Mar26

Reasons To Stay For SXSW Music

Mar26

Austin in Sign

@xxmilkyxx is doing typography at college this term so I thought I'd take some photos of signage around town for him to look at. I'm sure he would love to come and get a lot out of SXSWi but with the bars being strictly over 21 it seems he will have to wait 3 more years to joing the fun with team @aquilatv

Mar21

Speaking to Geeks

Presenters info: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP000307

Quality of sound is not very good, just recorded on my iphone to aid in writing up proper notes at a later date. below are just thoughts & comments, just thrown down here as they come up in the panel.

Being geek is “in” today but how do companies and marketers talk to these currently-hip-but-not-hipsters and become part of the pop culture landscape themselves? Representatives from the pillars of geekdom: anime, comics, videogames and films share how they use social marketing to reach and win over the smart and the skeptical and reap the benefits of nerd word of mouth.

Facebook is widely used not only because its widely used but for large companies the monetary value of the interactions online is easy to show via the analytics.

For blogs and non product related companies the goal is to increase the "fanbase" to spread the word for the cause, content etc.

Dissemination of content to fans is the primary use for the social media aspect of the games industry. Interaction with the consumers helps to drive the brand forward.

Working hard to be human, enjoy the fans, it helps to interact with them, helps build loyalty and trust within the fanbase. Happy fans will evangelise for you.

Forums used to be the largest part of the fan community interaction. Very quickly facebook and Twitter are replacing these forums. The hard core fans prefer to stay in the forums, casual, non obsessive community seems to prefer the more social aspect of facebook/twitter.

Make sure that the person running the social media aspect of the business/ content is as knowledgeable as the fans. they will smell your bullshit a mile away! If you don't know something thats ok, just make sure you are honest.

Film blog: gordon and the whale: people find someone they like and will follow the film critics whatever site they write for.

Capcom games, struggling with having multiple "brands" under one roof. how do you get the fans to come to the site as the Umbrella Brand to initially view the brand they are a fan of but then to help them explore other brands that form the whole.

Keep all the channels open but in the end still keep the website as the heart of where your fans come back to.

Mar21

The Future of Philanthropy

Recent research shows that online giving is growing at a rate of 40% annually. Driving and shaping this activity are some innovative tech startup companies looking to change the very nature of online giving. Using game mechanics, mobile technology, and principals of community management and engagement, these startups are giving younger adults more relevant ways to connect with, volunteer for and donate to nonprofits and causes that matter to them. Questions for this panel of industry representatives will include: What's the future for social giving startups? How are they tapping into existing online communities to encourage philanthropy? And what are the down sides to having so-called "middleware" sites and applications in the mix?

Presenters info: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP8416

Mar21

Did you kill anyone?

Reality in War Movies #realwar

Presenters info: http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_FP7295

Quality of sound is not very good, just recorded on my iphone to aid in writing up proper notes at a later date. below are just thoughts & comments, just thrown down here as they come up in the panel.

Rudy asked what movies he thought protrayed a real life representation of war. The Deer Hunter and Heat - although it is actually a crime drama he felt that the portrayal of characters and the impact on mind, body and relationships are close to what is actually experienced in a war situation.

The Hurt Locker has generated a lot of criticism, although it is a great film with many powerful scenes the overall feeling is that overall the film lacks "real life" credibility. Many films acknowledge that they are purely entertainment and could perhaps start discussions on pertinent topics but those that portray themselves as "real" should be careful before that label is used. The problem is often making the film fit into categories and spaces that the audience will feel comfortable with or entertaining to watch often lends itself to sensationalising the content.

Sensationalising of whats going on in Iraq & Afghanistan is not necessary. There are plenty of interesting exciting stories out there to be told. there is a way to tell stories that grip the audience and at the same time stay true to those who are risking their lives on a daily basis.

@danfung, documentary maker's first time in a war zone was enlightening. Growning up with the hollywood version of war found the true reality vastly different. Sent to Afghanistan to take photos, no idea of making a documentary at all. just felt that he needed to do something to show the reality of war. Ended up staying for a year following a soldier on a tour of duty.

Hell & Back Again

Restrepo

Generation Kill

Generation kill from HBO, recognised as the most true to life television series to date. Compared to The Wire in pace and often controversial portrayal of a place.

Mar21

DSLR Video and Beyond:

The Impact of Emerging Technology on Filmmaking

Discussion Panel moderated by Guy Kawasaki on the way DSLR video is changing filmmaking. Great discussion points. Audio is a little quiet as I was crushed in near the back but woth listening to if you have an interest in DSLR video.

Presenter details http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_FP990160

Quality of sound is not very good, just recorded on my iphone to aid in writing up proper notes at a later date. below are just thoughts & comments, just thrown down here as they come up in the panel.

online resources suggested by panelists:

photography.alltop.com

Vimeo Video Film school: idea is to take what's on vimeo and package it up to help teach how to make better video.

Mar21

@gabysslave unboxes...

Mar21

Dominos $5.99

The "golf sale" guys back home could learn a thing or two from this pizza guy! :-)

Apr06

The Pogoplug in SXSW

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the @pogoplug device I had been sent by the kind folks over at Cloudengines to take over to SXSWinteractive for a bit of a road test. It was a simple install and if you would like to see what I thought when I set it up in the office, the post can be found here...

All was well with the office install and I duly squeezed it into the geekbag, along with a million camera bits, batteries, tapes and I must say very few clothes... I ran out of space for clothes and toiletries, just had to resign myself to having to buy those things as soon as I arrived in Texas.

The plan was to plug it in, in the hotel room, but unfortunately ( as cool as I thought the Motel 6 Austin was, and it was...) there was no hardline access to the net in the rooms, only WiFi.

Fortunately the lovely guys at Heart of England who we were there filming for managed to get us a hardline run to the exhibition stand in the SXSW conference hall. Pogoplug popped in and ready for action.

It very quickly became an invaluable tool for sharing things between the office and the convention. One of the things it helped get over the most was the "time difference". With us being able to pop our memory sicks or usb drive in at the end of our working day and leaving it plugged in overnight ( overnight for us, but morning office hours back home) it meant that Adam and Julia had full access to the pictures, audio and video we had gathered during our working day at their convenience, rather than us having to try and arrange a time that we could be online at the same time to swap the days media.

Installing the pogoplug iPhone app allowed me to have instant access to the files on the drive as well so I was able to pull up any file to show the delegates or the Heart of England team without having to go back to the stand to retrieve them.

As I said in the previous post the web interface is somewhat clunky once you get a lot of files on the harddrive or stick, having to search through pages of material to find the right bits. Until an improved interface is launched it just means putting things in folders makes for easier navigation.

All in all the pogoplug has quickly become an invaluable part of our teams working practice. In the next few weeks we will be moving all the files usually kept on our dropbox and moving them onto our pogoplug drive. Once the swapover is complete we'll load the mac desktop app that allows you to mount your device as a "drive" on your desltop. More about that later...