Online Media Design

Oh, The Books You Might Be Able To Read!

2011-12-15T17:37:00.012-06:00

Who says that tech conventions are without their own drama and intrigue? SXSWi 2012 might not have espionage or gunplay, but a publishing freeze on a potentially plagiaristic book title is about as close as it gets.

Author Kevin Nguyen, and his blogging cohort at The Bygone Bureau, were slated to present their latest writing endeavor at the upcoming SXSWi book reading panel, but they are currently dealing with a little legal snafu.

The Bygone Bureau launched in 2007 and is a self proclaimed ‘Journal of Modern Thought’, that publishes articles about travel, humor, cultural criticism, etc.

The Bygone Bureau editors: Kevin Nguyen, Nick Martens, and Darryl Campbell

“The Bygone Bureau is a passion project. It's profitable, but just barely so -- not enough to make a living on. But I like it that way. It keeps the entire thing pure in my mind, and free of any pressure to put up an article just because I think it'll be popular. In fact, I think I'm encouraged by pieces that I think are wonderful and I know will never connect with a large audience,” explains Nguyen.

The blog was met with acclaim, so the editors decided to give print work a try.

“A long time ago, Andrew Sullivan linked to a funny Venn diagram with one circle that said "people who want book deals," one that said "people who think publishing is dead," and the intersection labeled "bloggers." It's totally true. I think a lot of bloggers see a book as a form of validation. And it certainly is, but it can't be the only reason to write a book. The first step is to recognize why something might work better in print than it does online,” said Nguyen.

Making the jump to print meant finding a topic that would translate well to a universal audience, come from a place of personal passion, and was something that could be profitable to appease publishers.

“I was tired of reading [New York Times] pieces about how crappy the recession is for graduates. What I was seeing, among friends and peers, were people doing remarkable, daring things with their lives that they might not have otherwise attempted if the economy wasn't so shaky--working at nonprofits, starting businesses, moving abroad, etc. And no matter how much college debt you have, you will not starve to death. That's a good lesson, too. We wanted the book to illustrate the breadth of the modern post-graduate experience. And most of all, we wanted it to be earnest.”

What they came up with was, “Oh, The Places You’ll End Up Hanging Around: Advice For Today’s Graduates.” Which sounds like a fun, interesting, and fresh take on the thousands of young adults with college degrees that haunt them, as they lay suspended in the ectoplasm of the recession.

However. The inspirational words and unexpected success stories in Nguyen's book are on hold because the title of the book apparently sounds too much like the title of another book. Another book written by someone whose name rhymes with “Boctor Teuss”.

I guess publishing companies simply don’t want to confuse children who are learning their alphabet if a parent buys the post-grad version by mistake.

Hopefully the issue with the title can be resolved, because Nguyen, The Bygone Bureau, and their little book of insight seems to hold some of the only positive spin when it comes to higher education in the mess of the modern day economy.

Do you doodle?

2011-12-14T19:38:00.008-06:00

Doodling is usually portrayed as a mindless, unproductive way to pass time, but this is not the case anymore. Visual Communication has become increasingly important as a result of the constant flow of information we encounter from day to day. To really hone in on certain concepts,ideas, facts, and figures, we seek simplicity, not complexity. A business telling you what they can do for you means nothing, while a business showing you what they can do for makes an impact.

In a panel organized by Sunni Brown, a local Austin doodle enthusiast, the topic of discussion is visual communication and the power of sketching out ideas. The ability to send a message in a concise, effective way is an art, but this panel emphasizes the fact that you don't have to be an artist to master it. Brown and her team of other visual communication specialists will teach attendees the tools to start thinking visually.

At a TEDx event held at University of Texas in Austin, Sunni Brown explains that "visualization is a broad field," but she focuses on "graphic recording, which is a subset of the field." The abundance of information and messages available to us create a need for visual note taking to better understand complex concepts. Brown says that visuals are important for four reasons:

High levels of comprehension

Increased retention

Increased creativity

"Ninja-level" listening skills

This video explains how high tech companies in Silicon Valley are going "low tech," and using sticky notes, index cards, and whiteboards to engage their employees and promote creativity at the workplace. This is a process known as "gamestorming," which is the title of a book written by Sunni Brown, Dave Gray, James Macanufo.

Storytelling. The Skill every entrepreneur needs.

2011-12-14T19:19:00.002-06:00

We all have heard a great story. A story can be sad or funny. When you think of a great story or a great storyteller it is rare that you think of a businessman. One of the few that may come to mind is the great Steve Jobs. He had a a great ability to present and make you interested in whatever he was talking about. Storytelling is a form of communication that can benefit entrepreneurs.

“One of the core elements of storytelling is making a connection with the audience. A good story brings out the essence of the message in words and images and enables your audience to relate to what you are sharing. New media gives additional tools to choose from to help you create, share and deliver your story in a compelling manner that can further enhance the relationship you are building with the listener.”

~ Lyn Graft, Producer/Founder LG Pictures

Entrepreneurs have to be great storytellers. It is essential, probably even closer to vital. They need to be able to sell people to purchase their product or service and they need to get investor to buy into their dream or vision. Lyn Graft is the speaker for the forum " Storytelling for Entrepreneurs & Startups". Graft wants to attendees to understand the importance of storytelling. Graft feels that the key to good storytelling is to make sure that you have a good core or story to begin with. You need to have a story that will makes people connect with you. What is it that separates bad stories from great stories? Great stories don't just inform they connect. They connect the storyteller sending the message to the listener receiving the message. You can use fishing as an analogy because if you lack a good core or "bait" then you will have no one "bite"or buy into you story. So when attendees leave the forum they will be sure to leave with an understanding of not only how important storytelling is and how to improve storytelling allowing it to do the for you by improving your core story or using digital new media to enhance you story and provide clarity to your audience.

For More info on Lyn Graft:
Follow him on Twitter
Read his blog
Look at his website
View his SXSW Interactive forum

Future of Entertainment: Viewer Becomes User

2011-12-14T02:58:00.002-06:00

Generally speaking, there aren't many things surpassing the popularity of entertainment television, in terms of consumption nowadays in the U.S. But when you think about it, there is one thing that just might rival it: mobile social networking. So what do you think happens when you mesh both of those elements together? Speakers from the "Future of Entertainment" panel at next year's SXSW Interactive festival will be explaining just that.

Of the five speakers set to participate in this session, three will focus on the social media aspect of this discussion: Jared Hecht, of GroupMe; Kimber Myers, of GetGlue; and Tom Thai, of Bluefin Labs. The remaining two participants, Mike Scogin of MTV Networks and Paul Chang of Showtime, will speak about the entertainment television aspect of the panel.

GroupMe is a social media application that focuses on collectivism. This application focuses overall on connecting its users with multiple others, instantly. The prominent features of this app are group messaging and conference calling. The application also offers its potential consumers a free number from which to message the members of its chosen social circle. According to Tech Crunch, the company was acquired by social and video messaging giant Skype in August of this year.

The social media company GetGlue is already in the entertainment lane, in terms of mobile networking. This application tailors to the social media audience that is interested in check-ins, but alters this element to apply to what the user is watching, reading, or listening to, rather than physical or geographic check-ins. GetGlue's primary focus centers on television events, whether they be sporting events, prime time shows, or any other category of television entertainment. GetGlue representative Kimber Myers explained the concept of the GetGlue company, and how users are, and potential users can, apply and incorporate the social media application to their lives.

"People are looking for new ways to connect to their favorite shows on TV, as well as [to] other people who are watching them," Myers said. "The growing prevalence of smart phones and tablets is making this a seamless experience for viewers."

Bluefin Labs is a different sort of social media tool, in the sense that it focuses more on the statistics related to social media consumption. In a very unique approach, Bluefin Labs analyzes how consumers respond to television. The elements of this analytics tool range from "response level," which measures the number of commenters for any given episode of a show, to "response share," which is described as the percentage of a program’s share of social response within a specific part of the day. The results gathered from the Signals analyses are available to audiences such as programmers, marketers and buyers in order to enable them to better understand the meaning behind the numbers, and apply that knowledge to the television market.

MTV Networks and Showtime are relatively well known forces in the entertainment industry. The representatives (Scogin and Chang, respectively) of these companies will factor into the panel discussion by offering the perspective of how entertainment networks are adjusting to the upsurge in social media usage, and how this influx is influencing the entertainment field to integrate social media elements into the the television genre.

GetGlue panelist Myers believes that this session as a whole can factor into the SXSW experience for attendees of this particular panel.

"Attendees of SXSW have traditionally been ahead of the curve where tech is concerned, and social TV continues to be an emerging, growing field for people to enter," Myers said.

Programming from Scratch

2011-12-13T23:36:00.000-06:00

Mention computer programming and many intelligent and fairly computer-savvy college-bound youngsters and adults metaphorically throw up their hands, assuming it's too hard and certainly way beyond them.

As a result, relatively few study programming in college, a reality that caused enough concern for Microsoft, Intel Foundation, Google, Iomega, and the MIT Media Lab research consortia, not to mention the National Science Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, to provide funding for efforts to turn that around.

The folks at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab put their heads together to come up with ways to break down barriers holding students back from pursuing a future career in programming.

The result? Software called Scratch that makes programming fun and easy. Download and use is free. Young people can remix and make their own video game, invite friends to play it, and those friends could, if they choose, remix that game by changing the icons, script, movements, and even music. Since its inception in 2007, Scratch has taken off.

"There are almost a million accounts and more than 2 million downloads of the Scratch software. It also comes pre-installed in some of the XO laptops [that are] part of the One Laptop Per Child program, so Scratch has reached a broad audience."

~Andrés Monroy-Hernández

Designed to encourage borrowing and transforming the work of others, not unlike the way rap and hip hop remix music - "scratching" and manipulating the sound on a turntable (the inspiration for the name of MIT's program), Scratch offers users the opportunity to take an existing program uploaded by others in the Scratch community and alter it in novel and amusing ways. They can also add original art or other elements.

Scratch: overview from andresmh on Vimeo.

Andrés Monroy-Hernández, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the research team headed up by Mitchel Resnick, created an international social media website called the Scratch Online Community, available in many languages. The site allows users from all over the world (mostly young people and educators) to upload and share, remix their own animations, video games, and interactive art projects.

"Many kids work on their projects over the course of multiple sessions, it's a common approach. I do not know if all the kids participating know there have been more than 2 million projects shared so far, but the number is displayed prominently on the front page, so I assume a lot of them - they notice it. They do have access to a lot of statistics information, we even
developed a website to share those numbers (stats.scratch.mit.edu). I think we see the effect of this on kids' pursuit for "fame" on Scratch, which is
both a powerful driving force for participation and a problematic obsession.”

~Andrés Monroy-Hernández

The community Monroy-Hernández created now has almost 1 million members, who have shared more than 2 million projects so far. His presentation on the process, during SXSWi, Designing a Creative Online Community for Kids, is one of those parents and educators of kids from K-12 should check out.

The story of the Scratch Online Community and how it came to be is one that Monroy-Hernández says offers lessons that are generalizable to many other efforts to combine creativity, learning, and social media. While Scratch is unique, he believes their failures and successes provide much that others can learn from.

The experiences of the developers of Scratch have already played an influential role in the development of other online communities such as Kodux.com for users of Kodu, Microsoft's game-programming software that allows young users of XBox 360 to create their own games and share them with others.

For this review, I downloaded Scratch and was able to figure out how to take an existing game, add figures or icons, and manipulate a script and tools in order to get my adaptations to take a series of actions.

It was both intriguing and fun. In fact, if I had not had other commitments, I would have gone back to see what else I could create.

And that's the point. Students may get a first taste of using Scratch in school, but it is designed to attract users to come back again and again. In the process of playing, they are learning many of the basic elements of programming. Users only see the fun, not all they are learning in the process.

SXSW 2012: "Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech"

2011-12-12T09:59:00.001-06:00

As we continue to consume the world's natural resources, we are left with diminishing clean air, water, and land. It is a common idea that new technologies, such as biofuels, solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy, will solve the global concerns of climate stability, oil security, and food supply.

At his SXSW Interactive 2012 panel, "Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech," Sunil Paul, founder of Spring Ventures, a multi-stage/multi-strategy venture fund that invests in novel information technology and cleantech companies, proposes there is a better, more powerful way to solve these problems.

Paul coined the term "Cleanweb" as the aggressive application of information technology--such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social media--to resource constraints, as well as accelerate cleantech deployment and restructure many diverse industries, including hotels, automobiles, agriculture and food, clothing, buildings, lighting, and renewable finance.

First involved as an investor in cleantech, then an Internet pioneer, Paul will explain how companies like AirBnB, Zipcar, Skype, Sungevity, and other businesses have already begun improving efficiency by reducing the need for fossil fuels, water, food, land, and other resources.

The creativity of entrepreneurs and investment from venture, corporate, and government funds are now producing profound breakthroughs as a result of forces such as the Internet, social media, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other technological advances.

Paul has two goals with cleanweb: "First is to simply stretch the minds of entrepreneurs and challenge them to step up to the biggest challenges of our generation. Second, I hope many of these entrepreneurs will see value in Spring Ventures investing in their startups."

In the face of so many concerns for how to create a sustainable future, it seems it would be beneficial for companies to explore new markets and market products, building new businesses that utilize information technology, and rely less on the world's diminishing natural resources.

Self-Publishing: A Revolution for Midlist Authors?

2011-12-11T23:15:00.001-06:00

It's no surprise that technology is quickly taken over our everyday lives. Everywhere we turn we are surrounded by it. With everyday life slowly making its connection to technology it is no surprise that books are making the same move.

With the move from hard copies of books to e-books comes a new way for authors to get their work to the public. It's called self-publishing. Self-publishing is a way for authors to step around big publishing companies, "the middllemen," and opens the door to previously published authors and authors trying to break into the field.

Already published authors; Neal Pollack, Joni Rodgers, Carolyn Kellogg, Marty Beckerman, Joshua Tallent all come together on the panel "Self-Publishing: A Revolution for Midlist Authors?" to explain the potential for greatness in the emerging self-publishing arena.

So what is a "midlist author" you might ask? Well, according to Neal Pollack a "midlist author" is "a writter like me, which is to say, most working writers — midcareer, midlist, middle-aged, more or less middlebrow, and somewhat Internet savvy — self-publishing seems to make a lot of sense at this point."

What's great about this panel is all the authors either have, or are planning on self-publishing, so what better way to for authors thinking about self-publishing themselves to get insight into a new area of book writting.

To learn about the benefits, pitfalls and potential in the emerging self-publishing field, this panel is a must.

Questions to be answered at the panel are as follows:

Why is this a good time for midlist authors to self-publish?
In what ways has the publishing industry changed that's forcing or encouraging the self-publishing movement?
What's easier about self-publishing as opposed to the traditional way? What is more difficult?
What are the technical challenges?
In a world with seemingly infinite content, how do you call attention to yourself and your work in the self-publishing world?

Preview - The Rise of Brooklyn Food Scene

2011-12-11T20:31:00.003-06:00

Even in hard economic times like the ones we are living through right now, people have ideas for new businesses and pursue them in hopes of a new lucrative career. In Brooklyn, New York, there has been a recent rise in food entrepreneurs trying to make a living selling anything from cookies to organic meat to beer - brewing kits.

Creative ideas that take a slightly less conventional approach can be risky, especially in an economy where people try to save money by eating at home and cooking more instead of going out to dinner. It can be hard to secure capital to get the business off the ground and differentiate it from the fierce competition in the food industry. Loving what you do though plays a large part in entrepreneurs' decisions to go ahead with their ideas and embrace the risk. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Erica Shea, who started the Brooklyn Brew Shop with Stephen Valand, talked about how the duo came up with their idea. "My dad had done some home-brewing [...]. I came across all my dad's old equipment and decided it would be a fun thing to get into."

Dawn Casale, who worked corporate jobs before opening a bakery, used her marketing expertise to help her business to a successful start. In an interview with Vocation Vacations she explained "I knew I needed to find a niche. New York didn't need just another caterer."

Both Shea and Casale will be speakers at the SXSW panel titled "The Rise of Brooklyn Food Scene". Others include Joshua Applestone, owner of Fleisher's, and Christina Tosi, pastry chef and owner of Momofuku Milk Bar.

Questions answered during this panel include:

1) Where the business idea came from?
2) How did it get funded?
3) What was the model?
4) What were the beginning months like?
5) How do you go from idea to store front to book deal?

Tanks and Tweets: U.S. Army Deploys Social Media

2011-12-08T15:21:00.001-06:00

The United States Army is opening up the communication lines with the world with unfiltered solider blogs, Twitter, interactive web experiences and many more. Army Strong also has an iPhone app. Their website, Army Strong, features blogs and stories about their everyday life experiences. It is an open platform, so anyone can blog - any solider, family member or friend. They just have to sign up, and 24 hours later, can begin blogging on Army Strong . Soldiers have blogged from 25 countries, more than 60 occupations and more than 20 ranks, which provides readers a wide variety of information and perspectives. The goals of Army Strong is to help keep soldiers connected to one another as well as to their family friends and to give potential recruits access to serving military members.

"Social media is all about the conversations. The conversation has to be authentic. It doesn't get more authentic than a solider sitting in his hooch in Iraq or Afghanistan telling you what he's doing that day," said Major Benjamin Grimes in an interview with C.C. Chapman.

The members on the panel, feature military personnel and a civilian, will discuss how this program was established. Depending on March deployments, there may also be a live stream from Afghanistan/Iraq. Questions that will be answered include:

1.    How does the Army deal with restrictions and security guidelines as it implements social media?
2.    How does the shift in user behavior among high school students impact military recruiting in the year 2012?
3.    When deployed, how do Soldiers use social media to connect with family and friends?
4.    In a time of war, how can the military use social media to connect with the American public?
5.    Which emerging technologies and interactive innovations will shape the Army of 2012? 2022?

Can you tweet that? Social Media and the Law

2011-12-06T09:11:00.008-06:00

Dara Quackenbush, a Texas State University mass comm professor, will be presenting her panel, "Can you tweet that? Social Media and the Law."

"I find this stuff very interesting and relevent. It's a new area of law emerging, and laws do not always keep up with technology. The stories have always fascinated me."
The topic of social media and the law is very important due to the enormous increase in popularity that it has received over the recent years.

"I teach PR," said Prof. Quackenbush. "I'm also teaching a social media class this semester and I incorporate social media into my public relations teaching, becasue I think there shouldn't be a distinction between new media and social media; it should just be media."

The one question that Prof. Quackenbush proposed was, "How does this effect the PR for the company and how does it effect business?"

While listening to a radio show, Dr. Quackenbush recalled a story that she had heard about back in June or July. "A photographer leaves his camera in the jungle, and some monkeys get a hold of it and start taking pictures. Who owns the copyright? The reporter said no one owns the copyright, and the company the photographer works for said that they own the copyright. It was an interesting discussion that morning."

After having a guest speaker come to talk to one of her classes, Prof. Quackenbush felt that she could speak on the topic of of social media and law.

"I'm going to make the presentation fairly interactive. In the realm of social media who's considered a public person and who's considered a private person."

I learned a lot during my interview with Prof. Quackenbush, and I think that anyone who visits her panel will also come away with a wealth of knowledge.

The questions to be answered at the panel are:

1. Wat are the five tests of defamation, what is the defense of defamation, and how does it apply to social media?

2. What's teh difference between a private citizen and a public person and how has that changed with the growth of social media rock stars?

3. Is hate speech covered by the 1st Amendment? What constitutes hate speech?

4. How is copyright determined? What copyright can you use/not use freely?

5. Why does every organization need an employee social media policy?

Get Smart! Hack Your Brain!

2011-12-05T19:04:00.001-06:00

It has been said that once you get to a certain age, everything and everyone some how becomes set in their ways. A routine in what to do, where to go, and how to think about doing all of it.

Perhaps, the mindsets aren't as concrete as first glance would suggest.

Get Smart! Hack Your Brain panel is all about increasing the brain's-your brain's-capabilities. Panelists range from leaders in research to practicioners to nero-scientists.

Co-founder of Lumosity.com Michael Scanlon will talk about neroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change) and how to enhance the ability of the mind.

http://www.lumosity.com/

"We've seen a great deal of research recently that demonstrates that the brain changes all the time," said Scanlon. "We are working with a network of the top-25 neuroscience programs with the goal of using Luminosity.com as a platform for learning about cognitive enhancement and brain performance."

One method of increasing brain-power to be discussed is the power of sleep and the improvements of brain function.

Megan Miller, Bonnier R&D technology researcher, will also present some of the trends of cognitive enhancement as well as some applications to communicative technologies and overall trends.

Overall, Get Smart Hack Your Brain, will be a stimulating look into how people think and ways to break those mindsets.

Bubble and People Power

2011-12-01T11:51:00.016-06:00

Bubble and People Power.

The last videos within the Download: The True Story of the Internet series begins with "Bubble" which discusses the success stories of eBay and Amazon. This video section is so interesting because it shows the development and growth of two companies who had completely different business models and founders. It also discusses the different innovations and their successes or failures throughout the past years. Amazon's "Get Big Fast" motto is amazing to hear about now considering how much Amazon has grown since the company's early days. As a frequent Amazon shopper, I would say Amazon is more than big. They're a HUGE company. The video goes over the public key cryptology and how the use of of credit cards could be used safely and effectively across networks. Both Amazon and eBay led the dot-com boom and paved the road for future business models. When watching the Bubble video, it's unbelievable to imagine the beginning of e-commerce and online shopping. So many people questioned the success of most of the companies. And, many were leery of purchasing stock from any of these dot-com companies. All of this occurred in the 90's and early 2000s. It wasn't that long ago. It's so crazy to see how these companies and others have grown and succeeded since the early e-commerce and dot-com boom days.

The last video "People Power" talks about Facebook, Myspace, digg and Napster. Originally, the Internet changed millions of lives. Now, people are changing the Internet. I remember when I was in middle school and high school when you had to drive to the store, purchase a music CD and also have a CD or tape player in order to actually hear the music. In 1999, Shawn Fanning had the idea for Napster and the peer-to-peer sharing with other computer users. This entire revolution has completely changed the way we listen, share and download music. Napster changed the entire music industry. Now, we have iTunes and many other innovative music sites on the Internet. It's unbelievable to see how Napster started and also how quickly it ended. But, this company completely changed the life of music! Amazing. Music is a powerful tool and many people listen and share all varieties of music for different reasons. The Internet has made this sharing and downloading an easy, quick task to accomplish. I can't wait to see what happens with music innovations in the future.

Browsers and the Modern Day Pirate

2011-11-30T17:02:00.001-06:00

Browser Wars

The epic battle between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft has shaped the way we use the web. This David vs. Goliath type of tale shows that even in the online world, money is power.
I actually remember using Netscape Navigator. You actually had to insert the installation disc into the disk drive (located above infamous A: drive, the floppy disc) and install the program onto your hard drive. The presence of Netscape was threatening to Microsoft because Netscape was becoming the portal to this new and emerging media, the World Wide Web. To Microsoft it was like manufacturing a car and having someone else build the highway on which the car would drive. A company like Microsoft wouldn’t stand for such a concept. After putting some programmers on the case, Microsoft had a perfect mock of Netscape’s browser. The advantage of a browser made by Microsoft was that they could install the program on every machine. They made using their product simpler and in the end that’s what Netscape did not have the power to do.
Presently speaking, it’s funny how the “browser war” has shifted. Internet Explorer, although still leading in market share, is the bane of existence for many web developers. Older versions prove to be incompatible with many basic functions coded into websites, which for a leader in digital innovation should be embarrassing. Better, faster browsers have proven to be strong competitors against Internet Explorer. Google Chrome has even released a line of laptops that are completely browser based. See video below:

I think this marks the slow death of the desktop interface and the move toward cloud computing.

People Power

Shawn Fanning, the father of online piracy. The Napster revolution has shaped an entire industry. Many argue that Fanning has cost the music industry billions of dollars, but has he?  There is no way of knowing the state of the music industry had Fanning not made it so easy to get free music. One thing we do know, however, is that he has expanded the music library of the average human being. Whether you get your tunes on the online black market for free, download iTunes every now and then, or stream music on Pandora, your exposure to music has significantly increased.

Fanning could also be dubbed the father of the people power revolution. The Web 2.0 movement has allowed everyday Internet surfers to become content contributors to their own selected areas of expertise. The almost unfortunate consequence of this is that people have become slightly obsessed with themselves. It isn’t unlikely for a 12-year-old boy to host his own video web series with hundreds of followers.

New direction for social marketing?

2011-11-30T14:42:00.001-06:00

"The State of Social Marketing" will look at current and future trends in social, and how companies can best utilize these trends for growth. Brad McCarty, the North American editor of The Next Web will give a ten minute presentation on the three most essential changes in social marketing over the next year, and then a panel of marketing leaders will dissect his presentation, challenging him on any points of dissension. Both companies and individuals who are looking to improve their social marketing strategies will benefit from this panel of award-winning marketers, while gaining insight into the following issues: The three most important changes to social marketing, how strategies should evolve in 2012, companies that serve as examples, and any social marketing topics that experts disagree on.

Brad McCarty

As an author on The Next Web, Brad McCarty writes blog posts that focus on startups and the future of social marketing. His blog posts provide a range of information from the latest tech news to how businesses can best utilize social media, and everything in between. Follow Brad on Twitter for up-to-date technology and social marketing news.

Jascha Kaykas-Wolff works for Involver and oversees all of the marketing efforts, including strategy, branding, product marketing, advertising, and social relations. With his work with Involver, Kaykas-Wolff recognizes the impact of social for businesses today. "Brands are held accountable for the content they create and the conversations that spawn from it. Social is driving changes to the entire marketing profession." Additionally, Kaykas-Wolff believes that social marketing has evolved over the past four years. "Social marketing has grown into a 'channel' for investments. The focus on investment, return and optimization have supported the growth of an ecosystem of software companies like hoot suite, buddy media, radian6 and Involver making investments in social marketing accountable to businesses."

Joe Chernov is the VP of content marketing for Eloqua. Eloqua automates the science of marketing by focusing on campaign execution, testing, measurement, prospect profiling, which allow marketers to acquire customers and devlop strong brands and creative campaigns. In addition to being VP of content marketing, Chernov writes articles for Eloqua and blog entries on his own website. Read this article about how Chernov and Eloqua create catchy content to drive sales.

Jesse Thomas

Jesse Thomas is the founder of JESS3, a creative interactive agency that specializes in the art of data visualization. He believes that "social marketing is critical for companies, because in front of our eyes people are spending more and more time online." Additionally, he emphasizes the importance of innovation in marketing. "Creativity and innovation are critical to marketing and advertising. As one brand tries something, their competitors start thinking about copying them and so on. Technology in marketing is an arms race!" Thomas attributes social marketing to "walking down a crowded public street that seems to go on for an eternity...A marketer must figure out how to make a sale in the middle of this great thriving main street." He speaks about some key changes in social marketing, including "group deals like groupon, group chat like beluga, geosocial marketing via Foursquare," as well as "co-branded content via media partnerships like Vice and Intel Creators Project, and the gamification of experiences like mint.com."

JESS3 created this neat video about how the Internet has grown and how much it is ingrained in all of our lives...

Ekaterina Walter is the social media strategist for Intel. She spoke to thousands about how small-to-medium businesses can utilize social media to increase and engage customers. Walter works closely with Intel's corporate marketing group to provide a set of best practices and strategies. She also has her own blog, including a story about her journey here as an immigrant from Russia.

Ekaterina explains how Intel utilizes social media...

Follow Ekaterina on Twitter to get updated information.

Join us in March at SXSW Interactive for an in-depth look at the future of social marketing from these knowlegable panelists.

Download: History of the internet

2011-11-30T14:12:00.001-06:00

Compared to the previous "out of date" History Channel version we watched earlier in the semester, Download: History of the Internet is a great documentary that delves into the history of Web 2.0 and the growth of several key products or companies that have changed the world for the better.
SearchThe first part of the series called "Search" detailed how search engines started and the battle the inevitably ensued. Yahoo was the first name to jump onto the scene developing the first site that would list related sites or sources queried by a user. Yahoo was developed by 2 Stanford students that experimented with the internet while there advising professor took a year sabbatical. Their idea was novel in the web world, most people didnt look at the web as a great source of revenue. One of the venture capitalists that invested in Yahoo! described the Yahoo! "office" (a mobile trailer) as an "Abysmal pit".
Very hesitant to the idea, Yahoo! began to post banner advertisements in an effort to generate revenue from the site. The founders feared that the ads would alienate and drive users away from their site. Fortunately for Yahoo this was not the case, the site would continue to grow and be considered one of the top search engines on the web.
Not far after the formation of Yahoo was a simplistic site that rocked the search world and to this day continues to actively shake and jive the web world; of course I am talking about Google. Google initial claim to fame was developing a rating system for sites based on the number of links to that site. This meant when a specific site is linked by other sites, the site's search ranking or relevancy in the google search engine would increase. This simplistic system revolutionized search engines and launched Google to their current power house position in the World.

People Power
It is quite amazing in the last 10 years how important individualism became in the web world. Search engines and other platforms initially generated revenue through advertisements on a massive level, money from the public as a whole. Recently, advertising has made its way into the world of social networking and related material like Facebook, Digg, Myspace, youtube and more.
The internet has become the strongest tool for crowd sourcing, market research, and public opinion. Before the internet, newspapers and TV companies controlled information dissemination and most viewable materials. Back then it was nearly impossible for a single person to distribute his or her message without bending and obeying the companies controlling information outlets. This has radically changed with the development of social networking through the internet. It is as easy as writing a sentence and clicking a mouse, those 2 actions place your message on the internet for the viewing public to witness. Click of a mouse can now instantly upload a video that normally would not be seen, this act has shaken up traditional journalism allowing anyone individual to post acts of journalism.
Facebook is a prime example of explosive growth in a social networking niche' that everyone boastfully or secretly enjoys. Facebook allows a user to post information about themselves or subject of interest allowing all accepted friends to view or interact with. Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg was astonished by how quick his site grew, "within the first 2 weeks, 2/3 of Harvard was on Facebook. Then Students from other schools starting emailing us asking to open sites for their schools. It went to all universities then highschools then businesses then open to the public".

Download: The True Story of the Internet

2011-11-30T13:24:00.001-06:00

After watching the Search and People Power segments of Download: The True Story of the Internet, I am glad to say that I learned, as well as confirmed, a few things that have been stirring in my subconscious for who knows how long.

The Search video really opened my eyes to the magnitude of the power and importance of search engines; most importantly, Google's power. I really had to stop and think, "Where would I be, where would we be without Google?" It's become such an important part of our lives that we don't even think twice when consulting it. If I had to guess how many times a day I Googled something, it would very likely be upwards of 30 times a day, and that's probably being generous to my inner-nerd. I'm very curious to see what, if anything, will be able to stronghold Google from its place as the number one source of of all things search-related. Another thing I observed in this video was the dominance of Stanford entrepreneurs. From Yahoo to Excite to Google, Stanford students (students, people!!) had a hand in the creation of some of the most important technological advances of our time. Something tells me that's not a coincidence.

The People Power video was also incredibly informative. I had a great time learning about the creators and pioneers of the MP3, YouTube, WinAMP, Digg, and especially Napster. I've always heard of the nightmarish lawsuit stories behind Napster and never really knew how it started, or how far it truly escalated. It's pretty scary to think about being hunted down by your favorite artist for simply trying to help spread their work, albeit in an illegal fashion. As I was watching the Napster breakdown, I was able to draw a comparison to my own experiences. Just a couple of weeks ago, a video that I uploaded three years ago to YouTube was taken down for copyright infringement. When I uploaded it, I didn't think it would be an issue, because it was simply a video of an artist performing a song at a concert. I learned that the artist had just released an official video for the very song being performed in that video from so long ago; consequently, mine and countless others had to come down. I was peeved, but found the situational comical. That is, until I was forced to watch a 5-minute cartoon video on copyright infringement, and take a quiz about what I had learned, courtesy of YouTube. I was absolutely dumbfounded. I still feel as though I did nothing wrong. Unfortunately, I'll probably hold that artist and YouTube at a slightly lower level of regard for a while to come. This incident just goes to show that the consequences of Napster are still rippling across the country, years later.

Overall, the segments that I watched were pretty cool. It was great to get an inside look at the full story behind topics that I had always wondered about.

P. S. - That John Heileman. What a guy.

Search and People Power: the story behind a new revolution

2011-11-30T10:13:00.014-06:00

These two documentaries from Download: The True Story of The Internet, provided me with new insights about the history of both the "search revolution" and the web 2.0 revolution. It was interesting to learn more about the obstacles encountered by these people and companies along the way. It was also amazing to learn more about how far the Internet has evolved in a fairly short period of time. Journalist John Heilemann did a thorough report in these two documentaries, leaving the viewers with even more of an appreciation for the people behind this revolution.

Search: It was in the Search documentary that you learn more about the power of people in Silicon Valley when it comes to launching Internet-based companies. It was also the beginning of the trend for two college students from a prestigious university to launch a revolutionary company. Stanford University students Jerry Yang (pictured above) and David Filo were just trying to find basketball informationon the Internet to win a fantasy basketball tournament when they realized the need for a search engine.

This started their endeavor with Yahoo! that has led to one of the most successful search engines, which has paved the way for Google and others. The two started a guide in 1994 called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web", a guide to provide people with a way to organize their favorite Web sites. The guide became a hit and made them realize they could possibly be successful with launching a search engine site. It was interesting to learn about the steps they took along the way and the perseverance they had in launching the site. Yahoo! was the first site that really changed the way people seek information on the Internet.

The site was joined by Excite and Google shortly after. The Google founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin sought out to be different and encountered many doubters along the way. Even though Yahoo and others figured out a way to make a profit, Google wanted to figure out a more user-friendly method, which they did and have established themselves as the leader of search engines. I never realized how much it took for Google to get to this point. They were faced with much skepticism at first. However, as John Heilemann said in the movie, "Google mania has started to give way to Google phobia". This documentary was fascinating. I look forward to see the continuing evolution of the "search revolution".

Google co-founder Sergey Brin talks about Yahoo and Bing:

People Power:

In this documentary, Heilemann brings the audience into the world of "our media", meaning media shaped by those who use it. This includes Facebook, MySpace, Napster, Digg, and others.

Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook, has a played a huge role in the web 2.0 revolution discussed in this documentary. He played off of the new idea that people enjoy hearing their own voices, as was discussed in this movie, and that the media is controlled by no one and shaped by everyone.

YouTube,bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion, has also played a huge role in the new media. Their motto is "broadcast Yourself". This documentary made me thinkback to the days when television was the only option, and when you could not watch a television show unless you were at home during the time it was shown live. It is amazing how far the world of technology has come along in just the past decade.

Another interest that has been brought into the realm of the web 2.0 revolution in a big way is music. The mp3 player and Napster paved the way for music being readily available on the Internet. This documentary showed how skeptical people in the music industry were at first about the idea.

The skepticism and journey that all of these companies made was a major theme in both documentaries. It was very inspirational to see how all of these visions have impacted society.

The True Story of the Internet

2011-11-30T06:44:00.008-06:00

The video "Download: The True Story of the Internet" investigates the digital, social and commercial revolution that the Internet has created, as well as showing how the competition for markets and growth/improvement towards new and improved solutions continues to drive innovation and success.

Search:

This section of the video revolved around the search engine startups that have revolutionized the Internet: Yahoo, Exite, and, of course, the leader of them all, Google. It’s interesting that corporate communities were, at first, doubtful about the use of search engines for business and commerce, as they have now completely integrated commerce and search engines, generating billions of dollars in revenue each year.

Although Google is now one of the largest companies in the U.S., it did not start out that way. Before the creation of Google, Yahoo stood as the main search engine until people started to look for new ways of searching because their searches were not generating the right results. When Google came along, they brought with them a new way to search, using keywords and algorithms that provided the consumer the results they were looking for. With the goal of pushing Yahoo out of the competition, Google attempted to form an alliance with Exite, offering the company for $1 million. It’s ridiculous how many insane opportunities have been passed up because of skepticism! Exite didn’t think there was any money in search engines, and passed up the chance of a lifetime by refusing the offer of the now multi-billion dollar company! I wish I had the money to invest in something like that...because I would do it in a heartbeat!

I also thought it was interesting that Google stole Bill Gross’ idea of advertising on the Internet. Needing to create a source of revenue to please their angel investors, Google knew that they only way of doing so was through advertising. But being “Google,” they wanted to maintain the user-friendly experience, which led to them to Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, who solved the problem of Web advertising by linking together the keywords entered by the user with sponsored links from advertisers calling it “Overture.” Stealing it from under Gross, Google created a similar experience with a few tweaks, calling it “AdWords.” At least Gross was smart enough to realize what he had discovered and after filing suit was given a hefty settlement of Google’s market shares. It seems all the great ideas were somehow taken from something/someone else--I mean take Facebook for example! Zuckerberg is dealing with all kinds of lawsuits!

This realization of how to generate income from Internet advertising on search engines has become the future of market research, and will continue to stand as such in the years to come.

Power People:

This section shows how the creation of Web 2.0 and social networking sites have forever changed how we use the Internet and our reasons for using it in the first place. Once the Internet was primarily used to search and look up information, but now it is used to communicate with friends and family, and even acquaintances, sharing stories, photos, music and videos...and it all started with Napster.

I remember when Napster came out...it was the hottest thing around because it was the first site to bring music to the Web through peer-to-peer sharing. Though it was a huge controversy, the rise and fall of Napster marks an important time in history as it began a digital revolution that gave rise to a world of online sharing and communicating. That's what I love and find the most interesting, is that no matter where you are, next door or in another country, we can now share with anyone, communication with anyone. This digital world is constantly changing and I am so excited and eager to see what will come out next.

Oh How far we have come!

2011-11-30T00:16:00.002-06:00

I watched the third video about the technology bubble. It fascinated me just to sit back and realize how far we have come in such a short amount of time. To many of us now e-commerce is a common occurrence, and many of us have shopped on Amazon and Ebay. The most interesting fact is that black friday was the term used to describe the crash of the nasdaq after the technology bubble burst, but now it is the term to describe one of the biggest consumer shopping days in the year. I really enjoyed noticing how the companies now truly are the embodiment of the approach taken by their founders. It is also a common theme in technology that once something great is realized, it becomes a mad rush for everyone to jump on the bandwagon and try and find the next big thing. It really goes to show that the successes are not by accident, but are truly great, innovative ideas. Just look at how in order for these businesses to work they had to create a way for personal information to be given online without it being stolen. Today that is such a common thing that we take for granted but at that time it took three men to crack the code and create a safeway for e-commerce to thrive

Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar didn't write a business plan he just sat down one weekend with an idea and designed the code himself. When I think of Ebay I feel that carefree attitude he took. The just go without thinking out the business plan feeling. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had a more thought out, organized way of creating Amazon. He created a business plan and really thought through his idea. Which really embodies Amazon. When you think Amazon you think organization. I feel Amazon is a more organized way of shopping. It was also interesting to see the approaches to the founders. Pierre Omidyar is not very public now and you don't hear much about him in the news. Jeff Bezos on the other hand is a public figure who some feel could be the next Steve Jobs type. Here is an interesting article featuring Jeff Bezos. It talks about who will win the technology war of 2012 as they call it.

Search and People Power

2011-11-29T20:22:00.005-06:00

Excite was a web search I used all the time in collge. In fact, I had forgot all about it until the video had mentioned its name. Today, I use Yahoo and G oogle for most of my searches. As soon as the website mention that the Yahoo creators were from Stanford, I automatically thought Steve Jobs. It's crazy how so many bright minds went to the same school. The guys thought of the Yahoo name, because they wanted something short and catchy. It's exactly what it is. The video increased my knowledge of what Yahoo and Google go through and how they have grown into the companies they are today. The gambled with advertisersing and came out on top. I am most shocked that all of the creators went to Stanford and that they were so young.

Personally, I use Yahoo! for email, but I use Google more to search. I think I use Yahoo! because I have had it for so long. Google brings up more searches when I use it, so it has become my first search engine source of information.

I had never heard of Digg before the video. It was interesting how the CEO thought a blog and the New York Times could be at the same level. Mark Zuckerburg the founder of Facebook said, "What your friends actually have to say is interesting to you." I think this is true. It kind of relates to the American nature to want to know everything about everything. The guy who had been using 85% of Stanford's bandwidth was funny. It's unbelievable how people are able to come up with these ideas and bring them to life. We have moved from the walkman stage, to disc players, to mp3's, to iPods. It is unbelievable and exciting. I'm always interested in seeing what the new fad is. I understand Napster's point of their company, but I also see why the record companies were upset. I would be too. Napster was amazing, but like the video said, "it's still causing troubles today." Napster=Free Music

In 2001, Napster was shut down and they turned on its fans. The result of the close of Napster, led the way for Steve Jobs and iTunes. It was something the music industry was definitely satisifed with. Youtube was acquired by Google at the end of 2006, and it had helped the company stay afloat with the various issues they run into reguarding copyrighted material.

It's not just web-surfing anymore

2011-11-29T13:52:00.001-06:00

Conducting search on the Internet has changed greatly withinthe past 20 years. For what was oncenothing more than a directory-based hub of information, the Internet hasmorphed into a keyword search to find information instantly. The fledgling search-engine, Yahoo!, was thefirst major website to also deduce a way to earn money using the power of theinternet. Google was also a keygame-changer in terms of search. Googlebased its search around how often people link to a particular site and/or howoften people visit a particular site to gain information. The more popular a site is to users the morelikely it will appear within a search query on Google. It is the advancements and connections madewithin the Internet that have made seeking information by users faster andeasier. As users needs grow and changeso too will the way users search for information will change.

Internet has changed the world by connecting people withinformation as well as to other people. People and the creation of sites such as YouTube have allowed abreakdown of control. Users can createtheir own content for the most part, without bounds unlike traditional mediaoutlets.

http://www.simplyzesty.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Social-Media.png

The freedom to communicate withthe world with little boundaries and the opportunity to connect with and sharea little bit about you with people you may never see or meet are incrediblepowers of Internet advancement. Anotherpower is the heightened control of the masses in producing web content. Overall,the possibility of creating and sharing are the driving forces of the power ofpeople and the growth and change in how the internet is used.

Search/People Power

2011-11-29T13:03:00.001-06:00

When you are looking for an answer to any type of question, or when you are looking for resources for your research paper all you have to do is go on the Internet and find what you need. However, that was not the case more than 10 years ago. Now, the Internet is a central part of our lives and many people today have no idea how they could ever function without it. Download: The True Story of the Internet is about the ongoing revolution of the internet and about the men and women who made it possible. This documentary is hosted by technology journalist John Heileman.
Search:

In this portion of the documentary "Search" is about the history of search engines, mainly Yahoo, Google, and Exite. Similar to many inventors, the invention of Yahoo was unintentional. Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo were trying to find a way to win a fantasy basketball league by using the internet. The idea of a search engine, Yahoo, was created and banner ads were used as funds for the company. Yahoo's biggest rival at the time was Exite.

Google was founded by two young Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Both were able to find sites that were relevant by counting the links. The issue of funding became a problem, yet these two youngsters found a way to fund their new company. They came across an idea that Bill Goss, founder of Idealab, had and altered it. Goss's idea was to sell keywords and show paid ads that were of interest to people. Page and Brin decided to separate ads from the organic search results.

It amazes me how in class we constantly see graduate students or young people creating multi-billion dollar companies. It is truly inspiring to see

People Power:
This portion discussed the rise and fall of Napster as well as some insight on Facebook and YouTube. Due to the creation of these social media websites, the new era "Web 2.0" was created. I remember using Napster when I was younger and remember thinking how slow it was to download one song. There were no other sites that were anything like Napster, but even then, such a innovative site made me want something that was faster. Regardless, Napster was also the beginning of music on the web. Today there are a variety of websites and music softwares such as Pandora, Spotify, iTunes, and radio stations that might have been brought about due to Napster. The fall of Napster might have been a major controversy, but because of this company, music on the web is constantly evolving.

An interesting point that was made in this video was that the internet should bring back the common person as an author. I believe that the internet is going to keep evolutionizing and new forms of communication are going to keep being created. Facebook, for example, has helped connect friends and family members all around the world. YouTube and Facebook keep updating their websites and the constant changes and improvements allow for more communication styles.

SXSW Preview #2: Managing Milennials

2011-11-28T16:22:00.005-06:00

Licenced psychologist, camp director and teacher Jennifer Selke will speak at SXSW Interactive this year about how to manage millennials.

Running a camp for more than 20 years, she has a great deal of experience managing teenagers and young adults. Cal Youth and Outdoor Programs employs 130-150 high school and college students each summer.

"Every summer, you see a shift in what they need in a supervisor and the struggles they have making their way in the world," Selke said.

This is her third year speaking at SXSW, but this year it will be a core conversation rather than a panel. She hopes the session will be interactive and informative for all who attend.

"I look forward to bringing people together in conversation," Selke said. "So many businesses lack the understanding of how to deal with these millennials and they are losing out."

The topic of her dissertation was actually on job tenure and job satisfaction. In her many roles, Selke communicates with the young adults who work for her about what they are looking for out of a job.

"Camp is a venue that can help young people find out what they love and apply these life skills," she said.

For an example of managing millennials at camp, view this video:

Selke grew up in Chicago, but she lived overseas in England for three years, and currently lives in California. She was introduced to camps when she lived in England. Her husband was in the military and she began working in Morale, Welfare and Recreation at RAF Upper Heyford, England. Prior to that, her background was in psychology. She earned her bachelor of science degree (magna cum laude) in psychology from Loyola University Chicago and a Ph.d. in educational psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

All of these achievements combined have helped her get to where she is today as a camp director, speaker, teacher, and psychologist. Selke looks forward to speaking with others at SXSW.

"I enjoy the eclectic group of people that come together," she said.

The main questions she will address are:

-What is different about the millennial generation from Gen-Xers and Boomers?

- How can managers provide supervision to increase retention?

- How does the interview and evaluation process differ with these workers?

- What can you do in your work place and with your policies to improve productivity?

- What impact does their comfort with technology have on the workplace?

For more information and updates, visit the SXSW Interactive web site.

The History of Search and the Power of People

2011-11-28T12:25:00.002-06:00

It's hard to believe 10 years ago there was no Google, Twitter, Facebook or YouTube All of these have become a norm for our generation and it's hard to imagine a world without them. But, there was once a time when you had to go to the library to do research and the only way you kept in touch with old classmates was if you really tried. Thank goodness times have changed.

From the video "Search" it's interesting to learn that Yahoo, Excite and Google all started with Stanford college students. What are the odds that all the first search engines would come from one place?

Yahoo's founders, David Filo and Jerry Yang, were looking for sports information when they game up with an idea that it would be nice to have everything categorized, instead of just wildly searching the internet for information. So, Yahoo was formed to help internet users search the internet more efficiently. They were also the first to learn how to make money on the internet by using advertising. At first, Filo and Yang were hesitant to put ads up fearing that it would turn users away, but when the ads launched users continued using the search engine, unfazed. Soon, competitors appeared and one competitor, Excite had a new way for searching for information.

Unlike Yahoo's manual listing of websites to their respective categories, Excite was pure software. Instead of having to add the websites themselves, for users to search through, all users had to do was enter in a query. The software would then search the internet for related material. Much like an early Google.

Finally, the king of all search engines was created. The founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had come up with a way for their search engine to search for sites that would be more credible to its users. They used links, a kind of recommendation, where the number of times a page was linked to by another, raised its credibility and would make it appear higher in a Google search. Google had also found a way for companies to pay to have their names come up higher in searches, leading to a less cluttered search engine.

The video "Power People" was all about how users are the driving force behind some of today's most popular sites. YouTube is a place where everyone can have their own "station" and become popular among their followers. Facebook is where you can follow your friends lives, and let them follow yours, and Digg is news stories that the users think are important, not the media.

All of these are great file sharing sites, but they owe a lot to Napster, the first file sharing network.

Napster was created to allow users to share music between one another, for free, instead of having to go out and by album after album to get the music that you wanted. It quickly spread among college students, almost like an overnight sensation. Napster is said to be the "game changer in music sharing over the internet," and paved the way for other music sharing sites, like iTunes. Unfortunately, Napster didn't last very long but that didn't stop it from having an impact on file sharing in the future.

With Napster's failure came many more successes. iTunes was created to let users buy just the songs they wanted, instead of the whole cd. YouTube, Facebook and blogs are a way for users to get other there with the opinion and connect with others across the world. They are all apart of what is called Web 2.0, where everyday is impacted by individuals.

The History of the Internet Continued

2011-11-27T21:46:00.003-06:00

Watching The History of the Web in the beginning of the semester was very interesting, yet it did not cover the latest innovations and creations on the internet. A lot has happened in the last decade or two and Download: The True Story of the Internet tries to bridge the gap and fill in important background information on influential tech companies and how they came into existence. It is a four part series hosted by journalist John Heileman.

Browser Wars deals with the rise of Netscape and the subsequent battle with Microsoft to be the number one browser used by consumers. Early on, the web was full of code that was difficult to navigate and unattractive to look at. Marc Andreesen had an early vision that everyone would eventually use the web as part of everyday life. With that vision in mind, he created Mosaic in the fall of 1993, the world's first graphical web browser. It went viral, but to continue the growth it needed cash, and Jim Clark joined Andreesen and his vision. What I found particularly interesting was that at this point Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, did not really grasp the importance of browsers and the web in general and only paid attention to Netscape, the company subsequently founded by Andreesen and Clark, once he saw their success and feared competition.

Netscape Navigator was released in 1994 and after its success it was impossible for Gates to ignore the company and the importance of the web. In 1995 a meeting was held between people from Microsoft and Netscape in which Microsoft allegedly offered $1 million for the whole business. This essentially broke US Antitrust Law and it was interesting to see that apparently Gates did not shy away from any methods to keep his company in first place. Eventually Microsoft launched its own browser, Internet Explorer, and using its vast amounts of cash, offered it free to the public, something Netscape could not afford to do.

With the advantage of capital and man power Microsoft won the browser war and Netscape got acquired by AOL. A lawsuit was filed against the computer giant, but an order to split Microsoft in half was later overturned.

Search deals with the history of search engines and the rise of companies like Yahoo, Excite and Google. It was interesting that overall the idea for a search engine started when Yahoo founders Jerry Yang and David Filo were looking for a way to use the internet to win a fantasy basketball league. Eventually this idea was turned into a company, attracted money from venture capitalists and needed to figure out a way to generate revenue itself. Banner ads were the solution to the problem and were used frequently. Excite was Yahoo's biggest rival. It used more sophisticated technology and was a rudimentary version of a search today. Both companies tried to outdo each other, adding more and more features, but losing track of the actual search capabilities of their sites.

Google was founded by Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who used links to pages as an assessment of importance. The most interesting part of this section was the lack of interest and funding Google was experiencing in the beginning. Executives at Excite had the opportunity to buy Google, valued at about $100 billion today, for $1 million, but were not interested. Other search engine companies and numerous venture capitalists also turned Google down. Eventually Andy Bechtolsheim, an investor, wrote Brin and Page a check on the spot for $100,000 and the two secured more money from other angel investors.

Google still had to figure out a way to make money though and the two founders were against banner ads and wanted to use something more user friendly. They came across Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, who had figured out that he can sell keywords and show paid ads that actually might be of interest to the person searching. After a few meetings, which did not produce results, Page and Brin simply released something very similar to what Gross had done, but they separated ads from the organic search results. Gross sued Google and received a settlement.

I enjoyed getting some more information on the history of browsers as well as search engines. It is intriguing that a company like Microsoft, which toppled giants like IBM with innovation, doesn't see the importance of something like the internet until a small start-up shows success. The methods used to get rid of this new competition were unscrupulous and showed how much people in power want to stay there and will do almost anything to preserve their position.

Google did something similar although it was not as big as Microsoft yet. The founders saw something they liked, but couldn't get to an agreement with Gross, so they simply used his ideas and dealt with the lawsuit later. Even though we don't know what happened behind closed doors at meetings between Microsoft and Netscape or Google and Idealab, it is interesting to get some background information on the giants in technology and their beginnings.

The Bubble and People Power

2011-11-27T21:08:00.008-06:00

Download: The True Story of the Internet continued with "Bubble" which told the stories of the dot-com boom and featured the success stories of eBay and Amazon. The video discussed how the spread of computers and the Internet was ripe for an e-commerce boom. The missing link was figuring out public key cryptography, which made it safe for consumers to purchase products over the Internet. Amazon found its niche of selling books by founder Jeff Bezos, tabulating in spreadsheets and gathering data about what would be the most popular products to sell over the Internet. eBay Founder, Pierre Omidyar's approach was less calculated as he simply liked the idea of setting up public auctions for consumers to sell their goods, which were largely dominated by collectibles.

The key to what made these websites successful was that they empowered their customers by giving them the tools they needed to be informed consumers, selling their own products and also leaving their own uncensored feedback for products, whether positive or negative. This strategy worked for the successful sites like eBay and Amazon because their first priority was happy customers. Even if they weren't happy with a product or service they had the ability to leave feedback, which gave them a sense of empowerment.

As new web companies were launched during what would be called the bubble, many failed even though banks recommended investment in the start-up companies in an effort to gain investors. However, the companies like eBay and Amazon that were successful set a new precedence for the future of internet start-ups.The power was now in the hands of the consumer, and the brick and mortar companies were forced to take the web seriously.

The Bubble also set the stage for a new era in telecommunications. The rapid growth of internet companies meant that fiber optics technology and telecommunications infrastructure had to grow as well, and fast. When the bubble burst and many web start-ups went under, the upside was that we were left with the infrastructure that set the foundation to make it fast and easy to communicate over the internet, which would also open the doors to the next Web 2.0 era.

The next video, People Power, discussed the implications of Web 2.0, file sharing and social media as it began with the creation of Napster. This video was interesting to watch since social media continues to develop today. Viewing it from its controversial beginnings as file sharing and illegally downloading music is interesting to see how a goal to obtain loads of free music turned into sharing common interests with friends and people over the web in a way that brings people closer together. Other social media have tried to capture this sharing between friends concept, but none has dominated like Facebook. However, when this video ended, MySpace was currently in the lead and there was no Twitter, so it's easy to see there's no telling what's on the horizon for the next big thing.

"Search" and "People Power" Provide Insight into history of Internett

2011-11-27T14:56:00.001-06:00

Download: The History of the Internet is documentary television series, which first aired on March 3, 2008. The four-part documentary was hosted by John Heilemann, current journalist for New York Magazine and former staff writer for Wired and The New Yorker. Part Two of the series, entitled "Search" details how finding information on the web was revolutionalized by college students at Stanford, and the growth of a little company called Google. The story begins with David Filo and Jerry Yang, two engineering students at Stanford. When their professor took a sabbaticle to Italy, the pair took a break from academic work to play around on the web. However, they grew frustrated with the lack of organization, and how they couldn't locate sites they had previously been to. This started their idea for Yahoo, a search engine which would provide users with a sort of roadmap and access to previously visited sites. This essentially revolutinized search. However, Yang and Filo had to find a way to make money with Yahoo, but they were afraid that users would rebel if there were ads. Yahoo first accepted banner ads in 1995, and therefore showed that there was a way to make money on the web.

At the time, Excite was the biggest competition for Yahoo, but both were what we would think of as a very rudimentary search engine today. It was difficult to find what you were looking for on the Internet and many linked to sites you didn't want.

That would all change with Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin met on the Stanford campus, and as computer science graduate students, they began to collaborate on a new search engine. They were able to find the most relevant sites by counting the links. Page and Brin did not want to be the typical search engine, so they made the gutsy decision to not allow banner ads. Still there was a problem of how Google would make money. Page and Brin actually took the idea from Bill Goss, who runs Idealab, and who had just launched Overture. Goss figured out that search could be like the yellow pages. Page and Brin tweaked his format by making sure the ads were separate from the organic search. In 2004, Google went public, and the stock is now worth $628.

It was so interesting to see how college students have impacted and changed the world forever. Additionally, Bill Goss's influence on Google and how Page and Brin "tweaked" his idea is something I would not have know had I not watched this documentary. It will be interesting to see how much larger and more pervasive Google becomes in our world. It will also be interesting to watch how well Google+ competes with Facebook.

Part Four of the documentary is entitled "People Power" and details the rise and fall of Napster and the creation of Web 2.0. Shawn Fanning, a student at Boston University, started a little music file sharing company called Napster. In 1999, the repurcussions of his idea were felt by the music industry, as peers could share music with each other. That same year, lawyers Howard King and Peter Paterno formed a lawsuit against Fanning and Napster, and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich went with King and Paterno to Napster's doors. They demanded that Napster ban 300,000 users from the site. In 2001, Napster was forced to shut down, as the music industry had waged a war against their own customers. However, Napster launched a new web, a web controlled by the people. Illegal file sharing continues, and You Tube launched, sparking a lawsuit by Viacom. However, once monster company Google bought You Tube, the chances of it disappearing are slim to none.

Now with Facebook, You Tube, and other sites a new era called Web 2.0 enables people to create contact. Tim Berners Lee summed it up when he said at the end of the documentary that the Internet should bring back the "common person as the author."

It was interesting to watch this part of the documentary, especially when it discussed Facebook. Since the video was made in 2008, the full power of Facebook was not known, and they speak of the uncertainty. It was fun to see how far Facebook has come in just a few short years. I remember hearing about Napster, but I didn't realize that Shawn Fanning was the creater. I had only ever heard the name Sean Parker (mainly from The Social Network). I did know that Metallica had something to do with Napster being shutdown, but it was fascinating to hear the two lawyers talk about the case and the "meeting" with Napster.

Moore's Law, Metcalfe's Law, and the Dot Com Bubble

2011-11-27T14:38:00.000-06:00

Don't Be Evil and New Media vs. New Media

2011-11-26T18:00:00.001-06:00

Search Video:

I found it interesting that Yahoo began as a way for two college students to win a fantasy basketball league and that it just took off from there. Then the battle between Excite and Yahoo began, each trying to one-up each other. Granted, more aspects to the websites were probably created this way, but to hear them admit in the video that they lost sight of what their consumer wanted was intriguing. Mainly because most people do not like to admit when they mess up. I believe that Excite is also probably are kicking themselves now after having a chance of buying Google for only $1 million back when it was first getting started. Google's motto, "Don't Be Evil" made me laugh.

People Power:

The thing that struck me in this video was how IBM has explored new areas and figures them not worth investing in. In this case, it would be similar to what Napster was. They believed that not enough people would want to download music to heavily invest in this up and coming area. Even though Napster had several implications (copyright infringement), it did help lead the way in the area of music. Though it was possible to see how dated the video was when they were talking about Facebook versus Myspace and which company would continue to grow. New media is also having a huge impact on old media. Blogging is taking the place of journalism while Craigslist is becoming the new place for classifieds.

Overall, it was an interesting video. It made me realize that a lot of websites that we use on a daily basis were created by students who were in college, mostly around Stanford.

The State of PR 2.0 Industry in Mexico

2011-11-25T13:29:00.001-06:00

Oscar Rojas, a Senior Business Leader in Ogilvy PR Mexico, and Lorena Carreño, President of the Mexican Association of Public Relations Professionals (ProPR) are doing a presentation at SXSW that has never been done before called The State of PR 2.0 Industry in Mexico. 2012 will be the first year that ProPR conducts and publishes a research on the local industry in Mexico. They will provide a big picture of how digital communication and the social media industry is developing in Mexico, as well as presenting the challenges and opportunities for the future.

Below is a video from Ogilvy PR Global CEO, Christopher Graves on Ogilvy Media Influence:

Before working for Ogilvy PR Mexico, Oscar developed strong relationships with business, technology editors and journalists, as well as some of the top bloggers in Mexico. He has worked with various of influential companies such as the Jeffery Group in Mexico, LG, FedEx, Airbus, British Airways, Dell, American Express and a variety of other companies.

He is currently an active member of the Social Media Club in Mexico City and is responsible for the Public Relations Committee. Oscar has a bachelors degree in Communications from the Universidad Nuevo Mundo and a Master's in Enterprise Communication with an emphasis in Digital Technologies from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. If one is interested in going in to the public relations industry, Oscar suggests keeping up to date with news and trends and constantly look at how the industry is changing. "It is important to stay current with the latest trends and to understand the new world and adapt it to our daily jobs," says Oscar.

Below is an interview in Spanish where Oscar talks about crisis communication in Mexico:

At Oscar's and Lorena's presentation one can expect a lot of numbers, demographics and habits of the PR in Mexico, some case studies of excellent campaigns from brands and agencies. They will give a real snapshot of how they are doing business as well as the key players. When asked about Oscar's thoughts on SXSW, he states, "It is really great to be at SXSW for the second year in a row and it is very cool that there is a Latin American track. This track that SXSW has created is a great opporutinty for those who would like to network with different companies from Mexico. My expereince in the last 10 years has been working with a lot of agencies that have offered a lot of services here. This is a great opportunity to connect with people and for them to expand their messages to Mexico."

Some questions that will be answered at the presentation are listed below:

Whats the current situation of digital PR industry in Mexico?
How many "traditional" agencies are still not offering digital services?
How many "social media agencies" exist in Mexico?
Who are the top companies and brands in digital communications?
Which are the main case studies of digital PR in Mexico?

To learn more about this presentation go to The State of PR 2.0 Industry in Mexico

*Note: This presentation will be in Spanish

Search/People Power

2011-11-25T00:01:00.007-06:00

The number one piece of information that I gleaned from the 'Download' documentary is that everything involved with the advancement of the Internet apparently came out of Stanford. It really begs the question: Does Stanford breed computer geniuses or are all computer geniuses going to Stanford? Either way, there has got to be something in the water in Palo Alto. Also, it apparently only effects men. Where are my lady programers at? Stanford isn't the only Ive League school that seems to fall short in this department.

Aside from that, it was interesting to hear about 'Internet Carnivals'. I remember when search engines were just beginning to form, of course in my day everything was primarily filtered through AOL. However, using hindsight to take a look at the search engines of yesteryear, they were so muddled down with ridiculous paraphernalia. Every search homepage had crazy games and flashing lights and ridiculous banners. I never realized at the time, but they were just playing the public like any sideshow carnie would - they expected us to get distracted by the shiny things, and not pay attention to to the fact that the search part was not exactly all worked out.

Google has proven to be a true testament to the fact that the best way to get someone to your webpage (or business of any kind) is to have the best possible product. You provide an invaluable service, then people will use it, not matter how shiny (or un-shiny) it is. Naturally, once the clientle exist, then the inevitable income will become readily available to spruce up the look, but CONTENT IS KING! I'm grateful for the reiteration of this fact, because it solidifies my dislike for the arena of marketing. I understand, it serves somewhat of a purpose, however today you find so many people obsessed with 'branding' and their 'appeal' and the 'look' of what they have to offer, but where is the substance? Branding may get you instant exposure, but substance will grant you longevity. Obviously, Google has managed to find a healthy balance of the two.

The final overarching theme that I took away from this film was the statement that the number one thing that human seek out it communication. We are social beasts, so the wild popularity of the Internet should not come as a surprise to a culture such as ours. I've heard many arguments that the Internet has created a social disconnect, however I disagree. It has certainly changed the way in which we connect, and it may not seem as intimate since our interactions are increasingly digital, however we now know more about each other than we ever did before. Previously, I may have had a coworker who's name I knew and the very basics of their life, but now we can friend them on Facebook, and gain incredible insights on their family, their hobbies, why they are how they are and these are things that we may never have learned about them prior to the digital age.

While lunch dates may be on the decline, I do believe that people are powering the new uses of the Internet to create an evolution of what it means to know someone.

Final Project

2011-11-23T11:41:00.002-06:00

For our final OMD project, Demond and I will create a website, "Christmas on a College Budget" that will focus on the various aspects of shopping, decorating and planning for Christmas as a college student. We plan to interview college students and local businesses. We will include cheap and inexpensive gift ideas, arts and crafts ideas, interviews with students, free and local events during the Christmas holidays and possibly a recipe page. We want to incorporate everything that usually goes on during the planning and decorating for Christmas but on a college budget!

People Power/Search

2011-11-21T20:46:00.001-06:00

If you need more evidence that people’s passions can be the incentive for major innovation, consider that a fixation on fantasy baseball and the then-difficulty in finding out information about real-life teams and players on the Internet led David Filo and Jerry Yang to decide the Internet needed a way to search for information more easily. By deciding to put together a way to search the Internet by viewing hundreds of websites, figuring out categories and key words to put them in, their innovation led them to fame and fortune as the founders of Yahoo!

Once advertising was put on Yahoo, followed quickly by its competitors, multiplied the various portals on their websites and in the process came to resemble the overwhelming glitter and distractions of Vegas or Times Square.

Along comes Google, with their restful clean design and their superior algorithm for doing searches, and floods of people turn to Google for all their searches.

I remember the first time I saw Google (my dad told me I should check it out). Instantly the colorful name and plentiful white space made me feel able to relax. I had not realized until that moment that the busyness of Yahoo and other search engines before Google arrived on the scene had the effect of causing me inner tension. In no time I set Google as my home page – which it remains to this day.

In reflecting on both segments, the one on "People Power" resonated with me more than that on "Search." The impulse to bypass those who would be gatekeepers and attempt to control the flow of information is strong in me too.

Though he exaggerates, I almost agree with John Hellemann, national affairs editor for New York magazine and writer of the column The Power Grid, who narrates Downloading: The True Story of the Internet when he says, “The deepest human impulse, the most profound desire and need is for communication.”

Jay Adelson of Digg asks, “Who do you trust more, do you trust some corporate executive in some corporate backroom or do you trust your peers and the people you are connected to?” The rise of Wikileaks and the abject failure of corporate media to do much more than beat the drums for war instead of digging out the truth of claims about weapons of mass destruction are only a couple of the reasons I have to say it’s my peers and the people I connect to.

Craig Newmark - courtesy freepress.net

No doubt about it, as Craig Newmark says, "What we are living through right now is the flow of power from a relatively small group of people to, in a sense, anyone who wants their little piece of power through the net. Now anyone can get your attention - and that matters. There's problems with that, but this is the great wave of democracy."

The fact is that following one’s passion can lead to innovations that can enrich their founders, as it did for Chad Hurley, the co-founder of YouTube, and for Digg co-founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee

But there is something special about the middle-aged and quite unassuming Newmark, founder of Craigslist. The fact that he did not try to gain a fortune from it and instead made it free to post classified ads online and to search them is remarkable. His office was the complete opposite of the sleek and powerful facades created for the corporate homes of Google and Apple.

I loved the fact that the last interview of “People Power” was with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet – bringing it back to the fact that it was conceived as a communication tool, saying in his own voice that the whole idea of the web originally was a two-way thing.

Remembering the way he constructed the switches, making each one as important as every other one, I wonder if he had an inkling at the time that he was providing a communication tool that would be nearly impossible for an authoritarian regime to shut down.

Final OMD Project: Coverage of the 2011 Central Texas Wildfires

2011-11-20T20:24:00.000-06:00

View the story "Final OMD Project: Coverage of the 2011 Central Texas Wildfires" on Storify

Final Project: non-traditional students at Texas State

2011-11-20T13:17:00.002-06:00

We are going to do our final project about non-traditional students, with a focus on Texas State. We will do interviews, take photos, and provide general information about the life of a non-traditional student. Our pages will be a home/welcome page, a page about the Round Rock campus and organizations for non-traditional students, a page of profiles of non-traditional students at Texas State, a page about balancing life as a non-traditional student, and a page of resources for non-traditional students.

- Kristen and Shannon

Final Project: The Spirit of Texas State

2011-11-20T11:44:00.002-06:00

Ashley and I will be doing our final project on "The Spirit of Texas State Fans." Our project will focus on the spirit of Texas State fans and students. We will interview student-athletes, members of the Loud Crowd and your everyday Bobcat fans to see why they love Texas State athletics. We will garner video footage and photographs of fans at Texas State athletic events to support the interviews. We will touch on the tradition of Texas State ie: fight song, hand signals, etc. and provide detailed information on the facts of the Texas State athletic programs.

-Ashley and Denise

Final Project

2011-11-17T15:19:00.001-06:00

For our final project Taylor and I will be looking into the sport wakeboarding. We will be interviewing some professional wakeboarders as well as some beginner wakeboarders on their experiences with this sport. On our site we will include a page on how to wakeboard and some of the best places to practice this sport.
Pages (may change):
Home: include a brief intro and flash slideshow of wakeboarding photos
About: wakeboarding (history, how popular it is)
Interview: (brief intro of those that were interviewed +video)
How-To's of Wakeboarding (tips on wakeboarding)
Resources: include best places in central texas to wakeboard

Final Project: Stand Up Paddle Boarding

2011-11-16T21:10:00.003-06:00

For our Final Project, Ryan and I will look into the increasingly popular sport, stand up paddle boarding. We'll interview new and veteran paddle boarders and trainers and find out what draws them to the sport and what they think of its recent popularity in Austin. Our interviews will demonstrate how the laid back lifestyle of the city, combined with the laid back attitude of the sport, is a perfect match. We will also take a closer look at the best places to paddle board in Austin and places and events to meet up with other paddlers. This site will give someone not familiar with the sport the ins and outs of what it's all about, why it has caught on in Austin, and how to learn and get involved with the sport.

FInal Project

2011-11-16T21:09:00.004-06:00

Hey Everyone!

Chelsea Roeder and Megan Lovelady will be doing "BobQUATS" quidditch.

Final Project Idea

2011-11-16T21:09:00.001-06:00

Katie P. and I (Kiana) plan to focus our final multimedia project on artists in central Texas; specifically, artists based in Austin and San Marcos. We chose to base our project on this group of individuals because we feel that artists in this region often go overlooked, contrary to popular belief. As of now, we plan to have separate pages that focus on stages in the career of an artist: the beginning, when an artist is struggling to find gigs or sell their work; the intermediate stages of success; and the final stage of success, as determined by the artist. We hope to focus on a diverse range of artists; from photographers to comedians to graphic designers. This site could come to serve as a visual interpretation of an artist's career journey, which is something that could be beneficial to other artists, or simply entertaining to those who come across the site.

Coffee Culture

2011-11-16T20:55:00.001-06:00

Alex Schranz and Kristen Trojan will create our final project on the coffee culture in San Marcos, TX. Our angle will be the different atmospheres of the different coffee shops.

The Power of Visual Storytelling

2011-11-14T17:49:00.003-06:00

Building your brand and getting your name out there for the public to see has always been a top priority for individuals and organizations. Today, it is more important than ever to be able to successfully get your name, or brand, out there. It is important to be able to see yourself to your audience in today's fast moving world and that is just what the panel of "The Power of Visual Storytelling" is going to help you with.

The panel, Charlie Wollborg (Curve), Becky Johns (Cramer-Krasselt), C.C.Chapman (Content Rules) and Karl Gude (School of Journalism at Michigan State University), was organized by C.C. Chapman. He is a "recognized leader in the online and social media marketing space." He says Becky Johns actually came up with the idea to present the topics in a panel and he thought it was a great idea. With that, "The Power of Visual Storytelling" panel was created to inform individuals and organizations how to sell themselves and their story to the public using visual storytelling. "There isn't a magic formula to do this, but every can do it. That is why we pulled together a diverse panel that come at story telling from many different angles so that we can highlight the variety of storytelling methods available in today's world."

Chapman said he found while touring North America promoting his book, Content Rules, that many in his audience were confused about how to tell their story effectively.

"If you can't tell your own story you are doomed. I don't care if you are a preacher, rock star, CEO or student. You need to be able to clearly communicate who you are and what you do. These skills are necessary for getting jobs, getting to know people and growing your business." With that in the back of your mind, who would want to miss this panel!

Chapman hopes that by having people attend this panel the will "inspire people to realize that there are many ways to tell any one single story and that they don't have to feel stuck because of time or budget."

"Technology has really opened tons of creative ways we can now tell a story, and that excites me."

A Game of Conversation Dominoes

2011-11-09T16:24:00.006-06:00

I had the opportunity to have a phone conversation with Mary Crosse who works for Lucky Branded Entertainment, a hybrid ad agency and film production company. I chose "A Game of Conversation Dominoes" based on the name itself, but then after reading the summary I was even more drawn into the topic.

Mary has been a long time guest at SXSW for a number of years. One of the reasons she wanted to present at SXSW is because she works at a small business and it would help. She thought it would make for an interesting panel that would be unique and different than the other panels.

The summary catches you right off the back with "12 Weeks and 60 meetings. Starting with 5 people from different industries whom I already knew, I asked each of them to introduce me to the most interesting person they know in NYC, and each of those people to do the same, for 12 weeks, resulting in 60 documented meetings."

I thought this was amazing. To be able to have conversations with people from different backgrounds with the end result being priceless. Mary calls the meetings "business blind dates," which is rather appropriate if you think about it.

"It was actually a lot of fun. I think the number one thing people said when they saw the project was that they wanted to do some version of teh project themselves," Mary said. "It's kind of always been my goal to create some technology version that allows somebody to emulate some kind of aspect of it."

Mary likes meeting people, so she wanted to see how far her connections went. "I started with people from different industries like fashion, food, advertising, fitness and music and none of them knew each other," said Mary.

It was a lot more intense than what she imagined, but that it was alot of fun. One interesting part to Mary's story was when she said, "I met one guy that knew about every other person I had met, yet it was my first time meeting him."

Mary described Converstion Dominoes as a fun experiment to follow the path of introductions. One result was that people were introducing her to people that they found interesting, but were more of an acquaintence, rather than a close friend of theirs.

The questions to be answered at the panel are:
1. Why should I expand my network and meet people outside my industry?
2. What were the most fascinating learnings from this experiment?
3. How could someone replicate this project for their own business networking?
4. How small is this world?
5. What's the best way to self promote a project like this?

You can find more information on Conversation Dominoes through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People

2011-11-09T16:12:00.014-06:00

Attention all tech nerds: save your current game of WoW, adjust your glasses and make sure your pocket protectors are secured because it is time to step out of your mother’s dimly list basement and talk to some real, live, people.

Alright, this stereotype is not exactly in place anymore, however author Susan Weinschenk knows that there is still a gap between the creators of web content and the people that they are trying to reach.

Weinschenk is actually Dr. Weinschenk, with a Ph.D. in Psychology she has been slinging her consultant expertise about human behavior and neuro-patterning around Fortune 500 companies for 30 years.

Her most recent book, 100 Things Every Designer Need to Know About People provides a crash course in psychology that even the most non-user-friendly IT person can put into action.

"I've been studying the psychology of technology for 35 years. I wanted to share all the great knowledge in this field in a way that was informative but also fun and engaging...[People need to know that if a website] doesn't work for the people that have to use it then it will be very hard for it to succeed."

The book doesn’t lie. It is literally 100 items detailing how our aesthetic brains work, highlighting everything from the fact that (font) size does matter, memory chunking, habit formation, our inherent laziness, and so on. Basically, you can create a bangin’ website, but if it doesn’t fit the flow of how we pattern our behavior, then your site is going to be as valuable as a pog set. Remember pogs? No? Well then, you get my point.

Dr.Weinschenk exemplifies the excellence with which technical practicality and the necessity to remember the human-ness of marketing, go hand in hand. Art is a science, science is an art and somewhere in between these things lies a business practice that can heartily exist online not just today, but to infinity- and beyond. All that is asked of you it to learn about the brains of the people for which you are honing your mad skills.

Binary Bitches: Keeping Open Source Open to Women

2011-11-09T15:52:00.004-06:00

SXSW Interactive 2012 has accepted hundreds of interesting panel proposals, one of which, I find to be particularly relevant in terms of women and technology. When it comes to technology, the primary sources of discussion tend to be men, not only trivializing women as technology enthusiasts/experts, but also intimidating and dissuading many of them from ever joining the conversation. “Binary Bitches: Keeping Open Source Open to Women” will present two different perspectives and experiences of women who participate in open source communities, through which they will discuss how the marginalization of women in these communities affects design development and product outcome, as well as consider strategies that may help to improve female participation in such discussions.

Moderator Andrea Hickerson (right), a journalism professor of communication at Rochester Institute of Technology, whose interests include looking at the future of journalism in regard to information technology and open source, as well as transnational political communication, hopes that this panel will make an impact on open source communities. "I hope that this panel creates a lasting discussion about women in tech. I hope it encourages female techies to network with each other. I hope that projects make more of an effort to have diverse participation which will result in products/outcomes with larger appeal and effectiveness."

Joining Hickerson in the discussion about open source, Xanthe Matychak (left) will be sharing her perspective and experiences from an educational point of view. Matychak teaches design-thinking and creativity in the Saunders College of Business and in the Innovation Center at Rochester Institute of Technology, with research interests that include sustainability, social entrepreneurship, food-shed innovation, distributed manufacturing, and design pedagogy, among others.

Sara Brown, from Oakland Green Farm and Bed & Breakfast, will also be sharing her experiences with open source communities from an industry perspective. The Oakland Green Farm and Bed & Breakfast, which is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, is not only a working beef cattle farm, but is also a rural getaway that hosts weddings and other special events.

Keeping open source open to women is a topic that needs to be addressed. It is important that women be included in the conversation, and more importantly, encouraged to do so without intimidation.

Think Before You Pink

2011-11-09T15:33:00.019-06:00

Designing Experiences for Women

Assignment: Design a website for a female demographic.

Typical Solution: background-color: pink; img src: url(flowerprint.jpg)

Well, Jessica Ivins is here to tell you that's not always the right solution in her discussion, Designing Experiences for Women.

Jessica Ivins is an experience designer for Happy Cog, a website development company which handles everything from site structure to interface design and from branding to content development. She explains,

"Just because most of your users are women, it doesn't mean that you should create a site with pink and floral embellishments. Understanding women's behaviors and motivations for using the site (especially if they're different from men's) will truly help you make an informed design decision."

Women demand intuitive design because between cooking, working, and taking care of everyone around them, they don’t have time to fumble around with complex navigation and unnatural functionality. Ivins explains, not only what women want, but also what a designer can do to please both genders if the product calls for that. Products fall on a spectrum and some products require a design that caters to both men and women. Contrary to popular belief, women do watch ESPN and women are part of gaming communities.

Designing Experiences for Women will discuss many issues plaguing designers today. For instance, "Why would women and men respond differently to designs or when does gender matter with regard to design?" Ivins says that, "Understanding women's and men's roles in decision-making has helped me to create effective designs."

So why is it important that we please women on the web?

Women account for 58% of the e-commerce market

Women use social media more than men

Women are gamers (Two words: Angry Birds)

For more stats, check out this TechCrunch article on the women and the internet.

Also, the discussion on designing for women extends upon previous talks on the subject. For more background on the topic there a serious of slides below where Ivins explains what it means to design experiences for women and why it's important.

On Shrink It and Pink It: Designing for Women

View more presentations from jessicaivins

3 Secrets to a Killer Elevator Pitch

2011-11-09T15:19:00.006-06:00

Joshua Baer is an entrepreneur who is based out of Austin. He proposed a talk dealing with the three secrets to a killer elevator pitch. If you are unclear about what an elevator pitch is the simple way to explain it would be to get into an elevator, hit a floor, and imagine pitching a business plan or yourself in the amount of time it takes for you to reach that floor. I tweeted Joshua Baer and asked why he felt this is such an important topic. He replied, "nothing happens without an elevator pitch. No customer, no funding, no employees. It's step 1."

We have studied how all great innovations start from a basic, organic idea. Well this is the part that isn't showed in the documentaries about all those great companies. How did they get the money to starts their companies? All companies have had to do an elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is probably the most widely used but hardly recognized tool that everyone uses on a daily basis. You try and sell yourself to employers, to friends, and to potential boyfriends or girlfriends. It is widely known that you can lose someone's attention in the blink of an eye. Well with Joshua Baer's panel you will be able to walk away with the secrets to pitching anything. The interesting thing about Mr. Baer's panel is that it is interactive in a way besides questions and answers. Mr. Baer's will spend a few minutes speaking about his 3 secrets to a killer elevator pitch then he will open the forum to the audience to pitch their business and get feedback from Mr. Baer himself. He will give them criticism to and ways to improve while pitching their business ideas at the same time!

Mr. Baer's forum is an essential panel to attend if you are an entrepreneur or anyone for that matter. The elevator pitch is a tool that every person can use in their daily life especially graduate students such as ourselves.

Here is a video with Joshua Baer's Five Secrets to a great elevator pitch (he has since shortened it to three):

Here are more links for Joshua Baer:
Twitter
LinkedIn
Joshua Baer Website
SXSW Panel Site

Preview – Securing your information in a Target – Rich Environment

2011-11-09T14:38:00.004-06:00

During this year’s SXSW Interactive, Darren Kitchen will be helping attendees with keeping personal information safe and secure. Kitchen, along with Matt Lestock, Shannon Morse and other crew members, runs Hak5, a tech show that covers topics such as network security, open source and DIY modding, which is modifying software or hardware to do tasks it was not originally designed to do. The tech gurus run this weekly podcast on the Revision 3 Internet TV network.

The show’s website, hak5.org, also includes a forum and a chat feature for the community to come together and exchange information and ideas, as well as an online shop, where people can buy anything from Wi-Fi pineapples to shirts and caps. There is also a blog with coverage of various conventions such as the San Diego Comic Con, E3 Expo and Def Con 2011 and other industry related news.

Darren Kitchen, besides being an integral member of the Hak5 team, also functions as a guest host on TWIT.tv’s netcast Tech News Today with Tom Merritt and Sarah Lane. In 2010 he went on a cross country tour with his motorcycle from Virginia to California and documented it in a daily vlog called Hack Across America.

During the SXSW Interactive panel, Kitchen will demonstrate how easy it is to hack into other people’s computers and look at and steal personal data while they surf the web using an unsecured wireless network. He will address what people can do to prevent others from snooping and how they can make their home and office more secure to fend off online intruders.

The specific questions that will be answered during this panel are:

What kinds of information can someone pull "out of the air"?
What are the potential consequences of someone snooping my information?
How can I tell if the network I'm connecting to is safe?
What steps can I take while I'm in Austin to prevent someone stealing my information?
Additionally, what can I do once I get home to be more secure?

More information about Hak5 can be found at their website and a sample of their podcasts is below.

Sex, Lies and Cookies: Web Privacy EXPOSED!

2011-11-09T12:16:00.000-06:00

“Sex, Lies and Cookies: Web Privacy EXPOSED!” will discusstopics such as tracking on the internet and the purpose behind collecting datafrom the Internet. Together, they will answer questions such as what the definition of tracking is and if there are benefits to being tracked. They will also discuss how industry and advocates can assist people with online privacy. The panelists each bring a different perspective to this session.

Lydia Parnes was the director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) at the FederalTrade Commission (FTC). During this time frame, Parnes helped consumers obtain information regarding the goods andservice they purchased. Parnes also supervised the enforcement of lawsconcerning laws that were designed to prevent fraud and deception in thecommercial marketplace, safeguard consumer privacy.

Christopher Soghoian was the first in-house technologist atthe FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. He iscurrently a Graduate Fellow at the Center forApplied Cybersecurity Research and is a PhD Candidate at IndianaUniversity in the School of Informatics and Computing, researching online privacy, both consumer issues and government surveillance.

Lorrie Cranor is the co-founder ofWombat Security Technologies, Inc.,which helps organizations combat cyber-attacks. In addition, she is aconsultant for companies on topics of technology privacy and security. Cranorhas written over 100 papers concerning online privacy, security, spam and othertopics as well as served as an expert witness in patent litigation and casesconcerning the Internet.

Berin Szoka, founder of TechFreedom, will also have apresence on this panel. Before TechFreedom, he worked with clients at Latam& Watkins LLP about Internet regulations and telecommunication industriesas an Associate in the Communications Practice Group. Next, Szoka worked withThe Progress and Freedom Foundation as the Director of the Center for InternetFreedom.

Appreciating the creative minds: “Adding value as a non-technical no talent ass clown”

2011-11-09T08:33:00.008-06:00

Matt Van Horn, vice president of business at Path and self-proclaimed “Apple nerd”, will be speaking at SXSW Interactive in March about the importance of “adding value as a non-technical no talent ass clown”.

In other words, how can business-minded people encourage and appreciate the creative minds that they work with?

“If you are not an engineer or a product designer, you need to have the respect and understanding of what it takes to create an insanely great product,” Van Horn said. “There are a lot of business people who put themselves on a pedestal.”

His appreciation for “insanely great products” and technology has helped him get to where he is today as one of the first employees at a successful start-up in California, Path. The company features a mobile app for people to share videos and photos with their closest friends and family. The company, which has been in existence for about a year, has just acquired one million users. The company goal is to be a personal smart journal that people cannot live without.

“Facebook is for people you like. Path is for people you care about,” Van Horn said.

Van Horn has been interested in technology since he was a teenager. He clearly remembers the introduction of the Ipod in 1999 and buying one that same day. He has been an Apple fan since he was a young boy and he went on to work for the company during his college years. While studying entrepreneurship and marketing at the University of Arizona, he also started the company Zimride with his best friend. The company continues to thrive under the leadership of his friend.

Before joining Path, Van Horn persistently applied to the company Digg. He started out as a marketing assistant and worked his way up, starting the Digg publisher program. When he started receiving job offers, he consulted his former boss at Apple, who persuaded him to join his venture, Path.

With all of this success, why does Van Horn call himself a “non-technical ass clown”? This is a term that Van Horn laughingly calls himself, referring to being on the business side of things rather than the creative side.

He will share more of his humor, passion for technology, and advice relating to his panel topic at the popular SXSW Interactive festival. Vanhorn said he hopes that his audience at SXSW will walk away with more of an appreciation and regard for the "creative geniuses". This year’s SXSW Interactive is divided into themes. Vanhorn’s panel is featured in the Future Of Work category, which is at slated to be held at the Courtyard Marriott Downtown. For information and updates on the panels, visit the SXSW panel website.

Below is a video that demonstrates what Path is about, documenting special moments for your loved ones:

Path - Share Life from Path on Vimeo.

Preview - Everything is a Remix, So Steal Like An Artist

2011-11-09T02:05:00.004-06:00

Artist Austin Kleon

At a time when it is nearly impossible to construct a creative work that is completely original, many individuals may find themselves struggling to come up with different ways to manifest unique creations.

Artist Austin Kleon and filmmaker Kirby Ferguson are hoping to persuade you to do the exact opposite: use what's already around you, and remix it.

Kleon, who identifies himself as "a writer who draws," got the idea for this panel from fans who drew comparisons between his and Ferguson's work. Via an email conversation, Kleon explained how the panel came to fruition.

"I've been a big fan of Kirby Ferguson's Everything Is A Remix video series since he started it last year, and while I was writing my book Steal Like An Artist, so many people sent me links to his work and mentioned how well our messages complimented each other," Kleon said. "I thought it'd be great if we got together and did something for SXSW, so I came up with the idea of showing clips from EIAR, and then having a conversation about what lessons all creators—not just DJs or samplers—can take away from our ideas."

Kleon's panel, with contribution from Ferguson, will be a combination of convergence, film and music elements. Kleon's portion of the panel discussion is based on a talk he first had with a class at a New York communinity college in March of this year, which focused on the 10 things he wished he had learned in college as a budding artist and writer:

Steal like an artist.
Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.
Write the book you want to read.
Use your hands.
Side projects and hobbies are important.
The secret: do good work and share it with people.
Geography is no longer our master.
Be nice. (The world is a small town.)
Be boring. (It’s the only way to get work done.)
Creativity is subtraction.

These ideas are evaluated in greater depth in Kleon's book Steal Like An Artist, which will be available online or at your local bookstore in March 2012.

Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson

Kirby Ferguson will be showing parts of and discussing his four-part web video series, Everything Is a Remix, for his portion of the panel. This series (which has three videos currently available, with the fourth set to be released later this month) is essentially an introduction to the term "remix," and a look into how many different social elements and products have been remixed for the the past several decades, and even centuries, though the term had yet to be coined. Ferguson will delve further into the ideas explored in his videos during his panel discussion.

Here is part one of the series:

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Kleon hopes that this panel will answer any lingering questions about how remixing can be applied to creativity.

"There have been a lot of people who have examined remix culture, but very few who have provided practical advice for those of us who find ourselves living and making things in it," Kleon said.

"Okay, you've shown us that 'nothing is completely original' and 'everything is a remix' —now what?"

Beyond Ambition: How companies can change the world for the better

2011-11-08T23:02:00.002-06:00

SXSW Interactive 2012 welcomes the panel, "Don't Just Sell Things: Change the World", which will detail how companies can harness the power of good to not only improve their bottom line, but change the world for the better. In today's transparent and ever-changing world, the days of the bottom line are gone--companies now must focus on changing the world for the better. Never has corporate responsibility and transparency been more important. This panel will detail how companies can merge technology, design, and social responsibility. The panelists are an interesting mix of advertising and marketing, business, and entrepreneurship.

Cindy Gallop is the founder of IfWeRanTheWorld a unique website that uses social interaction to promote action. Cindy states that her view is an action graph, and that she is "trying to do something much more difficult than Facebook and Twitter-- to get people to do stuff in the real world." IfWeRanTheWorld is networked social action. Gallop's business model is to have brands pay her company to activate their values into action programs that do good and make money. She wants less talking about doing good and more action from individuals and companies. She realizes that in this age of social media and transparency, companies can no longer hide...they must prove that they are working to actually improve society. With IfWeRanTheWorld, Gallop states that, "you can't fake anything. Your profile is dynamically generated by your actions. The more you act, the more your profile builds up to become multi-faced, attractive, and aspirational." Gallop called action branding the advertising of the future.

Panelist Neil Powell is the Executive Creative Director at Beattie Mcguinnes Bungay NYC and the founder of The Information Blanket. Powell describes The Information Blanket as similar to Tom's Shoes. With each blanket that is purchased, a blanket is given to a needy mother and child in Uganda. The blanket is unique in that it has various instructions on taking care of a baby. Powell realized the need for both blankets and information about taking care of a baby in Uganda after a visit a little over a year ago.

Leo Premutico is one of the founders of the NY creative agency Johannes Leonardo. I would suggest taking a look at their website...it's quite a unique experience! Johannes Leonardo was recently named small agency of the year, and the agency centers around the idea that the consumer audience is the most powerful medium. The agency was the creative outlet behind Google's "Messages for Japan".

Chris Adams comes to SXSW from Saatchi & Saatchi LA, which is the agency helping Toyota harness the power of their brand by doing good. With Saatchi & Saatch, Toyota has launched two campaigns, "Ideas for Good" and "100 Cars for good".

The panelists will enlighten the audience on how ethics and economics intersect, and become the driving force for social good. After leaving the panel, audience members will have the answers to the following questions:

What is ethonomics and how can you help your business or client be more responsible?
Why is being fearless important when being generous?
How can ethical marketing improve your bottom line?
In the age of transparency, how important is doing good?
How can you turn a good idea into a viable business solution that can make the world better?

So join us next March at SXSW Interactive to learn how you can change the world! For more information, please visit the panel's SXSW preview.

Does it take a superhero to teach a supersized class?

2011-11-08T22:00:00.004-06:00

The most intriguing education panel during SXSW Interactive in March 2012 just might be Supersizing the Classroom: 3000 Students & Beyond with Virginia Tech’s John Boyer and Katie Pritchard.

For years Boyer’s highly popular Geography 1014 World Regions class kept outgrowing every classroom space due to student word-of-mouth recommendations. For several years even the largest classroom on campus, which held 585 students, was insufficient.

After 3000 students were turned away one year, Boyer persuaded the university to let him use a hall normally used for large events.For the past three years he has taught classes of some 3000 students at a timeon Monday nights.

Boyer’s dramatic flair, offbeat humor, and quirky re-enactments are a key component of his popularity. So too are video podcasts, some featuring superhero (and Boyer’s alter ego), the Plaid Avenger (viewable at www.plaidavenger.com), and a wide variety of social media tools. Despite the size of Boyer’s megaclass, he makes each lecture session interactive.

He also has written an unusual textbook, The Plaid Avenger’s World, for his course (adopted by more than 20 universities and schools around the country, according to his website). In the textbook Boyer utilizes a cartoon version of the Plaid Avenger to achieve the aim he had in writing it - to give students a grasp of the who, what, when, where, and why of global events so they have a framework to understand the critical and complex issues of our time.
From online comments, the book appears to be unusually successful at capturing and holding students’ interest.

Boyer, 42, emphasizes current events and their roots in "geographic,historic, environmental, demographic, religious and economic characteristics of various areas of the world," as the course description for the undergraduate survey course puts it, because students typically have major gaps and very little context for making sense of international conflict.
His full-time technical assistant, Katie Pritchard, a former Virginia Tech student, continually seeks new technical tools to help him make the classwork even better. Boyer credits Pritchard with pushing him to adopt social media and interactive methods when she was his student.
Besides Pritchard’s help, Boyer has the services of three graduate assistants in order to make the class work. Contrary to what one would think,grading is not at all limited to scannable multiple-choice tests. He and Pritchard have developed an innovation they call flash quizzes, a spinoff of the flash mob. He also offers a variety of opportunities for students to research and write.

One of the most unusual may be the Twitter accounts of fictional versions of world political and religious leaders, updated daily by students who have to be familiar with their person’s daily schedule and lives. When the real person has activities with another leader, the alter egos exchange tweets about events. If you have a Twitter account, you can check outthe tweets of Plaid_Obama, Plaid_Putin, Plaid_Pope, and a host of other leaders on the world stage (not to mention the Plaid Avenger himself)– or follow the tweets of the whole class at #wrvt.
Boyer tries hard to respond to each Facebook message,email, or tweet he receives from students. He acknowledges that it can occasionally be a little overwhelming with 3000 students. He believes that embracing all the ways of communicating using Facebook, Twitter, or other social media actually makes his job easier however.

That job is ensuring that his students understand world events and their complex causes.
He knows older professors who just consider Twitter a waste of time, but he wonders, “Would you - in class - if you had 30 students asking you questions,would you think that’s a waste of time?” To Boyer, there is no difference between traditional means of interacting and digital means.

“The future of education, I think, is going to be building communities in the classroom,” Boyer said during our Skype interview. The vision he and Pritchard have for the class is to get his students interacting and taking responsibility for learning and communicating.
The old model, which is quickly becoming outdated, according to Boyer, resembled a learned teacher on a mountain tossing tidbits of knowledge down to students,who individually had to try to scale the mountain and become as knowledgeable as the professor. The new model is of a community of users who interact and are fully participatory in their own learning and that of others in the community -who help each other scale the mountain.

“The future of education, I think, is going to be building communities in the classroom.”

Boyer’s critique of most online courses is that too many stick to the traditional model, the system that has been refined in Western civilization for some 500 years. Boyer acknowledges that this new model is a lot of work, but believes the results are worth it.

In Other News...Palestine joins UNESCO from Plaid Avenger on Vimeo.
Boyer is convinced that it actually takes a critical mass to create certain dynamics that make some learning possible that otherwise would not occur.
Both Boyer and Pritchard believe that anyone, no matter their individual personalities and teaching styles, can teach classes of this size – and that it is well worth doing. A superhero such as the Plaid Avenger is not required.

"Misuse the Internet and Make People Love You"

2011-11-08T19:18:00.004-06:00

I had the pleasure of interviewing Nick Douglas, the creator of a comedic blog called Slacktory. Mr. Douglas created a panel for an interactive panel for this year's upcoming SXSW. The panel is called "Misuse the Internet and Make People Love You." There are also a variety of speakers that will on this panel as well such as Cole Stryker, writer, author and media consultant, Scott Beale from Laughing Squid, Jon Henderson from Something Awful and Christopher Price from Tumblr.

Before Nick Douglas created Slacktory, he had done various blogs throughout the years for fun and for money. He was an English major at Grove City College when he discovered his passion for blogging and decided to make a career out of blogging. When I asked him about why he chose to create this panel, he said, "Myfirst desire was to get a bunch of creative people, who do a bunch of sillythings to get together to talk about all these creative things they have started and come across."His main intention is to enable people who do not have a lot of technical skills to do great things in an entertaining way. Below is a video that Nick Douglas made about How to Make Siri Say Funny Things:

Slacktory, which was created on July 2011, is a comedic blog about pop culture of the internet Nick Douglas and a team of creative and entertaining freelance contributors analyze, abuse and ridicule the rest of the Internet. Slacktoryis a part of My Damn Channel and the My Damn Channel Blog Network.

These presenters will mainly be discussing how social media tools, that were meant for creative purposes, have been evolving. Those who attend this panel will be able to learn the tools to create blogs, sites, and or Twitter accounts that can make you money and at the same time have fun while doing it. According to Nick, many of these panelists tend to misuse some of the tools of the internet to make it entertaining. He used Jon Henderson, creator of Something Awful as an example. Henderson decided to challenge the lead singer of Smash Mouth to eat X amount of eggs. There was no reason to this, but Henderson has not seen or heard from Smash Mouth in a long time so he decided to start something entertaining with them. Henderson was able to persuade many of his followers on Twitter and other social media sites to persuade the lead singer of Smash Mouth to "eat all the eggs" and to post of video of him eating the eggs. Finally, the lead singer responded by saying that he will accept the challenge if the audience raises and X amount of money for an organization. This is another example of how something so small can turn into a huge trend if one uses the right tools.

When asked about what the SXSW audience can expect from this panel, Nick Douglas replied, "Iwant to inspire someone to create another Tumblr or another site that draws millions of users. I really just want to givepeople more ideas, that inspires them to do something new. I want their brainsto just think a little more and I also want people to bemore entertained. A lot of people don’t know where to look for this weird stuffin between the lines of the internet and hopefully this panel will teach them how to do just that."

Below are some of the questions that will be answered during the panel:

What tools do creative people use online, and how do they stretch them to their limits?
How are creative misusers rewarded, and how can specific sites encourage them?
Who are the greatest and the least appreciated misusers?
How do some people make money or improve the world with this bullshit?
Why do companies suck at this so hard?

For more information about this panel, click on: Misuse the Internet and Make People Love You

Bob Metcalfe a Highlight of Mass Comm Week

2011-11-07T20:28:00.000-06:00

Bob Metcalfe at Texas State University.

Sometimes an interview and Q&A session turn intosomething special. Such was the case during Bob Metcalfe’s appearance at TexasState’s Mass Comm Week 2011.

Highlights of the interview included stories of how Harvardflunked Metcalfe for his first dissertation on ARPAnet. Thankfully his newemployer Xerox, headquartered in Palo Alto, decided to keep him and let himfinish reworking his dissertation while there, which he finally completed in1973, focusing on packet communication.

Metcalfeknew Steve Jobspersonally from the early days of Apple, and the stories of Jobs that he sharedwith us made him come alive for me in a new way. So interesting that Jobs triedto hire Metcalfe (who turned him down) and that they were friendly enough inspite of Metcalfe’s refusal that they even double-dated. Funny that Jobs was impressed whenMetcalfe could change a tire that went flat on one of those dates, and that hehimself did not know how. Jobs even attended Metcalfe’s wedding. Metcalfe humorouslyacknowledged inviting Jobs had been a mistake because the charismatic Jobsovershadowed the bride and groom.

Metcalfe talked about the experience of founding 3Com only to have his handpickedboard tell him a year later that they wanted someone else to run the company.Though a blow to his pride, he decided not to leave in a huff, instead changingroles in the company and finding a niche where his contributions weresubstantial. He learned new skills and honed others in so doing. His ability todeal with such setbacks with maturity and persistence were ones that heldobvious lessons for the students in the audience.

After the interview, Dr. Metcalfe answered questions fromstudents who were clearly fascinated by many aspects of his story. His emphasison health, speaking, writing, planning, and selling as the five things hewanted each of his own students to learn hit home – especially health. That iswhere I felt most convicted, because I had neglected that my entire adult lifeuntil this summer.

But I’ve realized I absolutely have to make it a priority now –or I’ll end up in poor health with terrible mobility and quality of life. I’mfinally exercising regularly several times a week. I am planning to manage myclass schedule so I don’t end up needing to cut that out. I wonder if I wouldhave waited so long to start regular exercise if I any of my professors hadtaught us about how important it is.

From reading about Metcalfe before he came, I knew hewould be interesting. I wasn’t expecting the level of wisdom he seems to haveacquired over the course of his life. His other four points were also ones Iwish someone had taught me about when I was in college. Being able speak andwrite, to sell myself and my ideas, to create a business plan (even for anon-profit) in order to set goals for myself and my ventures – I’ve stumbled ontheir value by now, but how I wish I’d learned those things much earlier inlife.

The long tail concept is one I had heard before, but onlyapplied to economics. His application of that concept to social situations likeFacebook and how FB has changed the desire for personal privacy so important tomost of those of an earlier generation to the desire for fame, at least in ourown circles, was one of those ideas I have been chewing on ever since.

Metcalfe’s Law and the interactive book he is planning towrite about it were also fascinating.

The interview and Q&A with Bob Metcalfe has to becharacterized as one of the highlights of any learning experience I have had inmy entire 58 years. Just writing about it brings back the goose bumps andthrill of the evening.

Making something from nothing but zeros and ones

2011-11-07T17:50:00.000-06:00

http://www.solidsmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/bits-from-bytes-3d-printer.jpg

Matters of copying and copyrighting 3D printed objects aresome of the main highlights of Michael Weinberg’s panel on3D printing.

3D printing is an ever evolving process that takes a scan ofa real life object or a computer generated object and brings the object fromthe realm of virtual-realityto reality. The process involvescreating the computer image into something that you can physically hold,essentially building it from the ground up layer by layer.

The innovation of 3D printing and the issues of copyright,though seeming unrelated, are emerging as an intertwining idea in regards toboth understanding both the advancements in 3D printing and the framework ofwhere and how 3D printing will impact the conception of creative licensing.

“Right now it’s hard to say where 3D printing is going togo,” said Weinberg. “There are a lot plausible futures and form it will takewill determine what property issues that will pop up.”

One concerning notion was the attempts of regulating use anddelegating how 3D printing innovations should protected by law.

“It’s very unlikely that the world you imagine today will infact be the world that manifests itself years from now,” Weinberg said.

What are some of the issues that will come about as more andmore people turn to 3D printing as a means to develop and produce items? How is the regulation of the original designor the original computer design going to be addressed?

As, the accessibility and innovation of 3D printing evolveinto the mainstream, communicating and sharing information about what can be created so too is evolving. What were limited to just images on acomputer screen are now rapidly becoming feasible objects.

Great Head of Hair

2011-10-26T14:33:00.004-05:00

First thing I noticed was, would you look at that mane! Great head of hair.

As many know, I am very knew to being a technology junkie. I never knew who Bob Metcalfe was until this summer. I am constantly reading articles about everything under the sun related to technology. My favorite website is Fast Company because it doesn't simply focus on technology, but it has a great emphasis on innovative ideas.

I enjoyed hearing about Steve Jobs and all his stories about ARPAnet and his story. What stood out to me was the information about his innovation class. He seemed to take a "honest enthusiasm" approach with is students. He is honest and makes sure not to kill their dreams or ideas at the same time. There has been much made in the media about how the United States is losing its creativity and schools should start encouraging creative thinking. His tools that he felt were needed to be innovative were so simple. It goes along with the theme we discovered to be constant that all great innovations start from a very basic need or necessity.

One of the most important lessons I learned from him was humility. When he said he was forced out of being CEO of the company he built, and how he took the news. He spoke about how at first he was upset but then grew to accept it because he realized his limitations. Knowing your limitations is another characteristic we discovered this summer.

I also thoroughly enjoyed him saying you should have numerous careers, which i took him as saying make sure that whatever you are doing be passionate about it and when the passion is gone move to something your passionate about.

Here is an article from Fast Company on innovation

Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-26T14:28:00.004-05:00

Not accustomed to meeting people with such extraordinary genius, I didn't know what to expect when I met Bob Metcalfe. The things he has done for the world of technology and how he went about putting his ideas into action to create the Ethernet are unfathomable to me. I was pleasantly surprised at his dry sense of humor and welcoming presence.

Metcalfe has overcome many obstacles in his life, and through each obstacle has found a way to make what may seem like a horrible situation into something he could learn and grow from and expand on. I think it's interesting that both Metcalfe and the late Steve Jobs have found themselves in disheartening situations throughout their careers, situations that ultimately led them to go on to create something new and exciting. A fresh start. I think it takes a certain kind of personality to be able to pick yourself up and create something even better.

I find it interesting that Metcalfe is on his fifth career as a professor of innovation at the University of Texas. He has experienced so much in his life...he has met so many people, like Steve Jobs (and I'm sure he's the only one to ever turn Jobs down), and has helped to create technology that has forever changed our world of communication. I only hope that I have the opportunity to experience such an passionate life, and change people's lives as much as Metcalfe and Jobs have.

Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-26T14:23:00.006-05:00

Before the Metcalfe interview last Wednesday, I wasn't sure what to expect or how Metcalfe would respond to a class full of graduate students eager to discover more about his accomplishments. But, after listening to the interesting tale of his childhood, his early background and his recent endeavors, I found the event very interesting.

I think it's ironic yet fascinating how he was initially involved with architecture and how his first assignment of 'drawing your own hand' is what made him change his mind entirely. It's somewhat crazy to think about who would've invented the Ethernet if Metcalfe would've become an architect instead. I'm sure he's glad that he didn't. :)

Overall, I think the discussion about his early days with the ARPA Net, Xerox, the Aloha Network and 3Com painted a picture of not only his intelligence but the efforts and struggles for his success. He described several situations in which he 'failed' or maybe circumstantial events that didn't play in his favor. But, he credits his success to his parents who pushed him toward a college education and the hard work and effort he exerted into everything he pursued.

Because of the recent, tragic death of Steve Jobs, I was most touched by Metcalfe's reminiscence of the past he shared with Steve. When Metcalfe spoke of his first phone call from Steve and how he was pressured to become an employee of Apple in the early days, it almost felt like I was a little closer to the Steve Jobs. And, his story about his blind date with Steve and the tire changing incident just heightened the feeling of closeness. Metcalfe's kind, honest words of the great hero were like final, parting words. It was very touching.

I realize others have pointed out the five lessons Metcalfe wants each of his students to learn from his classes, but I, too, find each of them important and beneficial to my educational, professional and personal life.

The first lesson, health, is crucial to our survival. I lost my grandmother to cancer seven years today, October 26, 2004. I realized after her death just how short our time really is and how important our general health and well being is in order for us to survive.

Another lesson, speaking, is detrimental in building long-lasting relationships and friendships. We must be able to communicate in our personal lives, during our educational careers and most importantly, as professionals. The act of communicating effectively and efficiently can make or break how other people perceive you as a person.

An additional skill we must develop and maintain, writing, is also beneficial to various aspects of our lives. In today's society, we have immense opportunities to express ourselves. A growing way of expression is through technology and social media. But, in order to build our unique brand, we must write as well as we speak. It's important in building your character.

Those who are able to plan not only have greater successes but are better able to control their stress on their way to success. Planning is key to organization. When you make a plan or lots of plans, you can then create goals, dreams, ideas, lists, steps, etc. I may not always follow through with certain plans, but simply creating them and editing them over time has helped both short and long-term.

Last is a lesson that has taken me years to understand. I have always struggled with this idea of selling. In order to build your brand, create yourself and work toward success, it is important to sell YOU. Selling is something I have to repeatedly work on. In my personal opinion, I believe you have to build your inner-confidence in order to sell yourself and your skills to others. You must have faith and believe in yourself and what you create/build before anyone else will even begin to understand.

I thought the Metcalfe interview was awesome. He's a brilliant individual and it's amazing how he is still selling and building his brand. He pointed out the importance of doing things, lots of things in order to build a past of memories and legacies. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. And, Cindy, you did a fabulous job too. I'm glad you were able to get Bob Metcalfe to the Texas State campus. Thank you. :)

Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-26T12:24:00.010-05:00

Bob Metcalfe was a delightful person to meet. With his up and down success story and great sense of humor, anyone who didn't make it to this event surely missed out.

Metcalfe is currently teaching Innovation at UT, but before becoming a teacher he: helped create the internet, invented the Ethernet, was recruited and turned down Steve Jobs job offer, created his own company and put together Metcalfe's Law. Of course he had he downs as well, having his thesis rejected and being kicked out of his own company, but that didn't hold Metcalfe down. He regrouped and kept pushing forward.havi

I didn't really know what all to expect from him, but I found h

im very entertaining and I thought he was very insightful. He's witty personality and willingness to interact with the audience also made it a great pleasure to be in his presence. It is easy to say that h

e is an inspiration to college students and really makes you feel like you can, and will, make a difference in the world someday.

On a final note, Metcalfe believes thereare five things every student should possess in order to be successful: 1)health- you gotta be healthy or you're not going to be able to function. 2)speaking skills - you have to know how to speak to people and get your point across. 3)writing skills - you need to know how to put ideas and projects together in a way that flows so the reader doesn't become bored. 4) planning - you need to be organized and ready for whatever may come your way and 5) selling - you need to be able to sell yourself and sell your product.

Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-26T10:03:00.004-05:00

It is very rare to meet someone who has accomplished so many outstanding things in their life and wants to continue to make an extraordinary difference in the world. Meeting Bob Metcalfe was an honor and listening to him talk about his work, his personal life and the advice that he gives to his students was inspiring.

Metcalfe talked about his days in high school and how he wanted to be an architect. Once he was accepted into MIT, his first assignment in architecture school was to draw his hand, which he failed. He then ended up majoring in management. When talking about how he invented the Ethernet, Metcalfe stated that it was not his intention to do so and that one thing just led to another. He understands that he was both lucky and very disciplined, which is what helped him come across to the invention. Bob Metcalfe said, "There are two types of people in this world: There are those who believe that everything is due to luck, and there are those who believe that everything is due to hard work and discipline, I believe it is a mixture of randomness and preparation."
When asked about the advice he gives his students, Metcalfe pointed out 5 important things that everyone should be conscious of:

Health-If you are not healthy, you cannot function
Speaking- You must be a good speaker, if you are people will listen.
Writing- You must practice your writing daily.
Planning- It is never a bad idea to plan everything out before you put things in action.
Selling

These 5 things are sometimes easy to forget and can also be applied to anyone.Towards the end, Bob Metcalfe was asked about the death of Steve Jobs and how the future will be impacted due to his loss. He was emotional when talking about Steve and also shared some interesting and genuine stories about Steve. A statement that Metcalfe said during this presentation that really stuck out to me was when he said, "Change is not what we need, what we need is improvement."

--side note: I tweeted his quote after his presentation and he re-tweeted what I wrote, this pretty much made my day!-- He referred to this when he was talking about the future of technological products, especially with the loss of Steve Jobs. There is always a beginning to things if you change them, but if you keep improving them you will keep advancing, and improvement can always lead to greater things.

Check out this video from the New Network Leadership Series. Juniper CEO interviews Bob Metcalfe, where Metcalfe reveals more detailed information about his pioneering work with the Ethernet and what the future holds.

Bob Metcalfe on Metcalfe’s Law, Facebook, and innovation

2011-10-26T01:21:00.005-05:00

What I Learned from Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-26T00:34:00.007-05:00

Listening to Bob Metcalfe speak last week at Mass Comm Week will definitely go down in the books in my mind as a memorable conversation. It was great hearing him re-tell his personal stories of the early days of Internet that we’ve been studying the last few months. Hearing that his personal motivations for coming up with Ethernet were simply to work towards his degree, made his world-changing invention seem like just another science fair project.

Another thing that Metcalfe spoke about that resonated with me (and I told at least five friends later as I kept thinking about it) was the five things he expects his students in his innovation class at UT to take away with them as they embark on their careers. The five things were: health, speaking, writing, selling and planning. These concepts resonated with me because like most jobs, they are areas that I am constantly trying to improve on in my own job. There will always be room for improvement, but mastering these five things will certainly lead to success. The most thought provoking of the three was definitely health. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle proves to be a difficult task while also working hard at the other four objectives, but as Metcalfe said you can’t do it “living on lack of sleep and ramen noodles.” This is just another helpful reminder that success will mean keeping all areas in my life in check.

From a personal standpoint, the most interesting parts of the session for me were his take on career transition and development. One of my questions I didn’t get to ask was if he ever got the urge to leave behind his days working in tech/engineering and try something completely new. He answered my question as he discussed his many career changes throughout the years and by telling us that he believes everyone should go through at least five career changes in their lifetime. Though he worked in different areas of tech innovation, he wasn’t afraid to start over in a new career path even if the choice wasn’t his, as he mentioned when he was demoted from the company he founded. This idea reminded me of Steve Jobs’ sage advice he gave at his Stanford commencement address, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” These words from both Jobs and Metcalfe were very comforting to me and I imagine others on the verge of career transition sitting in the room that night that somehow it will all work out.

Enjoyable evening with Bob Metcalfe!

2011-10-25T18:56:00.006-05:00

It was a pleasure meeting and listening to the founder of the ethernet, Bob Metcalfe, Oct. 19. He definitely had some interesting stories and insights. He is one of the few people who believed in something that didn’t even exist yet, having the mindset for innovation that he discussed during his speech. He had a vision for the future that has helped technology get to the point that it is at today.

It was definitely inspirational to hear about someone who overcame obstacles along the way and did not appear to fear failure. It just shows that if you believe in something enough or are determined enough, you can pretty much do anything you set your mind to. It also helps that he is extremely intelligent and established some key contacts early in his career, such as Steve Jobs. Speaking of Steve Jobs, I enjoyed listening to the stories about his interactions with him and double dating in the early years.

I also enjoyed hearing about his perspective on innovation. I think it is great that he is a professor at the University of Texas. Students, especially those who desire to be entrepreneurs, can greatly benefit from his knowledge and experience.

Bob Metcalfe is in that category of the early Internet pioneers who helped make it possible to have the technology we have today.

My time with Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-25T01:54:00.000-05:00

I was very fortunate to catch one of the final events of Txstate MC Week, the interview of Bob Metcalfe (co-creator of Ethernet and currently teaching at University of Texas).
The evening started with a social reception at 5pm with finger foods and door prizes. During the reception, I met and briefly chatted with Bob about his current stint at University of Texas and a few other subjects including my educational background.

(the photo above contains Bob Metcalfe engaging in conversation with Texas State professors Dave Nolan, Sandy Rao, a Texas State student, and Cindy Royal)

At 6:30 the interview began. Center stage on the 3rd floor of Old Main, Dr. Cindy Royal began by inciting Bob to talk about his background in the tech field. Bob's long list of achievements begins back in 1973 co-inventing ethernet technology while working for Xerox. It is amazing to see the evolution of internet technology evolve in such a short period of time. The first ethernet cables ran at 10mb/s (megabytes per second), today there are ethernet networks that can run at 100 gb/s (gigabytes!!!! per second). Bob was quite the animated speaker, he displayed child-like ebullience when speaking about the current capacities of ethernet technology.

The interview contained some interesting topics, for instance his experience with Steve Jobs and explaining the theoretical side of ethernet. I personally enjoyed when the topic steered towards innovation of technology. Very rewarding to listen to a professor of innovation talk about innovation; inspiring to say the least. The interview ran about 30 minutes over the scheduled time but that was a minor concern for most in the audience were hunkered down in Old Main's reception hall enjoying the positive resonance of curious queries and useful feedback .
This Video is a segment of the original interview when bob spoke about his relationship with Steve jobs, specifically the "Flat tire Incidient

What do you ask someone who helped change the world?

2011-10-24T20:04:00.009-05:00

"So...Bob..."

As a graduate student you are expected to be on your toes, ready to jump at unique educational opportunities at a moment's notice. However, when we were told to have questions ready for Bob Metcalfe, I drew a complete blank. What are you supposed to ask someone that helped put a computer on every desk, in every pocket, and in every hand? He was a part of a group of thinkers that created a technological renaissance that will forever define the present and the future. This was the best I could come up with:

"So...uh...Mr. Metcalfe...what's your opinion on icanhascheezburger.com? Is that the kind of thing you thought you'd be linking the work together to share?"

I just didn't know where to begin. That's okay, though, because just listening was enough to take the grandiosity out of the situation, and realize that (as Metcalfe said), "With the exception of Steve Jobs, no one is a god."

The stories that I love best about successful people are their own stories about the things that they can't do. Metcalfe started his time at Mass Comm week by telling us that he dropped out of the architecture college because he couldn't even draw his own hand. He explained that if you can't do something, that's fine, just move on to what you can do. That was wonderfully humanizing and a great way to simplify the ease in which your life can be redirected, as opposed to getting stopped at dead ends. Of course Metcalfe strikes me as the kind of guy that doesn't believe in dead ends. He just gets a sledge hammer and yells, "LOOK OUT!", as he barrels through. I dug up a 'Wired' article from 1998 that details how he recovered from getting the boot from his own company - he just did every single other job possible.

Which leads to his next great point, that any level of success in this world is equal parts preparation and equal parts pure luck. Although those ratios can be frustrating for some, it's a very nice reminder that we're all on a level playing field with the luck thing, but by working hard you can be prepared to grab it when it comes.

The third topic that I found most interesting about Mr. Metcalfe was his explanation of the popularity of social media. It's so simple, but I never thought of it before: it makes people feel famous. Your Facebook page, your Twitter feed, all of your followers, it's all just a micro world that you create filled with people who choose to have you on their radar. These people pay attention to what you say (for the most part), and we check our facebooks daily just to see how many of our 'fans' looked at what we had to say. It's so simple, and so true. Social media is a way to reach out into the world, but it's also a way to feel like the world is reaching specifically for us. And who doesn't want to feel like the center of the universe (even if it's self-made)?

My final point, is going to be an honest opinion about people who are really good at something. There is a certain presence about those who can do things like create magic with technology, or are skilled surgeons, are fantastic actors, or master chefs. I will call these people 'Supers'.

They know that they are more skilled than many people. Much more skilled. And how a 'Super' chooses to present themselves to the people who they know that they are better than, can speak volumes about what the rest of their self is like.

I will not give my opinion either way about Metcalfe's demeanor specifically, but I will comment on what he said about Steve Jobs.

Jobs was an ultimate 'Super'. But, apparently Jobs was not so nice to a lot of people. It really seems like people feared him, and would do anything not to cross him. When Metcalfe was asked if he thinks that this 'god-like' behavior was a justified means to an end, he said, "Yes."

And I have to disagree. When you're brilliant, driven, and respected, your ideas will be implemented. If you've caught the luck train, and you've done the work, and the world knows that you are a 'Super', there's no need to scare them into it. I know that in the public eye, Jobs was a hero, but it makes me wonder how many people he hurt in the process.

It's always nice to meet these 'Super' people, it's wonderful to learn that they are human and not perfect at everything. I just hope that most of them have kindness as a tenant to their success. Everyone wants a piece of fame (that's why we're on social media, right?!), but fame is fleeting and your contributions can erode with time. Hopefully people, both 'Super' and us 'Supers-in-waiting', can find a way to change the world for the better, while being personally remembered by others as the best.

Metcalfe, Patino

2011-10-24T14:11:00.002-05:00

One thing that really struck me was how approachableand down to earth Bob Metcalfe is. He made it possible to easily connect at leastone aspect of my life to his. Metcalfe and I spoke about Texan's unique language as well as when to wear cowboy boots. He strongly encouraged everyone at the session tobe innovating and to look for things to improve in our everyday life. Metcalfealso said that he expected our generation to come up with the cure for cancer,explaining that was how he lost his first wife and another one of hisclose friends was currently battling it. I was also shocked that he failed defending his thesis. I think it brought me back to the mind frame that even inventors and people I look up to are still human and still have failures.

In addition to listening to Bob Metcalfe, I was at the session about The New American Reality sponsored by The Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets. While Luis Patino, VP General Manager of Univison San Antonio, was a animated speaker, I found myself wondering the during the presentation where he got some of his information or that they were not providing all the data they gathered. In addition, some of their graphs could have used some more definitions. I realize that it is not always possible to give this data, but it was still a little irritating.

Meeting Bob Metcalfe

2011-10-24T12:49:00.000-05:00

"An Evening with Bob Metcalfe" was a unique opportunity for us graduate students. It was amazing to speak with and hear such an innovator speak, someone who has changed all of our lives. Where would we be without Ethernet? Our lives would definitely be different.

Not only was this such a neat opportunity, but Mr. Metcalfe's demeanor made it easy to talk to him and ask him questions. My favorite part was when he talked about his time at Harvard getting his PhD. It was interesting to hear his disdain for Harvard and some of his former professors. I don't know what I would have done if I found out a week before graduation that my dissertation was rejected. I would have been devasted, but Mr. Metcalfe just continued to persevere and earned his PhD.

I also enjoyed when he talked about his relationship with Steve Jobs, it was funny when he told the story about how he changed a flat tire. Probably the only thing Steve Jobs and I had in common was our inability to change a flat! His story about how he found out about Steve Job's death at a bar was touching.

I like that he is teaching innovation at UT, because there seems no one more qualified to teach innovation than Mr. Metcalfe. Also, I like how he basically went to UT and told them that he was teaching Innovation, basically creating his own course.

I also was pretty happy when I answered his mind puzzle correctly. I'm usually not good at things like that, so I was a bit proud!

All in all, it was a wonderful experience getting to speak with a true innovator! Here's an article and sound from Mr. Metcalfe's talk at SXSW.

Making something today that will mean something tomorrow.

2011-10-23T23:01:00.009-05:00

With the tech-world changing and developing so rapidly around us, it’s nice to look back at where it all started. Bob Metcalfe’s visit to Mass Communication Week at Texas State took us back to a time where information was never thought of in terms the Internet, the web, or advanced search engines. He truly had to think beyond existing technology to create what he created and that’s what it will take for the next great idea of our generation to happen.

I enjoyed Metcafe’s story of ingenuity and perseverance, but his ideas on innovation are what had the greatest impact on me. His metaphor of “invention is a flower, innovation in a weed,” has never been truer than it is today. To see his full quote regarding this idea, read this article. The increased availability to technology today gives everyone the tools to change archaic systems and create new ways of preforming simple tasks. Innovation is a weed that keeps evolving more rapidly as one innovation makes another more possible. To add to his idea, it seems that innovation itself can flower into invention. In other words, several great innovations could lead to one ultimate game changing invention. Metcalfe also points out that we don’t necessarily need one great, game changing invention, rather we just need to improve and prefect what already exists.

No one could see that Metcalfe's contribution of the Ethernet was an outstanding invention in its infantile stages, but further innovation in other realms of computer networking and data transfer made his idea more and more relevant to the world. Metcalfe, like Steve Jobs, truly possesses the ability to peek into the future, and make something today that will mean something tomorrow. I think it's great that he came and shared his views on innovation with us and that he does so on a weekly basis with his students at UT. With people like Metcalfe constantly challenging the minds of others to think forward when it comes to technology, our world will continue to benefit from innovation.

Enjoyed Bob Metcalfe Speak

2011-10-21T12:53:00.004-05:00

Thursday's session with Bob Metcalfe was very interesting. I didn't know what to expect before going there, but I thought that it was very good. It was nice to see someone who made such a big impact on the world today, be so humble. He came across as very easy to talk to, and was willing to engage in converstaions with everyone.

It was cool to listen to his background. From where he sent to school, to how he made his first company, to where he is now. He originally wanted to be an arhitect, and then number theory and computer technology both came around before he settled on industrial management. Both MIT (where he received his bachelor's) and Harvard (where he received his PhD) are two very prestigous schools. It was funny to hear him talk about how he was denied his PhD the first time, and how he had to do his dissertation again. It made everyone in the room realize, that in some ways he is just like us. Even though we may not get it the first time, just keep trying and things will fall into place.

His memories of Steve Jobs were very heartfelt. He spoke of his first meeting with Jobs, to their double date at the opera, and eventually Metcalfe's wedding; where Jobs was in attendance.

Metcalfe had some good quotes during his session. The best one to me was probably, "If you go and change the past, you can really screw up the future." I thought this quote could relate to everyone in the world. The things we do now, shape us for the future. Life is a revolving lesson.

I think that it is very nice that Metcalfe is a professor of innovation at UT. It's good to give back to the youth of today,a nd teaching a class is a good start. The five thinsg he teaches are "Health, Speaking, Writing, Planning, and Selling." I hope his students are squeezing him for all the knowledge possible! You can also follow him on Twitter @BobMetcalfe