7 posts tagged “sxswi”

I am going to try to recap my adventures elsewhere (with links!) but  I feel compelled to say "it's over." All of my sxsw friends have flown away until next year, and I'm still in Austin. As anticipated, it was almost like the ending of/beginning of a movie with everyone twittering their airport frustrations, and finally landing at their varied destinations, weaving in and out of each others' paths, and rejoining their lives already in progress.

I spent much of yesterday working, and much of today so far has been spent sleeping, as I seem to have a raging case of cedar fever. It's good though. My body knows me well. I could almost hear it plotting for/against me "Look," my body says to all of the overactive little white blood cells... "there is no way she is going to let herself sleep in on the first day of her vacation unless we take her down by force!"

And take me down, they did. Now, I feel ok. Refreshed. I have a bit of a headache, but my body really needed the sleep, and I am up and at 'em. Playing Sims, planning a total house cleaning spree, reading to the kids, and making reservations and itineraries for my short jaunt out of town next week. I keep wavering between whether I want to go for one night or two...I will have to decide by tomorrow. On the one hand, I might as well hit three different points in Dallas while I am out...on the other, it's expensive to be away from home base for that long. On yet another...why not splurge while I have a little bit of throwaway cash. I guess I will see how far I get with the house cleaning and decide from there. At least I got my seemingly inevitable sick-while-on-vacation thingy out of the way right off the bat.

The change of seasons is close at hand. Winter to spring is a time for renewal. I have a lot of old habits and worn out relationships that I either need to upgrade or trade in to make room for something healthier and cleaner. In the interim, I have much to consider. It's also time to think about the daily/weekly/monthly rhythms we have established as a family, keep what works and discard the rest...and perhaps seek new rituals to fill the gaps. The boys are getting bicycles from the spring fairy, in addition to our trip to the museums of Dallas. They refuse to learn to ride, but I am tired of being bound to the car. I need to prepare them for the potential of one day not having a car, and I just think it sounds nice to go on a family bike ride. We'll see how they do.

So, that's it. I love it when there is such a marked and tangible ebb and flow in my life. The sxsw'ers washed up on the shores of Austin, left little gems of love and knowledge, and have drifted away on friendly tides. I'm so happy I got to share their presence, even though their absence makes me sad.

I have been too overwhelmed to write. Overwhelmed by all of the conversations, panels, ideas, thoughts, feelings associated with sxswi, as well as with a moral/social dilemma I am struggling with in my personal life. I need a long break from everything, and I am thankful that I am going to get that in the next week and a half.

I do want to recap my sxsw experience, and I will. I have some podcasts, and I recorded some panels, and I'm sure i will find words to write about all I have absorbed and all I am taking with me. I might need to do that after I have had a day of rest. Right now, I would really like to see my children and play another game of "chase the coley" like we did last night...and hear Monk talk about how he grew up with that particular tree in the park and how it's always been special to him only I didn't know about it until last night.

There's just too much going on in my brain right now...and in my soul...or heart...or whereever feelings arise from. I need a nap, and if it wasn't for will wright, worldchanging, and bruce sterling this afternoon, I might just sneak out and take one.

Instead, I am going to sit here...wonder what to eat for lunch...and try not to think too much.

at the accessify website, demonstrating accessible table builder, accessible form builder, accessible list builder, etc.

Evaluating accessibility with toolbars - "don't be a tool. Use one."

headings & accessibility

-screen reader users

-keyboard navigation

Web Dev Toolbar & document outline

outlines page and gives idea of accessibility graphically

Semantic markup in general

using right element for the right job

javascript not necessarily evil...depending on type of site, may need to have to work without it.

web developer toolbar enables you to see what a page looks like with certain features enabled or disabled.

labels enhances usability for all users, even sighted mouse users.

alt text - deceptively simple? most basically accessibility requirement, but not all agree it's the best solution

other tools:

graybit - graybit.com

w3c markup validator - not cut and dried...good start, but not necessarily the end all

gez lemon's clour contrast analyser (extension for firefox)

functionally accessible - functional accessibility evaluater from the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign

Unobtrusive accessibility - doing the right thing, without your boss knowing.

(Doing the right thing, putting the mark up in there, and hiding it from view.)

Hidden form labels

hidden skip links

hidden table head

Good forum, very informative. Too short!

freedomhouse.org - map of press freedom

globalvoicesonline.org

google maps mashup shows public and secret prisons in Bahrain(?)

Having trouble keeping up with this guy. he's giving so much information so fast.

What states do:

mazret.com - leading ethiopian opposition news site.

Pakistan has blocked all of blogger in the process of blocking six sites they considered dangerous.

Someone who works at blogger speaks up to say that ban was lifted last week

Mahmood of Mahmood's den is fighting against registration of bloggers in Bahrain

freekareem.org

How we fight back

tor.eff.org - produces a suite of software which allows for circumventing firewalls or protecting identity online.

randomly routes you through proxies, and by the time you come out of the cloud, people can see what you are writing, but they can't see where you came from.

Oppressive countries realize that free speech is important for societal evolution, and they are trying to manage change.

There is some nationalism when people talk about free speech. You have to see it as an ongoing story involving cultural tensions. It's important to allow these tools, but it's at least as important that people who live in places where speech is free to not villify those countries where speech is restricted.

shahed amanullah altmuslim.com

a great deal of what's happening w/r/t repression of speech is happening in muslim countries.

why should we care

forces against muslim bloggers include governments and extremists.

Blogging and open discourse

Linear correlation between extremism and political instability. Extremists do not want stability.

Serbian panelist Jasmina from yugoslavia.

calls herself a case study

during bombings had surreal vision of seeing herself bombed on the tv

all of the tv broadcasts were lies, but NATO lied, too.

Invisible victims - both sides were denying.

These invisible victims caused her to start her blog for friends and family. Anonymously...

but family knew it was her.

ABC news wanted to interview her..but wanted to protect her identity. She realized she was in danger of becoming collateral damage. So being public and non-anonymous was her only protection.

question one:

do people use anonymity to spread lies...and are anonymizers responsible for reporting this kind of abuse or distortion.

answer is if you can give anyone anonymity, must commit to giving anonymity to all. No one can pressure for information because they can't keep it.

Someone recently used TOR to create an anonymous blog to publish photos of the babes of the best law schools in the us. and there was a complaint...but nothing they could do.

There are people who use the system who end up getting caught in other ways...but there is no way to get caught through tor

On one hand you are advocating for free speech, on the other hand...

we know people use the postal mail to spread lies, to send child pornography, and do other things. Yet we agree as a social conscences that we don't allow all mail to be opened to censor these things.

question 2

how to move us/russia where insidious censorship happens towards more freedom

answer

anonymity is a tiny piece of it.

wants people to have access to anonymity, but also wants people to be able to stand up for what they believe.

there is a question of having free speech, and then there is a question of having speech accomplish what we need it to accomplish.

question 3

what is the specific/ongoing role of the expatriate press?

4th world - people who are post-national.

new social class of expats.

a lot of the senegalese election debate happened online by expats.

jasmina says there is a serbian interactive blog that became most read media in Serbia within a couple of months.

Some dude is talking on his phone. wtf?

what do we do about people who lack infrastructure, such as electricity

answer: the economic barriers are enormous...so community radio is important to link.

other barriers=literacy

community radio plus mobile phones is the solution...is a bridge.

this is still an elite media...but it's an elite media that does have a global audience.

we need to amplify the voices who can utilize the media.

also need to address the global digital divide and find ways to increase access.

question importance of these tools in "modern world"...omniscient surveillance

mindfreedom.org

whistle blowing is a big deal.

I am tired.

so so so tired.

free speech is something that runs through a lot of our life and is not very well-guarded.

epic.org

eff.org

privacy and free speech is an issue no matter where you are and what you are doing.

eff has a big party at sholz garden 7 PM monday.

I have notes on the panels and Tracy and I did a podcast from a loud bar that I don't know if I will put up, but might. Internet access at the event was sketchy, and I was not about to drag my computer around town with me.

But let me recap briefly here to remind myself for later...

Arrived on time-ish. Waited in the reallyfuckinglongline for my badge, then waited in a thronging mob for my badge to be made. Managed to get to the emerging social and technological trends panel on time. I recorded it and took notes (note to self: need to dump the data from the media player before leaving today.) then went down a secret elevator to attend the bridging cultural divides panel. Jason, Lynne, Samitha, and Elayne (crap. I'm too lazy to get up and check the spelling of her name, but I am pretty sure we talked later about how her name is the opposite of mine) did great. I liked what Jason had to say about gating and also about anticipating the needs of a particular community rather than just building stuff that seems cool to the developer community. Also enjoyed what Lynne had to say about free speech and historical records (even if they are historical records of someones idiocy.) I have a lot to say about this panel, but I said it in my notes and I don't want to give too much detail here.

After the cultural divide panel, we all went out to lunch at Mekong River, which was good. I think the basil tofu at Thai Passion is better, but the company was good so the food didn't really matter. Met a comic book loving, austin living in woman whose name begins with an M, but I can't remember the rest (do you sense a theme here? I am just awful about names! Thankfully I have it written down somewhere) but who I hope to run into more often. We had a nice talk about families and computers and homeschooling. I think this is the first time I have ever met someone new at sxsw who is actually from Austin! Yay!

Anyway, finished up lunch late and missed the keynote, but no matter. I'm really kind of tired of everything being about marketing and monetizing, but I suppose that is the unstated purpose of all sxsw panels. I want there to be more about inclusion and opportunity, not just of untapped markets, but of, you know, segments of society who need to be included for the sake of social justice.

Sat in on a godawful panel by some hack who wrote a book about all the chicks he slept with. d0000d. I guess I was supposed to be impressed. I was told my use of the word assholishness made a small cadre of twitterers at The Hideout erupt into laughter, which made me feel like my time was not totally wasted. I ignored the next panel to play around on the suddenly available internet, then headed down to the panel on blogging and spirituality.

Tracy and I met up and hoofed it to the car to drop off all of our gear, save the essentials. Thought about dorkbot, but the line was too long, so we walked over to Whisky Bar for drinks that we had to pay for (!!!!) Met a bubbly woman from Boston who wants to work on a project connecting businesses with non-profits somehow, and a dude in an oscar the grouch shirt. Sat for a bit, swilled two very strong rum and cokes, then stumbled back to Tracy's car and on to the AMODA thingy at Mohawk's, but we were early so we decided to get something to eat.

Does the city do some sort of homeless sweep for sxsw? Because there seemed to be a LOT fewer panhandlers in the usual areas where panhandlers congregate. At any rate, we made it to Havana unscathed and hungry. Ate some really good food and some veggies that tasted like they were straight out of the frozen food aisle. Hit or miss at that place. I'm going to stick with El Vegetariano, even though it is mostly fried stuff. Tracy started talking to his fork and planning escape routes from the restaurant in case of laser beam attack, so I figured it was time to get him out of there...

Back to AMODA where we saw jason and Lynne and Tiffany, and where I stood in back of fist-pumpy guy watching the laptop battle. I wonder who won? I wanted the guitar dude to win just because he did something interesting. And, no, not because I have a weakness for guitar dudes, although that is very true.

AMODA got boring, so we walked a zillion miles to Molotov for actual free drinks. I sat down to people watch (pretty much I had had my fill of social interaction by this point) and the couch I sat on was damp (yick!) and I was done with the booze for the night. Tracy and I headed back to the car, allowing the long walk to sober us up a bit. Thought about going to 8-bit, but missed a turn and decided against it.

Daylight savings happened in the car, just as I was saying "I feel like we are going home early, even though it's already 1 AM" and right as I said that, the stoplights started flashing yellow and Tracy remarked that it was now 2 AM, and our credibility as party animals had been upgraded by an hour due to daylight savings time.

Came home, zoned out, went to sleep, woke up...fuck. Forgot to set my regular clock. I guess that first panel session isn't TERRIBLY important. I am hoping it is not the one George is on.

Good morning, beautiful people.

Best of so far:
-Twitter is the coolest thing ever to hit the internet
-The cultural divide panel, and the discussion over lunch
-laughing and stumbling around with Tracy
-"Say no to crack"
-Making friends with a cool local! yay!

Didn't attend any of the day panels today, but as soon as the kids were gone, I started scheming my nighttime plans. Jumped the number 3 bus after hesitating for too long to get going. Long enough to where I wasn't going to be on time to get my badge tonight no way nohow...so looked on the capmetro site to find the best way to get to Freddie's for the BlogHer meetup, and although the site advised that I take the #3 for the fewest transfers, it neglected to mention that it's a nearly 2 hour bus ride that loops around on Lamar and back up South First after making the entire route.

No matter, though. Before I saw Oltorf whiz by, confirming that I had, in fact, gone way too far, I was busy marveling at the bus experience in general. I know it's dumb to say I'm not privileged enough to take the bus, but I do wish I had enough time in my day to allow me to utilize public transportation more frequently. There is just something to being on a bus with other people. It's kind of intimate in a way. And as I sat in my sit listening to music, I watched as a woman who resembled a greek goddess boarded, flowing wavy hair and aquiline nose and a face that seriously looked like it had been chiseled from marble. She sat down on the bench across from a man who seemed way too happy to be on the bus. As she sat down, I noticed a 20-something year old boy stealing shy glances at her, and I really didn't blame him. And the man (who was sitting next to him) kept smiling. And then, suddenly, he threw his hand up and gestured out the window at some invisible message-receiver. It was a thumbs up or a hook-em-horns thing. And the goddess pulled out her notebook and started scribbling something, flipping back and forth between pages, and the man randomly gestured in a benign way out the window. Thumbs up, power to the people, victory fist...stuff like that. With no apparent pattern or rhythm. And the goddess pushed her hair behind her ear and scribbled more in her notebook. And I observed, thinking "Man, I need to write this DOWN." because it was seriously like some sort of choreographed and coordinated performance that made absolutely no, yet somehow all kinds of, sense. But I didn't have any paper or pen and I thought about texting it to someone, but it seemed too long to text out...so I figured I should create a voice recording, and chuckled to myself that would be the height of audacity, wouldn't it? To be sitting there describing out loud what was happening in front of me. I think it means something that the idea of talking to myself into a recording device is somehow only crazy if the people I was talking about were right in front of me. But that's what my logic determined to be true. And as I was chortling to myself about this, Oltorf whizzed past and Oh Fuck....hahaha...I was way past my stop.

So, I'm getting texts from friends and twitter and I am headed for way south austin while everyone else is arriving at Freddies, but it doesn't really matter because I am honestly really enjoying the ride. So when we stop at the end of the line before we turn to go back up, I whip out my voice recorder and in fact do make a voice recording recounting the dance of the disconnected strangers, beginning with "I am now that crazy lady who talks to herself on the bus."

And finally I made it to Freddie's where I was greeted warmly by friends. Saw Tracy, got all loud and laughingy and totally rudely interrupted the conversation he was having with Erica, gave Jason and George hugs, said hey to a silent Baratunde (I forgot how to spell his name and hope I did not butcher it too much) talked to some random dude who was wondering where all of the people with nametags had come from, punched Lynne in the face (later, I nearly assaulted her with my yo-yo. SORRY LYNNE!) spoke with Adina and, oh, what IS her name...purple mohawk woman whose name escapes me...oh, yeah...Liz. Ate a portabello mushroom sandwich and some fries, had some conversations, stuck around until they were clearing tables, when we discovered the tab had been covered by lord knows who, so we got into Tracy's rental and drove to Opal Divine's for karaoke, decided it was not our scene, walked on over to Ruta Maya for coffee and met up again with George and Jason and Lynne (who I think I managed to not injure or even come close to injuring for the rest of the evening). Drank iced coffee, talked shit, told a scraggly hippy dude that we were not, in fact, in possession of any weed (is that what he called it? I think he called it something fancier than weed...but it's not coming to mind what term he used). We started yawningish, and george had left so Tracy drove Lynne and Jason home and headed back up to my place where I did dishes while he read and now he sleeps while I write and listen to music on my headphones, and even though I really want to stay up all night cleaning my messy house, I think I'm going to head to bed right after this.

It was nice to see everyone...and I think I did see just about everyone just tonight alone. I am looking forward to more!

Welp, it looks like my boss is FORCING me to go to sxswi this year. I thought they weren't going to be able to get a pass for me, and I didn't push it because I have the kids this year during spring break HOWEVER...they are now purchasing a pass for me and giving me a shove in that direction.

Now all I have to do is find childcare. I guess the good news is I am taking vacation the following week, so I will be off work the day after sxswi ends until a week and a half later. I am really hoping the other parent decides to be a mensch and keep the kids so I can FULLY participate in all of the festivities. We shall see.

So...who am I going to be seeing this year? Give me a shout!