SXSW Interactive panel recap – Promiscuity or Private Groups: Mobile Photo Sharing

The big question in the SXSW Interactive panel “Promiscuity or Private Groups: Mobile Photo Sharing” was where is it all going?

The panel was moderated by Mayank Mehta, co-founder and director of products for Cooliris, and featured Louis Gray of my6sense and Danny Trinh of the photo sharing site Path.

Now that most mobile phones have better cameras, couple with more powerful 3G cellular networks, have made for better and easier mobile photo sharing. Mobile apps like Instagram have seen a rapid increase of users in a short amount of time, but Mehta pointed out that email remains the top photo sharing method.

Will apps take it over?

Gray said a lot of people have talked about email going away for a long time but it hasn’t happened.

The key for apps to capitalize in order to overtake sharing through email is emphasizing relationships, according to Trinh. Tringh’s application, Path, allows you to share photos with people you know versus broadcasting to the public. 

“Mobile photo sharing will make relationships stronger,” Trinh said.

Part of the success for mobile photo sharing are the filters and exclusivity. Instagram, which according to Mehta is pushing 1 million users. It makes people feel like they are better photographers than they are. You take a photo, modify and upload.

“The filter makes your photo look pretty good and makes you feel like a better photographer,” Trinh said. 

However, Trinh said he understands why pro photographers may not find the photos as appealing in terms of their artistic value and quality. 

“It’s really a means to an end with the filters and tilt shift — to get the someone interested in using the app.”

Furthermore, Gray said the success of photo sharing apps is also dependent on whether a person receives feedback they want (and expect), in other words, social validation.

“You post crazy photos and get tons of validation while others don’t and they drop off,” he said.

Nonetheless, Trinh said it depends on what’s more important to you: public social validation or private social validation.

“I feel more engaged sharing with people I know.” 

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An ADHD procrastinator’s guide to SXSW Interactive

SXSW is upon us and I’m already twitching in excitement. 

OK, it might be all the coffee I’ve had lately. Or my anxiety. Or my ADD.

I’ve spent the past few weeks planning for my Core Conversation with Anna Tauzin, so scheduling and planning for anything else fell down to this week. 

I’ll probably continue to harass you all about the Core Conversaton until it’s over, so sorry in advance (kinda). We have a blog for it, which you should check out, and see us in action Tuesday, March 15 at 11 a.m.

Tools to get you organized

The good thing about being a frazzled procrastinator nowadays are all the helpful apps and websites around to get you organized. 

I’ve been using SCHED to create my calendar for each day. I think it’s safe to say my schedule is set.

I also made sure to download a few apps onto my iPhone for the fest. ReadWriteWeb has a great article on five apps you should download.

Beluga and Hashable look like they will be really helpful. Hurricane Party looks like a party. Let’s just hope the wireless networks hold up. AT&T says they will boost the network in anticipation of the SXSW crowds.

Don’t forget

So if you are heading out tomorrow to the first day of SXSW, don’t forget to pack a few things. This is what I won’t leave home without:

Laptop

iPhone

chargers

Flip video camera

power strip

business cards

Noms such as a granola bar and peanut butter sandwich

water bottle (reusable – respect the environment, yo)

chanclas (that’s flip flops for your non-Spanish speakers)

a light jacket or sweater

Film and Music

Tiny baby Jesus. There’s still film and music to stress about! I’ll post about that soon. There will be plenty to watch and see.

 

Info on my SXSWi core conversation

Between getting organized for the SXSWi core conversation I’m working on with Anna, redesigning my site and pulling my hair out from doing my taxes, I realized I had not looked up when our panel, Landing Your Next Job Through Unconventional Personal Branding, was actually going to be held. 

Hooray for SXSW – it’s been up for a bit now, but here are the deets: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7624

Join us for our convo Tuesday, March 15 at 11 a.m. Our hastag for the event is #hireme.

SXSW, here we come

Yesterday, I received great news that the SXSW Interactive panel proposal written alongside friend and colleague Anna Tauzin, who is the web and social media editor at J-Lab, was accepted.

The proposal, titled ‘Landing Your Next Job Through Unconventional Personal Branding,’ will be featured as a Core Conversation at SXSW, which is a format that allows us to interact at a more personal level with our audience. We hope you can join us and we will spread information on the precise time and date, as schedules are still being constructed.

To say we are excited is an understatement. We can’t wait to share our thoughts on this topic. Searching for a job is no easy task, regardless of whether you are a recent college graduate, recently laid off or a veteran in your field looking for a new position. The web has provided us with many outlets to network with potential employers, but standing out from the crowd of job seekers takes some extra initiative.

In the meantime, the process of gathering ideas and solidifying the content of our conversation will be the task at hand. Hope to see you there in March.

 

 

SXSW 2010 Interactive wrap up

Interactive went by so fast. I can’t believe this portion of the festival is over. I learned a lot from the panels I attended and had a great time.

Interactive Town Hall

One panel I wish I would have attended was the Interactive Town Hall, where attendees could ask questions and address concerns regarding the Interactive festival. However, Omar Gallaga, the tech writer at the Austin-American Stateman, provided a great synopsis of what was said by those who attended and remarks from SXSW organizers Hugh Forrest and Shawn O’Keefe.

Much of the comments centered on the Evan Williams keynote, which Forrest admitted could have been more compelling.

My Last Panel

The last panel I took in was Geeky and Wonky in DC and featured Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs. He discussed the open government movement and DC Week. Check out the video, which has his full presentation.

This panel was really a part of a rapid succession of presenters who spoke for about 10 minutes each. I had intended to see the Twitter and Photography panel, but then realized I was at the tail end of it. Nonetheless, Corbett had some pretty cool stuff to say.

Final Thoughts

Interactive is always fun because it’s a great gathering of brilliant people that motivate you to learn, create and build upon everything related to technology. My only criticisms would be that none of the keynotes really blew me away like last year and I feel like maybe it’s a little too big now. Panels were held at the Courtyard and Radisson, but I never felt compelled to venture outside of the Austin Convention Center or Hilton. Nonetheless, there was so much to choose from in terms of panels. I’ll be looking forward to next year’s conference.

I’ll probably be heading out to Interactive Closing Party and maybe checking out Motorhead at the Austin Music Hall tonight. Say hi!

SXSW 2010 Interactive: Daniel Ek keynote

Daniel Ek, CEO of the European live streaming music site Spotify, gave the final keynote for SXSW Interactive 2010. He was interviewed by Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired.com.

Currently, Spotify is only available in Europe but they are examining ways to have the site in the United States. The biggest issue for having the site in the U.S. is licensing (well, yeah).

Ek gave an overview of the site and discussed using mobile technology with Spotify. He said phones come equipped with Spotify in Sweden, his home country. Ek said the first few months free to access the site are free and they continue to expand partnerships with mobile carriers in Europe.

Revenue for the site is generated in various ways according to Ek. People pay with time by watching targeted advertising, which Spotify can charge more for.

Van Buskirk asked what was in the future for Spotify in the next five years. Watch Ek’s response.

Ek said the music industry and technology are on the same page for first time ever.

“Music is one of the most social objects we have,” he said. “If you can access it anywhere, manufacturers will find value in that.”

Overall, I enjoyed this keynote quite a bit. They even did a question and answer (gasp!) at the end of Ek’s remarks. I’m not sure when or if we will Spotify in the U.S., but it would be great to see a little friendly competition with iTunes.

SXSW 2010 Interactive: How The Other Half Lives – Touring The Digital Divide

Have you ever wondered what it was like to not own a computer or have daily access to the Internet?

Probably not.

How The Other Half Lives – Touring The Digital Divide, was a great panel discussing how two librarians, Jessamyn West and Jenny Engstrom, handle teaching those who don’t have regular access to computers and the Web. West and Engstrom both discussed the types of hurdles and financial struggles they have to deal with on a daily basis. Though grants have been available in the past to teach technology in libraries, once those grants dry up, they struggle with finding the resources to teach those that want to learn. With the economic downturn, it has become even more difficult.

They also discussed how important usability is for those who don’t have regular access to technology. Though the admitted Internet Explorer is not the best web browser, it is what they have to use in many cases on their library computers. Both also discussed how jargon like cookies and operating systems fall on deaf ears for people that utilize their technology.

“Most people only have 45 minutes on the computer, so make it worth their time,” Engstrom said, citing how most libraries have a forced time limit on computers.

She said things like forced registration and instructional video for a site waste time. She suggested puttting a list of steps people can read, but also making sure not to force users to download a PDF or any other document.

They also said many are worried people will steal their identity and beleive they are at risk already. Part of usability for those on the digital divide means assuring that their information is safe and that the Web site as a whole is easy to access and use.

“We have lots of people who can tell you just how bad your Web site usabillity sucks,” West said.

Check out their slides used in the presentation here if you want to learn more about the digital divide, usability and libraries and technology access.

SXSW 2010 Interactive: Monday recap

Though I only spent half the day at Interactive Monday, I still managed to take in a few interesting panels and the day’s keynote with Twitter co-founder Evan Williams.

Keynote

A lot of critcism was lobbed toward Williams and his interviewer, Umair Haque, who is the director of the Havas Media Lab at Harvard and writes a blog for the Harvard Business Review. The Wall Street Journal has a good piece wrapping up the keynote and why it was unsuccessful at capturing people’s attention.

No backchannel was needed to gauge the public’s tepid response to the event, in which Williams announced the launch of Twitter’s @anywhere function and was subsequently lobbed softball questions by interviewer Umair Haque of the Harvard Business Review. (Haque, ironically, is the author of a book entitled “The Awesomeness Manifesto.”)

Williams talked about @anywhere at the start of his keynote ad after that things started to go downhill. There were a few audio problems that interrupted the start of the keynote and Haque’s questions became more like monologues where he talked about some blog post he had written or a random experience using Twitter.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how @anywhere develops. According to the blog post released minutes after Williams announcement, @anywhere will allow sites to embed links to Twitter profiles on their page and users can start following, tweet the link or peek their profile them without ever leaving the site.

Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page—and that’s just the beginning.

My Three-Year Old Is My Usability Expert

This solo panel featured Dave Stanton of the Poynter Institute, who discussed simplify web and game design in order to provide a better user experience. He gave examples of his three-year-old daughter Lucy and demonstrated how she interacted with various games. Stanton advocated the use of schema theory, which tells us that the brain structures things into categories. We, as designers, need to appeal to those categories in order to make designs more user friendly.

Hold the Cocoa: Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

Jonathan Stark, who develops mobile applications for a living, gave some great tips, tools and tricks for building mobile apps using just HTML, CSS and javascript. He provided a link to his slideshow presentation on his site in addition to links to downloads to start building apps.

Basically, Stark utilizes the PhoneGap framework and jQTouch to create apps and tap into built in features like the accelerometer, GPS, vibration and sound. Definitely give this a look if you want to get around learning Objective C and dive straight into app development.

SXSW 2010 Interactive: Evan Williams keynote Day 3

Evan Williams, the co-founder of Twitter, is giving the keynote for Day 3 of SXSW Interactive. He is being interviewed by Umair Haque, who is director of the Havas Media Lab. I found @waynesutton doing a Ustream live stream from the keynote hall.

So far Williams has announced the new @anywhere service. Go ahead, start following and read the latest blog post from Twitter about @anywhere.

Check it out!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/82961

SXSW 2010 Interactive: New Publishing and Web Content

The New Publishing and Web Content panel was the last I attended Saturday.

Panelists included Erin Kissane of Incisive.nu, Lisa Holton of Fourth Story Media, Mandy Brown of Etsy and Paul Ford of Harper’s Magazine. It was moderated by Jeffery Zeldman of Happy Cog Studios.

The panelists discussed how the web has changed book and magazine publishing and how they adapted.

Ford made an interesting comment about how the web should not be looked at a publishing platform but rather a customer service platform.

“Give them what they need and interact. If you get money from them, how do you make sure they are happy?” he said. “The web is a way to interact with and serve your community.”

This video shows the panelists answering a question regarding big publishing houses versus self-publishing at a at SXSW 2010 Interactive panel.