SXSW Interactive

So there is no better week in my year than SXSW. I have been going since I was in high school. I am excited about next year's project with SXSW interactive and after looking over past speakers and panels, there were two names I was bummed to have missed out on.

Paul Miller spoke in 2001. Some may know him better as DJ Spooky. Besides being a world class dj and composer, Miller considers himself a multi-media artist combining music and video in his live sets and in his projects. He just recently released a audio/video remix of Birth of a Nation. He is someone who is definitely pushing the limits as a musician and artist and using technology to do so.

Matt Hulett was the president of Atom Films and Entertainment back in 2000 when he spoke. It was acquired by Viacom for 200 Million dollars. He recently was the CEO of MPire, which has helped move advertising forward on the internet. It seems everything this guy becomes involved with does extremely well and he keeps pressing ahead.

Project #3

So it has taken some time to figure out what to do for Project #3. As much as I wanted to make a website about my dislike for the Dave Matthews Band or Incubus, I have decided to make a tribute page for the album Kind of Blue. This is the 50th anniversary of the Miles Davis' Columbia release.

Project 3

For this project, I am going to introduce South Korea about good tour place, food and some events for tourists. I love to travel any new place. When we travel new places, we need information. So if anyone wants to visit South Korea, I hope this web page can help you.

SXSW interactive

First, I recognize John Adams. He works in Operations at Twitter. He focuses on media distribution, security, scalability and infrastructures to social networking. He was the Director of Engineering at IFILM, and worked in the security groups at both Apple and Inktomi. He spoke about “Using GPS & Location to Enhance Social Networking” in 2009.

Second, I would like to see Mark Zuckerberg. He is Facebook’s founder and CEO. Facebook has grown from a social networking tool to a global phenomenon. Now Facebook is used by people of all ages with over 50% of users returning daily. Facebook tries to continue to launch new innovations and expand functionality.

SXSW interactive

Personally, I'd like to see Chris Allbritton come back to SXSW Interactive. I want to know how his new project, www.insurgencywatc.com, is doing. His about section on the blog says that his former project, www.back-to-iraq.com, was completely supported by readers' donations.
It's sad that war correspondents have to pass the hat to get paid...

SXSW

I've never been.

When I think of Austin I think of the different kinds of festivals and conferences that take place there and SXSW is one of the first conferences that comes to mind. Although I have never attended SXSW I would love to go. It sounds like a hot bed of music, technology and some really fabulous, innovative people. One day very soon I hope to have the opportunity to experience SXSW for myself.

Henny Swan was a speaker at SXSW in 2008. At the time, she was the Senior Web Accessibility Consultant at the Royal National Institute for the Blind. This charity helps support blind and partially sighted people in the UK. In September 2008, Swan took a job with Opera Software as a Web Evangelist. At Opera, Swan helps promote web standards and the open web. In the late 90s, she focused on accessibility and usability for a search engine in China.

In 2003, Meredith Butler spoke at SXSW. She was employed by a company called Milkshake Media. Milkshake is a stragetic branding and creative agency. According to their web site, they specialize in building brands that build community. Some of their clients include the Seton Family of Hospitals, Marfa Public Radio and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Milkshake created the Livestrong Brand and the yellow Livestrong bands that are worn by over 65 million people worldwide.

It will be interesting to see what great people SXSW will bring together this year.

Project #3

For the project #3, I have decided to do a new web site dedicated to fashion. I love shopping and I love everything about fashion. I want to include what I like to wear, favorite brands, favorite stores to shop at locally and what the new fashion trends for winter are.

Project #3

For the next project, I've decided to do a Web site dedicated to shoes. I think almost every girl can agree that shoes are very important to the wardrobe...I have a tone of shoes in the closet, some that I don't even wear. Having a closet full of shoes, however, does not deter me from buying more....I haven't decided what my four pages are going to be yet, but I do know that one will have links to websites where you can get good deals on shoes. What I'm thinking about doing is separating the pages into different shoe topics like - essentials, where to buy, shoes you wish you could afford, etc. Either way I'm still in the thought process about it.

Website redesign

Okay, so I tore a page out of Mark Mederson's playbook and stayed up until 2 a.m. working on Assignment 3--and it occurred to me that I haven't even posted my intentions for the assignment.


I'm making a proposed redesign of the Austin Friends of Traditional Music website. I'm going for kind of a funky, folky sort of feel. Let's see how that turns out...

Trey

SXSWi.

I gotta come clean. I've never been to SXSW. I've lived in this area for 15 years and have never gone. Tried to go a couple of times. Never made it. So this will be a completely new experience for me and it's kind of overwhelming. The first thing I did was watch the "First Timers' Guide to SXSW" and read the tips and pointers and FAQ. I'm really excited to network (something I'm not very good at) and learn about brand building, etc. Very excited. Austin is one of the few places (if not the only place) that could pull something like this off.

As for past speakers, I instantly recognized Diana Eng's name. She was a contestant on season two of Project Runway, but I haven't heard anything about her recently. Turns out, she's got a lot going on. She just launched a PBS program called "Fairytale Fashions." According to her blog, she makes girls pretend like they're fashion designers in a fairy tale - and they have to use new technologies to make everything happen. She's documenting the whole process over five months Pretty cool. Eng also has a jewelry line, wrote a series of articles about HAM radio and wrote a book called Fashion Geek, which is all about combining clothes and tech gadgets.

The second name I recognized was Ben Huh. He's the CEO of Pet Holdings. Doesn't ring a bell? You may know him better from this..


Yes, Ben Huh is the guy in charge of all the lolcats. His company runs I Can Has Cheezburger and I Has a Hot Dog and Fail Blog and all other kinds of internet meme sites. Huh didn't start the lolcat site, though. According to a cnet article, he hated his job and sent an IM to a friend that he thought the Cheezburger site was funny. His friend replied back, "why don't you buy it?" So he did. His sites pull in four million hits a day, 80 million video plays a month and make up 10% of WordPress' traffic a day. And strangely - he's allergic to cats.

New web site.

Hello all...my new web site will be focused on Las Vegas. Besides my incredibly exciting life as a Project Runway and Top Chef fan, I am the senior travel writer for The Hotel Guide, which is distributed to two million people a year. Luckily, no one has written in to complain that I gave them bad advice. Anyway, I will focus on some of my blurbs about hotels, clubs and pools in Las Vegas and will actually move this over to be my main page when this class is over. I think it helps the magazine in some way to show their writers have a different forum to express themselves, if that makes sense.

SXSWi

Aliza Sherman has done it all.  In the infancy of the WWW, Aliza was the first woman to start up an full service Internet company (Cybergrrrl.com).  Aliza is thought to be the one who paved the way for women in the Internet and new media world.  Nowadays she consults companies on how to migrate their business to the new media and social media industries.  Aliza has also produced a documentary ("Wyoming Families First"), worked in radio, worked as a freelance writer and written a book, “Streetwise Ecommerce.”  Aliza spoke at SXSWi in 1999.  For more information about Aliza, visit http://mediaegg.com/index.php.

Warren Wilansky, founded Plank Design with one specific goal in mind:  creating web sites that are creative and innovative.  Warren uses research, diplomacy and creative skills to create successful sites for Plank Design's clients.  One of Plank's biggest clients is Michael Moore http://www.michaelmoore.com/).  Warren has also worked in radio, magazine and as a musician. Warren was a speaker at SXSWi in 2003.  For more information about Warren and Plank Design's innovative and creative designs, check out http://www.plankdesign.com/en/. 


The SXSWi site promises that SXSWi 2010 won't disappoint, and I believe that.  If this year is anything like the past years, geared up for an awesome five days full of technology, networking and fun.

A little fall inspiration...

I decided to do my new site on something fun and relevant to the time...fall!  I will have things such as fun fall activities (camping, fall festivals, eating so much turkey you think you're going to explode) and fall projects (scary pumpkin carvings, pumpkin cupcakes...see a pattern?).

I wanted to make a site where fellow fall lovers could go to get great ideas for the season.  I hope my site will inspire others to throw on a scarf, grab a pumpkin latte and go play in the crunchy leaves.

Google Video

The video was pretty interesting. One thing that stood out to me regarded the simplicity of their search engine. I couldn't help but think "I could do that" or "why didn't I think of that?" That goes to show how some of the most ingenuous inventions are the most simple and basic. As much as some would say they pretty much "fell into" their situation, the founders did not. They not only paid their dues, they faced rejection and dealt with it accordingly. Their story, and the one of Google, are no "it could happen to you" type of journeys. For that, I respect them and wish them only the best.

Google

I have never stopped to think how Google came about, but the story behind the creation of Google is actually pretty interesting . One of the things that stuck in my mind was Googles motto "Don't be Evil." It seemed contradictory to me since they ripped off one of the most important tools of Google from someone else. It makes you think of how cut-throat the world of innovation can be. However, Google has become extremely successful and continues to dominate the world of search engines. Its exciting to see the new launch of Google wave and the impact it will have on the web.

Google - Counting the Links

I used to work for a vacation rental Web site where I was nonsensically assigned to the SEO team - I didn't know anything about this stuff at the time. Anyway, we talked a lot about search and creating keyword-rich content and basically had a love/hate relationship with Google. We relied on Google's spiders to examine our sites but resented the fact that we had to cater to them so specifically. Yahoo, the closest search competitor, is nowhere close to Google in terms of traffic numbers, so my boss really spent most of his time trying to figure out what would make Google work for us the best.

Their motto may be "don't be evil," but we often viewed them as overly-powerful web bullies. This video just brought home how huge Google really is, and I enjoyed seeing a bit of the backstory. We'll see what the future holds for this search engine giant.

Google

First year in America (I’m an international student) I wondered why people use Google. Google seem so simple and I feel Google is uncomfortable. : ( However, now when I search some information, I use Google. In Korea, Yahoo was a popular search engine. However, NAVER (naver.com) launched on new search engine like Google. And NAVER advertized “NAVER find everything. If you don’t know something and have problems, NAVER finds all information and solves all your problems.” After that, people move to use search engine form Yahoo to NAVER, like America from Yahoo to Google. After watching video, I think Yahoo needs to create new manual and Google is definitely innovative and creative.

Google Doomed?

As a communication's major, I had heard the watered down version of how Yahoo and Google were created. However, this movie did a good job of getting down and dirty with some of the things that happened behind closed doors. It’s amazing how the idea of the “ultimate guide to the World Wide Web” was spawned because David Filo and Jerry Yang wanted to win a fantasy baseball league. What I found sad was that Yahoo lost its vision because of MONEY! I think it becomes obvious that when the true vision of a company becomes overshadowed because of a few greedy individuals, the thing that suffers is quality. People really don’t like to be bombarded with obvious advertising and Google (using a stolen idea very effectively) has made users feel very comfortable with its home page. Its almost a breath of fresh air to be able to sit at the computer and see the clean white screen, with no gaudy flashing pop-ups or banners! And let’s face it; using targeted advertising is super convenient. What I did find strange about the film, is that at the end when the narrator is talking about Google he seems to be eluding to the idea that even as far as it has come, the company will eventually fail. When I think about this, I do not want to believe that this could happen. After all, I love Google; I think they are innovative, creative and always on top of their game. But at the same time, I also believe that there is a saturation point (a stopping point) where something is going to become so overexposed, so well-known that it becomes obsolete. If Google continues on its course, continues to make our life easier with its wonderful free services and other convenient pay services, I don’t see this happening but I guess the point is….things change, and we can’t predict the future!

Google Doomed?

The video on the history of Google had a lot of great background, but one thing really stuck with me. At the very end of the show John Heilemann said that Google was "bound for self-destruction." Really? I think they're doin' alright. Everyone that uses Google just becomes more enthralled with their products. Yes, this may mean more dependency on one company, but that doesn't necessarily mean our life's information will be compromised or exploited. Personally and professionally we're moving to a web-based society--even Microsoft. I think Google is too smart to lead itself off the virtual cliff.

Is Google Making Us Stoopid? This is a great article about impact of all of our Googling on our minds!

Google - Do not be evil

It's interesting that Google nearly dead-ended when they could not figure out how to make money. When they were struggling to figure it out, they had to steal a solution! The originator of the idea was eventually compensated, very generously it seemed, but their mantra is all about not being evil. With all the dialogue we're having about the struggle to monetize online products/services, it's interesting that for the Google creators, it was their original roadblock.

Google

One major concept I learned about Google was the mindset and culture of the company that seems to have led them to all of their success. Google is very focused on forward thinking and looking for new ways to do things better. Yahoo and Excite basically came up with a platform and then looked to make money, without continuing to grow the product. They stopped the innovation process. That instantly let Google catch-up with them and pass them by. It was definitely a concept that you can take to heart. Keep pushing forward, because someone is working just as hard or harder than you to succeed.

Google

The video over the creation of Yahoo, Google and Excite was very interesting. To think that a bunch of college kids who were 19 or 20 years old are the ones responsible for creating search engines that are part of every day life on the Web is insane.

It was also interesting how many people thought search engines were pointless and how many investors turned their back on some really great innovations. It goes to show you what could come out of literally..nothing.

The video also made me wonder one last question: What the heck is Stanford feeding their students over there?

Net Neutrality

I remember talking about net neutrality in class and not really getting it. I found this video on cnn.com's tech section and it helped clear up the topic a little more for me. I know I can't be the only person who didn't really get net neutrality so maybe this can be helpful for others. Here's the link: http://bit.ly/2GvT7

Jesse

Google Video

The thing I found most interesting about the video we watched in class was the idea of google-phobia. It seems like the more the Internet permeates our lives the more we hand over more of our personal identification. The reason google became hugely successful (I use it) is because of keyword search. Basically, I and everyone else who uses has our google use traced and followed. That can be a blessing but also a curse. I remember not to long ago the debate that librarians give over their patrons records to the FBI under the Patriot Act. Also, phone companies were asked to hand over information about their clients too so the idea that this information about google users is strictly hands off doesn't hold.

"googley" google

we had a case study in bruce smith's media management class called "keeping google 'googley.'" it attributed google's success to its innovative and interesting business practices (like carly was saying below). i don't know if i'd be able to get anything done if i worked there.

google's mountain view headquarters

now that's googley.

i found it quite interesting that adwords was actually a stolen idea. they seem to have had a bit of a slip on their "don't be evil" mission. nonetheless, google has proven to be a wild success and is one of the first internet-based companies to figure out how to do so online. google has been my search engine of choice for years, and i use igoogle, gmail, google maps, google docs, google scholar, youtube and blogger on a daily basis. they've taken over my online life! they keep coming up with great new ideas and show no sign of slowing down. none of us can imagine a word with out search engines, and it's no surprise to me that gogle was the one to figure it out first.