MikeBlogging: Saturday morning/afternoon
I have been loving the panels today. I got a lot out of them that I didn’t think I would… the discussions led to interesting topics both in and out of the realm of the titles of the presentations.
SXSW: Catching up with Accessibility
This was kind of an eye-opening panel for me because I never gave much thought to designing sites while keeping in mind people that don’t or can’t access the web in a traditional way. The presenter was from the W3C, and thankfully, rather than bore the audience with standards discussion, she approached the topic by showing what types of things physically handicapped people actually use to access the internet. By watching/listening to screen readers, seeing the devices people have to use other than mice, and viewing the pages through the eyes of non-traditional “browsers”, there was truly an enlightenment of why we should design and code to certain specs. She gave a basic overview of the types of things that should be done.
One of the more interesting thoughts I came out of this with was the counter-intuitive conclusion that todays smartphones are actually helping the handicapped in a bizarre sort of way. By generalizing and coding our sites to be mobile, we’re also making it easier for ALL types of devices — not just mobile phones — to access the web.
Things I need to read up on after this panel:
. WCAG 2.0
. WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
. ARIA - making ajax apps accessible
. Progressive enhancement (something that has come up multiple times already in multiple places)
SXSW: Just Over 50 and Not Dead Yet
I went to this because, well, we have a lot of older moms on Cafemom. I got almost nothing out of this panel that I didn’t already know. The Q&A was tedious at best, as the self-promoting questioners proceeded to ask questions generalizing people over 50, despite the entire panel’s basic hypothesis that people over 50 really can’t be generalized and they’re as diverse as every other age group. Some favorite questions were: “Do old people go to the movies?” and “…so I want to get my podcast listeners to interact, how do I do that?” That was my favorite - it’s like saying, “I want to buy a car, what car should I buy?”
3 things completely off topic but that I found mildly interesting and amusing:
1. Ted Cohen, one of the panelists, was a former record industry exec who was the first that I’ve ever met or heard speak that actually UNDERSTOOD whats happening to the industry in lieu of the internet. He made the key distinction of “music as a service over music as a product” that’s gradually creeping into the industry whether they like it or not.
2. Stats from a poll at a site called “Third Age”: 80% of the users click on health care ads and 73% are concerned about privacy. The rates seemed high to me, but it does offer insight.
3. The marketing lady (I can’t recall her name) talked about one of the funniest and most inappropriate campaigns I’ve ever heard of: on valentines day this year, one of her clients ran a “Test Your Love” campaign where you could send your friends and loved ones ecards to remind them to get colonoscopies. That’s exactly the valentine I would want.
At this point, Paul, Matt and I grabbed lunch. The place was terrible, they put in the wrong food for me, and it took forever. The burger I had was pretty good, though.
Because it was sooooo slow, we were late for the 2:00 sessions. I wanted to go to the Desktop -> Device panel talking about mobile stuff and featuring that guy from that site Twitter. Unfortunately, the crowd was overflowing out into the hallway, so I opted for the next best choice:
SXSW: Online Extremism and the Muslims Who Fight It
This was a great panel. I walked in as they were talking about the issues that hadithura.com - a Muslim social network of sorts - had faced (and continues to face) with growth and as radical Islamics began coming on to the site and using it as a platform for hate and threats of violence. While this is obviously the most extreme end of the spectrum, I felt it related very well to online communities in general - the dissenting views that disrupt the communities can be difficult to deal with. It’s a difficult balance to maintain a sense of free speech and expression, keep 98% of your members happy, and remove the 2% that ultimately thwart your growth and potential as a community.
There were 2 speakers from the Department of Homeland Security who also gave interesting insights into Islamic extremists. One discussed Al Queda as a “brand”. Very topical, interesting discussions.
SXSW: Body Optimization
I’ve been recently trying to get myself back in shape for a variety of (legitimate) reasons, so I found this useful. Basic, no brainer stuff that I think will help me immediately:
1. Carry water. Drink lots of it.
2. Eat more fruits/veggies, consume less dairy
3. Rather than restrict things in everyday life, find alternatives to those things
4. Don’t immediately dismiss things for tasting bad, apparently your taste buds change or something. I don’t know if I buy this one, I think it’s a shill for the vegetarians on the panel to push crappy subpar shit.
I have a ton of stuff written down from this panel, but the wiki for it is here:
http://bodyoptimization.pbwiki.com/ImpulseVsThinking
Tonight, I’ll be off to a bunch of parties. With any luck, the internet connection in the hotel will start working.
