WordCamp Whistler is coming up later this month (January 24) and tickets are going fast. They are also going to cost more if you wait until after Friday to buy yours so now is the time to get them while they are only $35.
I’m going to be giving a talk up there about how to ‘Sex up your blog’ (thanks for embellishing that Duane!) so bring your questions about integrating photos and video in different ways into your site as well as the pitfalls of some of the options out there. Be sure to check out some of the other stellar speakers that I have the pleasure of presenting alongside.
I also hear that there will be some cool, one-of-a-kind WordPress swag for all attendees…like a much cooler version of my ‘unofficial’ WordPress touque (with apologies to Zeldman) :
While catching up on my RSS feeds via Google Reader, I saw that Google has greatly expanded the theme options for their personalized homepage called iGoogle. I really like iGoogle for a couple of reasons:
- it’s cross browser/platform so it works fine on my work PC running Firefox or (shudder) IE or any of my Apples (iPhone/Mac/etc).
- it lets me keep track of a bunch of key feeds, email, weather, etc all in one page while also having a Google search box
- I can easily scroll through all my ‘must read’ feeds in single box
It’s been theme-able for awhile now but I was never too fond of the themes they had. They now have a huge directory of themes, some guest artist themes and a developer guide on how to make your own. They are pretty simple to put together since they are just CSS and any images you’d like to incorporate.
Currently, I’m fond of this theme but will most likely make my own very soon.
I really wanted to do a proper, long and detailed wrapup post for SXSWi but I’m not going to because there was just so much going on and it’s still digesting in my mind what transpired in Austin. That and I’m really tired due to a day at the airport, flight delays and BBQ withdrawal.
So in no particular order, here’s some thoughts on what happened in Austin over the past week:
- this year was way bigger than last year – lots of people guessing on the numbers so take this with a grain of salt but it’s ‘supposably’ 50% bigger than last year. So that puts it somewhere between 5000 and 10000 geeks in one place. This was especially evident since previously, you’d always run into people you know but this year, I know there were people I knew in Austin and yet I never managed to see them in the halls/panels
- I wished I made it to the I Can Haz Cheeseburger panel – they were actually giving out hamburgers to the audience
- 12 sessions per time slot does not work
- 10am panels are very hard to attend
- there needs to be more technical panels. Of all the ones I attended, only two could be considered (by me) technical and they were incredibly well attended – as in standing-room-only-geeks-sitting-in-the-aisles-fire-hazard kind of well attended. Of course since there was 12 sessions in every timeslot (plus other stuff in and around the convention center), it’s entirely possible there were more technical sessions.
- the panel rooms need to be reworked (again). Nothing sucks more than having to go from room 18ABCD to Room C – it’s like walking to Surrey from North Vancouver. I’m all for the walking but when you consider that a panel ends at say 11am and the next one starts at 11:30am, it doesn’t give you much time to actually talk to the panelists afterword, or with friends about the panel before you have to start hoofing it to the other end of the convention center to get a decent seat for the next session
- Twitter stayed up during the whole conference which is a huge deal since it was probably the number one web site talked about (yes, even more than Facebook and the infamous interview). Impromptu ‘Tweetups’ happened everywhere and were awesome. Your twitter name should be printed on the badge next year (everyone just wrote it on theirs this year)
- Internet access generally seemed better this year…except at my hotel which crawled. The convention center’s wifi was much more robust this year and they had a 802.11n access point which was great. Also more and more venues had free wifi so it made using Twitter and checking Google maps a breeze. My prepaid AT&T sim also got a good workout and thanks to some flaky hotel access, ended up costing more than it should have – see my $12 flickr photo for one example:
- Apple should have sponsored a shuttle to the Apple Store…there was a convoy of cabs there from the convention center on a daily basis.
- Canadians showed up in force this year. Not just the 20-30 Vancouverites I knew were going either….great folks from across this great land came down and had a great time
- Once again, the Raincity Studios crew had the best, most coveted t-shirts (read about it in the L.A. Times) and hosted the best party at the Iron Cactus. My second favorite shirt (after the Space Invaders RCS shirt) is the “Hacking is not a crime” shirt I picked up from the MAKE booth
- in Austin (and probably just for SXSW) the term ‘Ranch’ can mean many things. What I didn’t expect it to mean at the Pure Volume Ranch (home of the huge Digg party among others) is dirt floors covered in wood chips and port-o-lets. Moby and Kevin Rose didn’t seem to mind.
- Finally had a chance to visit the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas (outside of Austin)…been coming to SXSW for three years and always heard about it but never had the chance to make it out there. It lives up to the hype
- you can buy iPods at the Houston Airport from a vending machine
- iPhones were everywhere and mine at least was indispensable during the trip. From the wifi that was available everywhere, to the Google Maps locate me feature, it was easily the most used item I brought. Using the sched.org tool to make a customized calendar of sessions/events/parties to attend, it was easy to see where to go next or what our options were if we decided to change our minds.
- I was able to get a tag for my camera that I should have exploited more. Strangely, I saw all kinds of cameras (not just DSLRs) with the tag, including a tiny little lipstick-sized webcam. There also seemed to be some discrepancy as to who should get a tag as Peter was denied just minutes after I got mine.
- If you don’t like Rockband, be glad you weren’t at SXSWi….every second booth in the Trade Show had it setup and many events used it as a focal point
- Adobe had a sneak peak of their new Adobe Media Player in a bar with a live band and a skateboard halfpipe. Nothing kills a party faster than trying to demo your software on a projector in the middle of a bar AFTER a decent local band played while skateboarders used the halfpipe in front of the stage. Still surprised about the presentation’s inappropriateness and the fact they thought they had to explain RSS feeds to a room full of geeks. The Media player actually looks decent (if not a little iTunes-ish) but they really need to work on the promotion side of things and figure out who the people that attend Southby are
- Most heard/overused word/phrase I heard this year: ‘Fail!’ or used in a sentence: ‘Epic Fail!’. #2 was ‘iPhone’. #3 was “I’ll have another Shiner Bock”.
- There wasn’t as many MacBook Air’s there as I would have expected. Consensus from those I talked to about it was they were hoping for more from Apple – or technically less as they wanted a true replacement for the 12″ Powerbook in screen size (or even smaller). It definitely got a lot of looks and was asked to hold it many times. There were a ton of eeePC’s in attendence which was cool to see.
- I managed to head over to BarCamp Austin between sessions at the convention center and sit in (briefly) on the iPhone DevCamp. As if the fact there was too much concurrent content at SXSWi, the fact that an awesome BarCamp AND iPhone camp was going on at the same time. Too much to do, not enough time to take it all in.
- As if you aren’t already tired of me talking about the BBQ, all the food was amazing…well except maybe not that late night pizza from 6th street
- as I write this post, there are over 12,000 SXSW related photos on Flickr. I have about 200 in there.
That’s pretty much it for me and this post…as I said at the beginning, there is still a lot of digesting to do (bbq and otherwise) so I may add to this once I’ve had time to take it all in.
See you next year, Austin!
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of being one of the first people to get a sneak peak at something that has been in the works for a long time now. I’ve come to know a few of the people working on this project over the past year and have been patiently waiting to find out what they’ve been up to over at Strutta.com. They have been dropping little hints all along and now that I’ve seen what they’ve been working on, many of those little hints start making a lot more sense…like a big puzzle finally coming together as something recognizable.
I had my own thoughts as to what Strutta was. Given it’s name, the clever taglines on T-shirts (“What, ou think you’re better than me?”) that have been popping up at various events around town and the kinds of things people working inside do and don’t hide, I was beginning to piece together what was going on.
So what the hell is it?
Without giving away all the secrets that I’ve been sworn to keep, Strutta is a place where people that have ANY kind of skill (that can be captured on video) can compete with others to be the best at that skill.
Using a lot of cool technology, people will be able to upload (or link to) their videos and others will vote on them using a number of different methods. Videos will be grouped into ‘games’ which you then play by ranking the entries in that game.
What impressed me the most wasn’t this basic premise (which I’m over simplifying), but rather the myriad number of ways you’ll be able to participate in the ‘games’ without other stuff getting in the way. I won’t get into detail here (mostly because I’m not completely sure how descriptive I can be without Jordan busting down my door), but suffice to say, you won’t be able to miss Strutta when they take off. They’ve thought about this a lot and have all the bases covered. They also have a pretty kick ass team working on it too.
This has the potential to get huge because it appeals to people’s competitive nature in a way where you don’t necessarily have to be an uber-athlete to compete and the gameplay mechanisms are quite intuitive. Anyone with a skill or something they (think) are the best at can play. I’ve been racking my brain to think of something I can do. I’m sure I’ll think of something you can make fun of me over later.
Here’s the official, Jordan Approved™ screenshot of what the site currently looks like which I think doesn’t do it justice since you really have to play with it to get a feel for it….and I’m told you’ll get a chance to do that very soon.
Of course, the screenshot features Alexa as the ‘Best Guitar Hero Player’ – which is totally unfair because Strutta has a dedicated room for her to play GH in during work hours. She is so hardcore, she even dresses like the characters in the game while she plays. Their team meetings must be fun.
I’m looking forward to seeing the full Strutta unveiling over the coming weeks and months and people starting to use it. Great job so far and thanks for giving me a sneak peak!
