10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

How Not To FAIL At Web Services
118 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Believe it or not both Amazon and Flickr have failed miserably at Web Services. In this talk we'll take a look at their failures, show how they could be fixed, and show how to properly use REST principles to create Web Services that don't fail.
Speaker Info  Gregg Pollack (Code Monkey & Media Producer, Rails Envy)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Making Web Widgets Accessible: Tools and Techniques
75 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Browser vendors, code library developers, and Ajax gurus demo best practices for making widgets and dynamic web content accessible. You'll also see how they're implementing W3C's new Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, WAI-ARIA (nearing completion or done by SXSW 2009!). Get tips and tricks for next generation web accessibility.
Speaker Info  Michael Cooper (Accessibility Prod Mgr, W3C - World Wide Consortium), Shawn Henry (W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)), Catherine Laws (IBM), Thomas Logan (VP of Product Development, HiSoftware), Richard Schwerdtfeger (Distinguished Engineer, IBM)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

The Seven Rules for Great Web Application Design
259 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  In this lively and interactive session, Robert Hoekman, Jr., the author of 'Designing the Obvious' and 'Designing the Moment', uses the audience to reveal the 7 essential design principles for achieving great application design and the psychology behind them. And he does it all without a single bullet point (gasp!).
Speaker Info  Robert Hoekman Jr (CEO/Principal Experience Designer, Miskeeto LLC)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Bootstrap Your Startup
109 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Dell, Oracle, Microsoft and Virgin were bootstrap companies that were able to get started without raising traditional venture capital. Bootstrapping is not just capital efficient, it has many other positive influences on your business and your potential to profit from its success. Learn why you should consider the bootstrap method and ask questions of a successful bootstrap entrepreneur.
Speaker Info  Bijoy Goswami (Ceo, Aviri), (Founder, Austin Art Start)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Lessons Learned from the Open Source Software
45 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Open Source Software, once considered revolutionary, has increasingly been accepted as mainstream. In this panel of some of the most experienced open source leaders and analysts, we will explore what has made open source successful and what lessons all businesses can learn from this paradigm shifting technology.
Speaker Info  Michael Cote (Analyst, RedMonk), Neelan Choksi (COO, Lexcycle), (VP & GM Enterprise Delivery, SpringSource), Sara Dornsife (Consultant, )

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

More Secrets of JavaScript Libraries
136 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  In a reprise from last year's popular panel - the JavaScript libraries authors are getting together again to impart their what they've learned from their experience in developing solid, world-class, JavaScript libraries. Covering everything from advanced aspects of the JavaScript language, to handling cross-browser issues, all the way up to packaging and distribution. A complete set of knowledge for a JavaScript developer.
Speaker Info  John Resig (Mozilla Corporation), Andrew Dupont (Prototype JavaScript Framework), Nate Koechley (Sr Engineer YUI, ), Becky Gibson (Web Accessibility Architect, IBM)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Not the Same Old Story
193 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  If the web provides so many ways to connect with audiences, why are we all stuck telling the same story with our designs? Hear from a panel of storytelling experts on the importance of narrative and art direction online to break away from static and boring experiences.
Speaker Info  Jason Santa Maria (Creative Dir, ), Daniel Burka (Creative Dir, Digg/Pownce), Nicholas Felton (feltron.com), Emily Gordon (Editor-in-Chief, emdashes.com / printmag.com), Ian Adelman (Design Director, nymag.com)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Starting Up in Silicon Alley
27 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  You should start you company in New York City.Why? What makes starting up in NYC better than in San Francisco?This panel will feature prominent members of the New York startup community and will focus on the various aspects of starting up a Web 2.0 company in The Big Apple.(This panel will also be at Web 2.0 Expo NY in Sept '08)
Speaker Info  Nate Westheimer (Entrepreneur in Residence, Rose Tech Ventures)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Building Entrepreneurial Communities Outside the Valley
77 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  This panel will explore the various hurdles facing technology and entrepreneurial communities outside Silicon Valley. We will also explore various strategies that have worked in building these communities around the country.
Speaker Info  Nick O'Neill (Founder, AllFacebook/Social Times), Frank Gruber (Founder & Co-Founder, Somewhat Frank / TECH cocktail)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Designing for Irrational Behavior
232 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The core of sustainability efforts is behavior change, understanding patterns of behavior and developing models for motivating sustainable behavior change. This approach assumes a rational response from the consumer. However, most decisions are irrational. This panel will examine how to motivate people to make sustainable changes by appealing to their emotions instead. This panel is sponsored by frog design.
Speaker Info  Peter Whybrow (Dir, UCLA Semel Institute), Robert Fabricant (Executive Creative Director, Frog Design Inc), Jeffrey Bardzell (Asst Professor, Indiana University), Jen van der Meer (Drillteam)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Gestural UI: iPhone Taught Us Flick and Pinch. What's Next?
104 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Gestures are simply the way we interact with the natural world. How can designers translate that into meaningful, engaging interactions with handheld devices? We'll discuss current and emerging technologies like near field communications, proximity, accelerometer, etc. and we'll propose design principles that create fun experiences and deeper connections with users.
Speaker Info  Gabriel White (Punchcut)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Scaling Rails Applications in the Cloud
68 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Skeptics argue that Ruby-on-Rails "can't scale". In this talk, I prove them wrong by demonstrating how cloud computing technologies have changed the game, enabling developers to use the expressiveness of Ruby and Rails to build high-performance applications that scale easily. Will include a case study and live scaling demonstration.
Speaker Info  (Co-Founder & Hacker, OtherInbox)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Why NonProfit is the Right Choice for your Startup
57 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Leaders of some of the hottest and most-successful NonProfit Tech Startups explain how going the NonProfit route can give your startup a competitive advantage in the marketplace, and dispel some myths that prevent technological entrepreneurs from considering 501(C)(3) as an option for high-tech startups.
Speaker Info  Tony Shawcross (Exec Dir, Deproduction), (Outreach Coordinator, Deproduction)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Building a Bridge with Barcodes - The QR Code Invasion
90 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  QR Codes have made a tremendous impact on mobile internet around the world but have yet to break-out in North America. In Japan, users are utilizing 2D barcodes to place hyperlinks throughout the physical world on everything from bookmarks to tombstones. Join Evan Jones, innovator of QR code technology, as he discusses the potential waiting to be unlocked behind this powerful technology.
Speaker Info  Evan Jones (Creative Dir/Producer, Stitch Media), Dustin Haisler (CIO/Assoc Judge, City of Manor), Daniel Switkin (Sr Software Engineer, Google), Antony McGregor Dey (CEO, qmcodes.com), (Dir RI Labs, RIcoh Innovations Inc)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Designing the Future of The New York Times
300 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  What will the nation's newspaper of record look like in the coming years? Learn about the continuing efforts of old media to reinvent its look, its feel and its mission.
Speaker Info  Tom Bodkin (Asst Managing Editor Design Dir, The New York Times), Khoi Vinh (Design Dir, The New York Times)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

How LA Has Built A Sucessful Tech Community
54 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Los Angeles has become a hub for tech startups with new ones popping up every day. Relationships are being formed and VCs are paying attention. Universities are showcasing developer opportunities unique to the city. So how did this happen? Welcome to networking 2.0. From Lunch 2.0 to Interactive Community Coalitions, BarCamp to Twiistup, LA is a great case study of how to build a successful tech community in your city. Join the organizers of the city's most popular networking events for tips, advice, the how to's and what-not-to-do's to make your city's community pop.
Speaker Info  Sloane Berrent (TheCausemopolitan.com), Andrew Warner (Founder, Mixergy.com)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Should I Build My Startup on Ruby on Rails?
52 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  You've heard Ruby on Rails is the hottest new technology for developing web applications. You've also heard of concerns about scalability and hiring talent. How do you separate the facts from the hype? Hear the business perspective on why to consider Ruby on Rails now and why you might want to wait and see. Get ready for a head-to-head comparison with PHP, Java and .NET!
Speaker Info  Joshua Baer (Founder, OtherInbox)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Web Typography: Quit Bitchin' and Get Your Glyph On
236 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Designers are still complaining about the limitations of Web typography. Is their case valid, and will it be in the future? What myths are there about web typography and how do we dispel them? This panel will discuss overcoming constraints on web to create elegant, legible, and expressive typography.
Speaker Info  Richard Rutter (Dir, Clearleft Ltd), Ian Coyle (iancoyle.com), Samantha Warren (Viget Labs), Jonathan Tan (Creative Dir, OmniTI Inc), Elliot Jay Stocks ()

6:30 PM
to 6:00 PM

Boagworld Live Show Spectacular!
65 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Paul and Marcus, those cheeky chaps from the Boagworld podcast, will be taking over a room at SXSW to gossip, argue and tell jokes. Oh yes... and interview lots of famous webby people and answer your best questions on designing, developing and running websites. The show will be a live audience podcast published during conference week.
Speaker Info  Paul Boag (Dir, Headscape), Marcus Lillington (Dir, Headscape)

6:30 PM
to 7:30 PM

Friendship is Dead
113 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  So what is a friend anymore? Is it a checkbox or something to collect?Have social networking tools diluted the meaning of "friend" to be someone to add to your collection? Or do these tools allow you to connect with people you've never met before? How does friendship differ offline and online?
Speaker Info  Russ Unger (Dir of Experience Planning, Draftfcb), David Armano (VP Experience Design, Critical Mass)

6:30 PM
to 7:30 PM

Nerd Baiter: Using the Gadgets to Get the Geeks
46 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Internet celebrity is on the rise and geeks are the new Tom Sellecks of online dating. Learn how to leverage your existing social networking services to bait and date and the types of applications that could be developed on those platforms to create and manage your dating portfolio.
Speaker Info  Tara Brown (Program Manager, Topspin)
 

 

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Accessible Flash and Flex Applications
66 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Developers are increasingly interested in delivering accessible applications that use Flash-based technologies but are uncertain as to what is possible and how to develop and test their applications. This panel will look at best practices and examples, and share information on what's new in Flash accessibility.
Speaker Info  (Sr Prod Mgr Accessibility, Adobe), Alaric Cole (Sr Flash Platform Engineer, Yahoo!), Thea Eaton (Founder, DoodleDoo), Niqui Merret (Jade Hopper)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Neocartography: Mapping Design and Usability Evolved
121 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Designers are dropping maps into their applications with little concern for usability or design and users are getting "Google Map fatigue". We need to move beyond the simple pin-dropping and consider appropriate mapping interfaces. This panel will look at the current and emerging tools to provide compelling geographic interaction and visualization.
Speaker Info  Andrew Turner (Mapufacture), Michal Migurski (CTO, Stamen Design), David Heyman (Axis Maps LLC), Elizabeth Windram (Senior User Experience Designer, Google)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Version Control: No More Save As...
151 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  No longer something just big companies do, version control can be just as useful for small teams and even one-man bands. This panel will discuss what tools are available, differing approaches to controversial topics like branching, and whether to use hosted or in-house.
Speaker Info  Matt Mullenweg (Automattic/WordPress), Karen Nguyen (Web Developer, Yahoo!), Zach Nies (VP Prod Dev, Rally Software Development), Joe Pezzillo (joepezzillo.com), Derek Scruggs (SurveyGizmo)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

AJAX Accessibility: An ARIA Duet
64 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIAs) are not just possible but freely obtained through open source techniques. ARIA developer Becky Gibson will demonstrate ARIA coding techniques and existing toolkits to solve real world challenges posed by accessible technology advocate Sharron Rush.
Speaker Info  Sharron Rush (Exec Dir, Knowbility.org), Becky Gibson (Web Accessibility Architect, IBM)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

How to Create a Great Company Culture
164 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Talk with other successful entrepreneurs about the do's and don'ts of building a company culture. Take home a list of specific ideas you can implement to make your employees perform better and increase their loyalty. What's the rationale behind providing free drinks, catered meals or free cab rides? How much strategy and financial information is appropriate to share with the entire company? Can employees work from home? How do you celebrate your successes? Find out what really works and what is just a waste of time and money.
Speaker Info  (CMO, BazaarVoice), Jason Black (CEO/Chairman of BOD, Boundless Network)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Kick-Ass Mash-Ups with Punk Rock APIs
106 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Tired of re-inventing the wheel? Wish there was a single grand unified API layer over everything? In this panel we'll gather data from a dozen different popular sites and services and present it all under a single API, using nothing but stone knives, bear skins, free online tools, and client-side JavaScript.
Speaker Info  Kent Brewster (Web Guy, Yahoo!)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

OpenID, OAuth, Data Portability and the Enterprise
134 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The debate over identity, data and authentication is gaining ground in the social networking world. The more difficult discussion regarding enterprises and Web 2.0 has yet to start. Businesses realize that they must protect the data of their company, employees and customers. Join brave leaders from several Web Application companies that are beginning the discussion, ?Are OpenID and OAuth good for the enterprise?"
Speaker Info  Bob Blakely (The Burton Group), Danny Kolke (Etelos, Inc.), Joseph Smarr (Chief Platform Architect, Plaxo Inc), Kaliya Hamlin (Super Hero, Identity Woman)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Security for the Social Set
33 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The social web provides rich ground for attackers to exploit; the bigger your site gets, the more likely a target you are. We'll share real-world examples of common attack patterns and how to guard againstthem. Web developers and anyone with a stake in the security of an online product will learn something new and useful.
Speaker Info  Ed Finker (funkatron.com)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Designing Our Way Through Web Forms
203 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Although forms make the Web go around, they are often ugly due the generic way in which browsers display them, not to mention irritating to our site's visitors when they don't work as expected. In this session, panelists will provide specific details on ways to successfully create compelling forms for your users.
Speaker Info  Christopher Schmitt (Web Design Specialist, Heat Vision), Eric Ellis (VP Sr Designer, Bank of America), Kimberly Blessing (Senior Web Development Manager, Comcast Interactive Media)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

iPhone Development for Experienced Web Developers
135 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  A technology case study of combining an online Web service API with a native iPhone application. Specifically for experienced Web developers, we'll provide an introduction to Objective C and the iPhone platform, and cover technical details from the Web services API design to URL loading and parsing on the iPhone.
Speaker Info  Jordan Lev (Sr Web Developer, Babcock & Jenkins), Joshua Siler (VP Technology, Babcock & Jenkins)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Post Standards: Creating Open Source Specs
59 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Many of the most interesting new formats on the web are being developed outside the traditional standards process; Microformats, OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial, and originally Jabber ?€” four out of five of these popular new specs have been standardized by the IETF, OASIS, or W3C. But real hackers are bringing their implementations to projects ranging from open source apps all the way up to the largest companies in the technology industry. While formal standards bodies still exist, their role is changing as open source communities are able to develop specifications, build working code, and promote it to the world.It isn't that these communities don't see the value in formal standardization, but rather that their needs are different than what formal standards bodies have traditionally offered. They care about ensuring that their technologies are freely implementable and are built and used by a diverse community where anyone can participate based on merit and not dollars. At OSCON last year, the Open Web Foundation was announced to create a new style of organization that helps these communities develop open specifications for the web. This panel brings together community leaders from these technologies to discuss the "why" behind the Open Web Foundation and how they see standards bodies needing to evolve to match lightweight community driven open specifications for the web.
Speaker Info  David Recordon (Six Apart Ltd), Dawn Foster (Consultant/Owner, Fast Wonder), Eran Hammer-Lahav (Yahoo!), David Rudin (Microsoft), Dare Obasanjo (Program Mgr, Microsoft)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

So You Wanna Write a Tech Book?
45 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  "Everyone has a book inside them," the saying goes--but should yours stay there? Panel members, including acquisition editors and best-selling authors (and maybe even an agent), will cover everything you'll need to know so you can submit a proposal for the next big tech best-seller.
Speaker Info  Dori Smith (dori.com)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Venture Capital for Long Tail Entrepreneurs
59 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  'Venture Capital for the Long Tail' describes the need for a fundamentally different, economically viable model for creating and funding micro-businesses. Venture capital needs a new model to adapt to declining costs to start businesses, the impact of Generation Y and increased personal and corporate transparency and sharing.
Speaker Info  Taylor Davidson (Unstructured Ventures)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Digital Narc'ing
40 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  How companies and people are mining data to rat you out and make decisions about you (and everything else).
Speaker Info  Michael Fertik (CEO, reputationdefender.com)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Pitfalls and Opportunities: How to Fund a Startup
51 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  In an era when venture capital has become reluctant to fund young companies, angel investors have helped keep the startup environment thriving in Central Texas. With comprehensive experience in a wide array of industries, the Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) offers not only capital, but also guidance and mentorship to innovative entrepreneurs. CTAN is dedicated to providing quality early-stage investment opportunities for accredited Central Texas angel investors by assisting, educating and connecting promising companies with the resources needed to raise money, grow, and succeed in today's business world. Find out what these investors are looking for and what to avoid when seeking outside investments.
Speaker Info  Jamie Rhodes (Chair, Central Texas Angel Network), (Liahona Ventures)
 

 

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Beyond Aggregation -- Finding the Web's Best Content
244 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  RSS aggregation has reduced the massive ocean of Web content into something more manageable, but we are still left overloaded with information and manual searching. This panel will explore new avenues for finding the Web's best content, and how this more intelligent Web will affect major media companies, online publishers and consumers.We have confirmed Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb as a moderator.
Speaker Info  Marshall Kirkpatrick (VP Content Dev, ReadWriteWeb ), Louis Gray (Author/Publisher, louisgray.com), Gabe Rivera (Founder/CEO, Techmeme), Melanie Baker (Community Mgr, AideRSS Inc), Micah Baldwin (VP Business Dev, Lijit Networks Inc)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Scaling Synchronous Web Apps
129 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Serious server-side engineers will talk about how they were able to get around some of the tricky ins and outs of building a fast, reliable, scalable synchronous Web application. Hear about how not to fail at scalability and about the lessons they learned and the mistakes they made that might help you scale your own synchronous application.
Speaker Info  Sandy Jen (Founder, Meebo Inc), Kyle Vogt (Founder, Justin.tv), Jason Kincaid (Writer, TechCrunch), Serkan Piantino (Software Engineer, Facebook Inc)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Shift Happens: Moving from Words to Pictures
181 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  People are hardwired for visualization yet we rely significantly on text. Most games, graphic novels, magazines, interfaces, IKEA instructions, and many other forms of communication take advantage of people's natural visual thinking ability. Panelists will discuss how to leverage visual techniques to improve your games, websites, movies, communications, or presentations.
Speaker Info  Sunni Brown (Owner, BrightSpot Info Design), Tom Crawford (CEO, VizThink), Dave Gray (Chairman, XPLANE), Lee LeFever (Principal, Common Craft), Dan Roam (President, Digital Roam Inc)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Browser Wars III: The Platform Wins
217 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  We're doing *so darn much* with the Web platform these days, from cross-domain access mechanisms to new drawing and graphics tools. But in the end, we still have to deal with different web browsers. This discussion brings the leads from Mozilla (Firefox), Microsoft (IE), Google (Chrome) and Opera (Opera) together for yet another incendiary discussion about the future of the web.
Speaker Info  Arun Ranganathan (Mozilla), Chris Wilson (Web Platform Architect, Microsoft), Brendan Eich (CTO, Mozilla Foundation), Charles McCathieNevile (Chief Standards Officer, Opera Software), Darin Fisher (Software Engineer, Google)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Enough To Be Dangerous: Managing 'Expert' Clients
120 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  "The page shouldn't scroll." "Two clicks are too many." These are two of the numerous client conundrums that agencies face on a daily basis. In this presentation, we discuss how to educate, reeducate and placate your client, without having your team kill you in the process.
Speaker Info  Kali Cover (Exec Dir Systems Implementation, FOX Interactive Media), Marili Cantu (Acct Dir, Springbox)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

How Safe is Your Domain Name?
27 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Domain names are valuable property. But are they out there for the taking by people who do not have your best interests in mind? Join this panel of internet and legal experts for an informative discussion about the prevalence of internet identity theft. Learn steps you can take to protect one of your most important assets.
Speaker Info  Daniel Lorenzetti (The Image Expedition), Allison McDade (Atty , Pirkey Barber LLP)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Start-up Management: OMG I Have to Manage People?
119 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  It has been said managing people is the hardest thing to do. It is even more difficult if you are web developer or brand new entrepreneur who now has to build and manage a team. You need help! These experienced founders will guide you through the hairiest of management problems.
Speaker Info  Steven Reading (Founder, Dogster Inc), John Vars (Dogster Inc)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Ultimate Showdown of Content Management System Destiny
198 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  This panel will feature the results of an 'Iron Chef' style competition pitting three teams of all-star Web developers from the Drupal, Joomla! and WordPress communities against each other to develop the same Web site in each of their chosen open source content management platforms.
Speaker Info  Colleen Carroll (Sr Leader Dev Svcs, Palantir.net), George DeMet (Owner, Palantir.net), Matt Mullenweg (Automattic/WordPress), Steve Fisher (Creative Dir, Idea Market)

1:00 PM
to 5:00 PM

Creative Employment Confab Presented by Coroflot
49 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Join us from 1pm to 5pm for a four-hour recruiting and networking event bringing together candidates and employers representing the best of both sides of todays creative industries. This informal gathering will allow time for attendees to discuss opportunities and challenges as everyone tries to do more with less, promote their own brand and stay ahead of current trends. Recruiters, hiring managers, designers, developers, writers, and strategists are all encouraged to attend.The event will feature a panel discussion from 2pm - 3pm on creative employment trends and strategies over the next 2 to 5 years. Panelists will be Nathan Shedroff (Chair of the Design MBA course at CCA), Jon Kolko (Senior Designer Analyst at frog design) and Michael Smith (Sr. Manager, Industrial Design Consumer Experience Design Group at Dell). The panel will be moderated by Carl Alviani, Editorial Director of the design employment and networking site Coroflot.com.A cocktail reception will following the panel discussion and the remainder of the afternoon will be an open format. Bring your business cards, portfolio, resume and laptop and walk away with a fistful of connections or a new job!
Speaker Info  Carl Alviani (Editorial Dir, Coroflot.com), Nathan Shedroff (Program Chair MBA in Design Strategy, CCA), Jon Kolko (Senior Designer Analyst, Frog Design Inc), Michael E. Smith (Sr. Manager, Industrial Design Consumer Experience Design Group, Dell)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

No Web Professional Left Behind: Educating the Next Generation
80 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Far too often, students aspiring to be web professionals leave school with a degree yet without adequate training to prepare them for the real world. It's time to stop complaining and start working to bridge the gap between industry and education.
Speaker Info  Aarron Walter (WaSP InterAct Lead, The Web Standards Project), Stephanie Troeth (unadorned.org), Chris Mills (Developer Rels Mgr, Opera Software), Leon Adkison (Taylor University)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

SEO for Startups
105 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Does your startup have a plan for SEO? Millions of searches are performed daily on the internet and there is an enormous amount of ROI that comes from ranking for targeted keywords and phrases. This panel will give you an understanding, dispel any myths, and provide tips on how to approach SEO for a Startup, just like yours!
Speaker Info  Tony Adam (SEO Mgr, ), Todd Friesen (Position Technologies)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

What Does Awesome Sound Like?
52 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Join our conversation about the impact voice integration has on user interaction. We're talking about and demoing some amazing functionality, like making phone calls and posting voice messages from mobile devices to web apps. It's all done with Flash and Ribbit, a simple yet breakthrough API for cross-device content creation, distribution and voice interaction. Get started at developer.ribbit.com and you can bring something to show.
Speaker Info  Chuck Freedman (Dir of Developer Platform, Ribbit), (Evangelist, Adobe), (Ribbit)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Whitehouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government
110 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The 2004 and 2008 campaigns' use of collaborative tools, blogs and social networking have shown citizen activism and online communities can wield powerful influence. In 2009, our challenge becomes how to harness these tools for in order to reopen the policy-making process. Panel presentation followed by brainstorming session.
Speaker Info  Sarah Granger (Managing Dir, FutureCampaigns), Nancy Scola (techPresident)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Wireframes for the Wicked
267 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Wireframes beyond the basics, not for the weak at heart. In this panel, three experienced designers will share their tried and true tips for making wireframes really work. We'll talk about how to sketch a wireframe on the fly to demonstrate an idea and how to create a standalone wireframe deliverable; when to show a concept and when to describe nitty-gritty detail; how to make a narrative wireframe and how to make a specification wireframe. And best of all, we'll show you plenty of examples.
Speaker Info  Nick Finck (Principal / Director of User Experience, Blue Flavor), Donna Spencer (Maadmob), Michael Angeles (Dir of User Experience, Traction Software)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

2009 WaSP Annual Meeting
49 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  For years, WaSP's role has been to evangelize web standards, but lately we've been preaching to the choir. Consequently, WaSP is shifting its focus to education and advocacy. Come find out what we've been doing this year and where we're planning to go. You may even decide to join us on the ride.
Speaker Info  Derek Featherstone (Further Ahead), Aaron Gustafson (Principal, Easy! Designs LLC), Glenda Sims (Sr Systems Analyst, University of Texas at Austin), Stephanie Sullivan (W3Conversions), Henny Swan (Web Evangelist, Opera)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Color Angels, Episode 1: Colors: It's Not Black and White
104 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Exploring the challenges in color combinations as a key to successful website designs. Advice on what tools you'll need in your arsenal to be inspired. Navigating through cultural and accessibility differences in color and showcasing some of the best uses of color the web has to offer.
Speaker Info  Cindy Li (Design Consultant, DesignRabbit), Leslie Jensen-Inman (Asst Professor/Pres, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga/MORE), Veerle Pieters (CEO, Duoh! n.v.)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Developing Super Senses: Tools to Know Your Users
218 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  You know you need to do user research, but how? Should you write surveys, do focus groups, or develop personas? And how do you act on what you've learned? We've been in the trenches and have concrete suggestions on what you can, and should do NOW to conduct effective user research.
Speaker Info  Mark Trammell (Digg), Juliette Melton (User Experience Mgr, Lumos Labs), Nate Bolt (Bolt|Peters), Carla Borsoi (VP Research & Analytics, Ask.com), Andy Budd (Clearleft Ltd)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

How Start-Ups Can Take Advantage of the Recession
131 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Discussing innovative ways that start-ups can use an economic downturn to their advantage. While big companies cut jobs and focus on their core business, creative start-ups can sneak up and grab market share. Discussion covers creative marketing strategies, user-generated content, power-users as evangelists, open source technology, outsourcing.
Speaker Info  Rick Marini (Founder/ CEO, MyRockstar Inc), Philip Kaplan (Founder, AdBrite Inc)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Political Leadership in the Digital Era
30 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The digital era requires a new type of leadership. An interactive conversation between past and present elected officials and the audience on political leadership in the digital era.
Speaker Info  Julie Barko Germany (Dir, Institute for Politics Demcoracy & the)

6:30 PM
to 7:30 PM

Digital Dating: Are the Internets Killing Your Game?
89 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Dating has never been this complicated. Once simply 'boy meets girl', we now live in a world where 'boy meets girl, friends them on Facebook & Twitter and texts their way into (hopefully) Happily Ever After.' How do you navigate the murky dating waters of Love 2.0?
Speaker Info  Aubrey Sabala (aubreysabala.com)

6:30 PM
to 7:30 PM

SXSW Year Round: Organize Groups, Maintain Your Buzz
85 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  We come to South-By for a variety of reasons, but we all leave with a heightened level of energy, ready to develop badass tools and design beautiful experiences. But that drive can fade all too quickly. We'll show you how to to organize and re-energize local groups to capture this experience throughout the year.
Speaker Info  Alex Jones (Refresh Austin)
 

 

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Are Music Games the New iTunes?
62 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  In their first few months Rock Band & GH3 combined to sell almost as many songs as iTunes did in its. With everyone from GnR to Freezepop jumping in, join an in-depth, stat-filled debate about what it all means to game designers, musicians, labels, web games, and game players.
Speaker Info  Nabeel Hyatt (CEO/Founder, Conduit Labs), Bart Decrem (CEO, Tapulous), Gillian Connole (Music Licensing Mgr, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe), (Board Dir, Geomerics), Ali Partovi (CEO, iLike Inc)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

Latino Digital Drive: Why This Audience Matters
20 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  An in-depth look at the growing Latin music market, why this demographic represents an alluring audience, who and how they should be targeted and in what language. What's the secret and should there be an English crossover? More and more artist are noticing this community - even Beyonce singing in Spanish.
Speaker Info  Javier Farfan (Sr Mgr Lifestyle Mktg, Zune), Andrew Herrera (CEO, Remezcla.com), Paul Saucido (Editor/Host, The SaucidoSlant/La Banda Elastica), Maria Madrigal (Co-founder | President, La Banda Elastica)

10:00 AM
to 11:00 AM

New Threats to New Media: Fair Use On Trial
98 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Remix culture has spawned numerous fights over copyrighted content. But the line between fair use and infringement is often blurry. This panel presents real controversial video clips for the audience to judge. Copyright experts and artists will highlight key ingredients for fair use and survival tips for new media makers.
Speaker Info  Jason Schultz (Dir Samuelson Law & Technology Clinic, UC Berkeley), Julie Ahrens (Assoc Dir of the Fair Use Project, Stanford Law School), Kelly Nyks (writer / director / producer, split films lcc), Ben Sheffner ()

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Help! My iPod Thinks I'm Emo
91 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Music recommendation is broken - automatic music recommenders make mistakes that no human would ever make. In this talk, we will explore why recommenders make such dumb mistakes and we will explore some of the new ideas coming from recommendation and music researchers to help make music recommendations better.
Speaker Info  Paul Lamere (Dir of Developer Community, The Echo Nest), Anthony Volodkin (The Hype Machine)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

New Interfaces for Performance
51 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Realtime computation allowed new media artists to develop interactive performances but typical computer interfaces don't offer appropriate interaction models for these contexts. In the DIY generation artists learned new techniques to build their own instruments.Novel interfaces have surfaced and this presentation is a reflection on New Interfaces for Performance.
Speaker Info  Ivan Franco (R&D Dir, YDreams), Bruce Pennycook (Professor, University of Texas at Austin)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Online Content: Transforming Piracy Into Profit
51 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Knowingly or not, people frequently interact with 'stolen' online content - music, video, games, print or otherwise. The viral nature of the Internet has turned piracy of all sorts into a significant issue for many online content producers. Is it possible to transform the challenges posed by the way people freely share content online into scalable revenue opportunities? To do so companies need to start looking at ways to effectively leverage online content proliferation, in order to transform it into direct profit for content creators. This panel will consist of representatives from online content categories (games, video and print) that are actively implementing new models of syndication and distribution that offer real solutions to this issue. The conversation will center around solutions that are currently being used to create revenue opportunities from basic online content-sharing behavior, fundamentally changing the way that content creators benefit from the online distribution of their work. Speakers will look at several technologies and methods being used across different content categories, and talk about how to best leverage distribution and syndication to transform the viral nature of the Internet into a real revenue stream for content creators.
Speaker Info  Jameson Hsu (CEO/Cofounder, Mochi Media), Matt Robinson (VP BD/Partnerships, Attributor), Joyce Kim (Fortis General Counsel), Roy Schwartz (VP of Business Dev, Politico), Jason Oberfest (Senior Vice President of Business Development, MySpace)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Puppets, Theatre and the Conflation of 'Successful' with 'Popular'
19 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  (Based on a post I wrote http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/index.php/2008/06/29/puppets-theatre-and-the-conflation-of-successful-with-popular/)Loren Feldman used a puppet to ruin a social media consultant's career. Every day we witness ego driven squabbles and arguments play out on our twitter streams (often carefully orchestrated between the participants via the back channels). Even Micheal Arrington once went on record as saying he's in the "entertainment business".How did our industry deteriorate into a glorified law of the school yard? In an era of economic downturn, what damage is this having upon the rest of us who simply want to build great products, change the world and (perhaps) retire a little early?
Speaker Info  Ben Metcalfe (Swordfish)

11:30 AM
to 12:30 PM

Rewriting the DMCA: How to Improve Section 114
27 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  This panel will discuss the ugly bits of the Section 114 compulsory license for digital/internet music usage, and what parts are in it for historic reasons that don't apply in todays world; as well as changes that both users of the licenses (webcasters) and content providers (artists, labels) would agree to.
Speaker Info  Rusty Hodge (Program Dir, SomaFM)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Guitar Hero: From Console to Mobile
20 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Translating the Guitar Hero brand into a compelling mobile experience with no external controller required rethinking the way mobile games are developed and delivered. Michael Temkin will discuss how Hands-On Mobile solved the issue of 3D, multi-channel audio, replayability, and authentic representation of the console game in a constrained environment.
Speaker Info  JJ Lechleiter (Sr Prod Mgr, Hands-On Mobile), Lara Norris (Music Licensing Mgr, Hands-On Mobile)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

P2P 2.0: Copyright, Streaming, and Circumventing Chinese Censorship
40 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  HTTP-based content distribution is inefficient and expensive. How can a new generation of P2P applications revolutionize browser-based digital media distribution? How can you use them on your site to give your users high-resolution video for free? How can digital media creators use these new tools to reach new audiences?
Speaker Info  Adam Fisk (Founder, LittleShoot LLC), Ian Clarke (CEO, Uprizer Labs LLC), Wendy Seltzer (Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society), Aaron Ray (Head of the New Media Dept, The Collective), Alice Marwick (PhD Candidate, New York University)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Policy Trainwreck: How Copyright Law Failed the Digital Age
85 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The Digital Age has revolutionized the entertainment industry, while copyright law has not significantly changed in 30 years. Prominent musicians and filmmakers will discuss how the digital age is being embraced and policymakers will discuss what needs to be done to get the copyright freight train back on its tracks.
Speaker Info  Brian Zisk (Creator/Owner/Exec Producer, SanFran MusicTech Summit), Dave Allen (Dir Insights & Digital Media, Nemo/Pampelmoose.com), Jonathan Coulton (Jonathan Coulton), Michael Petricone (Sr VP, Govt Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association), Samantha Murphy (Founder, The Highway Girl)

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

Surviving Scandal: How to Manage Negative Attention in the Internet Age
68 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  With the advent of all-on, all the time Internet attention, there's a very high likelihood of someone in your company doing something to attract negative attention to your organization. This panel will help you rise above your mistakes and take advantage of the spotlight cast upon your presence. The moderator is a former gossip columnist who knows exactly what to do, and not do, to gain attention. Members of the panel include former Reality Show TV stars who have seen their share of attention for their actions.
Speaker Info  Megan McCarthy ()

3:30 PM
to 4:30 PM

The Tale of Two Bruces
23 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  In 1985, a Springsteen album or the live performance cost the same. Today, the album costs almost nothing while the show's ticket price has skyrocketed. Welcome to the next generation of the entertainment industry, where 'live' replaces electronic entertainment as the most important and profitable part of the entertainment economy.
Speaker Info  Jim McCarthy (CEO, Goldstar)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

DRM: The Fight Isn't Over Yet
62 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  Artists like NIN and Radiohead are releasing whole albums for free, DRM-free Amazon is giving iTunes a run for its money, no one buys CDs that may or may not have DRM on them, and Napster has just bet the farm on MP3s. By all accounts the battle against music DRM has been won, but what about the DRM war against the rest of our media? As Bluray gets comfortable with some of the most restrictive DRM in history and Microsoft Vista struggles with convincing its customers what exactly its features are, we should be taking a hard look how we access media. Join us for a discussion on new DRM technologies, recent circumvention attempts, and ruminations on the nature of the beast.
Speaker Info  Fred Benenson (Outreach Mgr, Creative Commons)

5:00 PM
to 6:00 PM

Music 2.0 = Music Discovery Chaos?
88 Attendees
Location Hilton
About  The way we discover music has entirely changed in less than 10 years. Radio's aging demo is presented with safe mainstream offerings. Music discovery is at the forefront of technology and social networks, yet no new standard has successfully been adopted. Websites abound attempt at both data and user generated rating/filter systems. Human VS algorithm: what method can save us?
Speaker Info  Elliott Hurst (CEO, Supernova.com), Sandy Hurst (Supernova.com)