think about fallbacks. Nice clean HTML that works without JS
2:47 PM: AndreG Must make core content still accessible
2:48 PM: AndreG Always create a baseline of content that is accessible without things like JS
2:48 PM: AndreG Layer on enhancements
2:49 PM: AndreG If you want to use AJAX that is great but you need a fall back to a full page refresh
2:51 PM: AndreG If you are going to support a mobile version of your site make sure it is a quality experience. Should always give users option to jump over to the full non mobile site.
2:51 PM: AndreG Graded support…
2:53 PM: AndreG No need to write a mobile app that is iPhone only. If you keep layouts fluid and degrade nicely they should work everywhere. Keep graphics minimal, keep data entry to a minimum, test across as many devices as you can. Users are most likely to select from lists as they work the most consistently across devices.
2:53 PM: AndreG Keep HTTP requests to a minimum, user CSS Sprites, minimize JS as much as possible. Keep it LEAN.
2:54 PM: AndreG W3C mobile best practices are very similar to WCAG best practices.
2:59 PM: AndreG WAI-ARIA 2 is supposed to focus more on Mobile once it gets rolling.

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andreg

March 14, 2010

SXSW 2010 – What If Your Phone Had 5 Senses?

The phone in your pocket has the sense of sight (camera), sound (microphone), touch and location (still working on taste and smell). Through live demos we’ll show off some new mobile hardware (could your phone really be replaced by AR glasses?) and what developers and marketers will be able to create with these new tools (speech recognition, computer vision, etc.)

1:02 PM: AndreG PRESENTERS
Ted Power – Google
Nicholas Jitkoff – Google
Matt Biddulph – Dopplr
Ben Averch – Microvision
1:02 PM: AndreG Current smartphones are way more than mini computers. They are full of sensors and collect tons of data all the time.
1:03 PM: AndreG Steve Mann – MIT/UofT is a pioneer in the field
1:04 PM: AndreG 4GB per hour x 24 hrs x 365 – 35TB of video/sound data….
1:05 PM: AndreG In 10 year 35TB a year will cost approx $3. Collecting and saving all that data will cost basically nothing.
1:06 PM: AndreG Phone enabled senses come along with a huge list of privacy questions. Important as society and people evolve.
1:06 PM: AndreG Sound and Voice
1:07 PM: AndreG Phones are great at holding data but there is a challenge with accessing it. Old school tiny keyboards are not answer
1:08 PM: AndreG Google is currently working on farming out voice and sound analysis to “the cloud” so they can interpret more and more input
1:08 PM: AndreG Hard part now is training people on what they can do and try. Humans are not yet accustom to talking to their computers
1:09 PM: AndreG The machine needs to be constantly learning and adapting to human input
1:11 PM: AndreG All about making things much more convenient. Just like one-click activation. Voice should work well with eyes closed and total lack of UI. Gestures help as a quick way to access the device
1:12 PM: AndreG You don’t want an interface that gets in front of you when you are using voice. Needs to be smart enough to understand input and just do the right thing.
1:13 PM: AndreG With an effective voice app you can cut down a complex multi step interaction into a handful of very simple interactions. Voice commands while driving are way better than having to navigate a keyboard and touch interaction
1:14 PM: AndreG Location Based Interactions….
1:14 PM: AndreG Current geo apps are making amazing things happen with very minimal data – lat/long
1:15 PM: AndreG Proximity…
1:17 PM: AndreG Wiimotes and phones are not that different. Touch and physical feedback are driving haptic interactions across almost every device nowadays.
1:17 PM: AndreG Haptics have been around forever and there is lots of really good research behind it.
1:18 PM: AndreG Typing on screen, phone can buzz slightly and give the sense of friction on a frictionless surface.
1:18 PM: AndreG Pixel addressable surfaces are around the corner for the mainstream
1:19 PM: AndreG Touch works well as a secondary backup interaction for a traditional UI
1:19 PM: AndreG Haptic feedback can increase typing accuracy by large amounts
1:22 PM: AndreG Humans are starting to feed haptic information into their everyday lives. It’s a way to augment human senses and giving people more senses. Human are really good at using secondary information. A quick pocket buzz is all you might need. (example of a device that buzzes when user turns to the north – made map and wayfinding skills much better very quickly)
1:22 PM: AndreG Sensing digital information – eg Oyster Card
1:23 PM: AndreG Sight
1:24 PM: AndreG Pico projectors are finding their ways into phones and tiny devices. Lasers can now create displays with novel capabilities
1:25 PM: AndreG Laser based displays were originally built for military purposes. Now filtering down to consumer products
1:27 PM: AndreG Augmented reality – overlaying additional digital information over a camera image from a mobile phone camera. Lots of buzz right now
1:27 PM: AndreG So far no one has come up with a valuable killer app for augmented reality
1:27 PM: AndreG Currently a bit of a novelty
1:31 PM: AndreG In the future AR is capable of providing everyone with a totally personalized, metadata enriched experience. Might or might not come from a traditional phone experience. Could be and might need to be built into glasses or some other form factor.
1:32 PM: AndreG Having AR in glasses (or contact lenses?) is key to allowing constant AR overlay of location based metadata.
1:33 PM: AndreG The first augmented reality tool may have been the Sony Walkman
1:36 PM: AndreG Apps like Yelp and Foursquare are another example of augmented reality in that a user can be out and about and easily access metadata about that location (restaurant reviews, etc…). You don’t need a crazy funky UI for AR.
1:40 PM: AndreG Google doing a lot to move services like translate, image recognition, etc. into the cloud and allowing users to access their services through their phone. Take a photo of a menu, send photo to cloud, OCR, translate, send back to user. – Google Goggles.

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andreg

March 13, 2010

SXSW 2010 – What Can Carl Sagan Teach Us About The Web?

2010 is the 30th anniversary of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Not only is his explanation of our universe relevant today, it can teach us a great deal about how to create better websites.

7:05 PM: AndreG Presenter: Mark Trammell – Twitter
7:13 PM: AndreG Astronomy vs Astrology – pseudo science that attempts to make sense to everyone vs. true science, measurement, fact
7:13 PM: AndreG Not unlike focus groups in modern day web development
7:14 PM: AndreG People talking about their feelings.
7:15 PM: AndreG On the flip side, going to where your users are is a means to an end to actually see and observe facts
7:21 PM: AndreG Natural vs artificial selection – we tend to shape the world around us quite aggressively
7:21 PM: AndreG Natural selection is like the standard design process
7:21 PM: AndreG Mock -> feedback cycle. Very standard
7:22 PM: AndreG We have ways to speed that up… eg. A/B testing
7:23 PM: AndreG How you choose what to measure during A/B testing is much more important than the actual changes you are testing
7:26 PM: AndreG If you don’t actually know what you want to get out of testing you will go down the wrong path
7:45 PM: AndreG Looking for anomalies in things like customer support tickets, diving in and trying to recreate the issue may reveal something huge. You may just open a door to something larger or better that you would not have discovered otherwise.
7:46 PM: AndreG It’s all about trying to uncover secrets
7:50 PM: AndreG Once you are open to questioning rituals and time honoured practices you find that one question leads to another. Just because you have done it one way forever doesn’t mean it is right (or wrong)
7:50 PM: AndreG The native faith can endure. New belief can impose itself. Hybrid culture can arise. Ideally, both suppositions can be shaken and something new arrives.

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andreg

March 13, 2010

SXSW 2010 – View Source Has A Posse

“View source” is a feature of all modern browsers that few people use, and that more probably wouldn’t miss if it disappeared. Still, viewing other people’s source code has played an undeniable role in the Web’s development, spurring a culture of creativity and sharing, and cementing values of openness and transparency in developer practices. However, as the Web becomes increasingly dedicated to social interaction and applications rather than static documents, the value of viewing machine-generated source code raises a critical question: will view source be relevant to the next generation of Web apps? And what might be lost if new Web applications refuse to include its functionality? This panel is sponsored by Mircosoft Silverlight.

5:37 PM: AndreG RESENTERS
Estelle Weyl – UpTake Networks Inc
Chris Wilson – Microsoft
Aza Raskin – Mozilla/Songza
Alex Russell – Google
Michael Lucaccini – Archetype
5:38 PM: AndreG The web is going the same way as automobiles. As things get more complex it is getting harder and harder to pop open the hood and see/understand what is going on. Nowadays it is more like popping the hood with another hood under it.
5:38 PM: AndreG Tools like JQuery are great but they add a lot of complexity when a builder is trying to dig into why/how things work
5:39 PM: AndreG You can still figure things out but it is getting harder and harder
5:39 PM: AndreG View Source made a lot of sense when the web was pure text… this is no longer the case
5:41 PM: AndreG View source commoditizes the the core things you need… eg. no need to rebuild the wheel everytime
5:41 PM: AndreG View Source is really evolving into tools like Firebug. Cannot build a modern site without digging deeper into how and why things work.
5:42 PM: AndreG View Source has helped to keep the web open and has also forced security since people could dig in and see what was actually going on. Since you could view source and see what was going on it kept people on their toes.
5:43 PM: AndreG HTML is easily understood by many many humans and that is what has made View Source powerful.
5:45 PM: AndreG Growing pressure to optimize speed and performance it is critical to obfuscate JS. You may be able to see the code but it is so optimized it is not humanly readable… ever.
5:46 PM: AndreG Javascript is moving closer to Silverlight and Flash in that it is becoming a black box. Getting harder and harder to learn how to do stuff on the web.
5:47 PM: AndreG Just like learning how to tinker with a car it is now essential that people start by learning small pieces at a time and growing knowledge/skill. Takes a lot longer now than it did 10 years ago.
5:52 PM: AndreG Really important for newbies to be able to see the possibility of where they can go.
5:53 PM: AndreG The web has always been about learning from others. That is how we go so far so fast.
5:54 PM: AndreG Slippery slope of allowing people to see and access your code while still maintaining your Intellectual Property.
5:57 PM: AndreG There is a lot of really REALLY bad code out there and View Source also exposes it to newbies.
5:59 PM: AndreG There are lots of parts to the web that are not view source-able. Video is a big new area that hides tons of the inner workings. HTML5 is moving in the right direction but there is still a lot of work to be done.
5:59 PM: AndreG HTML5 is much more tweakable and therefore much more open and is fairly open, especially compared to Flash
6:00 PM: AndreG Hackability is the opposite side of the View Source arguement.
6:01 PM: AndreG Fiddling with tools like GreaseMonkey are critical to allowing power users to modify sites and services to work better for them
6:01 PM: AndreG Question – why are we pushing such complexity?
6:03 PM: AndreG Getting harder to learn how to use all of the technologies at an expert level across all browsers. Tools like JQuery really help with this consistency across everything.
6:05 PM: AndreG Semantic web relies heavily on text based tools to utilize code and content that is out there.
6:07 PM: AndreG Growing fear that we are increasing the barriers to entry. You can make things simpler but there is inherent complexity that has to be moved somewhere else (eg. server side vs client side)
6:09 PM: AndreG We need to make sure we are building and evolving the web in a way that keeps it in line with our true use cases.
6:14 PM: AndreG Mobile web has changed things again. HTML5 is being used and consumed but all of the new devices and frameworks are pushing way faster that developers can keep up with.
6:14 PM: AndreG There is no View Source on iPhone or Android
6:15 PM: AndreG Lack of an editor makes it even harder to develop on mobile
6:15 PM: AndreG Need to move past the traditional scenario of local editing on local desk… needs to evolve as quickly as mobile and new trends
6:16 PM: AndreG Relationship between the user and the browser is a very personal experience
6:16 PM: AndreG At the end of the day we need to protect users
6:18 PM: AndreG Web platform has been playing catchup to traditional computers and we are on the cusp of getting there. The challenge is that it needs to span across a ton of devices, screens, hardware, use cases.
6:18 PM: AndreG Developers should try to build sites that are as flexible as possible to work across all of these things.
6:21 PM: AndreG The open web has been a fast follower and as other technologies figure out what they want and need to be (eg. Flash/Silverlight) the web will follow closely. HTML5 can now do what Flash has done for a while. Web lets others figure it out and then steps in. New emerging tech will take the place of the old guys like Flash and the web tools will need to follow them down the road.
6:25 PM: AndreG Right now we are doing way too much in Javascript. For example CSS animations are way better for animation rather than doing it with JS.
6:25 PM: AndreG Must use the right tech for the job

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andreg

March 13, 2010

SXSW 2010 – Mobile Web and APIs (W3C Standards)

“This will follow-on from the “Browser Wars” panels of the past few years. I propose to this year focus on an important shift happening in the Web: a shift towards mobility and towards use of the browser as an application platform, including advances such as widgets, HTML5 and Geolocation”

1:36 PM: AndreG Presenter – Daniel Appelquist – Vodafone
1:37 PM: AndreG Reps Vodaphone at W3C and focuses on web standards
1:37 PM: AndreG 28.6% of US users using mobile browsers
1:37 PM: AndreG Developers embracing HTML5
1:38 PM: AndreG If you want to reach the broadest user base you should be focused on HTML 5
1:38 PM: AndreG Touch web is growing like crazy at the moment
1:40 PM: AndreG Things are great for the web on mobile but there are limits since you are in a sandbox. You cannot easily access device info, you need to be consistently connected, currently tricky as users need to find your app and access it. Still hard to monitize online web apps. All challenges are being worked on though.
1:40 PM: AndreG Canvas and SVG are big parts of HTML 5 that will make web apps very interactive.
1:41 PM: AndreG Android and iPhone are heavily supporting these right now and will continue to evolve (thanks to Webkit base). These are the reason you don’t necessarily need Flash and can create rich interactive experiences.
1:42 PM: AndreG W3C Widgets – allow you to package up web apps. These handle an install event and can essentially make your web apps work like native apps.
1:42 PM: AndreG Widgets can be updated
1:42 PM: AndreG Look at Apache Wookie Project incubator.apache.org
1:43 PM: AndreG Nokia and Opera currently supporting widgets.
1:44 PM: AndreG For now, use PhoneGap in order to widgetize webapps for iPhone. This is a legacy approach that should evolve over time.
1:45 PM: AndreG PhoneGap allows you to build web applications and get them into the App store
1:45 PM: AndreG APIs are sexy
1:46 PM: AndreG GeoAPI – huge work has gone into this and is taking off. Google, Mozilla, Opera, MS all involved. Currently embedded in iPhone and Firefox and newest Android (2.0)
1:47 PM: AndreG Allows you to get the users location from the browser context. Currently used by Google Maps, Gowalla, Flickr, etc.
\
1:47 PM: AndreG Location is the KEY to mobile at the moment.
1:47 PM: AndreG Helps refine search and makes everything easier for the user
1:48 PM: AndreG Lots more APIs in the works. Contact book, Calendar, File system, Audio/video, system info, tasks, app launcher, etc. All of these should extend functionality
1:48 PM: AndreG Cannot overlook mobile device access and privacy
1:49 PM: AndreG Users must remain in control. Consent to usage. Give notice when private data is being collected. Users also need to understand how long you will hold the info and what you will do with it. Can be extremely intrusive.
1:50 PM: AndreG Lots of discussion going into this privacy stuff right now. Lots of info on betavine.net/location
1:51 PM: AndreG Mobile developers should keep up on the W3C mobile app best practices. Lots of good info there.

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andreg

March 13, 2010

SXSW 2010 – Re-Inventing the Wheel: Sketching your own IA Process

It’s the start of a new project. You’ve got requirements, guidelines, data, research. Now what? Like an artist staring at a blank canvas, information architects often don’t know where to begin. Instead of following a rigid methodology or waiting for the perfect idea to appear out of the blue, learn to continually invent new tools and techniques to foster real user experience innovation.

11:24 AM: AndreG Presenter Christopher Fahey – Behavior Design
11:32 AM: AndreG All about how to tweak your process to address new technology and design problems
11:33 AM: AndreG Traditional waterfall approach to phased development
11:34 AM: AndreG Big ideas are typically brought to the table early on. Same with research
11:35 AM: AndreG As ideas creep in later, scope creep has been a bad thing. Challenge is how do you make sure you leave the door open to be able to handle GREAT ideas later in the game.
11:36 AM: AndreG Design is about a whole lot of things… creativity comes from everywhere
11:38 AM: AndreG Challenge with design is how and when you define the problem you are trying to solve. Coming from a different angle can really change your end solution
11:40 AM: AndreG Sometimes inspiration has to be a little crazy and goofy so you don’t rule out opportunities for awesome solutions.
11:41 AM: AndreG Designers can and will forbid themselves from creativity. Process, old ideas of how things should be, etc.
11:42 AM: AndreG Hard to go from conservative to radical in terms of solutions. Way easier to step back from a radical thing and make it less “crazy”. Once you start at conservative it’s really hard to move the other way
11:42 AM: AndreG You need to balance being too creative vs not creative enough
11:44 AM: AndreG Nowadays it’s pretty easy to build products that technically work fine. Problem is there are lots of products that are technically fine but people hate to use, the could be way better, they are just passable.
11:47 AM: AndreG Research is a great idea. It’s very useful and you can get very creative with what you need to and want to research. Need to make sure your end data supports creativity and does not lock people in. Data does not create design, but it can help you provide context.
11:47 AM: AndreG Real design decisions are informed guess work. You take research and infer and solution. You need to be bold. This can be considered Data Inspired Design
11:48 AM: AndreG Merging creativity + design + data as inspiration
11:51 AM: AndreG You are always interpreting the data and that really can end up being a design decision
11:53 AM: AndreG Sometimes you need to blur the line between traditional hard research and fuzzzy research. If you can’t interview 100 people use personas or come up with ways to get information that is good enough to use and infer your way through the holes.
11:53 AM: AndreG You need to be savvy about what processes and portions of existing processes as you work through defining solutions
11:54 AM: AndreG As things change (mobile, touch, voice recognition, gestures, etc.) the traditional IA and design deliverables don’t/can’t keep up. You should be continually updating and refining your processes and methodologies
11:55 AM: AndreG Still need progress and checkpoints but they should not be relics. Your tool kit needs to be very broad and you need a lot of different ways to attack a problem. Pick and choose the weapons you need when you need them.
11:56 AM: AndreG No need to force yourself to create deliverables just to create them.
11:59 AM: AndreG Sometimes you don’t know the problems you have. If you have a rigid roadmap you’ll more than likely be looking for the wrong things.
12:00 PM: AndreG There is no such thing as the “mother of all methods”…
12:01 PM: AndreG Most times the best tools are the simplest. Everything from simple discussion and whiteboards -> sharpie drawings -> wireframes -> high fidelity functional prototypes. Can’t forget the sketch resolution spectrum through the design process.
12:02 PM: AndreG Don’t jump ahead too soon… but jump to the point you need to be at to be effective
12:06 PM: AndreG There really are no templates for true creative design. Might be hard to start from scratch but you need to think about what the right way to solve the problem. Jamming your solution into a template may very well limit you from finding the right direction.
12:06 PM: AndreG Blank canvas – at the start no one really knows where they are going. Important to talk and discuss the “what is it” of the final product
12:07 PM: AndreG Thumbnail quantifications – how big are we building for?
12:08 PM: AndreG What is the least wanted? Especially good for a redesign. Need to get this stuff out on the table to make sure everyone is on the same page
12:10 PM: AndreG User Personas – great way to merge all your user research, think about micro personas and then look for the patterns between them so you really start to think who they are and who you are really focusing on. Boil down to 3 -5 user groups instead of trying to cater to 50 micro personas. Easy way not to limit yourself but not go crazy.
12:10 PM: AndreG Give your product a personality. Think of making your software behave like a likeable human
12:10 PM: AndreG Voice and content strategy are really important here!
12:11 PM: AndreG Give your software some personality…. really important since humans are good at interacting and understanding personality
12:11 PM: AndreG It’s not typical but it can really help you make informed decisions
12:12 PM: AndreG Personality characteristics…
12:17 PM: AndreG Sketching is potentially the most important part of the whole process. Don’t be scared about sharing and showing sketches to clients. It can actually be a fun process that helps everyone contribute. Scribbling ideas out and getting them on the table. You can pull the patterns and best bits together later.
12:18 PM: AndreG Sketching for prototyping. Especially nice for mobile as you can do them at the real size.
12:19 PM: AndreG Listen to Critiques… you need to learn to balance all the opinions and input
12:20 PM: AndreG Criticism is not data. Just opinions and need to think of it as another set of eyes which might produce a better or refined design. Discussions help you get dialled in.
12:21 PM: AndreG Designing totally by yourself is probably a bad idea. The discussion and sharing will help provide design insights
12:22 PM: AndreG Prototype as if you are right but listen as if you are wrong. Let other people tear your stuff apart. Your tools may need to evolve and this is the only way you can really learn that.
12:22 PM: AndreG Always plan to change your plan and roll with evolution.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

March 7, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of March 7th

	Really enjoyed The Crazies… caveat – I love Zombie movies and this was a pretty decent "proto-zombie" take on the genre. #romero [fuzzz]
	Shared Untooned Characters.
	Dear eyelash.. please stop poking me in the eye. I’ve had enuf ok!?! [fuzzz]
	Kinda like the look of these new Shimano bike shoes (need a new pair this year) http://bit.ly/d7yhkI [fuzzz]
	Liked Blade Runner – Tears in Rain (in LEGO).
	Ohhh a MacMini with HDMI could be very awesome. http://bit.ly/bvt1gb [fuzzz]
	Checked in 4 times. Queen Subway Station St. Clair Subway Station Queen Subway Station Toronto Eaton Centre
	So sleepy. Glad I worked out yesterday so I don’t have to do anything tonight… [fuzzz]
	Just sayin’ @photojunkie needs a few more votes on the last day of voting. http://ok.cogaoke.com/contestants [fuzzz]
	Hackintosh NOT powerful enuf to drive my 1080p TV and stream Flash content at the same time… Fun to experiment tho. [fuzzz]
	Checked in at Summerhill Subway Station
	YES! @photojunkie made it and is gonna get a chance to compete http://bit.ly/bCMed4 [fuzzz]
	This video of Robert Ebert with his new computer voice is pretty awesome http://bit.ly/cxIffP [fuzzz]
	Wanna guestlist to the (Open Bar) Social Media War Party Mar14?! @sxswParties RVSP w/a RT – http://bit.ly/buster10 [fuzzz]
	Sorry about that last tweet [fuzzz]
	#TeamTaylor [fuzzz]
	Ok time to get off the couch and onto the trainer for an hour or so… [fuzzz]
	Shared 6 links. Max Headroom To Be Released on DVD Super Slow Motion Video of Dogs Catching Treats Yelp’s official response to the business extortion accusation How-To: Free motion cycling rollers Browser security: "The main thing is not to install Flash!" Roger Ebert’s New Voice
	Liked The Sandpit.
	RT @jpdef: Thinking good thoughts for @tara & @seanbonner. So exciting! #bbdownloading Same here! [fuzzz]
	RT @brundle_fly: Why DRM Doesn’t Work. http://bit.ly/ctf2it [fuzzz]
	Checked in 6 times. King Subway Station Prohibition Gastropub Starstruck Cafe Queen Subway Station St. Clair Subway Station Pizza Pizza
	Checked in 2 times. Savoury Grounds TTC King and Bay
	So SCENE.ca is still looking for an Interactive Manager…. deets can be found here http://bit.ly/91Z3ZF [fuzzz]
	Counting the seconds until Austin and #SXSWi [fuzzz]
	I really <3 designing for mobile experiences. Embrace the constraints…. [fuzzz]
	Looks like the new Dev version of Chrome is location aware thanks to the Geolocation API… [fuzzz]
	Not surprised there may be a supplychain problem with the first iPad shipments. That just makes people go crazy for it more. #partoftheplan? [fuzzz]
	Shared Best of the Past: Trainer Tells All – What I Have Learned About Health and Fitness. Good stuff.
	Wow 10 billion tweets… who’d have thunk? [fuzzz]
	Has anyone used this iclarified.com tutorial to unlock their iPhone 3G? Is it accurate? http://bit.ly/3hSn1k [fuzzz]
	Abed is awesome [fuzzz]
	Ok gonna give unlocking a try later tonight… seems straightforward enuf. [fuzzz]
	OMG Community rules! #burternie [fuzzz]
	OMG this episode of The Office is packed with gags… laughing pretty hard. [fuzzz]
	Can’t wait for the bike show and #CanLIT after work tonight. Have a feeling it’s gonna be "one of them days…" [fuzzz]
	Forgot to mention that the new @hellovelo kit looks and fits awesome. #hi5 [fuzzz]
	Really kinda sux Apple missed releasing the iPad in time for SXSW. Woulda been great timing. [fuzzz]
	If @flashlight would respond to my inquires maybe I can assist him with his trouble [fuzzz]
	Heading out to #CanLIT shortly… I REALLY REALLY need my peeps tonight. [fuzzz]
	Checked in at Fair Trade Jewellery Co.
	OMG too much fun at #CanLIT. [fuzzz]
	RT @nicolemma: @ryantaylor a king amongst men! Thanks for hosting a fantastic party. A pleasure to attend. [fuzzz]
	Ok ok I’m awake. Now off to @mercuryespresso for some fuel juice b4 pilates and @newtypography‘s bday lunch… [fuzzz]
	Checked in 2 times. Mercury Espresso Bar Sneaky Dee’s
	Gotta spend some time getting my bike prep’d for riding tomorrow. #hi5 for outdoor riding… [fuzzz]
	WOOT!. Bike is off the trainer and back in CX mode. @modernmod @nicolemma better be ready to ride tomorrow. Where we meeting up? [fuzzz]
	Catching up on Caprica… [fuzzz]
	Shared this isn’t happiness.™ Peter Nidzgorski, tumblr.
	Looks like a chill night on tap + a Zombieland rental on AppleTV.. [fuzzz]
	Pizza consumed… now time for Zombies [fuzzz]
	Zombieland has the best opening titles… [fuzzz]
	Sweet… weather for #sxswi is looking really good at this point. Fingers crossed forecast stays that way. [fuzzz]
	Awww @thenixon has been eaten by pillows and is stuck in their grasp http://yfrog.com/15182nwj [fuzzz]
	Grrrr all of the sudden I am getting a lot of "No Service" blips on my iPhone. Anyone else on Rogers noticing this in the last couple weeks? [fuzzz]
	OK heading to bed… #exhausted [fuzzz]
	Back from a fun 60km ride with @nicolemma (and @somnambulant & @modernmod for a portion)… So nice out there in the sun and fresh air. [fuzzz]
	Also saw a horrific car/streetcar crash at Richmond and Spadina. [fuzzz]
	Both the dogs have spring fever. Really sucks how muddy it is out there. Don’t wanna have to bath them. [fuzzz]
	Thinking I could do with a walk over to Ed’s for ice cream and maybe a stop @mercuryespresso for some beans… [fuzzz]
	Ohhhh looks like Portal 2 is coming to the Mac. That is pretty cool. [fuzzz]
	Roasting potatoes…. [fuzzz]
	RT @cineplexblog: Stars arriving early on the #Oscar red carpet so we’re jumping in a early to our LIVE BLOG – join us: http://bit.ly/abt9HL [fuzzz]
	We’re having fun Live Blogging the Oscars. Feel free to add some comments http://bit.ly/cxylrk #cineplex [fuzzz]

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

February 28, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of February 28th

	Checked in 9 times. Calgary Airport Runway Calgary International Airport (YYC) Calgary International Airport (YYC) Calgary International Airport (YYC) Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) sushi ichiban Starbucks Air Canada
	Shared 2 links. Star Wars Deleted Scene MacGyver of the Day: Mad Scientists Lenore Edman and Windell Oskay @ Lifehacker
	Checked in at Sneaky Dee’s
	Checked in 3 times. Ontario College of Art and Design Starstruck Cafe Cineplex HQ
	Liked TRANSIT ELITE.
	Checked in at Starstruck Cafe
	Liked Coastal Crew Ep.2 – Semenuk & Norbraten Get The Shot. Coastal Crew Ep.2 – Semenuk & Norbraten Get The Shot
	Checked in 3 times. Pizza Pizza The Bagel House St. Clair Subway Station
	Checked in 2 times. Sears (Fairview Mall) Metro News Box – Oriole GO Station
	Checked in at Empire Ave Stop

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

February 21, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of February 21st

	Reviewed Sleep Country Canada (5/5) on Yelp.
	Shared 2 links. Javascript Commodore 64 emulator Square’s On-the-Go iPhone Credit Card Scanner Will Cost $1
	Listened to Eye For An Eye – Story of the Year.
	Shared Happy Birthday, BBS!.
	Shared 2 links. SXSW Gets Seat-Level Check-Ins With SitBy.Us Bitstrips Hits a Million Schoolkid-Made Strips With One About Laura Secords, You Guys
	Checked in 4 times. Panorama Central Check In Air Canada Calgary International Airport (YYC) Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
	Checked in 2 times. Ski Tip Lodge Casa Kirby
	Checked in 2 times. Ski Tip Lodge Casa Kirby
	Checked in at Casa Kirby
	Shared Nike HTM2 Run Boot TZ high top + nike free? i MUST have these..
	Checked in at Casa Kirby

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

February 14, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of February 14th

	Shared Star Wars TV Show Tainted By Memories of Jar Jar.
	Liked Testing the 7D with Anthony. Testing the 7D with Anthony

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

February 7, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of February 7th

	Shared 2 links. Riverdale Park Gets Its Great Cafe Where’s the iMag store?
	Checked in 2 times. Queen Subway Station Starstruck Cafe
	Shared Mobile App or Browser-Based Site? Report Suggests The Browser is Winning on Mobile.
	Checked in at Starstruck Cafe
	Shared 2 links. Apple iPad GUI in PSD Format using Vectors HR Giger wedding cake
	Shared Coworking in Toronto – Camaraderie. Nice concept.
	Checked in at Pizzaiolo

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 31, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of January 31st

	Checked in at Casa Di Georgio
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Shared Where Glasses are Made – Oakley Factory Tour.
	Checked in at Lady Marmalade
	Checked in at TTC Subway Yonge Line Northbound
	Checked in at Summerhill Subway Station
	Shared Location Meets News in Metro-Foursquare Deal.
	Checked in at St. Clair Subway Station
	Checked in at young and bloor station
	Checked in at Manulife Centre
	Checked in at Cineplex Odeon
	Checked in at Broadview Subway Station
	Checked in at Riverdale
	Liked 3 videos.
	Checked in at Moss Park
	Checked in at Queen Subway Station
	Checked in at Royal Bank
	Checked in at Starstruck Cafe
	Shared Apple opens up VoIP via 3G on iPhone, and maybe even iPad.
	Checked in at Starstruck Cafe
	Checked in at Harvey’s
	Checked in at Souz Dal
	Checked in at Utopia Café and Grill
	Checked in at Sidecar
	Checked in at Ted’s collision
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at 501 Queen Streetcar West
	Checked in at Cineplex HQ
	Checked in at Joyride 150
	Checked in at chang’e studio
	Shared Omni Group Commits to Bring Five Productivity Apps to iPad.
	Shared 1.jpg (707×500).
	Checked in at Three’s Company Cafe & Catering
	Checked in at Fluevog
	Reviewed 2 businesses. John Fluevog Shoes (4/5) on Yelp Three’s Company Catering (3/5) on Yelp
	Shared Mac OS X 10.3 installed on Nokia N900 via PearPC, barely usable for impatient geeks.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 24, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of January 24th

	Checked in at Cineplex HQ
	Liked Mag+.
	Checked in at Lou Dawg’s
	Reviewed Elite Event @ Lou Dawg’s (5/5) on Yelp.
	Checked in at 504 King Streetcar west
	Checked in at King Subway Station
	Checked in at Cineplex HQ
	Checked in at Pizzaiolo
	Checked in at Apple Store
	Checked in at Pizzaiolo
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Reviewed Pizzaiolo (4/5) on Yelp.
	Liked 3 videos.
	Checked in at 501 Queen Streetcar West
	Checked in at Cineplex HQ
	Checked in at Post Office (St Clair Center)
	Checked in at Cineplex HQ
	Checked in at Mountain Equipment Co-op
	Checked in at king streetcar eastbound
	Checked in at McLeary Park
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at McLeary Park
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at Starstruck Cafe
	Checked in at Sushi Marche
	Shared University of Oregon shows off engraved MacBook Pros.
	Checked in at Mercury Espresso Bar
	Checked in at chang’e studio
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at Lick’s
	Checked in at tim horton’s
	Checked in at Skiis and Biikes
	Checked in at Blue Mountain
	Checked in at DVP Southbound
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Checked in at Joy Bistro
	Checked in at Mercury Espresso Bar
	Checked in at Loblaws
	Checked in at Fuzzz HQ
	Shared 2 links. Happy 26th Birthday, Mac! Frog Design outs the Apple tablet that could have been… in 1983

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 24, 2010

Toronto Specials on Foursquare

Everyone loves specials and deals. Check in to your local venue on Foursquare and you might be rewarded with something free. This being the case, I hacked a San Francisco based set of Yahoo Pipes to work for Toronto. Check it out here: http://pipes.yahoo.com/fuzzz/toronto_foursquare_deals

For a quick preview, check out the embedded version below…

Thanks to Arthur Klepchukov for his original set of Pipes!

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 18, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of January 18th

	Liked Yonretto Trailer. Yonretto Trailer
	Reviewed 2 businesses. Joyride 150 (5/5) on Yelp Chang’e Studio (4/5) on Yelp

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 16, 2010

Joyride 150

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 15, 2010

Life Stream Digest as of January 15th

	Listened to 10 songs. NOFX – Fleas Protest the Hero – Bone Marrow Story of the Year – And the Hero Will Drown Story of the Year – Sidewalks Vanna – Home A Day to Remember – You Already Know What You Are Thursday – Last Call Screeching Weasel – Hey Suburbia Weezer – Keep Fishin The Riverdales – Squirm
	Shared System of a Down – Toxicity, Drum Cover, 5 Year Old Drummer, Jonah Rocks.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 12, 2010

Life Stream Digest for Week Ending January 12th

Listened to 22 songs.

Liked 6 videos.

Tattoo

Joyride 150 Indoor Bike Park

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 10, 2010

Life Stream Digest for January 10th

	Reviewed 5 businesses. Volcom Inc (5/5) on Yelp The Road to Hana (3/5) on Yelp Maui Tacos (4/5) on Yelp Hula Grill (4/5) on Yelp The Pride of Maui Boat Tours (4/5) on Yelp
	Shared 20 photos.
	Reviewed 2 businesses. Maui Golf & Sports Park (4/5) on Yelp Haleakala National Park (5/5) on Yelp
	Checked in 3 times. LAX Terminal 2 Casa Di Giorgio California
	Liked Look At Me.
	Shared Cannondale’s mind-blowing Simon electronic suspension system hands-on.
	Shared Playpen Fail.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

January 9, 2010

Maui Certainly Is Magical

Sunset

Beach

Haleakala Volcano

Condo Sunset

Mini Golf

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

October 3, 2009

2009 Nuit Blanche

Lots to do tonight during Toronto’s Nuit Blanche so I though I might as well share my short list itinerary for those who are interested…

The Sonic Fun House, Christine Duncan’s Element Choir & Orchestra
Atrium On Bay, 40 Dundas W, Zone A
Not so much “fun” as “housed” in the contorted halls of The Atrium On Bay, this piece will have audiences trying to emulate choir director Christine Duncan’s unique instructions to create an endless cacophony.

Rabbit Balloon, Jeff Koons
Toronto Eaton Centre, Trinity Way, 220 Yonge, Zone A
Marquee artist Jeff Koons lends his oversized silver bunny to the already surreal digs of the Eaton Centre. Facebook profile pic opp, anyone?

As Could Be, Paulette Phillips
Old Bank Of Toronto Building, 205 Yonge (rear entrance), Zone A
There will be fog: Paulette Phillips projects three-dimensional animation onto the substance, inspired by a 1917 architectural model by Vladmir Tatlin. In addition, a looped voice installation will feature Torontonians talking about their work — as if you could get them to shut up.

Vodka Pool, Dan Mihaltianu
Lobby of Commerce Court West, 25 King W., Zone B
At the only exhibit where you could potentially lick the floor, a glistening pool of 80-proof vodka will soak up viewers’ attentions all night long.

Monopoly with Real Money (K-os and Yasmine Warsame are among the players)
TMX Broadcast Centre (the Exchange Tower, 130 King St. W.)

Dance of the Cranes, Brandon Vickerd
Liberty Towers Construction Site, Liberty E. and Pirandello, Zone C
In collaboration with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Toronto artist Brandon Vickerd has choreographed a 13-minute dance between two construction cranes. Could it be Swan Lake for meatheads?

Space Becomes the Instrument (2009) by Gordon Monahan.
Huge loudspeakers swaying across Massey Hall resonate with the sounds produced by live performers plucking modified piano wires.
Massey Hall, 178 Victoria St. (enter through Victoria St. entrance.) Zone A

Battle Royal (2009).
In art’s version of a WWF cage match, 20 men in a steel cage will fight each other ritualistically until only one is left standing. New York artist Shaun El.C.Leonardo is recalling what passed for entertainment in the Old South, where black men in cages fought each other to the death before white audiences. Toronto Coach Terminal, 610 Bay St. Zone A
(IF THE WHITE GUILT DOESN’T KILL US FIRST)

Wild Ride (2009), by Winnipeg’s Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan.
Part of Bay St. is closed for this interactive event and turned into a circus-like midway complete with rides. All the thrills and chills in the rides should remind everyone of the market’s own sudden plunges and abrupt climbs.
Bay St. between Adelaide St W. and King St. W. – Zone B

Surrounded in Tears (2004-2009)
London-based artist Oswaldo Maciá fills a enormous empty space with wave after wave of the sounds of people crying. The next room houses Maria Legault’s The Apology Project (2009), where 55 people in paper bags spend the night apologizing to strangers. Liberty Market Building Atrium Corridor, 171 East Liberty St. – Zone C

The Lost and Found Forest, Jerome McGrath, Rina Grosman
Atlantic, South, at GO Station entrance, Zone C
Recreating our lost habitat, a darkened street becomes a man-made forest of string, nails and an electro soundscape.

Toronto Public Library, Dance Dance Evolution!
Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge, Zone A
Nothing’s more wholesome than an all-ages dance party at the Toronto Reference Library. Unless, of course, you’re sloshed.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

August 17, 2009

SXSW 2010 Damn Good Manager Panel

Hey there! If you are looking at this entry you may very well have been brought here by the SXSW 2010 panel picker tool. My Damn Good Manager panel came from an old blog I wrote for on a regular basis a couple years ago. Check it out here to get a sense of what my session will be like.

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

March 16, 2009

Lots of Amazing ScribbleLive blogs at SXSW 2009

Simply too many awesome things happening again at SXSW this year. In an attempt to keep tabs on everything I’m aggregating all the awesome live blogs and posts being created by myself and my fellow Toronto nerd herd. I’ll update as the conference continues but here is a whole lot of good stuff…

Key Notes

Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, at SXSW09

SXSW2009 – Sunday Keynote Stephen Baker – Nate Silver Interview

Panels

SXSW2009 – Everything You Learned About Web Design Is Wrong

SXSW2009 – Unnatural Experiments in Web Design

SXSW2009 – That Doesn’t Suck! Inspiring Creativity with Spore

SXSW2009 – Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet

SXSW2009 – Not The Same Old Story

SXSW2009 – Change (v2) – Lawrence Lessig

SXSW2009 – Curating the Crowd-Sourced World

SXSW2009 – Designing for Gestural UI

SXSW2009 – Designing for Irrational Behavior

SXSW2009 – Web Typography: Quit Bitchin’ and Get Your Glyph On

SXSW2009 – Collaborative Filters Recommendation Engines

SXSW2009 – Queerosphere: Same Sex (Link) Love Interactive

SXSW2009 – The Wisdom of Crowds

SXSW2009 – From Flickr and Beyond – Lessons in Community Management

SXSW2009 – New Think for Old Publishers

SXSW2009 – Browser Wars III: The Platform Wins

SXSW2009 – Quitter: How to Leave Your Perfectly Good Job

SXSW2009 – Are PR Agencies A Dying Breed

SXSW2009 – Wireframes For The Wicked

SXSW2009 – Cloud Computing: Defending the Undefinable

SXSW2009 – Beyond Apple TV: Next-Generation Systems for Acquiring Content

Social Bookmarks:

andreg

March 16, 2009

SXSW2009 – Browser Wars III: The Platform Wins

12:31 PM: Andre We’re doing *so darn much* with the Web platform these days, from cross-domain access mechanisms to new drawing and graphics tools. But in the end, we still have to deal with different web browsers. This discussion brings the leads from Mozilla (Firefox), Microsoft (IE), Google (Chrome) and Opera (Opera) together for yet another incendiary discussion about the future of the web.
Arun Ranganathan Mozilla
Chris Wilson Web Platform Architect, Microsoft
Brendan Eich CTO, Mozilla Foundation
Charles McCathieNevile Chief Standards Officer, Opera Software
Darin Fisher Software Engineer, Google
12:31 PM: Andre 20 year anniversary of the web
12:31 PM: Andre Apple not participating in the browser panel…
12:32 PM: Andre Including Google/Chrome for the first time this year.
12:33 PM: Andre Introducing the panel
12:35 PM: Andre Asking why Google is getting into the browser game
12:35 PM: Andre Darin originally joined Google to focus on making Firefox better and that evolved into a plan to make browsers in general better
12:36 PM: Andre Google always wanted to create an open source browser and did not want to create a new rendering engine.
12:36 PM: Andre Took a hard look at Gecko and Webkit
12:37 PM: Andre Really liked how Webkit had a nice simple codebase with a lot of pluses
12:37 PM: Andre Liked that Webkit just focused on being a rendering engine.. not a full platform
12:37 PM: Andre Right now Google is working hard to get involved in the Webkit community
12:38 PM: Andre Slowly and surely building the Google reputation in the Webkit community
12:38 PM: Andre Cheers for decline of IE6
12:39 PM: Andre Talking about how the different browsers/platforms can work together b/c at the end of the day it’s all about the web as a platform… if browser makers can work together the web wins and in effect everyone wins
12:41 PM: Andre Asking IE guy about Silverlight and why not focus on the open web standards that are already similar to Silverlight…
12:42 PM: Andre Chris is talking about how he fights for open web standards inside of MSFT. Said he does not work on Silverlight but there are times when Silverlight makes sense…
12:44 PM: Andre Challenges with getting everyone to work together but in the long run it’s the only way to make things work for the widest opportunity
12:45 PM: Andre Silverlight is not taking over b/c of the adoption of web standards and the fact that the open standards are starting to be able to do what Flash and Silverlight can do.
12:46 PM: Andre Big challenge emerging is the fact that even with better modern browers there are still multiple versions of the good guys – various Safari versions, various Firefox, etc. Might not have to target at the macro level but still need to be aware of the micro differences
12:46 PM: Andre Talking about HTML5
12:47 PM: Andre Talk of making the HTML5 an open source spec… asking what that would mean to MSFT and other closed source corporations
12:48 PM: Andre According to MSFT there is not a problem with an open source spec but it depends on the details about contributing back, etc.
12:48 PM: Andre Feeling that current licensing schemes are too restrictive
12:49 PM: Andre Scary/nervous if people can actually do whatever they want with the license. If someone were to take HTML5 and fork it and go in a totally different direction that would be very challenging….
12:51 PM: Andre Opera guy just said you need to do stuff in the open and publicly otherwise you are stupid. Helps you avoid building with a narrow focus that doesn’t actually work for the wider world. You shouldn’t develop totally closed if you are building wide ranging specs that need to work for a lot of people/systems.
12:52 PM: Andre Javascript is the defacto dev language on the web – atleast when talking at the browser level… getting into discussion about Chrome and JS engines
12:53 PM: Andre Javascript and performance wars are the new frontier
12:53 PM: Andre Fast engines are good and being released now
12:54 PM: Andre People are building huge complicated code bases all in JS and the standards body is trying to evolve rapidly to address this trend
12:54 PM: Andre Focus on co-operating to make ongoing changes and improvements… it needs to evolve and grow to move forward.
12:55 PM: Andre Compared to 2007 the working group is much more active
12:56 PM: Andre A world where everyone used the same rendering engine would be back b/c the needs to make the code inter-operable is import and keeps everyone honest. Developers develop to the spec, not the codebase of the browser engine…
12:57 PM: Andre MSFT is talking about being focused on JS – looking at holistic performance and not just a javascript heavy benchmark
12:58 PM: Andre Generally speaking everyone is focused on Javascript and everyone seems optimistic about the future right now.
12:59 PM: Andre Need JS engines to be fast enough in order to support the next level apps that people are trying to build right now. These ultra heavy JS apps will be the norm very soon.
1:00 PM: Andre Opera guy talking about how they built a fast JS engine a long time ago and no one cared up until a year or so ago.
1:01 PM: Andre Mobile JS engine is really important… if JS is processing heavy it kills batteries and people are not happy.
1:01 PM: Andre Moving on to security and privacy
1:03 PM: Andre You need to take security seriously and worry about addressing issues for your users as quickly as possible
1:05 PM: Andre Always watching for problems and debating whether to wait for the next big version or make incremental improvements. Need to solve issues fast and protect people, even if it means an emergency band-aid and then improve it with next version.
1:07 PM: Andre Google talking about security and their sandboxing concept to make the file system, etc. more secure
1:07 PM: Andre Second set of coverage if there is a hole in their rendering engine
1:09 PM: Andre Cross domain security is tricky and everyone is looking at how best to address it. You need to be doing a lot all over the place but making sure solutions scale and are always being revisited/critiqued/improved
1:15 PM: Andre Right now so many things are being discussed in the spec meetings and standards discussions. It is critical that all players are at the table consistently so no one miss out on emerging trends/issues. Lack of interaction was a problem a few years ago when MSFT and others got out of sync but as of recently everyone is collaborating a lot more in order to solve big problems and trying to find good solutions for the web as a whole. Making the effort is important!
1:16 PM: Andre The ecosystem and motivations are always changing… easy to say people should have been focused on things like AJAX, etc. years ago but you never know what is next and when things are going to be big. Important to stay plugged in and addressing trends/desires as they arrive.
1:21 PM: Andre Talking about mobile web experience. You want to get the user experience of the mobile browser right and still give developers all the tools they need to build apps that work. You don’t want to have to build big desktop app and small mobile app. You also don’t want/need the full desktop experience if that is the wrong experience for mobile. Right now UI is the really hard part of building mobile browser. Thankfully the iPhone set a precedent and focused on building a real user focused browser.
1:22 PM: Andre Mobile web browsers with standards and full support FTW!

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andreg

March 15, 2009

SXSW2009 – From Flickr and Beyond – Lessons in Community Management

4:31 PM: Andre Companies across industries are developing and fostering online communities, recognizing the benefits of connecting with customers on the Web. Unfortunately, not all communities thrive to become a successful vehicle for businesses. Leaders of top online communities from Flickr to Facebook will discuss top best practices for managing online communities.
Heather Champ Dir of Community, Flickr
Mario Anima Dir Online Community, Current TV
Matthew Stinchcomb VP Community, Etsy Inc
Jessamyn West Dir of Operations, MetaFilter
Micah Schaffer YouTube
4:31 PM: Andre Flickr is a team of 42 people
4:33 PM: Andre MetaFilter is run by 4 people
4:35 PM: Andre 13 hours of video added to Youtube every minute
4:36 PM: Andre Etsy has 2 million members and 200,000 are active creators of “things”
4:37 PM: AdamSchwabe All-star lineup of panelists from Flickr, Current TV, MetaFilter, Etsy and YouTube today. Should be a good one.
4:37 PM: flashlight Champ t0 panelists: what changes have you seen in your community mgt skills?
4:38 PM: remarkk What changes have you seen in your communities from birth to the mature communities you have now?
4:38 PM: Andre As sites become larger you move from a single owner/direction to having to get used to being managed by a number of people…
4:38 PM: flashlight West: first 5 years of MeFi just careened down the moderation path
4:39 PM: Andre Gets hard to keep an eye on all community aspects as a site gets larger…. intro community policing, more mod help, etc.
4:39 PM: flashlight West: recently had to add flagging. Community policing. “Hey this breaks the guidelines”
4:39 PM: AdamSchwabe Interesting: West is a librarian by day. Great day job for someone who has to sort/manage information. Many of my IA colleagues have information design/librarian background as well.
4:40 PM: flashlight West: can now flag as offensive in addition to simply flagging language, bad links, etc
4:40 PM: Andre Community norms develop and evolve over time as community gets larger… what is and is not acceptable changes – eg. “offensive language”
4:40 PM: flashlight West: current system can’t scale
4:40 PM: Andre Challenges with scale and keeping up on growth
4:40 PM: Andre As your get larger it is harder to see trends and their impacts
4:41 PM: flashlight Shaffer: harder to see trends as you grow
4:41 PM: flashlight Schaffer: had to get smarter. Segment user base. Different networks. People using the site (youtube) in vastly different ways.
4:42 PM: AdamSchwabe [Schaffer was at Powazek's Wisdom of the Crowds panel earlier where he semi-seriously said that he could use some help managing commenters –A]
4:43 PM: flashlight Stinchcomb: been at etsy since the start. Wonderign how to stay in touch with users and having a dialogue while growing. People become a lot less forgiving as a community gets larger.
4:43 PM: Andre Company needs to remain transparent as the site/company grows… need to explain growth and remember community is king
4:43 PM: flashlight Stinchcomb: internal culture and communication is really imporant. Remember that the community is king.
4:44 PM: fabusina Interesting that community management panel seems to be primarily focused on moderating content
4:44 PM: flashlight Anima: was originally very producer oriented. What they started to notice as the site grew (current.tv) was that users started sending comments and suggestions. There was an unanswered desire to participate in the site
4:45 PM: Andre Users will find interesting ways to interact. Even without a facility, users will input new content, links, bits and pieces through comments and other existing tools. Challenging to keep on top of all this and understand how people want to participate.
4:45 PM: flashlight Anima: the producers, who were the first people in the door felt pushed aside as the much larger audience of consumers came in
4:46 PM: Andre Need to know all your participants and balance who gets attention, especially as you evolve
4:46 PM: remarkk Anima: at first CurrentTV was very producer-centric. Started to notice that more people started to comment and advise on editorial eleements, more than just uploading video. People could support story submission. Huge conflict for Producer community who felt pushed aside by this larger community submitting links and story ideas. Need to balance both sides of the community. Need to give them both love. Now opening up to entertainment.
4:46 PM: flashlight Anima: as current.tv opens up to entertainment news the people who were involved originally feel pushed aside. Need to give love to all
4:46 PM: Andre Talking about handling censorship in communities
4:47 PM: flashlight Champ to panelists: what do we do when we’re accused of sensorship
4:47 PM: flashlight Panelists showing names they have been called
4:47 PM: flashlight Stinchcomb wins with the best name: cuntola
4:48 PM: AdamSchwabe Matt from Etsy was once called Cuntola. Nice.. lol
4:48 PM: remarkk Champ: What do we do to handle when people accuse us of censorship? We thought about this. Champ is now known as TinyFascist. West known as Stasi. Schaffer as Interesting Critter. Stinchcomb as Cuntola. Anima as Fascist.
4:48 PM: AdamSchwabe Schaffer: Some content you can’t host as a usergen site.
4:51 PM: AdamSchwabe Schaffer reflecting the YouTube community well by completely derailing the conversation
4:51 PM: melle Community management requires a delicate balance of legality, user experience. Also:cute hedgehog/cat videos on YouTube. #sxsw
4:51 PM: Andre Challenging to not be hostile with diverse content…
4:51 PM: Andre Counter-discovery
4:52 PM: flashlight Schaffer: youtube is a platform for speech. His role is to accommodate as much diverse content as they can safely do. There are 3 factors that affect what you can host: legal issues (some content is unlawful, ie selling nazi memoribillia on ebay), user experience issues (finding porn when you’re not looking for it), being socially responsible (even if it’s just to your advertisers)
4:53 PM: flashlight Anima: people get very pushy if you take down their content. If you’re going to post something that steps on other people’s ability to enjoy the site they might have to take action.
4:53 PM: uxmatthew summarizing: as your community grows larger, people get angrier and accuse you of being a turncoat, censoring facist… #SXSWi
4:53 PM: NicoledeB 3 content challenges in community mgt: 1. lawfulness of content, 2. user experience (preserve ecosystem) & 3. social responsibility #sxsw
4:54 PM: flashlight Anima: was called anti-israeli and pro-israeli on the same day
4:55 PM: AdamSchwabe Anima: Sometimes has to call users (on the phone) about removing content. [Love that. It's an exceptional situation so you should treat it very carefully –A]
4:55 PM: flashlight Anima: feedback is critical. He tells people “here’s what you could do to make your post acceptable”
4:55 PM: remarkk Champ: Transparency is key, and it is difficult. Community guidelines to put a human voice around the legalese in Terms of Use.
4:55 PM: flashlight Champ to panelists: do all of your sites have community guidelines? All: yes
4:56 PM: melle Users will invent moderators’ motivations for their actions. Transparency is important, but not guaranteed to make people understand/accept.
4:56 PM: ruralocity When dealing with community censorship, be as transparent as possible–but sometimes you need to interact one-on-one with offender. #sxsw
4:56 PM: flashlight West: they are guidelines but not rules
4:56 PM: Springbaby31 Sometimes a site needs to take dialog off email and talk one-on-one with alleged community offenders for conflict resolution. #sxsw
4:57 PM: flashlight Champ: the censorship call is hard to deal with while it’s happening. Really important to stay calm
4:57 PM: remarkk Champ: There can be a perspective that community management is easy, a 9-to-5 job. But it’s very intense when an issue is happening. How do you stay sane and pleasant in your voice when this is happening?
4:58 PM: cshirky Heather Champ: Lawyers will create community rules in ALL CAPS that no one reads. Important to translate that to a human voice
4:59 PM: rosskimbarovsky Anima from Current talks about opening up chat rooms for community – times vary during the week – #sxsw
5:00 PM: kevm a bit much back slapping at the Community Manager’s panel rather than diving deep into community. Feels like a support group #sxsw
5:00 PM: Macala @etsy you are talking about community regulation. Please watch the use of certain word & examples, cuntola & bikinis put us off too.
5:00 PM: lesliehatfield online community — have haters? host a chat. the sane people will respect, whether they agree or not. the insane won’t show #sxsw
5:01 PM: melle Just conversing with users helps balance/defuse issues a lot of the time… but doesn’t work with the crazy people. #sxsw
5:01 PM: flashlight West: if you’re not getting what you need from our website, then you probably need to get off the website. It’s only a website.
5:01 PM: melle Online communities aren’t here to replace the whole world/real world. If you’re not getting what you need there, there’s more out there.
5:02 PM: flashlight [panel is rambling off topic]
5:02 PM: remarkk West: There’s more to the world than our website. Please do go out and remember that Metafilter is part of a larger community. I’m a public librarian out in the world, not just the Metafilter lady. I’m trying to be the smiling buddha and this is going to run down this buddha belly.
5:02 PM: AdamSchwabe West: Would do her job for free.
5:03 PM: Andre Filtering is tricky…
5:04 PM: flashlight Schaffer: don’t want to dismiss people as crackpots, but it’s hard when the crackpots are loud and in your face
5:04 PM: Andre Behavioural patterns start to arise in the community
5:04 PM: remarkk It’s hard when the crackpots are loud and persistent. You start to recognize patterns.
5:04 PM: flashlight Schaffer: transparency is the best aid
5:04 PM: ThomasTerry YouTube community: It’s hard when the crackpots are loud and consistent. You must look for patterns. And try to improve user experience
5:05 PM: Andre Need to balance the challenges with all the amazing interactions that are going on every second of the day on your site
5:05 PM: flashlight Schaffer: it’s hard when people are mean
5:05 PM: Andre Need to know when not to respond
5:05 PM: flashlight champ: have to learn when not to respond
5:05 PM: melle Sometimes simple, snowballing acts of engagement and community inspiring each other can still blow you away. #sxsw
5:05 PM: AdamSchwabe [We call these people trolls –A]
5:05 PM: flashlight Champ: when someone is digging a hole to crazytown, sometimes it’s useful to let them dig themselves in.
5:06 PM: cshirky Heather Champ: One of the hardest things to learn about community management is learning when *not* to respond
5:06 PM: remarkk Champ: Hard to learn when not to respond. learn that there is as much value to not responding. If they’re digging a whole to crazy town, they dig themselves into a hole in terms of their reputation.
5:06 PM: flashlight Champ to panel: what advice would you give to someone starting a community
5:06 PM: melle Sometimes NOT responding is hard, but really important (and the best course of action). Gift of Fear directive, too: do not engage. #sxsw
5:07 PM: flashlight Anima: it helps if you’re an insomniac. There’s a lot more to the role than just removing comments and cleaning them up. There’s a lot of 1 on 1 that goes on. You need to be committed. Every piece of email gets a response.
5:07 PM: flashlight Anima: multiple ways to give feedback: email, twitter, phone
5:08 PM: flashlight Anima: by putting those options out there, you’re committing to hearing what comes with it
5:09 PM: flashlight Stinchcomb: focus on communications internally. Make sure all the teams are speaking with one another
5:09 PM: flashlight Stinchcomb: communicate to users in as many ways as possible. Answer honestly, even if it’s not the answer they want to hear.
5:09 PM: melle Being available is simple, but iimportant. Includes mult feedback channels, requires community mgrs to commit to being available via them.
5:10 PM: cshirky Matthew Stinchomb: One key to getting to communications with users right is to get communication in your company right #sxsw
5:10 PM: melle The best feedback is often NOT what you want to hear. (And folks who don’t like you/your service can have the best suggestions.) #sxsw
5:10 PM: flashlight Schaffer: be flexible. The community will have it’s own ideas of what your site is. It will change over time. You have to be willing and able to adapt.
5:10 PM: rosskimbarovsky Be flexible and realize that the community will have own ideas about what the community is (Schaffer) – #sxsw
5:10 PM: rosskimbarovsky Your community will change a lot over time and you have to be willing/able to adapt over time (Schaffer) – #sxsw
5:11 PM: mthomps What’s funny about this panel is that each of these people has played a part in creating something absolutely enduring and beautiful, but I don’t hear that reflected very much yet. Not sure why I expect that to be reflected; this is a panel about the nuts and bolts, best practices and all that. But fundamentally, how do you create a place where the discussion in the wake of something like David Foster Wallace’s death is as devastating and amazing as it was on Metafilter?
5:11 PM: melle How do you replace yourself? (Q to other comm mgrs on panel.) I wonder, too. Even if it’s only a temporary thing. #sxsw
5:11 PM: flashlight Schaffer: what is good for one stage of development might not be right for another. Product and policy have to change over time
5:12 PM: Andre All of these comments point to the fact that if you build something with a community you need to be dedicated to your community. You simply cannot add tons of community features without plans to support and address the needs of the community. Community management is a full time job and you need to be willing to engage a lot of time and energy into keeping it healthy.
5:12 PM: AdamSchwabe [I'm having a hard time listening to Schaffer talk about community since YouTube's is one of the most toxic out there. –A]
5:12 PM: melle Sites/services evolve just as the community using them does. Community itself oftendrives the evolution (often how you don’t expect).
5:13 PM: flashlight West: the basic principal for meFi is “don’t be a jerk”. Everything grew out of that.
5:14 PM: flashlight West: feedback should be in public
5:14 PM: chadnorman Don’t be wishy washy with community feedback. If a user suggestion isn’t going to happen, say so. #sxsw
5:14 PM: melle Your rules won’t have cred if you don’t have reasons and clear explanations for them. Also, consistent enforcement is key. #sxsw
5:14 PM: cshirky J. West: Core community rule at Metafilter is “Don’t be a jerk” — everything else flows from that. #sxsw (compare k.sierra’s “be nice”)
5:15 PM: flashlight West: shared internal vision makes it easier
5:15 PM: melle Community management transparency is hard and can be scary, but important. Responsibility for your actions, same as users. #sxsw
5:16 PM: remarkk Questions from the audience now.
5:16 PM: AdamSchwabe West: If you’re going to pitch something to us in the Q&A you’re going to have to sit down [Nice]
5:16 PM: flashlight Question from audience: how do you get people to go from user to engaged member?
5:16 PM: rosskimbarovsky Q from audience: How do you get someone to become a member of a community, rather than “user” – #sxsw
5:17 PM: flashlight Champ: go and find groups on the site. You need to do some work.
5:18 PM: Andre Lots of panel questions… the line is very long
5:18 PM: AdamSchwabe Should users have to do ‘work’ to feel part of a community? If so, how to design in such a way that it’s easy to do work?
5:19 PM: AdamSchwabe Audience getting restless over Q&A’er asking about how to use Flickr. Love the vocal SXSW audiences.
5:19 PM: melle User question/comment – not everyone wants to be a joiner, e.g. joining groups, tagging, etc. but they still want comments/engagement. #sxsw
5:21 PM: AdamSchwabe [Audience really frustrated at these long-winded questions –A]
5:21 PM: melle RT @corvida: “Unless your beauiful & geting naked, you need to do some work” #sxsw (From community management panel – Dagnabbit)
5:21 PM: thody Annoyed by people who don’t understand that the Q&A isn’t “help me with my problems time” #sxsw
5:22 PM: jeffolsen Here we go again. People using Q & A to stand up & talk about themselves or share their own opinion instead of asking a ? – uugh
5:22 PM: melle There’re v. different definitions of engagement, e.g. some people want a free for all, lots of comments, anonymity, etc. Others don’t. #sxsw
5:24 PM: mthomps I love it when panelists sort of put the smack down on question-askers who are asking manifestos.
5:24 PM: alexcc Such colorful language in this panel (lessons in community mgmt) #sxsw
5:24 PM: NicoledeB community management Q&A is going from kittens and butterflies to annoying and bizarre. not the panelists, btw. they rock. #sxsw
5:24 PM: Greeblemonkey “Advice for moderation?” Follow community guidelines & also let community self-moderate/self-select what they want to see. #fuckcount #sxsw
5:26 PM: remarkk Shirky Question: What is the funniest way you’ve seen a community norm form?
5:26 PM: AdamSchwabe Champ: “the jokes aren’t even funny outside of Metafilter” haha
5:27 PM: remarkk West: Community rallying to the defense of another member, start a campaign, buying domains, installing banners. User eventually came back on their own, “drinking problem now resolved, thank you.”
5:27 PM: AdamSchwabe A: User got banned and community formed campaign around bringing that member back. Metafilter had to form a counter-campaign.
5:27 PM: remarkk Stinchcomb: Free the Etsy Five!
5:28 PM: melle Apparently user-driven campaigns against “wrongly” banned people isn’t unheard of… but is often misguided. #sxsw
5:28 PM: remarkk Anima: Producer would only return to the site to complain that CurrentTV was moving further from its core mission. He wanted a divorce. Response was Dear John Letter, “it’s not you, it’s me”.
5:28 PM: melle Humour can be a great way to defuse issues, manage difficult users, etc. Context is important, though (I suspect). #sxsw
5:28 PM: revrev This community management panel has been awesome. Really impressed by the insights. Now gearing up for the big @garyvee talk/taping.
5:29 PM: melle 2 minutes left in panel and 4chan comes up. Oy vey.. #sxsw
5:29 PM: AdamSchwabe Q: How do you deal with 4chan assholes?
5:29 PM: thehiringsite Kind of don’t want this Lessons in Community Management Panel to end – fascinating stuff #sxsw
5:30 PM: remarkk Champ: “I’m overlooking a sea of penis” Apologies to mens rights groups everywhere!
5:30 PM: melle Community Management panel audience is a “sea of penis”. Heh. #sxsw
5:30 PM: mthomps For my money, the funniest community norm on MetaFilter might be the love for the overwrought user flameout. E.g., “I’m leaving MetaFilter, and now I’m going to write 3,000 words on why this community is no longer working for me.”
5:31 PM: AdamSchwabe [Panel is now overtime]
5:31 PM: soundboy this has been best panel so far, partly because the community managers on the panel are as authentic as you’d expect
5:32 PM: melle Does a financial barrier to entry help manage community “quality” from the get go? (Online dating site theory, too.) #sxsw
5:32 PM: Andre Panel wrapping up…

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andreg

March 14, 2009

SXSW 2009 – Designing for Gestural UI

4:36 PM: Andre Session starting… talking about initial design for Motorola phones and illiterate users.
4:37 PM: Andre Gestures are simply the way we interact with the natural world. How can designers translate that into meaningful, engaging interactions with handheld devices? We’ll discuss current and emerging technologies like near field communications, proximity, accelerometer, etc. and we’ll propose design principles that create fun experiences and deeper connections with users.
Gabriel White Punchcut
4:38 PM: Andre Physical location, functions plus spacial/visual memory are core
4:39 PM: Andre Starts to get tricky when you have limited controls and need them to work in different contexts – eg. ATM with 6 buttons and 20 screens
4:39 PM: Andre In many cases people will learn gestures and set them to memory
4:41 PM: Andre Mobile technology is really pushing gesture based UI and interactions
4:41 PM: Andre Many control schemes are extremely complicated – high function but limited ways to control – eg. Nokia N59 is a mini computer powered by keypad
4:42 PM: Andre Radical simplification is one way to solve the problem but it cuts out a lot of goodness
4:42 PM: Andre There is a desire to naturalize interactions – mimic the physical world
4:43 PM: Andre It’s all about sensors and sensor tech – they make gesture based tech possible
4:43 PM: Andre Motion, sense, touch, etc.
4:43 PM: Andre Wii, MS Surface, iPhone are all loaded with tons of sensors and work way beyond the simple button interface
4:44 PM: Andre Language and Affordances
4:45 PM: Andre Language – way we communicate with devices – PC point and click interface. What is the new language we are creating for gestural interfaces?
4:45 PM: Andre Affordances – what are the affordances we are going to create in a gestural world in order to allow us to understand how we interact with something in a non physical world…
4:46 PM: Andre We are used to the affordances of the PC world – we know what happens when we click a pulldown or push a button or checkbox
4:47 PM: Andre Language of the PC – we have point and click mouse and a keyboard. These limited physical inputs as well as standard UI elements allow us to create rich interactions
4:48 PM: Andre How do you translate that into a flick of a finger
4:48 PM: Andre How do devices understand what we want to achieve when using a device
4:48 PM: Andre declarative vs implicit
4:49 PM: Andre Sensors help devices understand how they should react to our behaviours/motions/expectations naturally
4:50 PM: Andre In designing for the traditional PC we have tried to copy fairly directly from the physical world – knobs, buttons, clicks, etc.
4:50 PM: Andre Explicit declaration of how we want a device to behave
4:51 PM: Andre Still using gestural interfaces as a means to control – eg. Wii games
4:51 PM: Andre We are still telling the device what to do… just not using a keyboard
4:52 PM: Andre Is there a way for a device to sense what we are doing and anticipate an action without a human telling it what to do
4:54 PM: Andre By placing yourself in a car and having the car sense that you do not have the seatbelt on, the “device” becomes smarter and augments it’s behaviour
4:54 PM: Andre Having devices respond to your actions
4:57 PM: Andre Lots of excitement regarding sensors and possibilities right now.
4:57 PM: Andre The “shake shake” gesture is common place right now. Simple and easy to understand for people right now.
4:58 PM: Andre iPhone developers are utilizing sensors… eg. Urban Spoon
5:01 PM: AdamSchwabe What is it about the UI that provides the affordance for interactions?
5:01 PM: Andre Lots of room to invent new gestures that are comprehendable by “normal people”
5:02 PM: Andre Watching a video by g-speak right now
5:02 PM: Andre Video is similar to “Minority Report” interface
5:02 PM: AdamSchwabe Showing off Oblong g-speak, Minority Report-like UI
5:03 PM: Andre Direct interaction with a room of screens controlled by hand and body movements
5:03 PM: AdamSchwabe [These kinds of interactions where your whole body is involved look exhausting]
5:03 PM: Andre Showing collaborate control of the device – 2 sets of hands on one large screen
5:04 PM: Andre Would be interesting if you could control your TV/PVR/Digital home entertainment system with a system like this…
5:05 PM: AdamSchwabe No affordances at all in g-speak.
5:05 PM: garrettgonzales G-speak is a 3d gestural navigation system that allows for collaboration, 3d navigation, and an experience almost as cool as the power glove
5:06 PM: andybudd I’m fascinated by gestural interfaces but more often than not it looks like a technology in search of a purpose
5:06 PM: Andre Gestures in the video are not sustainable on a consumer level – too complicated and overly dramatic at the moment
5:07 PM: AdamSchwabe Showing Canesta, gesture-based television controls.
5:08 PM: AdamSchwabe [How are these interactions easier than pushing a damn button? Play/pause]
5:08 PM: Andre Watching a demo that is controlling something more like a TV interface… much less dramatic and very simple
5:09 PM: Andre I agree with Adam – feels cumbersome… especially when dealing with well established interfaces and interactions like a TV. Society has already learned to use those systems. Something new like an iPhone is different since people don’t know how to use it based on cultural understanding.
5:09 PM: chews Gesture guy is trying to convey neat uses for gesture ui. Problem with minorityreport uis is that noone wants to use their hands that much.
5:10 PM: AdamSchwabe [Lots of room for error too, Andre. What if my mom doesn't know how to properly wave her hand to change the volume? Is there still a power button? Can imagine the frustration.]
5:10 PM: Andre Talking about “what is next”…
5:11 PM: Andre Right now is trying to replace controls we already have. Still very immature in many ways…
5:11 PM: AdamSchwabe Queen’s University Human Media Lab getting a shoutout!
5:12 PM: Andre Discussing physical manipulation of devices – material interactions
5:12 PM: AdamSchwabe Showing Paper Windows from Queens. [Saw this at 'Changing the World' conference at UofT earlier this year]
5:13 PM: Eris Personal Prediction: Potential Downfall of gestural UI is going to be a lack of standards in what gestures mean what for standard commands.
5:13 PM: chrisfullman Should a standard methodology be implemented to prevent cross-pollution/confusion b/t different gesture-based software/devices? Yes. #SXSW
5:15 PM: AdamSchwabe Physical manipulation of object driving interaction with Paper Windows.
5:15 PM: AdamSchwabe [This is where the money's at I think – let's stop trying to figure out clever ways to get people to flap their hands around and just look at ways people want to interact with the tech, build around that]
5:16 PM: AdamSchwabe Important question when designing these interfaces – What’s the metaphor?
5:16 PM: Andre Need to make highly useful interactions, not just “sexy” ones
5:17 PM: AdamSchwabe Second question – is the application specialist or generalist?
5:17 PM: Andre What is the application of the interactions? Are they specialized and intricate or simple and suscinct ?
5:18 PM: AdamSchwabe Big challenges related to language and affordances.
5:18 PM: AdamSchwabe Over the years we’ll come out with a clear standard and set of interfaces we can use with these devices.
5:19 PM: AdamSchwabe Q&A time. First Q: In GUI design, lots of issues around interface elements being used wrong way (context). How do we avoid that with gestural UI?
5:20 PM: Andre Would love to see “Ctrl + Alt + Delete” gesture the user waving hands above head in panic/frustration mode….
5:20 PM: AdamSchwabe A: Part of it is creating patterns/standards that we can re-use like we do on the Web now. [See Patterntap and Quince –A]
5:21 PM: Andre Good question about emotional response to gestures…
5:21 PM: AdamSchwabe White: Would be great if we can create interactions that are enjoyable. Don’t want to bring out anxiety.
5:22 PM: AdamSchwabe @nicepaul of Clearleft asking a question about gestures/interactions being clever for clever’s sake.
5:25 PM: Andre Right now people seem to be thinking the sensors would be in your device (eg. TV). If the sensors are in your couch or chair you could utilize micro gestures and not need to actually interact with the TV device… what if your entire living room could track what you were doing…?
5:25 PM: AdamSchwabe Q: Having arms in front of you for 20 mins is a feat of strength. Have you seen any research on exhaustion, physical dexterity, etc.?
5:25 PM: AdamSchwabe A: Pretty hard to imagine UI that requires fully extended arms for extended periods. Not feasible. Maybe we can do it with both arms hanging at the side [Lots of Wii players play 'lazily' with the remote just resting on their lap/couch]
5:26 PM: AdamSchwabe Q: How much do you think improving sensors/computing/tech will help the interactions?
5:28 PM: AdamSchwabe A: Sensor a crude measure of the types of interactions. Wii actually works better in playing bowling vs. using buttons.
5:28 PM: AdamSchwabe Q: How do devices know which device you’re trying to interact with? False positives, noise, etc.
5:28 PM: AdamSchwabe A: ‘What I’m communicating with and how’ needs to be addressed. [Do I stand towards the TV/toaster? Do I have to prompt it like in Star Trek?]
5:30 PM: AdamSchwabe NUIs (Natural User Interfaces) … not based on a metaphor necessarily?
5:30 PM: AdamSchwabe “We’re never going to have an application that you won’t need to learn the interactions” Hmmm, really?

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andreg

March 14, 2009

SXSW2009 – Emerging Mobile Trends and Technology

Saturday morning session on emerging mobile trends and technology…

12:23 PM: Andre iPhone 2.0, Android, Flash Lite 3.0, Streaming Video, Electronic Wallets, Mobile technology is growing rapidly and becoming an intrinsic part of consumer mentality. Hear the experts discuss the role of mobile in today’s lifestyle, discuss emerging technology, and predict national and international trends.
Rob Gonda Dir of Mktg Strategy & Analysis, Sapient
Juan-Carlos Morales Creative Dir, Sapient Interactive
12:24 PM: Andre sxsw.com
12:30 PM: Andre Getting started… lights going down
12:31 PM: Andre Room is packed right now
12:32 PM: Andre North America is far from cutting edge when it comes to mobile
12:32 PM: Andre 3x more mobile subscribers than internet subscribers
12:33 PM: Andre Mobile is everywhere and will become the primary device – Japan is already living it.
12:33 PM: Andre In Japan mobile is integrated into lifestyle and North America is trying to catch up.
12:34 PM: Andre iPhone isn’t catching on in Japan since they have had this technology for so long. It’s simply not special there
12:35 PM: Andre iPhone is creeping close to 5% of web traffic and North America is catching up quickly
12:35 PM: Andre In a very short time, iPhone has taught people to augment their normal lives with the internet
12:36 PM: Andre Google Android is important as a counter-point to iPhone.. especially since it is Open Source
12:37 PM: Andre Android is lagging behind due to the fact that T-Mobile is a small-ish carrier
12:37 PM: Andre As more devices use Android, penetration will improve
12:37 PM: AdamSchwabe Session description:
12:38 PM: Andre Not having Flash on mobile devices has not turned out to be a big problem at this point… but it could and will change a lot in terms of mobile experience
12:38 PM: Andre Flash is important on Mobile in order to help content creators/owners reuse existing content
12:39 PM: Andre Full fidelity HTML experience on mobile was a key break through… can actually make the experience on mobile better than on desktop in some cases.
12:40 PM: Andre All future mobile devices need to match iPhone capabilities
12:41 PM: Andre Over time, traditional web sites and mobile sites will come together and building a mobile UI will just be what you do over the next few years. Sites will need to work everywhere.
12:42 PM: Andre 7 – 8 million Flash enabled phones by end of year. Flashlite, etc.
12:43 PM: Andre Big difference between North America and other places is the power/control of the carriers. In North America they have A LOT of control that limits the devices
12:45 PM: Andre Mobile apps and app stores are emerging everywhere – iPhone, Android, Microsoft, etc.
12:46 PM: Andre Currently only 20,000 apps in iPhone store. Should be hundreds of thousands but Apple holds tight control over what gets in there
12:47 PM: Andre Talk of abilities around using mobile devices to do things like pay for purchases via mobile device. Apple, carriers, etc. have infrastructure but are not doing it right now. Pretty common place in Japan now.
12:48 PM: Andre RIM/Blackberry seems to be out of phase with the rest of the mobile world. Will be interesting to see where they end up.
12:49 PM: Andre Mobile is unique from the web due to fact that there is a culture of willing to pay for things. Unlike the “everything should be free” culture on the web, people are more than happy to pay for apps. eg. tweetie, etc.
12:50 PM: Andre Facebook has over 300 million mobile users
12:52 PM: Andre Merging the real world with the virtual world is a key trend in the near future.
12:58 PM: Andre Location based data is another big trend. Imagine going to a restaurant and instantly being able to know what you friends have eaten there, reviews, ratings, etc. All automagically on your mobile device.
12:58 PM: Andre A big part of mobile is finding was to use existing technology in a more creative way – GPS data + mobile internet + etc.
1:02 PM: Andre Mashing up public sources of info with mobile technology. Imagine being able to take a picture of a building + GPS data to instantly get a huge dump of info about that building/location/etc.
1:03 PM: Andre Use of real world visual queues in order to connect people with information. Imagine taking a photo of a product package on your mobile device and be instantly connected to that products website for more info.
1:04 PM: Andre You’ll be seeing marketing campaigns, etc. where you take a photo of a physical real world poster that will be recognized by your device and then brought to an online campaign where you can enter a contest or interact with a brand/info source
1:07 PM: Andre No matter where you go you WILL be able to easily access additional information. Humans like to be able to digest information and mobile is key to allowing people to control the amount of information they get and where they get it.
1:08 PM: Andre Pictures, QR code, embedded inaudible audio signals, etc. will be the key
1:20 PM: Andre A potential mobile game changer is battery charging technology. Once you don’t need to worry about your battery EVERYTHING will be mobile. People are working on this.

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andreg

March 13, 2009

SXSW2009 – Unnatural Experiments in Web Design

Another SXSW Session on by Wes and I

4:28 PM: Andre Find inspiration in the ridiculous. See technological quirks as opportunities. Try something previously unheard of with your site design. Laugh in the face of convention. Use and abuse CSS in ways never before imagined. Get away with it. And if it doesn’t work, try something else instead.
Paul Annett Designer, Clearleft Ltd
4:29 PM: Andre sxsw.com
4:38 PM: Andre Starting off talking about brothels in London…
4:38 PM: Andre Talking about combining web design and magic…
4:41 PM: somnambulant
4:43 PM: Andre Talking about Silverback tool – silverbackapp.com
4:43 PM: Andre Discussing secret/hidden 3d effect. Lots of people found the fancy vines and thought they found something special and got very excited. The clever little bits grabbed a lot of attention.
4:44 PM: Andre Need to delight and entertain your users – even in small ways in small places
4:44 PM: somnambulant The CSS parallax effect used on silverbackapp.com drove huge amounts of traffic to their site. Clever tricks/gems in websites can help bring visitors. Not just on the web, but elsewhere in life.
4:44 PM: Andre Like the arrow in the FedEx logo
4:44 PM: somnambulant Am I the only person that never noticed the arrow in negative space in the FedEx logo before?
4:45 PM: somnambulant There’s also a bear in the Toblerone logo? *mind-blown*
4:45 PM: Andre FedEx Logo
4:46 PM: somnambulant Speaking about Rotational anagrams. Text that spells out words when flipped upside down.
4:47 PM: Andre
4:48 PM: somnambulant Nice. He mentioned the images hidden in Aphex Twin and Venetian Snares tracks.
“Who said ‘awwww’? It sounds like shit!”
4:48 PM: somnambulant Innocent Smoothies carton says “Stop looking at my bottom” on its underside.
4:48 PM: Andre Hiding things where people won’t find them but when people do they tend to get excited and engaged…
4:49 PM: somnambulant Reminds me of Jones Soda’s bottle photography.
4:50 PM: Andre Adding delight makes people more engaged
4:51 PM: somnambulant Easter Eggs make people happy!
4:53 PM: Andre Dude in monkey suit just walked in… part of participation demo for Silverbackapp.com
4:54 PM: somnambulant Doing a demo of Silverback’s CSS parallax effect with audience members.
4:55 PM: eran why
4:55 PM: Andre Go to silverbackapp.com in a modern browser and stretch the window left – right to see the vine effect
4:57 PM: Andre Tweet1.com uses the parallax effect as well and is unique and fun
4:58 PM: somnambulant Clearleft anagrams: Elf Cartel. Rectal Elf.
5:00 PM: Andre 2007.deconstruct.org – launched in wireframe state and gradually over time brought it up to high fidelity. They left a style switcher to allow people to change the UI back and forth between the wireframe version and normal version – easteregg
5:01 PM: Andre Kyanmedia.com – click on worm at bottom of screen to reveal sekrit lab…
5:03 PM: Andre Talking about skittles.com overlay experiement
5:07 PM: Andre webleeddesign.com – scroll down
5:08 PM: somnambulant www.de-online.co.uk/archive/8.html – great use of placing the main content just below the fold. It’s always positioned at the right place, no matter the viewport size.
5:11 PM: somnambulant The unexpected. Put in unexpected elements into your interactive designs.
5:12 PM: somnambulant
5:13 PM: somnambulant Wario shake ad
5:13 PM: Andre Cannot measure these “delighters” but they are very valuable – Kano model of customer satisfaction
5:13 PM: somnambulant Hema site
Don’t click anything and wait for the madness to start.
5:16 PM: Andre Things that are exciting today will be common place and expected tomorrow.
5:17 PM: Andre Must build products that bring joy, fun, beauty to peoples lives
5:17 PM: somnambulant Clearleft website

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andreg

March 13, 2009

SXSW2009 – Everything You Learned About Web Design Is Wrong

Wes and I live blogged the SXSW Session – Everything Your Learned About Web Design Is Wrong. Notes are below…

2:59 PM: Andre Getting ready for the first SXSW session this year
3:00 PM: Andre sxsw.com
3:04 PM: Andre Just as early filmmakers struggled to break free from the conventions of live theater, after 10+ years Web designers are still trapped in the structures of the past. Forget pages, linear text and other archaic vestiges of design’s print ancestry; the separation of content from presentation has already changed everything.
Dan Willis Consultant, Sapient
3:06 PM: Andre Session is a little late to start. People still getting settled
3:09 PM: Andre Technical difficulties so far…
3:11 PM: Andre We’re getting started…
3:13 PM: Andre Crowd is excited and cheering… seriously
3:14 PM: Andre Arguing that the Harry Potter promo site is the worst of worst web design – another dead tree….
3:14 PM: Andre Important web stuff is hidden and the rest is just a print layout pretending to be web
3:14 PM: Andre Web is so much more than old school print… mature now. Design needs to follow
3:15 PM: Andre Newspaper sites – headlines are a commodity
3:16 PM: Andre The web has moved well beyond simple linear text (video, etc.)
3:17 PM: Andre “we don’t know a lot about web design” – everything we know is based on print design. Web is close to being a medium of its own but needs to jump ahead and become unique.
3:18 PM: somnambulant “Everything we know about web design is all we know about print design.”
3:19 PM: Andre The web is currently at the point similar to when the still picture evolved into the moving picture show and then a proper movie. Technology was invented and then artists figured out how to take it to the next step.
3:21 PM: Andre Over times, movies evolved and techniques were developed to create something new… beyond what you could do in still images.
3:27 PM: Andre Web content is getting smarter every single day. Data knows more about itself due to metadata and the ways we can use it… next step is how you connect that data together to create unique experiences.
3:28 PM: Andre More self aware data is coming and less control of data and content will become the norm. What will “things” become once you put them out there…?
3:29 PM: somnambulant Too much web content is “print in disguise”.
3:29 PM: somnambulant Example: flickrvision. Random voyeurism.
We’re all voyeurs. We like to watch people, especially at their most honest and raw.
3:29 PM: somnambulant Grammar example #2: Self-aware (but uncontrollable) content
3:29 PM: Andre User created context – context is everything but online it’s hard to control context.
3:30 PM: somnambulant Elements of film grammar combined in a way to be greater than their individual parts. “One plus one equaled three.”
3:30 PM: somnambulant What are the elements of WEB grammar? Not print grammar applied to the web.
3:30 PM: somnambulant Grammar example #3: User-created context.
Context matters. The user controls the context.
3:33 PM: somnambulant Grammar example #4: Ambient awareness.
Micro-blogging. Each update is like a dot in a pointilist painting. Each isn’t necessarily significant on

fuzzz.gaulin.ca

Photos, videos, commentary, and other oddities

Life Stream Digest as of March 14th

SXSW 2010 – Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?

SXSW 2010 – What If Your Phone Had 5 Senses?

SXSW 2010 – What Can Carl Sagan Teach Us About The Web?

SXSW 2010 – View Source Has A Posse

SXSW 2010 – Mobile Web and APIs (W3C Standards)

SXSW 2010 – Re-Inventing the Wheel: Sketching your own IA Process

Life Stream Digest as of March 7th

Life Stream Digest as of February 28th

Life Stream Digest as of February 21st

Life Stream Digest as of February 14th

Life Stream Digest as of February 7th

Life Stream Digest as of January 31st

Life Stream Digest as of January 24th

Toronto Specials on Foursquare

Life Stream Digest as of January 18th

Joyride 150

Life Stream Digest as of January 15th

Life Stream Digest for Week Ending January 12th

Life Stream Digest for January 10th

Maui Certainly Is Magical

2009 Nuit Blanche

SXSW 2010 Damn Good Manager Panel

Lots of Amazing ScribbleLive blogs at SXSW 2009

Key Notes

Panels

SXSW2009 – Browser Wars III: The Platform Wins

SXSW2009 – From Flickr and Beyond – Lessons in Community Management

SXSW 2009 – Designing for Gestural UI

SXSW2009 – Emerging Mobile Trends and Technology

SXSW2009 – Unnatural Experiments in Web Design

SXSW2009 – Everything You Learned About Web Design Is Wrong