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A ReadWriteWeb Guide Whether you make your living as a professional pixel pusher or you simply hold yourself to a higher aesthetic standard, South by Southwest has a rich and varied stream of opportunities for designers. We've put together a list of ten essential places, parties, panels and other events to help you tailor your SXSW 2010 experience to your own individual interests. From Web typography to "WTF WordPress?", SXSW rocks for web designers in particular. And the many social events also include a few rich, interactive visual experiences, as well. Read on, and let us know you favorite Austin spots in the comments. Sponsor This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn't your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon! Is WordPress Killing Web Design? Strong words, valid question, and sure to be a contentious panel this year. "Is WordPress killing web design? Leading creatives from the world of web design debate whether CMS tools have made designers lazy, and created a new set of design conventions that designers feel obliged to follow." With Brendan Dawes of magneticNorth, Dan Mall of Big Spaceship, Dan Oliver of Future Publishing/.net magazine, Jina Bolton of Crush + Lovely and Shane Mielke of 2Advanced Studios. Visions "Conceptart.org Events, Massive Black and The Art Department open ScreenBurn at SXSW Interactive with Visions,' a one-of-a-kind multimedia event combining cutting-edge, live, digital and traditional art performances from the top film, video game and classically trained artists in the art world. Experience pulsing music from local and international DJs, special performance by International Burlesque performer, Eva Strangelove, and provocative runway fashion by Loves, Mariessa - all surrounded by gorgeous muses for every imagination and inspiration. Join us for a night of traditional and digital performances like you have never seen before. With software combining with leading talent, the show is not to be missed." 24 Diner After a late party, how about some delicious nosh in a beautifully designed environment? Chef-inspired comfort food is served up around the clock at this relatively new spot. The foodies among you might appreciate the bacon gorgonzola burger or the famed roasted banana and brown sugar milkshake. Aesthetically, 24 Diner is a throwback to clean, mid-century modernism. While you're there, be sure to take in the many charming details of 24 Diner's interior design. Valerie Casey Keynote "Casey, founder and Executive Director of the Designers Accord , works with organizations all over the world to create positive social and environmental impact. She has been named a 'Guru you should know' by Fortune magazine, a 'Hero of the Environment' by Time magazine, and a 'Master of Design' by Fast Company." Museum of Digital Art Showcase "The Austin Museum of Digital Art presents a party featuring live electronic music and visual art. Expect video projections, interactive installations, and a Laptop Battle with musicians competing to outperform one another in a series of elimination rounds. Free for SXSW Interactive badgeholders." Web Fonts: The Time Has Come "After 15 years of contenting ourselves with system fonts, or image type, the planets are now in line for getting real fonts on the web. Some solutions are already working, and a cross-platform standard is emerging. Here web designer and type designers mix it up on how the font hurdles is finally being lept." With Stephen Coles of FontShop/Typographica, Roger Black and David Berlow of The Font Bureau, Jeffrey Veen of Google and Bert Bos of W3C. Of course, there are several other type-related panels throughout the conference, including Get Stoked on Web Typography , CSS and Fonts: Fluid Web Typography , Adobe Sunday Brunch "There will be bacon, coffee and geekery at the Adobe Sunday Brunch. Join us at 10am on Sunday for FREE brunch at the Adobe Day Stage. Adobe product managers and evangelists will be sharing the latest on mobile development with Flash and more from Adobe Labs. RSVP at http://facebook.com/AdobeSXSW . There might even be a few surprises. Join us to find out." Helpful hint: That Facebook link will also show you how to RSVP for Adobe's Happy Hour the following day. Pain-Free Design Sign-Off "Getting design approval can be like pulling teeth. Clients seem to make irrational decisions based on personal opinion. They ignore our expertise, reducing us to pixel pushers. However, it does not need to be this way. With good communication and a sound methodology, design sign off can be pain free." With Paul Boag of Headscape. More sessions on external and internal process: Your Design Process Is Killing You with Sara Summers of Microsoft and Interactive Agency Workflow: Design and Development Process with Danny Riddell of Archetype. Visual Note-Taking 101 "Ever since Leonardo put pen to paper, visual note-taking has been a route to improve the quality of your thinking, make information more memorable, and make your ideas easier to share with others. Learn practical techniques and ''tricks of the trade'' from modern visual note-taking masters: how to write, sketch, and diagram ideas live, in real time, as you hear them." With Sunni Brown of BrightSpot Info Design, Mike Rohde, Dave Gray of XPLANE and Austin Kleon. Society of Digital Agencies Mixer "It was only 3 short years ago that Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) officially announced their launch at SXSW. In celebration of our growth and accomplishments SoDA is holding their signature Digerati Mixer just steps away from the Austin Convention Center. As always we invite all our industry friends to join our SoDA members in a fun and casual atmosphere for appetizers, drinks and conversation." Other Events Of course, this selection represents a mere smattering of all the things to do, see, hear and learn (and eat and drink) while you're in Austin. If you're inclined to spend a little more time inside the convention center, we also stumbled across these panels for designers: Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon Design Fiction: Props, Prototypes, Predicaments Communicating New Ideas Designing the First Fifteen Minutes Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To! Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For Those are a few of our SXSW Interaction recommendations for designers of all stripes. If you've got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks! Discuss
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SXSW 2010 for Designers
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In the West, the concept of the 'read/write Web' is a relatively easy one to get behind. Everybody can contribute content to the Web ('write'), as well as read it - it's a very democratic notion and a big reason why I named this blog ReadWriteWeb back in 2003. However in countries where democracy doesn't prevail, the read/write Web is often subject to censorship rules. In fact, ReadWriteWeb China was taken off the Web - as one part of the closure of community translation service Yeeyan - for about a month starting early December 2009. In preparation for an upcoming event in New York City with Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei - in which I'm a participant, along with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey - we look into the censorship issues and closure risks facing Web publishers in China. Sponsor The Global Times recently published a special report about censorship in China . It is an illuminating analysis of a number of publishers who have been censored or who self-censor themselves in order to survive. Join us for live streaming from the Paley Center in New York City , on March 15, for a conversation between Chinese digital activist Ai Weiwei, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and RWW founder Richard MacManus. The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. According to Wikipedia , Internet censorship in China is "conducted under a wide variety of laws and administrative regulations." In particular China looks to censor political or social content. In mid-2009 a number of prominent Western social networking sites were blocked in China, including Facebook and Twitter . Western media speculated that the bans were put in place to prevent activists from using social networks to organize themselves - which happened in Iran in June of 2009, when Iranian election protesters used Twitter to call attention to their cause. Self-censorship Inside China, self-censorship is practiced by many web publishers in order to prevent trouble. "Self-censorship is the rule of survival that prevents popular websites from being shut down," said veteran web developer Zoe Wang in The Global Times. However, self-censorship is difficult to do in practice - because it's not regulated by a single authority and so there are a lack of clear rules on what to censor. Web publishers in China are never sure what could get their site shut down. On sites driven by user-generated content, publishers routinely censor political content. But while this may appease the government, it risks upsetting the core users. The Global Times article outlines what's happening on Douban , a popular social network in China with 33 million registered users. Censorship has recently tightened on Douban content, including photos, poetry and book reviews. Site Closures, Including RWW China The Golbal Times points to three recent examples of sites closed down by authorities: Fanfou, Yeeyan and Blogbus. The latter two were recovered in January. These site closures directly affected our own company, as Yeeyan is our syndication partner for ReadWriteWeb China. Yeeyan is a community translation website (our initial review 3 years ago ), which publishes some well-known Western news sites such as Guardian, The Guardian, Time Magazine, the New York Times and of course ReadWriteWeb. In early December, Yeeyan was forced to shut down its site - including ReadWriteWeb China. At the time of the closure, the following message was posted to the Yeeyan homepage by the Yeeyan team: "Due to our errors in handling some of the articles on the website, we went against the relevant regulations; therefore Yeeyan has to temporarily shut off its server, and adjust the relevant content." Ethan Zuckerman from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School concluded that "at least one of the authorities that control the Chinese internet - which include the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology - found the prospect of frequent, high-quality translation of US and European media [from Yeeyan] threatening." Yeeyan was back on the air in January (using .org instead of .com) and I'm certainly very pleased to see that ReadWriteWeb China is back as a result. Free the read/write Web! There's no shortage of rhetoric from the West about why China should cease censorship of the Web. Indeed Google made a brave move earlier this year by threatening to pull out of China if its continued to be pressured into censoring its search results. While there has been no resolution in the Google-China case as yet, at least the issue is being highlighted and challenged by companies of Google's stature in 2010. We hope that ReadWriteWeb's participation in the March 15 event at the Paley Center in New York City, where I will be discussing these and other issues alongside prominent Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei and Twitter's Jack Dorsey, helps encourage China to set the read/write Web free. Bookmark our special Weiwei webpage to track the latest buzz about the March 15 event and view a video about Ai Weiwei's art and digital activism. Discuss
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Censorship in China: How ReadWriteWeb China Was Closed Down For a Month
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The big news of the week was Google's efforts to remove censorship from its search results in China - read on for our coverage and analysis of this news. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things. Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is tracking in 2010, as well as giving you the highlights from the leading story of the week. Let us know your thoughts on the new format. Sponsor Story of the Week: Google vs. China Chinese Hacker Behind Google Attack Found Despite Tough Talk, Google Still Censoring in China Italy Attacks Web Democracy with Google Convictions More China coverage and analysis Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei , Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey , and yours truly, Richard MacManus , ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief. The moderator will be Orville Schell , the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST (-5 GMT), from the Paley Center for Media, New York City. Mobile Web The Truth about Mobile Application Stores Mobile Cloud Computing: $9.5 Billion by 2014 Our Hottest New iPhone App Discoveries: February Edition More Mobile Web coverage Check Out The ReadWriteWeb iPhone App We recently launched the official ReadWriteWeb iPhone app . As well as enabling you to read ReadWriteWeb while on the go or lying on the couch, we've made it easy to share ReadWriteWeb posts directly from your iPhone, on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow the RWW team on Twitter, directly from the app. We invite you to download it now from iTunes . Internet of Things Everyware: Interview with Adam Greenfield, Part 1 Why The iPad May Save The Internet Fridge Are Modern Web Apps Killjoys? More Internet of Things coverage Real-Time Web Google Takes First Shot at Facebook Search Results How the Real-Time Web Will Impact Social Change Buzrr Wants to Be Tweetmeme for Google Buzz More Real-Time Web coverage . Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future . ReadWriteStart Our channel ReadWriteStart , sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark , is dedicated to profiling startups and entrepreneurs. Never Mind the Valley: Here's Washington DC What's In A Name? For Startups, It's Crucial Startup Visa Introduced: Is it a No-Brainer? ReadWriteEnterprise Our channel ReadWriteEnterprise is devoted to 'enterprise 2.0' and using social software inside organizations. Are The Fortune 100 Now Beginning To Embrace Social Media Tools? Is Jive Software Taking Steps Toward An IPO? ReadWriteCloud Our channel ReadWriteCloud , sponsored by VMware and Intel, IS dedicated to Virtualization and Cloud Computing. Weekly Poll: Why Is Apple Building a Massive, $1 Billion Data Center A First Look at Apple's Massive Data Center Microsoft to Government CIOs: Choice is Here That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone. Discuss
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Weekly Wrapup: The Week in Web Technology
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On March 15, at the prestigious Paley Center in New York City, a conversation will take place between Chinese digital activist and artist Ai Weiwei , Twitter co-founder and chairman Jack Dorsey , and yours truly Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb founder and editor in chief). The moderator will be Orville Schell , the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. The topic of the event is the emergence of digital activism for fostering positive social change. The onsite event is invitation only, but it will be live streamed exclusively on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, March 15, at 6:30 PM EST, from the Paley Center for Media, New York City. Sponsor The Central Question of the event is: what is the relevance of new social networking technologies in our culture and society; and how can we use these tools for digital activism in order to foster positive social change, particularly in China? You can start the discussion about it now on Twitter, using the hashtag #aiweiwei . We would also love to hear your thoughts on the topic via the comments here on ReadWriteWeb. To this end, shortly we will launch a special webpage that aggregates media and real-time conversation leading up to this event. Ai Weiwei and Digital Activism in China ReadWriteWeb has been actively covering events in China this year, in particular Google's struggle to effect change regarding censorship in China. So I'm personally thrilled to join the conversation with these 3 smart and influential people: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey and Orville Schell. Ai Weiwei is undoubtedly the star attraction. He is China's leading digital activist and a pioneer in the use of blogging and Twitter in China. He's also a renown international artist and architect. In the early 2000s, he collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron on the famous "Bird's Nest" design of the National Stadium for the Beijing Olympics. Ai Weiwei later renounced that design as a "pretend smile" from the Chinese government. Here is a video that explains more about Ai Weiwei's art and digital activism: Further Details About the Event This historic event will be streamed live from the prestigious Paley Center for Media in New York City, enabling an audience of thousands around the world to view and listen - as well as participate in the discussion. The live conversation on stage will be shaped in part by the digital commentary around it, which itself is part of the ongoing global conversation about social media and social change. ReadWriteWeb is driving much of the online component of this event. Stay tuned for more details on that next week. Date: Monday, March 15, 2010 Time: 6:30 - 8 p.m. (Eastern Time) Venue: Paley Center for Media 25 E. 52nd Street New York, NY 10019-6129 Details About the Participants This information comes from the Paley Center website : Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, curator, architect, social commentator, and activist. He was born in 1957 into the domestic political exile of his father, the noted modernist poet Ai Qing. Ai Weiwei's birthright was simultaneously one of a cultural insider and a political outsider, and he quickly perceived the contradictions of his condition. Ai Weiwei's art has been shown in museums and galleries internationally. As a curator, he is known for cutting-edge exhibitions. In the early 2000s, he collaborated with the acclaimed Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron on the winning design for the National Stadium project for the Beijing Olympics, popularly known as the "Birds Nest," which he later renounced as a "pretend smile." Ai Weiwei has never sought foreign citizenship and maintains his credibility among a devoted Chinese following as a highly active blogger, with his finger on the pulse of modern China. Unafraid to spotlight injustices, he has documented the arbitrary conviction and swift execution of alleged cop-killer Yang Jia in Shanghai, investigated shoddy school construction in Sichuan, and led a movement to oppose the nationwide installation of Internet filtering software in new computers. He is critical of one-party rule and government corruption, as well as the nationalist tendencies of China's citizenry, which allow state power to go unchecked. As a result his blogs are shut down, his home studio is under surveillance, and he's had to have cranial surgery for injuries sustained during a recent altercation with local police in Sichuan. Jack Dorsey is the creator, cofounder, and chairman of Twitter, Inc. Originally from St. Louis, Jack's early fascination for mass-transit and how cities function led him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Throughout this work Jack witnessed thousands of workers in the field constantly updating where they were and what they were doing; Twitter is a constrained simplification designed for general usage and extended by the millions of people who make it their own every day. Jack is dedicated to creating public goods which foster approachability, immediacy, and transparency, and is starting a second company named Square focused on bringing these concepts to commerce. Richard MacManus is the founder and editor in chief of ReadWriteWeb, one of the most popular and influential technology blogs in the world. New Zealander MacManus founded ReadWriteWeb in 2003 and grew his blog about the evolving Internet into an international team of journalists. ReadWriteWeb is read by millions of thought leaders and consumers, and is syndicated daily by the New York Times. From the early days of blogging, social networks and YouTube to the future of machine learning, aggregate data analysis and other meta-trends, MacManus is widely recognized as a leader in articulating what's next in technology and what it means for society at large. Orville Schell is the director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York. He has written fourteen books, including nine on China, and is at work on an interpretation of the last one-hundred years of Chinese history. He was a Fellow at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the recipient of many prizes and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Overseas Press Club Award, and the Harvard-Stanford Shorenstein Prize in Asian Journalism. Prior to assuming his position at Asia Society, he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Discuss
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Historic Conversation in NYC: Ai Weiwei, Jack Dorsey & Richard MacManus
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