in which I write about stuff
keep writing, keep writing, keep writing.? so says dooce.
so I’m sitting here in a dark room, thinking about writing, and what I’m going to do with writing, and do I have any original thoughts in my brain today?
more importantly, am I awake?
now I have a half-hour, so I’m going to go find a bathroom and maybe some coffee.
I’m sitting the back of the overflow room (because that’s where the plug is), and there’s not anything note-taking-worthy, but it’s an enjoyable conversation.
she has a lovely light southern accent, btw.
I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the chat and hopefully not fall asleep.
or whatever the actual title is….
the break this time was mind-blowing. met Eric Meyer and Molly H. ran into Denise. met George Kelley and a women whose name I don’t remember, but who had streaks of blue in her hair and was described as an obsessive documenter.
this is the one that should’ve had Shelley. 🙁
the moderator doesn’t appear to be able to use the mike.
how has visibility played out in their experience?
kabili: talks about the weblogs inc network, and I get the impression that her motto is similar to what I always say about computers in general. (ie: the secret is to not be afraid and to just do something.)
henry: (mmmm…purple hair!) anything to do with technology to make us more visible is good. barrier to visible was being unfocused, writing about everything in one blog. and how do you search for, say, women bloggers in Latin America?
debolt: was the little grey-haired lady in the back row who just came & listen. by listening, became a convert (css, accessibility, etc.) if I ever worship a male god again his name will be Eric. 🙂 couldn’t find any books that taught the way it ought to be done. (know that feeling!)
sort of out of it catching up with other stuff….
“everyone will be famous to 15 people” (my favorite line about the internets ever.)
comment from the audience: just keep on going. the “kicking our own butts”.
another: never worked somewhere where the smart people all get promoted and the dumb ones get fired.
the holistic life flipsides. if I write about my personal life, do I lose other readers.
“maybe that 23-year-old guy needs to hear about that experience”
sit down, lady in the WP shirt. let somebody else get in.
y’know, this reminds me of round & round conversations I was in back in college. I think I’m going to bail. honestly, would rather sit & have a good chat with Liz & Virginia (and Meri down in the front row) than do this panel thing.
do you change what you write to get readership?
yeah, I’m outta here.
panel. moderator from knowability.
“who’s going to clean up this mess?”
don’t recognize the panelists, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. a Flash designer? huh. “nordic goddess of accessible flash”
they brought a bullhorn, and the powerpoint has cute photos. good deal.
being accountable for using technology to make basic human needs progressively and humanely.
what’s cool? throwing question out to the audience.
gordon: it’s always about a human, and then being humane in dealing with our users. (the word user isn’t exactly humane!) what do we need to do to get this off the ground? “dead customers?!”
24 virtual deaths per day! “start button to stop” — that’s why I have that shortcut on my taskbar “shiny red button”
this guy is really really high energy!
basically everything sux. (I NEVER use clear buttons.) reminds me of that webvisions presentation. (who was that again?) is there good news?
future could be rosy, but maybe not. “change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”
design as power to change! and we are all complicit. (I should make friends with somebody at CIS, instead of always just grumbling.)
think like your user.
silly bullhorn moment…step away from the visuals. lists and notes. HTML prototyping…I find a piece of paper with postits helpful, too.
Ruger….
what is technology? when you create something that improves people’s lives. things I feel that way about at work: the book exchange. the events calendar. the evening admin calendar. some of the wordpress installs.
why should you ever have to retype all the contacts into your cellphone? (I’ve only ever had the one, but I’ve had that issue with address books.)
tech as utility.
“technology should [be?!] simple”
how many features are in Word? 47,219. 😉
why is he leaving the “be” out of all his slides.
discussion of synchronizing address books. (oy, that’s a story worth telling! I still get searches related to my attempt to help C organize his Tbird contacts.)
there we go: “technology should be contextual” — all the verbs in place. goes with yesterday’s play session.
given enough tech all human problems are superficial. ????? really? well, okay, “a utility that supports the solution”
a zen approach: we are not important. we should be transparent.
eaton: visual designers represent. accessible != boring.
clearing flash’s name. good tool for kids with learning disabilities. huh. should talk to Elizabeth (hi!) and to Betty’s replacement, whoever that turns out to be.
mainstreaming. (again, Elizabeth, also my bestest junior high friend Thao.) 96% of disabled students are mainstreamed. (of 6.2 million) is the law for schools to provide accessible content.
giving the disabled student the experience…and to disabled kids, technology is often everything. blind kid with gps, palm pilot, phone w/mp3 player, laptop w/out screen. (damn.)
accessible puzzle. an element deemed inaccessible: drag and drop. for mobility impaired (and blind?): match pieces to parts of a sentence, use keyboard. seems weird, but then again, I’m damn near learning disabled on the audio channel.
in flash, if you work towards accessible, then you get usability as a bonus. macromedia-recommended best practices.
can’t afford it? like all accessibility, cheaper if you do it up front. checklists help. yes, takes more time, but not out of control, and worth it.
“show social maturity” — I think that’s lingo that works well in an academic setting. (hey, I’m in an academic setting!)
moderator question: how do you communicate this message to clients? eaton rambles on, gordon jumps in: grassroots approach. we need to talk to the others. (lost reference? ::shrug::) ruger has noticed that people who champion this in the org are not good at selling. in his situation he can dictate. 🙂 need to be better at selling. a good salesperson talks about the client’s (customer’s) business, not the product. and ANYTHING that isn’t thought about in the beginning is going to be expensive to retrofit.
what about grassroots orgs that aren’t accessible? moveon.org, etc.
demo the game without visual output? tell QA that one test is to turn the screen off. and the projector has been turned off. example of something that went wrong.
question from a guy who does web for the feds. doesn’t understand why we have to sell clients on accessibility…why isn’t it just included in the bid? we have to protect our clients from themselves. I think he’s entirely right. good comparison, too: we don’t tell them, “we’re using Java because it has good iterators.”
ruger has experience with clients giving ludicrous requirements. gordon doesn’t believe in “sales” per se…death to advertising & all that. “be the change” — build the thing the way it ought to be. again: we’re complicit. (a theme of my novel, btw.)
back to the demo, what about with JAWS or whatever: do they fight? yes, but “self-reading” is best for younger users, kids don’t use screen readers until 1st grade, don’t get good until 5th/6th.
the social responsibility issue in re: the basics, access in rural communities, etc. moderator: what you’re doing is what we’re talking about. gordon: is there any one small thing you can do? investing in satellite phones.
how do you show off accessibility skills with non-disabled clients who don’t know?
ruger: we demo ancillary benefits. or pick simple examples.
“git’er done”
with an iced mocha and a densely delicious cranberry-orange muffin.? downtown Austin is near empty this time of day on Sunday (just before 8 am).? and yet it’s already warm, thickly so, as I rode from the hotel over here.
this time I have a deep comfortable chair looking out the front window, and I feel mellow, in that floaty sleep-deprived way.
something to note about Halcyon: the seating is plush, the wifi works well, and every plug has an inline powerstrip.? perfect for the mobile blogger.? I could live here.? not in Austin, just in this coffeeshop.
although they are playing Dylan, who I’m not particularly fond of.? ::shrug::
There’s something about this day that might give you an uneasy feeling. Take the pressure off your intellect and just stop trying to figure it all out. This isn’t about giving up on important matters; it is simply about not trying to explain your feelings to everyone. Be aware of them while you go about your day and if possible, make time to be by yourself.
::laughs::
and no, I didn’t get back to sleep. if you see me drifting off during the keynote, come over and kick me.
nothing like waking up at 4 am to the sound of a fire alarm to:
which, by the way, turns out to be, in order of recollection:
but not the charger for the phone, any of my other clothes, my meds (!), the book I got signed yesterday, etc.? very clarifying.
it was, of course, a false alarm, started probably by some yahoos (not the web kind, hopefully) on my floor doing something with a fire extinguisher.? that was the scary part, because as I came out of my room I saw what looked like smoke, which got me moving damn quickly down the stairs.? I probably should’ve been tipped off by the fact that it wasn’t at all hot in the hallway, but, um, yeah…it was 4 am.
I almost didn’t wake up, which is maybe even scarier.? I think the alarm went on for quite a while before I realized it wasn’t just part of a weird dream.
this hotel has been the death of a thousand tiny cuts.? no remote for the tv, then the microwave, last night something weird was going on with the toilet, which I still need to go talk to somebody about, and then this alarm.? it’s cheap, and a decent location…and the staff have all been really friendly…but I don’t know if I’d do this again.
the question is, will I get back to sleep?? and for how long?
so, yeah…I got to the bus stop and realized that the schedule I had in my bag was for weekdays, not Saturday.? but a cabbie noticed me and I decided to go with it.? had a nice conversation; he’s an Iranian who’s lived in Austin for 35 years and loves it.? more money than I should be spending, but in this case it wasn’t just the quick transportation but the experience.
my wrists hurt, my shoulder really hurts (carrying laptop + dom scripting book!), and I’m exhausted, but after a shower, and with genuine quiet, I feel optimistic.
like the lady says, tomorrow is another day.
Too overstimulated to be social, too wired to go back to the hotel room.? So, thanks to Ethan Marcotte, I’m at Halcyon, a coffeeshop on 4th.
I can feel myself start to hit the wall psychologically.? It’s all just a little too loud & crowded.? Oh, who am I kidding?? It’s way too loud and too crowded.? And I enjoy it, but only in brief spurts.? And I call H, to see if she wants to hang out, but she’s already settled in for the night, and I don’t want to ask her to drive an hour into town.? She likes this sort of scene even less than I do!
I know this feeling, an eagerness to be liked, to get attention, while at the same time being utterly overwhelmed by the noise and press of other people.? By sitting here, I’m attempting to pay attention to it without just giving in and whimpering in a corner in my hotel room.
I’m feeling both maudlin (as if on cue, Depeche Mode comes onto the sound system) and brusque.? Chloe-like, in some ways, for the 24 fans in the audience.
its a question of lust
its a question of trust
its a question of not letting
what we’ve built up crumble to dust
how’s that for tired and nostalgic and maudlin?
and for today I’m tired of having the same conversation 879 times in the course of an hour.? especially since I can hardly hear most of it.
somebody should set up an introvert’s lounge at sxsw interactive. a place for those of us who struggle in being social to back away for a bit and recharge w/out going all the way back to our respective hotels.? a spot designed to reduce overstimulation.? cool, quiet, comfortable.
don’t I sound great complaining about my vacation?? if I can manage to get enough rest, I imagine I’ll do fine tomorrow, get back to having fun and being engaged.? at least that’s what I tell myself.? right now?? not so much.
the opening party was…whew.? hit my claustrophobia buttons, much like my Bumbershoot experience of a few years back, which felt like being digested through the crowd.? as with every other thing here, I did meet a couple of interesting people, including a very cute and engaging local.? but so very loud, and so very crowded, and like I said, when I called H to see what she was up to, she was in for the night.
the higher ed webbies get-together was good…again, too fscking loud, but otherwise lots of good chitchat, got to meet Andrea, who I felt as though I knew already, and Glinda, who I sort of know through Andrea.? Glinda’s husband is a hoot, too.
had a really good hard cider, Ace, from California; something to look for later.
took lots of pictures.? heard “10:15 Saturday Night” (Cure) at Buffalo Billiards, and the guy sitting next to me (David something) said when he was in high school he used to play that in a band out on the streets of Austin, on the upright bass.
I told my secret from the play panel to someone else, a couple of someone elses, and the sky didn’t fall in.? again, I felt free.
in some ways, this space is as much of a trap as it is a mode of self-expression.? I have built myself into this, and I can’t be someone different now.? okay, maybe that’s putting it too strongly.? but it does seem that way.? (again with the google-ability. put my name in that textfield and hit enter.? I dare you.)
and that sensation, combined with the noise, combined with the crowds, the overstimulation, induces a feeling of shearing apart.
I thought my bus was at 11:25, but it looks like there’s one at 10:45, so I’m going to go now…..
omg I met zeldman at the break. (he happens to be a midget.) plus kottke.
danah boyd & panel.
global vs. local. myspace, using the net to connect with people you already know. and play. video games, online gaming, etc. we continue on playing the rest of our lives.
big green stickers. an all-woman panel.
40 million people move every year, although the number has reduced over the last 5 yrs. “moving is almost universally annoying” (as C’s mom says: 2 moves is as good as a fire.)
learning the new place vs. nostalgia for the place you left behind. (sometimes I still miss living in the stadium district.)
why am I not able to get to the net?
moving physical locations causes you to change yourself, re-evaluate. I find just going on a faraway vacation does the same thing.
meeting new people is probably the hardest thing. (hell yeah. I still don’t have my own independent network in Oly.)
“collaborate tangible interfaces” keeps repeatedly stumbling on it in her work.
difference between calculator & abacus, the incidental uses. I still can’t get online. 🙁
missed a bit…something about social work (not “social work”), distilled in moments of playing, exists in a continuum, but pushes the boundaries in collaboration.
liz lawley is substituting. “because I’m not a graduate student and I have tenure, I didn’t do any research beforehand”
world of warcraft + her kids + moving to seattle. using space to try aspects of identity. which is okay if it’s people I don’t know, but not so much with kids, spouse, coworkers. I have this issue with my blogging identity vs. my in-person life.
is it fun anymore if she has to supervise her kids in WoW?
conference issues, abandonment, etc. w/family, but “will you meet us online?” was a good temporary substitute. (C & I have been gtalking off & on. she talks about avatars & social space levelling, with im it levels out some of our communication issues.)
danah: as designers, what do we need to be responsible for?
wacky game. green stickers, secrets. lots of laughter. my secret seems to have disappeared. (no, I’m not going to tell you.)
breaking social norms.
this is actually too interesting & emotionally engaging to take a lot of notes. the issues of physicality, reminds me of some issues from Emergence, IIRC
reminded somebody of Postsecret. many many people in the room have seen it. but most of those secrets are really depressing. most of them here, because of the context, are more goofy.
grouphug.us online posting vs. postsecret where every postal worker in between can see your secret as it goes in.
liz had to skip back one secret a few times.
how does massive experience in virtual worlds change how people socialize in person? danah pretends to be jane. yes, it does change…she designs games to work on that.
are you designing to help people interact in a more fun interesting way?
as people got comfortable, secrets moved faster.
how can we modify it for different behavior?
(I said that I let go of my secret, which was difficult, and felt freed.)
out of time!
…this one I need to get some time to process, maybe late tonight in my room.