SXSW Podcast: Running Your New Media Business

One of the panels I missed at SXSWi06 was Running Your New Media Business. I'm in niche-defining mode again, so I listened to the podcast with some interest. There are two questions primarily on my mind:

• What is my business? My criteria are that it's a clear value, easily understood, is something I like, and is uniquely me.
• Do I want to remain a soloist, be part of a network, or take a leadership role?

The Panelists:

• Jennifer Robbins, Littlechair Inc -- design practice of 1 person, using a few freelancers.
• Erika Hall, partner at MuleDesign -- representative of the decision to have a company with employees.
• Evan Williams, CEO of ODEO -- starting another company, taking the VC / grow fast approach
• Jeff Robbins, Lullabot -- just started a company, taking the informal "let's get a bunch of cool people together" approach
• Moderator: Bryan Mason, COO, Adaptive Path.

Here are some of the things that stood out to me as I listened

A reason to stay small: Jennifer Robbins didn't want to manage people, nor did she want to have people dependent on a payroll. The business has gone up and down, through lean times, credit card times, etc...she'd hate to drag someone through that. There's also the question of manueverability.

A reason to have employees: Erika of MuleDesign said they work with people first before bringing them onboard. It's very important to work with people you like, because the work is intense, and you need people you can really rely on. They need to work well in a team and communicate really well when things get "tricky". To keep those people, the comapny needs to have them make a commitment...it was very important for them to have that relationship.

Good lawyers are worth paying for.

Lay down all expectations up front. This was echoed by virtually all the panelists. In business, in terms, in dealing with employees. Assumptions, especially, can be deadly. You may not even realize you have them, because as Erika pointed out, you're often dealing with your peers and you expect them to have similar values. Buzzzz! Maybe they don't!

Communication Tax. With more people, the amount of effort it takes to get everyone coordinated and clear increases rapidly. Communication, even if it's virtual, needs to be constant and continuous. You've also got to have those hard conversations.

Self-Lawyering. You don't always need lawyers to move forward. Writing something down with a clear vision and having everyone sign it is enough of a binding force to get commitment.

Geez, my notes go on-and-on, so I'm just going to stop here. There are many great tidbits in the podcast if you're interested in these types of issues. Even if you're not a business owner, the perspective is worth understanding because it deals with common-sense issues of communication, relationships, and cooperation.

Creating Passionate Users SXSW Podcast Now Available

Just FYI, Kathy Sierra's SXSW 2006 session How to Create Passionate Users is available now in mp3 format. She said at the beginning of the session that this was originally a 3.5 hour presentation...she crunched it into an hour, with a zillion slides. It was one of the best presentations at the festival. Via the SXSW2006 Podcast Stream.

ADDED: Still amazing even without the visual component. This could be the basis of a one year master's program in the psychology of kicking ass.

ADDED: Hey, here's a different audiocast from her keynote at the 2006 Canadian University Software Engineering Conference. Update: much of the same content, but delivered in what sounds like a somewhat more informal setting than the giant room at SXSW.

No slides for either audiocast, but if you go to cpu and google the individual topics she mentions, you probably will see some of the illustrations she used; a lot of them looked like they were from her blog.

Explaining SXSW to my Dad

It's the week after SXSW, and I'm still pulling my thoughts together. There's been a lot of retrospective articles posted already in the blogosphere---yikes, is this the first time I've typed "blogosphere" out loud?---so I'm not sure what to add. The burning question is how to explain SXSW to my 70+ year-old Dad. He's pretty hip for a man of his generation, having bravely battled the demons that Hewlett-Packard pre-installed on his notebook computer. How do you recognize a laptop demon? It asks for your credit card number every time you try to do something useful. ATTENTION MARKETING ASSHOLES! STOP PUTTING CRAP ON MY DAD'S COMPUTER!

Where was I? Oh yes, SXSW, and how to explain it to my Dad. It's very much not about being a marketing asshole. I find it interesting that I want to explain SXSW in the first place. When I go to E3 Expo, resplendant as it is in spectacle and raw marketing dollars, I am not nearly as moved; at most, I experience an optically-induced twitching. Someone described SXSW to me as being like "Burning Man for Web Geeks", which might make sense to me if I had ever been to Burning Man. Neither of these analogies are helpful anyway, since I'm pretty sure Dad has not been to either. I can imagine Dad at E3: "Too bright and jumpy." he would comment. Of Burning Man: "It is very noisy." Then we'd get back in the car and drive home, and Dad would spend a quiet afternoon practicing the cello and catching up on Taiwan news. "China is being a bully again", he would inform me, brow furrowed in consternation. "Taiwan must be free of such oppression."

What does help is that Dad is an ordained pastor, a doctor of philosophy, and a former missionary. While I rejected the trappings of organized religion as soon as I entered college, over the past few years I've noticed an odd convergence between my life and Dad's. It centers around the notion of congregation: a gathering of people that adhere to a common faith.

"Dad, I've just been to a conference called South By South West Interactive. It's a 4-day conference that celebrates the Internet and the people who are actively building upon it as an extension of their community."

"I see", he might say. Uh oh, I'm already losing his interest, time to try another approach.

"Let me try again. Dad, do you remember what it was like to work with people who really believed in the church organization, putting aside their petty desires and contributing selflessly to the group because it would uplift everyone? Not just people in the congregation, but everyone that the organization could reach?"

"Mmmm." Dad might accede, wondering when I would stop talking and let him get back to his online newspaper.

"That's the feeling I got from SXSW. On the surface, there were a lot of things being discussed: technical web design, blogging, and internet business models for example. There were lots of people who would be regarded as quite famous in their particular parts of the Internet too, so it was a little bit of a celebrity experience. Sort of like how you're well known in the Taiwan Church community for helping draft the Declaration of Human Rights, but not all that many people outside of the Church know this."

Dad wouldn't be saying anything by now, so I'd press on before he had a chance to take a nap or start cleaning some new part of the house I hadn't yet discovered was cleanable. But I think I have his attention.

"What I found most interesting was the nature of the attendees. The celebrities there, well-known designers and accomplished businessmen, tended to share a common thread that I don't see anywhere else. They were all contributors to some kind of community. They all either started it, gave back to it, or have brought people into it. These people are famous because they've empowered people with their ideas and tools, shared their knowledge, and have done what they could to promote those ideals. Every one of them. And everyone who I met at the conference believed, deep down, that this is the way things should be. By attending SXSW, I discovered that yes, there is a community I want to be a part of. I want to contribute to its growth in my own way by promoting these values. That's not to say I don't want to make money, but I know now for certain that there's a way to do it without dehumanizing the experience."

I would pause for a few minutes, as I am right now at the cafe, before continuing. My thoughts are with someone who I haven't thought of in a while, who would have been intensely interested in the transformative experience I'd had.

"I think Mom would have loved it."

Amen.

More SXSW Pictures

I finally created a Flickr account, and have uploaded my set of photos. Haven't finished tagging them with names. Help appreciated :-)

UPDATE: Here are a few more:

• Flickr tagged dave seah

• Flickr tagged david seah

On the Way Home

Packing it up, about to head to the airport. I really want to put on my badge one last time and head to the convention center, but it's back to the real world and to real work. On the positive side, I am excited and energized and ready to dive back into it with a new view of the world, with friends both new and old to tell about it.

It's feeling like the end of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", when you know that the kids can't return to Narnia (and before you were, ahem, told that there were more books in the series). Sad. A little wistful. Prematurely nolstagic. The difference is, of course, that I can go back next year :-)

SXSW Day 4: So Long, Fare Well!

And as quickly as it began, SXSWI2006 is over. I'm sitting in my hotel room sorting out the events of the day in my head, transcribing my impressions of the panels. I have filled over half of a composition notebook with notes, and have enough source material for maybe the next couple of months. Yes, it was that amazing an experience, though in retrospect I think there are a few things I could have done better:

• More after-6PM hanging out. This is when people make connections through extended conversation. I didn't do it so much this time, but next time I think it's mandatory.

• More informal approaching of strangers. I did strike up a few random conversations, but clearly I could have done more. Zach Inglis, for example, estimated he talked to 700-800 new people. He's a machine!

• More editing of blog posts. I was looking back at the past few days of entries, and noticed how bad the grammar is, er, was, um...whatever. My mind is pretty much gone at the end of every day, and I'm averaging 5-6 hours only a night.

But enough of that...today a lot of great things happened too!

Good Vibes

Today I had a good conversation with some of the Blue Flavor guys over lunch, regarding the nature of how to describe "information architecture" to our grandparents. Maybe I haven't talked to enough user experience experts in my lifetime, but what particularly impressed me about them was the way they smiled when they met new people. And keep in mind these weren't the usual slightly tepid smiles I associate with professional consultants...they were genuine smiles. Of course, one modifying factor is that I sort of knew them through their awesome work extending the concepts behind The Printable CEO&trade, but I'm thinking the best possible way to greet your clients is to really be able to genuinely express that positive energy. Positive energy sells, baby!

The big surprise of the day was being accosted by a women between panels, who introduced herself by way of saying my name. She said she had read something on my website and had wanted to talk to me. Somewhat bemused, I glanced quickly at her badge and saw it was none other than Kathy Sierra! Yes, THE KATHY. I didn't even recognize her because she was up close and I was kind of in a daze from 4 continuous days of mind surfing. But yeah...wow! The story went something like this: I had written something yesterday about me gibbering like a monkey in her presence, and apparently she had come across it. I was very moved, and momentarily worried that I had said or implied something awful in my blog about her. I also got to meet Bert Bates (I think that was him). We chatted for a few minutes, and I was very touched that she had gone OUT OF HER WAY to make sure a random connection was set right, just in case it had gone wrong. That's really incredibly awesome...and inspiring! The other day I mentioned the odd sensation of introducing myself to Dave Shea, and feeling sort of like I was lining up to see Santa Claus. This was like it being the summertime, and I'm at Dairy Queen getting myself a dipped cone with sprinkles when I feel a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, Santa Claus is there, all tan and toned from a vacation cruise to the Cayman Islands. "Dude!" he'd say, "Sorry for not including the batteries with that toy I got you last Christmas, but hey I was thinking that I'd wish you a Merry Christmas on my way back to N.P., and check to see how you're doing." That's one of the best gifts you can give anyone: the recognition and acknowledgment of someone as a person with implicit worth. Rock on! And thanks, Kathy...I'll pay it forward.

Oh, and here's a very special photo from the Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza, proving that maybe "we can all get along" after all :-)

Panels

• Behind the Scenes: Developing OS X and Longhorn -- I didn't want to go to this panel, but decided to anyway because I was having such a strong negative reaction to the topic. It's one I already know pretty well, and I hold an irrational grudge against CNet because I don't like their consumer electronic reviews. Featuring GUI designers Cordell Ratzlaff (MacOS 6-10) and Mark Ligameri (Neptune, XP), the panel was moderated by CNet's Tom Merrit. I came away with a respect for Merrit's moderating abilities, and for Cordell Ratzlaff's demeanor. I also came away with the impression that GUI designers without any technical skills are at something of a disadvantage when it comes to cutting-edge graphics work; I should leverage that this year. Otherwise, the panel itself wasn't as informative as I had hoped, primarily because this is an area I'm much more widely experience in.

• Video Blog Business Models -- This was one of my favorite sessions of the day. The moderator, Chris Nolan, was a peppery woman who has years of journalism experience, which made for a lively panel. There were lots of passionate video content producers in the room. Amanda Cogdan was even there! More later...this was a pretty interesting panel discussion, and I need to be clearer headed to write it up.

• Burnie Burns Keynote -- One of the creators of the popular Red vs Blue machinima videos spoke at length not about the geeky aspect of what they're doing, but of the business models and changes that were coming. I was really impressed by his sharp wit and grasp of the shape of the internet's usage patterns with respect to cost.

• The Orthley Children and Their Computer -- Featuring a band fronted by "stand-up programmer" Why The Lucky Stiff, this was a complete mystery of a panel. It combined music and interactive. The problem was that this actually was an interactive programming session with the Ruby computer language. Unfortunately, the server couldn't handle the load and everything crashed, so instead we just got a few extra songs and got left out early. The takeaway is this: Why The Lucky Stiff really takes putting the "fun" back into programming at unheard of evangelical levels...my hat's off to him.

• The State of the World with Bruce Sterling -- Rather than summarize his points, I'll just say this: I decided that I want to be a writer. It's more than words...you've got to live your life before the words will fall with any measure of authenticity. It's that part that I respond.

Andrew Baron Producer, Rocketboom Casey Charvet Technical Dir, Blastro Inc Joshua Kinberg CEO Founder, FireAnt Chuck Olsen Founder, Minnesota Stories Kevin Sladek VideoEgg Inc Chris Nolan Editor & Founder, Spot-on.com

SXSW Day 3: People Rock

I am so tired! I hung out with JWynia at the hotel waiting for my ride, and ended up just taking a cab with his posse. We had a great conversation about forming our own networks (we were both at the Zeldman "Roll Your Own Web Conference" session yesterday). Also had a good time at the Avalonstar Bowling Extravaganza (our team got 2nd place). Great job Bryan! While waiting to bowl, I witnessed an epic 1-on-1 foosball match between Mike Rundle and Patrick Haney...man, those guys can play. They have "the touch".

Quick panel review:

• Cluetrain: 7 Years Later -- Doc Searls, Heather Armstrong, Henry Copeland, and Brian Clark gave a little background history about the Cluetrain Manifesto, followed by discussion of how much progress had been made since it first appeared. I was very impressed by Doc Searls and Brian Clark's passion and depth of insight. Wow. And I got to see Heather Armstrong! She has kind of a drawl in her speech, which is quite charming.

• Web Standards and SEO -- I took a chance on this one; Eric Meyer was on the panel, and others had told me that he was really down-to-earth and engaging. And this was very true. The general takeaway was that if you make your website standards compliant and use semantic markup, this automatically leads to an improvement in SEO. So this is one potential sell for use of web standards: automatic improvement in search engine results. Section 508 compliance also makes it easier for search engines to index your content. A surprisingly interesting panel.

• Craig Newmark Keynote -- Craig Newmark of Craig's List, as interviewed by Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia. I had to sit in the overflow room, but discussion was quite interesting. I can't remember what exactly, but I remember being impressed by the level of thoughtfulness and candor present in the conversation, and in general marvelling at the overall quality of individual presenting at SXSW.

• Zero Advertising Brands -- I'd only heard of skinnycorp and threadless a few hours before at the Cluetrain panel, and this one featured the dudes who started it up. I was really, really impressed by their philosophy and their actions. You know, in the game industry there's a mentality that I'd describe as don't suck, and until this morning I thought that was the adequate defining mantra that made it "better" than more "traditional" corporate environments. That I'm realizing is just stage 1: taking a stand. Stage 2 is what skinnycorp is doing: make stuff that rocks. Now, every game company will say that's what they do, but where does the energy come from, and is it positive or negative? It's a subtle shift in where you put your explicit emphasis. If you identify yourself by how you don't suck, that's actually pretty negative. If you identify yourself by rockin', then that's way cooler dude! What was awesome about skinnycorp was that these are the guys in charge because they've taken charge, and the attitude they set from the very top throughout their entire community, to the extent that their business model is dependent on pleasing them. Imagine that, basing the success of your company on your customer base's loyalty... it seems so obviously right, but very insane from a risk/safety/control perspective. I wouldn't even say that it's a sign of courage that they do this. It's their acceptance that if they aren't pleasing their customers, that just means "it's time to go" that I find so awe inspiring. They're shipping a million shirts a year, and their business has grown so much that they've moved every year for the past four years.

• Design Eye for the List Guy -- Keith Robinson, Cameron Moll, Ryan Sims, Paul Nixon, and Andrei Harasimchuck redesign Craigslist. I originally was going to go somewhere else, but decided that I should enjoy some of the cheesy spectacle. And I am certainly glad I did, because I got to watch four world-class creative professionals pitch a concept with such smoothness and confidence that I didn't realize how cool this was until halfway through. And now, I have a model for how to do it better. Awesome!

SXSW Day 2: Going with the Flow

Day 2 was a little different for me, because I had Day 1 to judge it by. I got to meet a few people more people today, like (drum roll) Dave Shea. That was a very interesting experience from a personal perspective, but more on that later. First I need to download some observations.

The Mystery of Pacing

The pace of SXSW is very fast, due to the number of panels and the relatively little amount of time between them. There are two morning panels, an early afternoon keynote, followed by two afternoon panels. I can totally see why a lot of the action happens after the panels; there's just no time to really talk and socialize before 6PM. It reminds me a little of High School, running from class-to-class, except there's no common "hang out" to return to and there are no free periods. It's pretty crazy and cool.

The Mystery of Grouping

While I enjoyed some solo exploration time today, I did tend to get swept into groups of people I had started to recognize. The main meet-up time is lunch, except groups form so spontaneously it's difficult to coordinate a meeting time. It really is a time of networking, and when you strike up random conversations with people you invariably miss some window of opportunity to group for lunch. Sort of reminds me of a nerd MMORPG, except we're LARPing with real people in a real geek environment. Today I decided not to worry too much about it, and just went with the flow of things, grouping and ungrouping with somewhat less guilt. Toward the end of the day, though, I grouped with a party that had a late dinner, and I entirely missed the Web Awards. I'm a little disappointed, because I wanted to see how it was ran (particularly the multimedia aspect, and how the producer was set up to "call the show"...I love these kinds of behind-the-scenes theatrics. And of course, I wanted to see if Bryan Veloso and 9rules picked up an award or two. I can't find any news on it, so will just have to wait until tomorow.

I can totally see how being downtown helps with the party scene; I've missed a lot of them. I'm not a particularly party sort of person, plus eating out is way expensive, so I'm not that broken up about it. If there was a quieter venue to just talk to people, that would be more my speed.

The Mystery of Emerging Themes

I've been mostly attending panels that are related to content creation from the non-technical side. Briefly here's what I visited today:

• Sink or Swim: Important Startup Decisions -- 5 founders of companies talk about their experiences: Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Evan Williams (Odeo), Josua Schachter (Del.icio.us), Michael Lopp (Apple, moderator), and Cabel Sasser (cofounder of Panic). They're actual living and breathing people, and sitting waaay up front (thanks, Matt, for the shove) made them appear all the more human. I really enjoyed the interplay between Lopp, Spolsky, and Sasser (who is a hoot). Williams and Schachter had a different kind of energy. It struck me that they would be very different kinds of WWII squad leaders.

• Women's Visibility on the Web -- This was a wildcard choice, since I'm not a woman. However, because empowerment is a general theme I'm interested in, I was curious to see where the discussion would go. The BlogHer organization is very mystifying to me too...it has a very different energy. Plus, the full title was "who's butt should we be kicking?" and I am a firm believer in all forms of kicking ass. This turned out to be my favorite session of the day. The panelists: Ayse Erginer (moderator), Liz Henry (feminist / poet translator), Jan Kabili (photoshop book author), Tara Hunt (online marketing mgr), and Virginia DeBolt (web teacher). All of them blog, and they discussed how being "visible" was relevant to them as an individual and as a woman. Kabili described herself in the manner of an aggressive self-marketer, proactively putting herself out there to make the connections and to get in front of the people who are decisionmakers and career enablers. By contrast, Virginia DeBolt is a senior citizen who had been a long time SXSW attendee. However, she described what it was like to be an old woman and therefore invisible. Her blogging and content gathering, however, paid off in the form of review work and book writing, so the web totally made her more visible, and thus she has had a very empowering experience. I was very moved...wow. One of the most inspiring and uplifting stories I've heard here. It occured to me that it wasn't so much visibility as it was the desire for meaningful recognition that was at the heart of the issue. And of course this applies to everyone, not just women. Learning to make yourself visible is just the mechanical part of it; being truly appreciated and acknowledged for who you are and what you do is pretty universal. I think once that happens, the resulting transformation creates remarkable new opportunities.

• Demystifying the Mobile Web -- This ran opposite of the Heather Armstrong / Jason Kottke keynote, but Armstrong will be at another session tomorrow. This was my opportunity to see Dave Shea in action. I had mixed feelings about this, to be honest, because it is very odd to be defined (in some circles) by who you are not. It's pretty fortunate that a few people in the GTD crowd have recognized me for The Printable CEO, because in this case I'm recognized for something I'm quite happy with. I'm pleased by the Dave Shea connection for a different reason: I faced an inner demon and made something positive out of it, bringing a smile to people's faces unexpectedly in the bargain and, I have to admit, increasing my visibility. Part of me wonders if I'm perceived as a clown (a comedic "Mini-Dave"), rather than for my actual abilities, but you know what? I'm not going to let that bother me. I should be bigger than that. And Dave is a really nice guy. He shook my hand with a warm smile, asked me a bit about what I did, and shared a doppleganger story of his own. We're bowling on Monday night, and he thinks that there will be a few people who will want pictures. The experience of walking up to the stage after the panel, waiting in line, and then getting to shake Dave's hand was eerily like visiting Santa Claus, if that makes any sense. I should have asked for a pony.

  The panel itself was informative, featuring: Dave Shea, Cameron Moll, Kelly Goto, and Brian Fling (moderator), discussing the state of mobile web. This is an area that I've been interested in for a while, more from the Flash side of things, but I picked up some essential information about what it takes to develop mobile web apps and how things can go wrong. This will save me hours of research; I have a very clear snapshot of the State of the Art. It was quite a well-balanced panel, I thought.

• Everyware -- This panel was about "ubiquitous computing", presented solely as a lecture by Adam Greenfield. He's written a book, Everyware, that covers a broad range of fascinating topics regarding the behavioral and society-changing repercussions of being monitored 24-hours a day by hundreds of small computers and sensors. There is the potential for both great good and great harm. Greenfield spoke with a kind of reflective authority and sense of optimism, alloyed with what must be a serious academic background. At first, I thought that the lecture would end up being a bullshit academic talk, but I found it lucidly-presented and thought provoking. I may have to pick up his book; his insights on the requirement for human dignity in an ubiquitous computing environment were particularly welcome.

• Roll Your Own Web Conference -- Moderated by Zeldman, with Eric Meyer, Maxine Sherrin, Jason Fried, Bruce Livingstone, and Molly Ditmore. This panel, which was quite informal, touched upon the challenges and some of the specifics of organizing a conference. I have to type this up formally at some point, but for me the best part was Zeldman's final question: How many of you out there are seriously thinking of starting your own conference? The entire room of 200+ people raised their hands as one. It was an amazing moment that shocked and delighted the panelists, as it did myself.

At the end of Day 2, the themes that I'm picking up on are empowerment, visibility, the pursuit of quality, and community dialog. Everyone I've talked to has that "look" in their eye; these are people who are seriously passionate about something. Deadly seriously passionate. I must find out more tomorrow.

SXSW Day 1: Panel Impressions

Notes from the panels I attended Saturday. In general, I went to the non-technical panels that covered blogging issues.

Better Blogging Brainstorming

I don't know very much about the blogosphere, so these names were all new to me:

• Cameron Barrett -- BlogCorp Inc
• Helen Jane Hearn -- IA Mgr, Trinchero Family Estates
• Min Jung Kim -- Mischief Maker
• Tony Pierce -- Community Man, Buzznet
• Liza Sabater -- Publisher, Culturekitchen Network

This was pretty briskly-moderated panel (Sabater doing the honors), covering issues related to creating a blog from four people who have been successful with it. Min Jung Kim had a cowbell that she rang every time someone said something sexually suggestive; she also had my favorite line of the entire panel: if you have nothing to write about, that's a sign that you should be living life more aggressively. Awesome. Tony Pierce also had some great insights; he's apparently written a book about blogging that I will have to check out.

We Got Naked, Now What?

The next panel I attended was the first BlogHer panel, which addressed the topic of bringing one's personal life into their professional blogs. I have a real problem separating my personal life from my professional life, and such is the case also with my blog. The work I get tends to be word of mouth and evolving conversation, so in this case I think it's an asset. This wasn't necessarily the case with the following bloggers:

• Laina Dawes -- Writer, Writing is Fighting
• Jory Des Jardins -- Co-Founder, BlogHer
• Elaine Liner -- Writer, Phantom Prof
• Evelyn Rodriguez -- Principal, Dwelve
• Elisa Camahort -- Co-founder, BlogHer (moderator)

The other reason I attended this session is that I really really love the blogs of Evelyn Rodriguez and Jory Des Jardin. I don' t read them every day for some reason (I don't use RSS), but several months ago they gave me inspiration in ways I still don't fully understand. Rodriguez's blog explored the issues surrounding the "why" of life in a delicately introspective manner that is honest and authentic, like visiting a dear childhood friend who talks to you utterly without guile. Des Jardin's blog, by comparison, reminds me of a friend who would get you in trouble during Very Important Moments by making you snort inappropriately in laughter. It was around the time that she was writing about quitting her job to pursue her own stuff. The kind of writing I tend to do here, in retrospect, borrows tonally from both, at least when I'm feeling introspective.

Laina Dawes and Elaine Liner both were let go from their jobs because of their blogs (I think I have that right), and their stories of how uncomfortable their employers were with their outside writing generated a small groundswell of outrage. A key theme that resurfaced was the issue of fairness and free speech. The moderator polled the audience on these issues several times. I actually was so moved to make an observation that there were different values in corporations as far as individuality was concerned; for a traditional company culture, the expression of individuality is highly discomfiting, creating "management moments" that most establishments rather not to deal with. I also questioned whether we really should have the expectation of fairness in exercising our free speech (I think the educational system sort of screws our heads up with the whole cupcake reward thing anyway, but I digress).

Anyway, this was a great session. I got to talk a bit with Des Jardins and Rodriguez afterwards when I bought a copy of the book More Spaces, and they signed it! Todd Sattersten also signed it...awesome! He had even heard of The Printable CEO, volunteering his hand. I was taken aback, as I really was not expecting to be recognized for it. This happened a couple more times during the day, too, with random people.

I also chatted a bit with the woman next to me, who was another BlogHer person running a Sunday panel. I was just checking out what I think was the blog she mentioned, arse poetica. There are so many cool people here, it's mind blowing!

Jim Coudal / Jason Fried Keynote

I wasn't that keen on the keynote at first; Jim Coudal I thought was some VC dude, but then he mentioned jewelboxing and I instantly snapped to attention. He was an excellent speaker, with a great presence and delivery. I enjoyed the way he delivered his story about how their companies bucked the work for hire model to start creating their own products. That's been something very heavily on my mind for the past year, so I'm glad I didn't bail on it to check out Screenburn (damn, I missed it altogether). Jason Fried I hadn't heard that much about before, but I'd heard of 37signals. He had a fascinating premise regarding how "less" is better when it comes to delivering product. If you have less time, you waste less time! If you have lless money, you'll spend it wiser! Both speakers, excellent. I have a new reference point for excellence in speaking.

How to Increase Creativity at Work

This was presented by a Charles MacInerney, who is a yoga teacher that at first reminded me of every awful elementary school teacher I had ever had. For the first 15 minutes, I thought I had made a terrible, terrible mistake. I inwardly groaned when he announced he was going to put up a powerpoint slideshow, and cringed when I saw a mindmap. By the end of the session, though, I had turned 180 degrees around. This guy really really in an intelligent and pragmatic person. His lecture at first seemed completely out-of-phase with the 20-something crowd, but the value of what he said was immediately obvious through the exercises we did. By the end of the session, I was completely impressed. The basic ideas:

• To creative, one must be in a certain brainwave state. Achieving this brainwave state (alpha) is trainable through Yoga.

• Furthermore, there's a lot of natural biochemical activity occuring in the body that directly affects our mood. For example, stretching backwards makes you feel like a warrior, while stretching forward makes you more docile.

• Breathing itself is even more important than the body tricks. Why? Because by controlling your breathing, you control your own sense of calm.

Absolutely fascinating session...I'll have to write more about it later.

Creating Passionate Users

Kathy Sierra rules. She gave a fast-moving, well-timed presentation on what a passionate user is, why passion is important, and what things you need to do to ensure you maintain it. A lot of what she talked about is stuff that comes from game design, and she really "gets" it. I actually went up to talk to her at the end of the session, but actually became tongue-tied. I was utterly in awe, which is something that very rarely happens. I gibbered like a bubble-headed monkey, and Sierra wisely moved on to more coherent conversational targets (Evelyn Rodriguez, actually, who was standing nearby).

WordPress Party / Barcamp Austin

Rather than head to the Frog Opening party, a number of us went to the WordPress party at Thistle (300 W. 6th Street). It was a laid-back time, much less crowded and probably more intimate. I got my picture taken; I wonder if it'll be posted anywhere?

Exhausted

So wow, what a day. Three of my favorite blog authors / ass kickers met in one day: Rodriguez, Des Jardins, and Sierra! People who I never heard of before who also kick ass from all the panels! I also got to finally shake hands with more of the 9rules crew: Scrivs, Oliphant, Rundle, Nathan Smith, Steve Smith, Bryan Veloso, Dustin Diaz, and Patrick Haney. I'm sure I'm missing some people...I'm kind of wiped. I can't believe I get to do 3 more days of this. I better get to sleep.

SXSW Day 1: The Networking Game, Part I

Lessons learned at Day 1 of SXSW:

• It's a lot easier to talk to people than I thought. Although yesterday I was feeling quite lost, today I felt better oriented. People who I met last night I recognized again today, and their names stuck a bit better. You find a few people you recognize slightly, and then the next day you're sort of a known quantity. Fascinating! And because this show is going to last a few more days, the opportunities to get to know people will just increase. I was even recognizing some people who I didn't know, just because we're all milling around in the same space. I'm noticing people who I've seen attend the same panels as I, so I'm thinking over the next couple of days I can strike up conversations with them to just get to know them. Could it be so easy?

• Having a hotel downtown: yeah, definitely would make things easier. During the day it's not bad, but if you want to go to the parties, then being downtown makes a big difference because you can party hop that much more effectively.

• Zach the genial Scot has an interesting habit of introducing me to regular-looking folks who end up being people who I imagined being 9 or 10 feet tall. "Hey, this is Matt" Zach says, and I dutifully say, "Hi Matt, I'm Dave Seah". And I do the badge glance and see it's Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of [WordPress][wp]. "Oh!" I blather lamely, "I use your software!" But later on I realized I was sitting next to him at the Kathy Sierra presentation (absolutely fantastic). Again, I expected him to be somehow much taller.

• It's kind of fun to go solo and just run into people and ask them stuff. I have never really been able to do it, but this is a friendly show and I'm learning by watching others.

• Coordinating meeting with people is difficult. I got several IMs and calls during the course of the day via my shitty mobile phone, but finding people afterwards is impossible. Groups agregate after the panels let out, but since some panels go longer, and there isn't a lot of time between sessions, people break apart and go hunting for food very quickly. Compounding the problem for me is my completely inability to recognize people. I should just read the badges, but I feel overly self-conscious about it. Tomorrow I resolve to look at EVERYONE'S badge! For example, I was able to recognize a lot of the 9rules crew because of their photos posted elsewhere, but I haven't yet successfully found a Blue Flavor person to express my admiration for their awesome PCEO-compatible timesheets. I'm going to have to just hit one of their sessions I think and introduce myself.

• Ow, my back. Definitely not bringing my 9pound laptop with me tomorrow. I could use a massage. I wrote most of my notes on a regular composition notebook, which is perfect for these kind of things. My hand is feeling a little cramped.