Blog Standard Stuff

Now, with all good intentions I wanted to keep a more complete diary of SXSW2004i
(Or South By Southwest 2004 Interactive for those with acrophobia). But the
trouble with this plan is simple - it was doomed from the very start. Anyone
who has attended before will know that while there are numerous places that
you can get wireless internet access, and potentially blog away to your heart’s
content, it does kinda get in the way of the other reason (aside from the panels
and presentations - y’know the learning about stuff part) for being at the conference/festival,
that being the networking.

So, I didn’t sit typing out my experiences there, instead I just went along
with the ride. But the brain being what it is, there are so many little details
that either meant something to me alone or may may something to others who attended
that I thought I should retrospectively document some of my SXSW2004i highlights.

In no particular order - other than when I think of them - here are my favourites:

• Meeting so many WaSP members in meatspace
  - and discovering that Molly was/is officially
  the ‘Life and Soul of the Party’. A crazy woman who, when combined with another
  crazy woman (Lisa Rein, I am referring to you) instantly guarantees that your
  table will be the loudest in the whole darn restaurant.
• Dave Shea’s immaculate comic timing:
  after Molly had been enthusing to the whole table about why <well_known_AI_guy>
  is so good at what he does for what seemed like a couple of minutes, Mr Shea
  paused for a second then asked: "Just one question - who the hell is
  <well_known_AI_guy>?"
• Discussing the merits of a panel I were in with Eric
  Meyer and then veering off course to come up with the concept of Smile
  Sheets™
• The whole damn Rendezvous stroke of genius (for those not in the know, Rendezvous
  is a Mac application allows anyone on the wireless network to see who’s nearby
  in the room, automatically, and furthermore if you spot a ‘name’ that you’ve
  been trying to track down, you can send a message then and there!)
• The ludicrously over-the-top French/Japanese band/art/performance at the
  Frog Design party. Strange? There are no words to describe just how strange
  …
• Jeff Veen arriving for his first panel
  presentation literally minutes after getting on the plane (all the other panellists
  had been introduced and he magically appeared right on cue)
• … and then Jeff Veen bringing up Accessify.com
  on screen during the presentation <gush />
• People asking me how Manda was/what she was doing while I was in Austin
  (people who I didn’t think/expect to be reading
  the travel diary)
• John Halcyon Styn getting Punk’d at the 2004 Web Awards after the Paris
  Hilton skit
• Being at the Web Awards and seeing Accessify.com in print (as in the awards
  brochure), as a finalist, and in a category (developer resource) so loaded
  with such excellent resources <gush_again />
• Dave Shea winning the developer resource category after one of the biggest
  cheers of support for a nominated site yet
• Dave getting back on stage for the final award - the best in show overall
• The intern who had to accept awards for lots of people he didn’t know or
  care about who, by the end of the evening, was almost a celeb in his own right
  (and as for the ‘dog chewed my SXSW pass’ thing, just classic)
• The awesome kindness of Jess, Kristen
  and Ethan for letting me crash on the
  sofa at their hotels, saving this travelling soul a few bucks and ensuring
  that I didn’t have to negotiate the city’s crazies for prime park bench sleeping
  locations of an evening
• The discovery that Ethan (sidesh0w.com) is, somewhat ironically, cultivating
  something of a Sidesh0w B0b ‘do under his woolly hat
• Reading Dunstan’s painful poetry
  about Jeff Veen during Veen’s session (Jeff, you weren’t being picked on,
  it’s just that you were on stage as Dunstan was on AIM. I’d like to know what
  Dunstan would have penned had Molly been on stage - not too many rhyming possibilities
  with Holzschlag!)
• Oh, and reading Dunstan’s ‘I’m not here’ status message in iChat.
• LaunchBar - without doubt, the coolest [little] app for OS X I’ve
  seen/tried yet (it’s great to see all these things that other people are using)
• Finding out that the W3C’s WAI people - Matt May and Wendy Chisholm - were
  there to reach out to the web design community for help with WCAG2.0. A very
  encouraging sign, and hopefully one that the design community can commit some
  time to.
• Joking about how I must win the prize for being furthest travelled at the
  conference, having flown from Sydney and all that … and then doing just
  that, winning a pack of Texan playing cards with bullet holes through them
  and a leather holster at 20×2
• Meeting some really cool people at the Omni hotel in the two days leading
  up to the conference who showed great hospitality: Colby Parker Jr (how’s
  that for a cool name?) who was working at the Omni business centre
  editing a Billy Bob Thornten film that had been shooting nearby, and Jennifer,
  the waitress at the lobby bar who gave Colby and myself a lift home at the
  end of the evening.
• Finding the ‘Worst ATM in Austin’ just down the road from the Fray event.
  It appeared to be ’securely mounted’ in a very shabby looking bit of fencing
  ; then I watched Simon Willison brave using it ("I had visions of me
  putting my card in and it just driving away."). Keith
  and Dave took photos, but not sure
  if they’re online (yet/at all)
• The bouncer at Fray, whose voice was a good two octaves below what would
  normally be considered human, although it would be wise not to pass comment
  within his earshot - he also looked like he ate web designers for breakfast
  and shot Mac geeks just for the fun of it with a Colt 45 from the comfort
  of his homeley shack in the woods
• Spotting actor Robert Duvall in the Omni bar, just chillin’ with some firends/relatives
  (and then getting cheered and whoops from the other people in the bar as he
  got up to leave: "Yeah, go Bobby!" shouted one, like he was congratulating
  the actor on still being able to walk despite him no longer being a ’spring
  chicken’)
• Finding out that, inadvertently, totally accidentally, I’d dissed Nick Bradbury
  (Homesite, TopStyle and FeedDemon author). He walked past and introduced himself
  at the Frog Design party, but I couldn’t catch what he said (very loud at
  the time) and couldn’t read his name badge and said something like: "Yeah
  whatever, it doesn’t matter" What he actually said was: "Hi Ian,
  I’m Nick Bradbury" (we’ve conversed before by email) to which my "Yeah
  whatever …" response must have seen a little, er, rude? The reason
  it’s a highlight is that I saw Nick the next day, and admitted that I’d not
  heard what he said but had been embarassed to ask again, hence the non-commital
  answer combined with a smile. A highlight because I then realised how bad
  it must have sounded, and was able to apologise … and then have a bloody
  good laugh about it. Phew. Nick, we’re still cool, right? ;-)
• The pizza slice vendor on 6th Street serving up the perfect budget-friendly
  slice of delicious post-pub food ever.
• Having all preconceived ideas about AOL proved wrong by an excellent CSS
  presentation (OK, just some preconceived ideas) that showed they
  are committed to a standards-based redesign. It may be the devil, but it’ll
  be wearing well fitted clothes before the end of this year is out, all things
  being well. Encouraging news indeed.

Well, that’s about all I can think of right now. I’m sure there are more things
to add, and I’ll be sure to add them as I think of them. So, au revoir to another
SXSW and here’s to the next one in 2005. Cheers everybody!

UPDATE 25 March: I’ve uploaded my photos from SXSW 2004, not that I took many, but there you go … it’s better thana kick up the arse.

Now, with all good intentions I wanted to keep a more complete diary of SXSW2004i
(Or South By Southwest 2004 Interactive for those with acrophobia). But the
trouble with this plan is simple - it was doomed from the very start. Anyone
who has attended before will know that while there are numerous places that
you can get wireless internet access, and potentially blog away to your heart’s
content, it does kinda get in the way of the other reason (aside from the panels
and presentations - y’know the learning about stuff part) for being at the conference/festival,
that being the networking.

So, I didn’t sit typing out my experiences there, instead I just went along
with the ride. But the brain being what it is, there are so many little details
that either meant something to me alone or may may something to others who attended
that I thought I should retrospectively document some of my SXSW2004i highlights.

In no particular order - other than when I think of them - here are my favourites:

• Meeting so many WaSP members in meatspace
  - and discovering that Molly was/is officially
  the ‘Life and Soul of the Party’. A crazy woman who, when combined with another
  crazy woman (Lisa Rein, I am referring to you) instantly guarantees that your
  table will be the loudest in the whole darn restaurant.
• Dave Shea’s immaculate comic timing:
  after Molly had been enthusing to the whole table about why <well_known_AI_guy>
  is so good at what he does for what seemed like a couple of minutes, Mr Shea
  paused for a second then asked: "Just one question - who the hell is
  <well_known_AI_guy>?"
• Discussing the merits of a panel I were in with Eric
  Meyer and then veering off course to come up with the concept of Smile
  Sheets™
• The whole damn Rendezvous stroke of genius (for those not in the know, Rendezvous
  is a Mac application allows anyone on the wireless network to see who’s nearby
  in the room, automatically, and furthermore if you spot a ‘name’ that you’ve
  been trying to track down, you can send a message then and there!)
• The ludicrously over-the-top French/Japanese band/art/performance at the
  Frog Design party. Strange? There are no words to describe just how strange
  …
• Jeff Veen arriving for his first panel
  presentation literally minutes after getting on the plane (all the other panellists
  had been introduced and he magically appeared right on cue)
• … and then Jeff Veen bringing up Accessify.com
  on screen during the presentation <gush />
• People asking me how Manda was/what she was doing while I was in Austin
  (people who I didn’t think/expect to be reading
  the travel diary)
• John Halcyon Styn getting Punk’d at the 2004 Web Awards after the Paris
  Hilton skit
• Being at the Web Awards and seeing Accessify.com in print (as in the awards
  brochure), as a finalist, and in a category (developer resource) so loaded
  with such excellent resources <gush_again />
• Dave Shea winning the developer resource category after one of the biggest
  cheers of support for a nominated site yet
• Dave getting back on stage for the final award - the best in show overall
• The intern who had to accept awards for lots of people he didn’t know or
  care about who, by the end of the evening, was almost a celeb in his own right
  (and as for the ‘dog chewed my SXSW pass’ thing, just classic)
• The awesome kindness of Jess, Kristen
  and Ethan for letting me crash on the
  sofa at their hotels, saving this travelling soul a few bucks and ensuring
  that I didn’t have to negotiate the city’s crazies for prime park bench sleeping
  locations of an evening
• The discovery that Ethan (sidesh0w.com) is, somewhat ironically, cultivating
  something of a Sidesh0w B0b ‘do under his woolly hat
• Reading Dunstan’s painful poetry
  about Jeff Veen during Veen’s session (Jeff, you weren’t being picked on,
  it’s just that you were on stage as Dunstan was on AIM. I’d like to know what
  Dunstan would have penned had Molly been on stage - not too many rhyming possibilities
  with Holzschlag!)
• Oh, and reading Dunstan’s ‘I’m not here’ status message in iChat.
• LaunchBar - without doubt, the coolest [little] app for OS X I’ve
  seen/tried yet (it’s great to see all these things that other people are using)
• Finding out that the W3C’s WAI people - Matt May and Wendy Chisholm - were
  there to reach out to the web design community for help with WCAG2.0. A very
  encouraging sign, and hopefully one that the design community can commit some
  time to.
• Joking about how I must win the prize for being furthest travelled at the
  conference, having flown from Sydney and all that … and then doing just
  that, winning a pack of Texan playing cards with bullet holes through them
  and a leather holster at 20×2
• Meeting some really cool people at the Omni hotel in the two days leading
  up to the conference who showed great hospitality: Colby Parker Jr (how’s
  that for a cool name?) who was working at the Omni business centre
  editing a Billy Bob Thornten film that had been shooting nearby, and Jennifer,
  the waitress at the lobby bar who gave Colby and myself a lift home at the
  end of the evening.
• Finding the ‘Worst ATM in Austin’ just down the road from the Fray event.
  It appeared to be ’securely mounted’ in a very shabby looking bit of fencing
  ; then I watched Simon Willison brave using it ("I had visions of me
  putting my card in and it just driving away."). Keith
  and Dave took photos, but not sure
  if they’re online (yet/at all)
• The bouncer at Fray, whose voice was a good two octaves below what would
  normally be considered human, although it would be wise not to pass comment
  within his earshot - he also looked like he ate web designers for breakfast
  and shot Mac geeks just for the fun of it with a Colt 45 from the comfort
  of his homeley shack in the woods
• Spotting actor Robert Duvall in the Omni bar, just chillin’ with some firends/relatives
  (and then getting cheered and whoops from the other people in the bar as he
  got up to leave: "Yeah, go Bobby!" shouted one, like he was congratulating
  the actor on still being able to walk despite him no longer being a ’spring
  chicken’)
• Finding out that, inadvertently, totally accidentally, I’d dissed Nick Bradbury
  (Homesite, TopStyle and FeedDemon author). He walked past and introduced himself
  at the Frog Design party, but I couldn’t catch what he said (very loud at
  the time) and couldn’t read his name badge and said something like: "Yeah
  whatever, it doesn’t matter" What he actually said was: "Hi Ian,
  I’m Nick Bradbury" (we’ve conversed before by email) to which my "Yeah
  whatever …" response must have seen a little, er, rude? The reason
  it’s a highlight is that I saw Nick the next day, and admitted that I’d not
  heard what he said but had been embarassed to ask again, hence the non-commital
  answer combined with a smile. A highlight because I then realised how bad
  it must have sounded, and was able to apologise … and then have a bloody
  good laugh about it. Phew. Nick, we’re still cool, right? ;-)
• The pizza slice vendor on 6th Street serving up the perfect budget-friendly
  slice of delicious post-pub food ever.
• Having all preconceived ideas about AOL proved wrong by an excellent CSS
  presentation (OK, just some preconceived ideas) that showed they
  are committed to a standards-based redesign. It may be the devil, but it’ll
  be wearing well fitted clothes before the end of this year is out, all things
  being well. Encouraging news indeed.

Well, that’s about all I can think of right now. I’m sure there are more things
to add, and I’ll be sure to add them as I think of them. So, au revoir to another
SXSW and here’s to the next one in 2005. Cheers everybody!

Two new submissions for the Mirror Project from me went live today: Give me buttons and a load of balls, both taken in Australia in previous weeks.

Me: A new concept: ‘Smile Sheets’ God knows what I’m on about here …

Eric: That could be really funny. They’re happy smile sheets! Everything’s
lovely and perfect with smile sheets!

Me: "We implemented Smile Sheet technology and er couldn’t be happier
with the results," writes some overpaid CTO, Techsville.

Forget Style Sheets, I think Smile
Sheets ™ are the way forward for the web …

I’ve been in Austin for a few days now, attending SXSW2004.
For those that aren’t aware, it’s a really long diversion from Sydney
Australia.A really long way - for me, that meant three flights
(Sydney > San Fran, San Fran > Denver, Denver > Austin) and a couple
of days of recovery before the conference began. The jet lag had been pretty
mean to but I think I may be over it now. One evening I didn’t get to sleep
until 3am and rose at 1pm the following day, then the next day I slept at midnight,
woke up at 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep until 7am, at which point I managed
to squeeze in one lousy hour (you can imagine how I was feeling at 8:01 that
morning).

As far as I can tell, it’s up to last year’s quality. I’ve met loads of people
from last year and finally put faces to names from the WaSP
crew. In what was probably the biggest single gathering of WaSPs at any
time we had Molly
Holzschlag, Doug
Bowman, Ethan
Marcotte, Anitra
Pavka, Dave Shea,
Anders Pearson,
Simon Willison
and myself.in one of the panel sessions (about accessibility). Not to mention
all the various friends of WaSP that were also in there.

I’ve been having lots of fun on the accommodation front. In an effort to save
a few bucks, I only arranged accommodation for the first few nights and for
the remaining three nights I left it open, counting on the genorisity of others
who had agreed to pup me up (on a spare sofa or whatever). Last night the plan
failed somewhat dramatically. I was going to stay with Nigel
Peck, fellow Accessify contributor,
but he got delayed in meeting up with me outside the Frog Design offices downtown
(where the official launch party took place). At 11:10pm I found myself wandering
the streets of Austin with nowhere to go, carrying around all my luggage, just
hoping that I might bump into someone who had also offered to put me up. Fighting
my way through the drunk Austin party-goers on 6th street, I eventually made
it to the Hilton Hotel - where many of the conference attendees are staying
- to see if they were there. At first glance, there were no familiar faces but
I spotted Jess who became my lifesaver
for the night, saying that I could crash on the sofa at the Hampton Inn. Music
to my ears. It’s all about karma, as she said (I’d previously helped with some
CSS stuff for her, so what goes around comes around).

I later found out that Nigel had got a room for me and left a key at the reception
in the event that I turned up there, but at 11:30 at night, I was just happy
to accept the sofa!

Tonight it’s the 2004
Web Awards, and I’ve put on my loudest Mambo shirt for the event just in
case Accessify wins. No speech prepared (I’m not expecting to win, but it would
of course be nice), I think I’ll just keep it short and sweet. Let the shirt
do all the talking.