Clay Shirky and Beth Ferguson are the Sunday highlights.
Sunday morning, after augmenting realities at the frog opening night party, and having two days of SXSWi under my belt, I realized I still didn’t know quite what to expect from the conference. I do know, however, that an emerging theme for my personal SXSW journey is “nothing is quite what it seems.” Of course, it’s hard to decipher from session titles and even their brief synopsis just how meaningful the presentation will be for you. But more importantly, I was concerned with avoiding the passive consumption of that knowledge and, if I was inspired enough after listening to a speaker, how might I shift my consciousness, and perhaps even my behavior.
Party Pics from the frog design Augmented Reality party at SXSWi 2010.
The DJ was spinning, crowds were dancing, and people were ... using the porta potties. That's right: Augmented Reality Porta Potties. Get in, have a seat (or not), and do your thing while others watched. Okay, we didn't really watch. But with the help of motion sensors and some exterior augmented projections, people on the outside could see your posture and how long you spend inside. Uncanney valley? Nah. Just a little fun by our tech masters Jared Ficklin, Gregg Wygonik, Michael McDaniel, and others. And les toilets were only the side show. Thousands gathered at frog's 12th annual SXSWi kickoff party to see old friends and make new connections. Fun was had by all. How do we know? We tracked it using RFID card tags. Guests scanned cards when they made friends, when they got a beer, when they danced or had their photo taken. They even checked in after using the john. And then we displayed everyone's activities and connections on a giant Woofie Wall. What's a little augmentation with your fun?
Yesterday, at SXSW Interactive, I realized how serendipitous (and potentially harmonious) your encounters could become, even among the chaotic mission to attend tightly scheduled and provocative talks on everything from transmedia to DIY digital higher education — and then document it all.
Danah Boyd, uncanney valleys, and privacy is not dead.
Favorite new term and concept of the month: "uncanny valley." Previous to this it was the phrase, “insofar as” because I love words that have come together over time to make one word; “whosoever” is another. Such evolutions display the flexibility of the language and its ability to change organically to mold to our needs. Will social media adapt to human needs or will we adapt to the rules established by social media? After hearing Danah Boyd give today’s opening keynote at SXSW Interactive, I wonder.
It happens every year. The bad weather thaws or rains itself out just in time for Austin, Texas, to become known as The Place With the Most Amazing Temperatures On Earth. Today it was all big blue sky and 75 degrees and blinding 8 a.m. sunshine, giving SXSWesters another reason to break out the shades (the first being that for culture-savvy, social-Web tech geeks, SXSW Interactive [#SXSWi] is the coolest place in the world to be).
I suppose one can officially claim a “movement has begun” when the movement has a party at South By Southwest, and so we can now call Social Entrepreneurship officially “started”. The Good Capitalist Party will be Monday, March 15th, 2010, from 7:00pm – 9:00pm, and 1500 of your closest friends have already RSVPed. The party is free, run by @Montero with the generous support of sponsors like Social Edge, Kiva, and my very own Austin Center for Design – an educational institution in Austin that combines interaction design (IxD) and social entrepreneurship (SocEnt) to make some awesome SocEntIxdFtw. You’ll probably be recovered from the frog party by this time, and so come out and say hello. I’ll be there, talking about frog’s efforts in social innovation – including Project Masiluleke – as well as promoting Austin Center for Design.
It’s both amazing and hilarious to consider that being human, or treating people well, or interacting with one another, is now in-vogue in big business. We did a turn with quality (“we need to make things well!”) in the 80s, optimization (“we need to track the supply chain and distribution chain!”) in the early 90s, the internet (“bricks and mortar is dead!”) in 2000, and now it’s All About Social. But when you unwrap “social”, you start to realize that it’s a container for some major, powerful, and fundamental aspects of human life. It’s not a business construct, as was six-sigma or ERP. The stuff we mean when we talk about “social” is the stuff of life, and it’s natural. And so I find it both amazing and very, very funny to observe how fundamentally hard it is for some people to “manage social” and to understand the role social plays in the context of business.
From last October, all the tier-3 hospitals in China, the highest ranked and best equipped public hospitals, were required by the Ministry of Health to provide clinic appointment services. The national initiative of building the clinic appointment system aims to reach these objectives: 1) arrange doctors' agenda better, 2) reduce patients' wait time, and 3) provide better medical consultation. In shorter words, in face of pressing healthcare issues, the government kicks off a service initiative to improve the healthcare efficiency as well as work quality.
Making doctor appointments is common in most developed countries, but it hasn't been put into public use in China before. You can go to the hospital anytime and get a queue number at the outpatient counter. The counter staff then dispatches you to a medical division and you wait outside the diagnosis room till your number is called. Waiting is not a nice thing in any scenario, not to mention when you are feeling sick. Seeing a doctor is like going on a blind date. You don't know who you'll meet and what you would expect in the hospital. All you know is that you feel not well and probably nervous in the medical environment.
ElektronikerThe Remembering Self Reflects on Happiness and Morality at TED TEDsters expect to be happy.
ElektronikerWalking Into a Forest With a MatchAn interview with John Winsor, CEO of Victors & Spoils.
DesignWellBuild it and They Will Telemed?Only by innovating the experience.
design mind on GOODZipcar: The Apple of Car SharingA story of innovative ecosystems.
frogs on the roadAugmented in BerlinWhat an augmented reality world might look like. 
Department of IxDRe-Thinking Interaction DesignOur misguided focus on brand and user experience.
In PersonDr. EvilStanford psychology professor Philip Zimbardo on why good people do bad things. 
Unseen PlacesBehind Closed DoorsArtist and TEDGlobal speaker Taryn Simon talks about her creative process and the work behind her photographs.
The Meaning of BusinessBut What Does Meaningful Mean?An illustrated guide for designing things that matter.
TravelConfessions of Extreme Air Travelers One million miles is nothing.
On StageThe Body Electric & Information Shadow Mobile tech and biofeedback. 
ProjectsGimmie Shelterfrog Visual Designer Michael McDaniel unveils his Reaction Housing System.
On StageThe Quirky World of Manspacesdesign mind Editor-in-Chief Sam Martin’s TED Talk on the spaces men create for themselves. 
On StageInventions: Déjà SoleFor GOOD Magazine’s Inventions video series, frog’s VP of Creative Robert Fabricant imagines a new kind of shoe that can take you anywhere.
On StageDesign Thinking and the FutureCreative Director Fabio Sergio explores how design can create habitable and desirable futures.
