2:00 PM
to 3:00 PM
Improv Classes: Not Just for Comedians and Actors
49 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Brad Temple, Kareem Badr
event::about Austin is a growing hotbed of improvisational theater. Many of the city's improvisational comedians work in the tech industry by day. This panel would explore the benefits of enrolling in improv comedy classes and how those benefits translate to additional success in your day job. Learn about basic improv philosophy and how it can enhance teamwork, spontaneity and adaptation to the ever-changing demands of our workplace.
event::tags Core Conversation, #sximprov
3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM
Why Everything is Amazing But Nobody is Happy
157 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Daniel Hope, Zachary Burt
event::about According to Louis CK: "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy". Are we humans overwhelmed by witnessing Moore’s Law in action? Has Social Media and it’s accessories left us technologically rich but spiritually bankrupt? This panel will explore the effects Social Media is having on us as humans and spiritual creatures in three areas: -Our Evolution: Humans have spent millions of years hunting and gathering but just the past few pointing, clicking and tweeting. What effect is Social Media having on our development as human beings? Is it ushering us into the next stage of human evolution or is it just making monkeys out of us? -Our Relationships: Facebook is being cited by divorce lawyers as the next big catalyst for marriage break-ups, but it can also connect us with amazing people we never would have met otherwise. And what about our relationships with ourselves when we can’t even sit quietly alone because we have an iPhone? How can we use these tools to become actual friends and not just Facebook friends? -Our Spirituality: Social Media can connect us with some truly transcendent moments (Paul Potts singing opera) and these moments can make the human spirit soar. But, in the long run, is it just dumbing us down with instant gratification and vibrating Twitter notifications? This panel will explore how we can use our embarrassment of technological riches to become better and more content people.
event::tags Core Conversation, #everythingsamazing
5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM
Avatar Secrets to Real Life & Love
11 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Ramona Pringle
event::about After a recent shoot for PBS FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation, I looked at my colleagues-attractive, successful women-and was struck by a startling realization: We’re all struggling to find the right guy, yet MMO gamers seem to be finding true love. What’s going on? Time and again as an interactive media producer & professor, I've encountered gamers who’ve found their soulmates in-world. With digital citizens spending a staggering 3-billion hours a week in online games, what are they onto that the rest of us should know? How is the internet fostering our primal instincts? And how can we apply this magic to our real lives? Seeking answers, I challenged myself to look for love in one of the most unlikely places: World of Warcraft. My journey has me exploring the addictive pull of online worlds: the rush of adventure & the feeling of accomplishment at the end of a challenge. So how we can apply this allure to real life to reengage with the physical world? That’s the $3-billion question. In this presentation, I’ll reveal the 10 secrets that online games teach us about succeeding in life & love. I’ll share the harrowing trials & tribulations of heartbreak & hardware malfunctions, the sage wisdom gained in conversations over all-night raids, and the unlikely lessons about life, success, perseverance & communication I’ve learned along the way, from these digital gaming obsessions. You’ll walk out of this talk inspired and ready to play your way to real world happiness.
event::tags Core Conversation, #AvatarSecrets
11:00 AM
to 12:00 PM
Broadband Matters for Content Makers
7 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Laure Parsons, John Bergmayer
event::about The US has few ISP options and slow broadband speeds compared to most developed countries. The lack of competition is seen by many analysts as more significant to free internet than even "Net Neutrality" legislation can address. For independent content creators, there are specific concerns when ISPs are monopolized and aligned with large media companies. They may be shut out if ISPs pay royalties only to media conglomerates. What are the risks and what action can we take?
event::tags Core Conversation, #sxswbroadband
12:30 PM
to 1:30 PM
How Social Media Fueled Unrest in Middle East
33 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Brian Stelter, Jennifer Preston
event::about Join two New York Times reporters as they discuss the role of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, mobile, and citizen journalists during the popular uprisings that have swept through North Africa and the Middle East. What worked? What are some of the opportunities and potential pitfalls moving forward for human rights activists using social media tools?
event::tags Core Conversation
3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM
Text-to-Donate Fundraising for Non-Profits
20 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Todd Reifenrath, Amy Van Polen
event::about Bridge Communities (bridgecommunities.org), a Chicago non-profit, is dedicated to transforming the lives of homeless families. Bridge holds an annual Sleep Out Saturday (bridgecommunities.org/Sleep-Out-Saturday) fundraising event each November where participants are encouraged to spend a night outdoors to experience what it must be like to be homeless. Participants sleep in sleeping bags on the ground, tents, and cardboard boxes! This year's event will be supported by an online pledge system allowing individuals and teams to create profiles, specify goals, and monitor progress. We're also excited to try to create some social media stir. A corresponding text-to-donate campaign (i.e. text "help" to 55555 to donate $10) will be featured in local radio and TV spots, online, and via e-newsletters. Text-to-donate and text-to-pledge is new territory for most non-profits...especially smaller ones...but an area that many are interested in (based on the emergence of mobile technologies and technology preferences of younger people who prefer texting and social media to e-mail and other traditional communication efforts). This session will summarize Bridge Communities' Sleep Out Saturday fundraising efforts, detail the logistics of setting up and running a text-to-donate campaign, explain the difference between a text-to-donate and a text-to-pledge campaign, and report the degree of participation and overall success experienced by Bridge Communities through this campaign.
event::tags Core Conversation, #text2donate
5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM
Semantic Web Unlocks Shale Gas Plays
22 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Arthur Keen, Arthur Keen PhD
event::about The Semantic Web and Shale Gas may seem like strange bedfellows. It may also come as a surprise that the United States has more gas reserves than the rest of the world combined, but most of it is locked up in immense and well known shale gas fields stretching for hundreds of miles at a depth of about 10,000 feet. These clean burning resources were considered junk until technologies for horizontal drilling and fracturing the rock under high pressure made them viable, however these techniques are expensive and poorly understood. Semantic web technologies enable companies to pool knowledge, collaborate, and gain a shared understanding of what works and what doesn't. This accelerated the "learning curve" to reduce risks and increases profits. The more flexible representation enables deep auditing of decision processes by tracking data provenance. It also integrates disparate data sources, facilitates collaborative data fusion, collaborative modeling, and is able to forecast the results of decisions based on physics and the evolving understanding. This system built on semantic web is expected to be processing thousands of wells by the end of 2011 and be used by over 20 independent and major oil and gas companies. The ability to unlock shale gas will have a major impact on the United States Economy for 50 to 100 years, freeing dependency on foreign oil and, providing clean burning fossil fuels.
event::tags Core Conversation, #sxswiShaleSemantics
11:00 AM
to 12:00 PM
Growing Global Movements: Technology and the New Arab Identity
6 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Jon Phillips, Ayah Bdeir
event::about Over the last few months, the Arab world has once again resurfaced as a topic on the world's mind and at the forefront of media. This time however, not in relation to terrorism, but revolution; not violence, but democracy. A new arab identity is emerging... an arab that is literate, socially engaged, politically active, modern, moderate and digitally savvy. What is behind this new identity? How has the way arabs perceive themselves affected the way the world defines an arab and vice versa? What role has technology such as the web and social media played in this shift? How much can be attributed to deliberate efforts from within the arab world to redefine its identity through active movements in entrepreneurship, creative expression and science/technology literacy. This core conversation is timely with unresolved crises in Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain etc., but also Iran and Libya. Join us for a discussion led by developer and co-founder of Aiki Lab Cultural Center in Damascus, Jon Philips and Lebanese interactive artist and CC fellow Ayah Bdeir, accompanied by various invited arab entrepreneurs, artists, designers and cultural leaders.
event::tags Core Conversation
12:30 PM
to 1:30 PM
Getting Wicked: Understanding the Problems of Convergence Culture
27 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Camilo La Cruz, Ozioma Egwuonwu
event::about The modern commercial communications industry is plagued with wicked problems. In fact, one could argue that the cultural transformation of the past decade, driven by digital technology, resulted a series of wicked problems that remain unanswered, driving a whole industry scrambling to find the next “model.” Framing modern marketing issues in the context of wicked problems can propel a major redefinition of our craft by forcing us to pay more attention to the problem itself rather than going straight to applying tired methods to chase solutions. This conversation will deal with the five traits that define wicked problems in today’s communications space. We will discuss the practical implications of each trait through recent cases from RAPP clients and your own experience. All with the confidence that this outlook shift has the potential to alter the way we work as it not only points to tangible issues that afflict 21st century brands but also our industry in general.
event::tags Core Conversation, #GetWicked
3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM
Road Rules for Mentorship: What's Appropriate (& What's Not)
19 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Sydney Owen, Aaron Strout
event::about In a world where the saying "it's all about who you know" is more and more relevant across multiple platforms, mentoring is more important than ever. But once you've managed to find someone who is willing to take you under their wing, how do you keep that relationship alive? What subjects are appropriate fodder for you and your newly-found mentor to discuss? During this session, you'll have the opportunity to see just how mentoring can benefit you not only personally, but also professionally. The panelists will share industry research and unique insights on what is appropriate in a mentoring relationship (and what isn't), how to keep the relationship alive after it has been established, as well as how to reap the most benefits from the relationship.
event::tags Core Conversation, #sxswmentor
5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM
Radically Onymous: How Ending Privacy is Awesome!
11 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Myles Grant
event::about Radically Onymous is, in part, a pushback against the criticism Facebook and other sites get on a regular basis for not having tight enough privacy controls or revealing too much private information. It argues that we would all benefit by having our classically private information public, to an extreme degree. We would instantly know who everyone we meet is, along with access to a full history of their actions, even before we actually "meet". Everyone would know where everyone is at any given moment. This extreme transparency would lead to the replacement of our monetary economy with a reputation economy, like Cory Doctorow's Whuffie in his novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. It would make us safer and, perhaps paradoxically, freer. Many of this is possible to build now, by leveraging existing social networks, mobile platforms like the iPhone and Android, and public key cryptography. I'll show examples of what could be built today, and how that would be useful even without a critical mass of radically onymous folk.
event::tags Core Conversation
11:00 AM
to 12:00 PM
Dealing With Internet Drama In Feminist Discourse
9 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Rachel McCarthy James, Garland Grey
event::about The Internet is a community of communities, all filled with conflict and drama. Social justice and activism are as filled with these clashes as any other group, but the wounds inflicted can be more than difference of opinion or personality discord: in “safe spaces”, tensions can be particularly fraught These incidents can often be instructive and valuable. Conflict clarifies loyalties and solidifies friendships; conflict can reveal humility and pride. Controversy can teach anti-oppression activists about how to avoid unintentionally inflicting harm upon folks who do not share their privileges. But while call-outs can be essential to honest discussions of inequality, drama is just as often destructive. Conflict comes at a price, sometimes with little payoff. Internet drama cost emotional energy, physical resources, time, and relationships. Blogwars, 500+ comment threads, and 140-character fights are rarely in anyone’s best interest – they are usually costly to the attacker, the target, and those reading on the sidelines. Drama and conflict in online social justice is usually best minimized and carefully managed. This presentation, which will focus more on examination than instruction, is not just about how to check your privilege. It’s about when to call out, and how to avoid abusing others. It’s about how to respond, when to check out, and how to take care of yourself in a community that demands everything of you.
event::tags Core Conversation
12:30 PM
to 1:30 PM
Go Virtual: Save Money, Sustain People and Planet
7 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Sarah Cooke, David Coleman
event::about Forward-thinking businesses are leveraging interactive technologies to engage diverse talent, modify behavior, reduce environmental impact, and save big on their bottom line. Adoption can also result in equal improvement in employee engagement. (i.e. Have you worked with a classic asshole? Ever imagine how eliminating or retraining that person would have made everyone happier and more productive?) Leading businesses have advanced beyond Bob Sutton’s No Asshole Rule and are leveraging technology for improved social norms and accountability to their ecosystems. From micro-biz to mega-corp, attend this session for insights into achieving systemic sustainability without sacrificing productivity or access to employees, clients and work partners. The conversation will run the gamut from emerging innovations, proven solutions and first-hand experiences to implications of behavioral theory – sure to include at least one “managers behaving badly” story (just for fun!).
event::tags Core Conversation, #GoVirtual
3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM
Internet Activism: Vegan Bloggers Take Over the World
11 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Stephanie Bogdanich, Laura Beck
event::about A surge of vegan bloggers has been using the internet to make change in the way people think about animals through new forms of activism. VeganMoFo (the vegan month of food) and worldwide Vegan Bakesales to raise money for causes and promote veganism are just some of the ways that we are breaking out of the stereotypes of the past and creating a revolution. Learn creative ways to promote your message and engage your community on and off the web and more about food activism and using your culinary skills to promote compassion.
event::tags Core Conversation, #internetActivism
5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM
Beyond the Giant Double Rainbow
11 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Chris Walsh
event::about Technology is often seen as a silver bullet in school reform – and we can talk all day long about how it can open up worlds of learning and blow apart the four walls of the classroom. But the potential for using online tools to transform learning falls apart if you don’t bring the teachers along in the process and adopt a school or district-wide collaborative, transparent culture. In our vision of education, Web 2.0 is more than a set of technology tools with the potential to democratize information. Education systems have to be designed to move beyond the early adopters and the wow-factor (“Giant Double Rainbow”) of new tech tools to rich, integrated and distributed learning. The most successful innovations in technology and education will not be ones designed to replace teachers, but ones designed to amplify great teaching. This panel will demonstrate what happens when technology and instruction are deeply integrated by sharing powerful stories from high school students, teachers, and leaders who on a daily basis are leading the way
event::tags Core Conversation, #ntn-sxsw
11:00 AM
to 12:00 PM
Learning 2025: School Is out Forever
23 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Erika Gregory, Jillian Darwish
event::about The emerging future confirms that the current educational system, with all its industrial-age assumptions, is not one that can be, in good conscience, simply passed on to our children. Instead, the emerging future demands that today’s multiple dimensions of complexity be addressed by innovating new processes, skills, and capabilities to radically augment and/or replace our current approaches. This type of radical innovation will not result from treading, yet again, the well-worn path of traditional educational reform. Changes in action will not be enough; mental models, the way people think, must be changed. Together, we will explore a process that identifies the needs of future learners using theories from the fields of user-center design, systems and scenario thinking. In addition to identifying the needs of future learners, this process allows for the identification of the system that must be in place to provide for the needs of all learners regardless how the future unfolds.
event::tags Core Conversation, #futureofed
12:30 PM
to 1:30 PM
Online Learning and the Classroom of the Future
19 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Jeremy Johnson
event::about Facebook's highered roots have certainly extended well beyond the Ivy League, but to what extent have social technologies become a staple in the classroom? Today, over 10 million students are registered in an online course while more than 1600 institutions offer online degrees. This panel will address the opportunities and challenges for bringing schools online and take a closer look at the profile of today's web--savvy student.
event::tags Core Conversation, #sxswedu
3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM
What Exactly Are We Doing on the Web
20 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker DL Byron, Kevin Tamura
event::about Nearly 20 years into this industry, one that we mostly just made up as we went along, it's time to ask what exactly is our craft. What do we do and how well do we do it? We'll ask questions about a professional ethos, our values, and ongoing growth from the early days to now and the future. We'd also like to point out a few things along the way, like how maybe it's time for us to have a little red sports car.
event::tags Core Conversation
5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM
The Democratization of Music Education
5 schedule::attendees
Location
Austin Convention Center, Room 5ABC
eventtype Panel, Interactive
Speaker Justin Noormand, Tony Howlett
event::about From the walkman to the iPod, music has long thrived in the mobile medium and now the merging of music and wireless phones is a reality. Thus far mobile music has been controlled by only a few companies and the creation of music applications has been limited to those with technical resources. But new mobile applications and social networking technology is extending more control and power to musicians and music teachers. These apps are making it easy and profitable for musicians to share their experience and knowledge with consumers, students and the up and coming talent in the music world. This discussion will cover the democratization of learning music via the phone, what this means for the music industry, the issues to overcome and examples of these emerging applications that give more power to the people.
event::tags Core Conversation, #ingz
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