Friendship is Dead - See You at SXSW! (Core Conversation)

Way back in May I started noodling with the notion of a panel for SXSW in 2009.

I’d say a few thousand people started noodling with the same notion, and then about 1300 of us took the plunge and submitted panels and topics to the Interactive part of SXSW.

My panel topic was “Friendship is Dead” and it is meant to be an exploration of how the word “friendship” came to be and around how our online social networks have begun to erode away at what friendship has meant. Friendship has become increasingly NOT dependent upon location and has odd sort of ways of being defined now, and it seems that the word itself gets tossed around loosely as a noun or a verb (She’s my friend, Friend me on Facebook and I’ll add you) and that once ever-valuable handshake seems to be dying away.

On the submission, I wrote:

So what is a friend anymore? Is it a checkbox or something to collect? Have social networking tools diluted the meaning of “friend” to be someone to add to your collection? Or do these tools allow you to connect with people you’ve never met before? How does friendship differ offline and online?

And, it apparently was not picked as a panel.

They selected somewhere around 200 of us in three different rounds.  I received the first two rounds of rejections, but never really noticed that I didn’t receive the third–I just noticed that I did not make the cut when the last round was posted.

However, on November 25th around 1:30p CST, I was just returning from lunch and got an email that pretty much knocked me on my rear end. Here’s the (minorly edited) email I received:

Hey Russ,

Greetings. I hope that you are well and that you are having a great November. Any big plans for Turkey Day?

As you are probably aware, we received more than 1300 panel proposals for the 2009 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival. Most of these ideas are extremely impressive in their analysis of current (and future!) issues in the new media landscape. Unfortunately, we only have the physical space at the Austin Convention Center to host about 200 of these proposals.

To this end, we really like the “Friendship is Dead” idea that you submitted. While the panel program is now pretty much full we would very much like for you to present this idea as a Core Conversation.

WHAT IS IT?
Like panels, Core Conversations last for 60 minutes. What is different however is that Core Conversations remove the traditional speaker / audience interface. Instead, imagine one person in a chair (you) surrounded by 30-50 attendees who are intensely interested in your topic. Your role here is less to give a presentation and more to direct a conversation (as the title implies) about the topic at hand.

VERY POPULAR IN 2008
Introduced last spring at SXSW, Core Conversations proved to be an extremely popular part of the event. But, don’t take my word for it. This is what Scott McDaniel of SurveyGizmo says about the Core Conversation he led at the 2008 event: “We were blown away by our attendance at GTD for Startups. We counted about 50 people there and most off them stood for the entire session. Because it was more intimate than a panel, our crowd really interacted with both questions and their own tips. We felt even we learned a lot from the session. If you have a good topic people care about, you’ll get both a great turnout and a great discussion.”

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW
If you want to be a part of the Core Conversation program for 2009, then please respond to this e-mail ASAP with a simple “Yes, I’m on board to do a Core Conversation.” At that point, we will get you a little more information on this program, as well as send you comp information.

As always, please fire away if you have questions.

Best regards,

Hugh Forrest

SXSW Interactive Festival
March 13-17, 2009
Austin, TX
http://www.sxsw.com/interactive

So, uh, yeah.

That is, “YEAH!!”

I’m still a bit taken aback by even the remote consideration for such a thing, but I’m excited as hell about it.

The Core Conversations at SXSW appear to be something that has growing interest, and while it does not allow me to hang out with all of the insanely brilliant panel members I had selected to work with, it still allows me to talk about a topic that I think is growing more and more relevant. While I will miss my partners in crime: Matthew Milan, Bill DeRouchey & David Armano (this just in! David & I will be unveiling our Felix & Oscar routine together!), I believe that the topic is relevant and will spark some great conversation.

If you’re at SXSW, I hope you’ll join me us.

If you’re not at SXSW, I’m nearly 100% positive that we’ll find a way to have a little fun with this and engage as many people around the world as possible.

An Opportunity for Twitter, Recognized as Aching Mothers Band(wagon) Together

I swore that I would not jump on the Motrin bandwagon myself and talk about how awesome it is that all of the moms came together to rally against the big bad advertisement.

So, I won’t.

Most people are observing the groundswell, sharing the videos, talking about how powerful Twitter is, and the voice of the consumers really is.

I say that’s only partially true, and to be honest, the voice of the consumers was only effective to a point–and then largely ineffective.

Yeah, I said it.

I think the voice of the “Motrin Moms” did a great job of “getting their way” and getting the advertisement pulled.

And Motrin did a great job of saying, “We heard you” to a select handful of people who are a small margin of the users of the web, but who have the power of Twitter, the blogosphere–and may, or may not, actually sell a few of those damned slings that seem to get everyone so riled up to begin with.

But, as Gabby Hon poetically said:

“Okay motrinmoms, now that you’ve “won”, so what? What did you honestly achieve via your twitter tantrum?”

Anyone who’s dug a little deeper into this blog will know how much I love the “So What?”, so I’m totally hearting what Gabby’s saying.

Michael Rivera takes things a step further and makes suggestions (which, by the way, seem to be in short supply out there–lots of criticism, but few people trying to be part of the solution) for what Motrin could do:

Build the Motrin Mom’s Advisory Board

Own the idea of “mommy ergonomics”

Co-brand with a baby sling manufacturer and send out free, and branded, baby slings to all the offended twittermoms, with an invitation to join the Motrin Mom’s Forum.

Good, solid suggestions–for Motrin.

In fact, I’ve been saying all day that this whole fiasco is a brilliant opportunity for Motrin!

I mean, OMG! Like, thousands of “Motrin Moms” all started twitter-screaming at the top of their lungs that this is ridiculous! This is hurting my feelings! Motrin doesn’t get moms!  Slings are totally FTW!

All. Weekend. Long.

Oh–for an ad that was released on September 30th of this year, for what it’s worth.

Somewhere out there, one rather vocal–and rather popular–twitter/blogger/etc. social mom got her feathers ruffled and shared those feelings outward and the pond rippled from there.

But, as Gabby says:

So what?

This is where the Twitter opportunity comes in to play.

The joke I made today about all of this to Cindy Chastain was:

Twitter was great to allow them to bully and megaphone their way into getting attention–from Motrin to the New York Times to David Armano, Jeremiah Owyang and anyone else who could catch on.

Good for them.

Bad for Twitter.

The reason this is bad is because this group of “Motrin Moms” had a somewhat collective voice–they were all pissed off. Most likely, this was all for similar reasons, however, there appeared to be no true leader identified–regardless of who posted what first to uncover this egregious ad that had been out for nearly 1.5 months.

They had no Jesse Jackson of their own.

They had no single point of contact to make some demands, to stand up as an organized mob and get more than just an ad pulled down.

So, to a point, they achieved an unknown–yet mutual–objective. But, now, they go away.

Fade…fade away…

(Oh, and thanks for all of you standing up and providing Motrin with an idea of who all the right people are to talk to–seriously, you just made it really easy for them, and I would personally relish that opportunity if I were them!)

So What?

So, Twitter, your opportunity is here. Allow the disorganized mobs to organize. Allow them to find their leadership and voices and share within their sub-communities inside of your Twitterverse.  Allow new communities to form, grow and thrive with focus and purpose.

Heck, I bet you could even make some money at it.

How To Stay Up When The Chips Are Down (You Know, When The Economy Stinks)

I think that the state of the world right now is the scariest that I’ve seen it since that whole post 9/11 bit.  At the same time, it’s very exciting; there’s a world of opportunity in front of us, and if I had the stones, I’d be starting my own business.

But my stones aren’t really the important topic at the moment.  In times like these, people are anxious and often stir crazy. It’s easy to be frightened and be concerned about the next bit of bad news–which, thanks to the media, it’s always just around the corner or one CNN alert away via your favorite medium.

But I’ve been through this before, and while I will admit to my own concerns, distractions and sometimes all-out fear, I learned a lot from the last time and I think there are a few things that are useful to hold on to when you start to get caught up in the crazy times around us.

Without further delay, I’ll share some of the things that I do to fight of the the crazy, battle the negative and stave-off defeatist feelings:

• Network - Get in touch with your colleagues and peers.  That can be via a mailing list (and in my opinion these are still valuable, allow you the opportunity to lurk-and-learn and participate), through LinkedIn connections you’ve fallen out of touch with, or by simply attending an event.
• Go to Events - Go to events. Someone is always hosting some sort of an event from MeetUps to TweetUps to IxDA local events to David Armano streaming a ride in weiner mobile. Things happen and you should find a way to attend.  And if you’re not finding something, then…
• Plan an Event - That’s right, plan an event yourself. There are plenty of organizations looking for volunteers, many would love to have a local presence in your community if they do not already.  And if they do, get in touch with the local planner–that person would be happy to have your assistance, as this type of effort is often thankless.  Many places are starving for an unconference or a BarCamp (and if you’re interested in something like that in the Chicago area for, say, January/February/March of 2009, then get ahold of me as I have something brewing!).  Just dive in with both feet, ask a lot of questions and start to figure it out.  You’ll feel better about yourself, learn a lot and meet new people.
• Volunteer - See above, but don’t stop there. There are plenty of organizations in your community that could use your help–not just professional groups.  Deliver some meals, serve food, canvas an area for a cause or help build a house.
• Be a Mentor, Get a Mentor - There’s a good chance you’ve got some experience that you could impart to someone else and that could help them immensely.  Do it.  Get involved in a mentoring program (like the one at the IA Institute!) and give back a little–even if, if not especially if, the chips are down.  This is a great way to earn some karma and add to your balance.  Also, don’t forget to get a mentor of your own–I can think of several people that I consider mentors, many of whom are peers, as well, and they’re invaluable.
• Get Involved in Pro-Bono Work - It’s no time to sit on your duff and do nothing. If you’ve got skills, apply them. So, if there’s a Habitat for Humanity that could use some of your carpenter skills, get up and do it.  Take pictures, add it to your resume and discuss it as part of who you are. If that doesn’t work, find a non-profit organization or cull CraigsList to find someone looking for assistance that would utilize your skills and talents.  In some cases, you may actually get paid. In all cases, you’ll get experience and you’ll keep yourself busy.
• Get Involved in Communities - This may seem obvious, but it’s an easy thing to do. This can be online or offline–from Mom’s groups to a Facebook group for like-minded people to setting up your very own fan club for David Armano.  It doesn’t matter what it is–either get involved or get to creating and evangelizing and getting others involved.
• Update Your Work Examples -There’s no time like the present to get your stuff together. I know far too many people who wait until a few days after bad news to update their resumes and their samples of work, and frankly, that’s just a little too lazy than anyone can afford to be right now.  Don’t wait to find your next gig or job because you’re not prepared; every day you lose is a day where someone else is applying for your next dream job (or getting through crappy times job, whichever).
• Go Out to Dinner at Least Once a Week -This is a big one. I was unemployed for a healthy 6 months many years ago (and by unemployed, I mostly mean self-employed, project-to-project, little stability) and it was horrible. I’d wake up when my wife got ready for work and I’d surf the world all day, refreshing job boards, applying for things out of my league and getting fairly stir crazy.  We adopted a policy of going out at least once a week for dinner–often these weren’t fancy places, but at least a step up from McDinner.  This gave us something to look forward to and often was the hinge pin to getting me to shower.  Just saying.
• Spend a Little Money Once in Awhile -Yeah, I know, that’s hard to swallow. But do it. Buy yourself the video game or go to a movie or something similar to that. You don’t have to go buy a brand new MacBook Pro, but at the end of the day, $50 is not going to make or break your success in surviving turbulent times.  It just isn’t.
• Plan How to Run Your Own Business -You’ve probably thought about this for a long, long time anyway.  What would I do if I were the boss? Figure it out. Write it down. Ask friends and family for input, sketch the office layout, research the cost of rental space (if needed), figure out what kind of equipment you’d want/need…
• …And Design Your New Business Cards - Why not? It could be a little frustrating, but it could be fun. If you’re really serious, get ahold of the folks at crowdSPRING and invoke the awesome power of crowd sourcing to find you a bunch of logo options and then start dinking around on your own (or with their help) and put it all together. It may be something you can start doing today, and it’ll give you a rush!

Certainly, these aren’t the only things you can do, but these have helped me in the past.  They’ve helped me retain my sanity (if not my marriage!) and they keep the wheels spinning.

It’s not easy to do anything when there appears to be doom and gloom at every corner. Put one foot in front of the other, don’t be afraid to fail and keep moving. You’ll be fine, really.

We all will.

Do you have some tips of your own? Please share!

Behind on the Times & Things to Come

As blogs go, I’m woefully far behind on keeping up with mine.  This is such a common mantra with blogs that I’m not surprised it’s happening to me, and I’m sure you’re not either.

In the past month or so, that Information Architecture Institute Board of Directors election-thingy happened, and I, through the gracious acts of kindness of many people, was voted to the Board.

There were a couple of weeks of transition, and the officers all began their new roles on October 1st.  Of the “Open IAI” platform, myself and Livia Labate won.  Matthew Milan, who I cannot express enough admiration and respect for, did not make it, but I have a feeling that this will not curb his ability to be an effective influence as the times move forward and people start to think a little more deeply about Information Architecture.

After a lot of shuffling the deck around, I landed into the role of Director of Events and Marketing, which is a really good fit.  For a moment there, it seemed as if I might be president, which was a really cool thought, but the goals I would have wanted to achieve are still my goals.  The goals for the Board of Directors are still theirs and think we have some really interesting and challenging times ahead of us.

As members of the IAI, I urge you to ask us the hard questions and press for the transparency that you deserve. I can assure you that it is on its way and that are steps being taken quickly to start engaging the members.  Don’t be afraid to ask about the operations–you are members, after all, and you have a right to know what’s happening.

This isn’t me poo-pooing on anything, these are the same feelings that I had when running for the Board.  The strangest thing I’ve seen to date is how this organizations runs its elections–it seems to me that people should run for positions, not for a seat on the Board and then have to figure out the roles later.  I think that confuses things a bit and potentially has us stacked with a Board of people who could be perfect for 1 role but over-staffed in another.

And we’re working on that.  It’s an interesting endeavor and it’s nice to have an Executive Director on staff who is helping us identify things that we need to work on.

We also had a very successful IDEA Conference in Chicago.  We received some great, positive feedback, but we always want to hear more.  There is always room for improvement, and we want to try and have the kind of insight that could make an IDEA 2009 even better than this one–and to be honest, Jorge Arango set the bar pretty damn high.  Indeed.

I’ve been motoring through my book, with a tight schedule ahead. There are nearly 2 full chapters complete by me (and I’m starting on a third, quite literally, right now), as well as a couple more being completed by my co-author, Carolyn Chandler.

It’s busy, but we have focus, and I’ve made arrangements to make sure that this can happen and the book can be available for all the conference stops next year.

Which means that… With a little luck, I may be at SXSW, with a lot of luck at Interaction09, then the IA Summit in Memphis (potentially presenting and giving a couple of workshops on some key topics), and finally with a bit more luck, Voices That Matter in San Francisco in April of next year.

I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get to slow down once the book launches, with a schedule like that!

More than anything, I truly want to thank the community and my connections that I have made.  There are so many people around me that allow me to be much smarter just by being able to pick their brains.  The people that I’ve opend my home to, shared a cab with, shared a lunch with, or even shared a late night skype call honor me with their presence, and they definitely make me much more of the person that I want to be than I could ever hope to achieve on my own.

That, truly, is the beauty of being involved in social network.  There’s not a currency that I can think of that is much greater than that.

My Name is Russ. I’m Running for the Information Architecture Institute Board of Directors

And I’m running on a platform with Matthew Milan and Livia Labate.

Over the past few weeks, we have spent a lot of time together working through some of the key issues that we think are real, real important and that are in the best interests of the membership of the Information Architecture Institute.

Unlike many election (ahem, POTUS), this isn’t an “us versus them” thing. We’re not “against” anyone, per se, we’re simply like-minded on things from a high-level perspective and we are passionate about the organization and the members. There is absolutely nothing but respect and appreciation for those who are current board members or who have been board members in the past.

I’d say we would all agree that the IAI has had nothing but a positive impact on us, and we want to give back.

That said, I’m posting, verbatim, my Bio and Position Statement, as submitted for candidacy to the IAI Board of Directors. Here goes…

Russ Unger’s Bio

I have been working on websites since 1993—when there was only Notepad to code with and Mosaic was the only browser around. That was when I found that my interest in User Experience Design and Information Architecture began to flourish.

Since then, I have worked with a number of major brands on large-scale Intranet and Extranet applications. I have also worked off-line, creating unique biometric (fingerprint reader) applications and have been responsible for creating user interfaces for mobile. I have also taught courses in Web and Interactive/Flash Design.

I have been active in our community as an editor for Boxes and Arrows and have recently explored the role of author. In addition, I am currently co-authoring a book on User Experience Design with Carolyn Chandler for Peachpit Press.

I am a mentor for the IAI and have worked with several mentees to assist them in their careers.  This experience has allowed me to revisit and renew my appreciation for people who are just starting out in their careers and what we, as an organization, can do to further support them.

I am the current Event Coordinator for the IDEA Conference.  I have actively pursued and landed several sponsors for the conference through my personal contacts.  I have assisted in identifying various speakers and have encouraged many to become speakers. I have supported the effort for many months and have learned a great deal about the Information Architecture Institute and conference planning and marketing.  This has been a lot of effort—and a lot of fun.  I would like for my involvement to continue beyond IDEA and feel I would be a valuable member to the board.

Position Statement: Vision, Empowerment & Transparency

Matthew Milan, Livia Labate and I are running on a common platform in the hopes of being able to make a more meaningful impact to the Information Architecture Institute if we are elected.

Finally, we strongly believe that the IA Institute should have a clear vision of its role within the User Experience community and more importantly how it contributes to the advancement of the field of Information Architecture. With strong vision comes strong capability, and we have a duty to our membership to provide this role.

The Information Architecture Institute is an organization that our founders and previous boards of directors have built-up and established as one that is well respected. I am constantly reminded of how proud I am to be a part of the IAI every time I meet or engage another member of this thriving community.  My goal is to continue to guide our organization into a long-term future of sustainable growth.

We are at a critical time in our growth and evolution as an organization.  To me, the highest priorities are to establish a more transparent organization with a long-term vision that empowers our membership. We have an incredibly gifted member base, many of whom are very interested in becoming more active, helping to grow and shape our organization.

Moving forward with the doors wide open, it is crucial that the IAI continue evolving as a transparent organization.

IAI members need the ability to become as aware and active within the organization as they choose to be—with ease.  Support can come in ways large and small: through publicly displayed meeting minutes, open-attendance Board of Directors meetings or other methods, such as via Twitter, Directors blogs, etc. An increased transparency of our on-going efforts and activities is something that we can be proud of, and reach out with.

We need to identify new ways to empower our members further by helping them in the field, where it counts the most.  As a dynamic organization of professionals, we do a fantastic job of being at all of the places where we all are supposed to be.  We need to get better at being at the places we currently are not at.

Now is the time to use our membership’s successes to help them open doors into other industries and start reaching out to organizations where the relationships are as untapped as the mutual benefits.

A few introductory approaches to this could include:

• Encouraging our membership to present at other industry conferences; selling is one thing, educating and sharing knowledge on the value of Information Architecture throughout the business world will create true long-term strength.
• Improving upon the established marketing of the organization and help our members “Sell IA”.
• Engaging beyond our members, to the companies who are interested in working with us. These companies need coaching and education that foster understanding common career goals, paths and placement of these roles as pillars of their organizational structure. We can help them “Sell IA” to the companies they work for.
• Expanding IAI outreach to aide and assist the people in our field who are (or will be) new to the workforce. We should start in the college years by speaking to students and counselors.  We need to help them understand what skills companies value, and to help them locate jobs.  We need to coach them on appropriate types of work product and examples to be able to show and highlight experience and growing expertise.  As a mentor, these particular issues strike close to home; many of our members who are new to the workforce are communicating that they are having difficulties finding their first jobs.

The IAI can continue to expand and lead with a clearly defined vision for our future, initiatives to empower our members by providing appropriate marketing, training and tools that meet their needs, and by becoming a more transparent organization that we all have the power to engage and influence.

I hope to be a part of this.

Contact Information
I would be happy to further explore our position in greater detail.  Please feel free to contact me via any of the methods below.

• Twitter:
• http://www.twitter.com/openiai
• http://www.twitter.com/russu
• Join the discussion on Facebook at:
• http://bit.ly/openiai
• LinkedIn:
• http://www.linkedin.com/in/russunger
• I blog at UserGlue UserBlog:
• http://www.userglue.com/blog
• I can be reached via email at:
• russ [at] [this domain]

IDEA 2008: An Interview with Andrew Hinton

My second interview with a speaker for the IDEA Conference is with Andrew Hinton. The IDEA Conference is in Chicago from October 7-8 (just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few months–or in case this is the first time you’ve ever seen anything I’ve written, as an alternative).

Andrew Hinton, on the other hand, spends most of his time in the Philadelphia-area. I’ve mentioned a few times–to Andrew and others–that he looks astonishingly just like his photo. In this day and age, there are a lot of photos out there that often capture a best side of people that doesn’t seem to exist, but Andrew’s pretty captures exactly him.

It’s really not that big of deal, and I’m not sure why this has amused me for so long, so I’ll apologize and move on to more interesting things–like my interview with Andrew.

For starters, you should know that Andrew Hinton is one of those guys that I often refer to as “so damn smart it that the things he easily discusses often makes my head hurt”.  That’s a compliment, and I consider myself lucky to get to work on this project for IDEA.

Andrew is also a father, and from brief side conversations with him since I’ve had the fortune to make his acquaintance, it is very clear that that particular part of his life is the most important and the part he cherishes the most.  Parenthood is difficult enough with all the rest of life getting in the way, and to be good at being a good parent and finding ways in a world that constantly tries to divide our attention, it can be next to impossible.  This is not only one of the biggest compliments I can pass along, and it is also reason enough for him to earn your respect.

And if you’re fortunate enough to get to see him present, he will sufficiently handle the rest.

I feel as if I’ve lauded enough praise, so now I’ll tease the interview that will be live on Boxes & Arrows later.

RU: What would you recommend to people who are just getting started in the field and who are interested in becoming more active in the industry—or who just want to follow in your footsteps.

AH: It means a lot to get involved in your community of practice. You don’t realize what an impact it makes on people around you, but it’s huge. Find some problem that needs solving that tickles your fancy, some skill or service that the community could benefit from that you get a kick out of working on, and dive in. Lurking is fine at times, but if you want to be “active in the industry” you have to engage. You can engage the conversation at any level, as long as you have a sense of humor & perspective about it. And read all kinds of stuff—don’t just read “design” crap all the time. We all breathe each other’s air way too much, and it’s important to get ideas from outside the UX bubble.

As for my footsteps, I don’t recommend them—mainly because I don’t know that I could’ve walked those steps on purpose if I’d tried. Which is to say, follow what obsesses and excites you, whatever crazy path that might take you down, and there’s probably somebody somewhere willing to pay you for doing it well.

Andrew Hinton will be speaking at the IDEA Conference on the topic of “Context”. You’ll probably want to be in Chicago from October 7-8 to learn more about that.

First 30 commenters get invited to the IDEA BBQ FTW.

Passive-Blind Voyeuristic Social

That title alone makes me feel like this entire post should be written by a slew of people who are a whole heck of a lot smarter than me, so I apologize in advance if you stumbled across this and thought you were going to get something highly academic.

It seems to me that there is a perception that “being social” means that you have to actually engage other users actively.

I do not think that is true.

I think that you can be socially involved with someone by quietly watching them–lurking, if you will.  In fact, “lurking” has been going on in email discussion lists, online forums and, dare I mention it, BBSes for years and years.

Lurking, I believe, is sitting back and watching the conversation–letting it all happen around you, without anyone knowing you’re even there.  However, with lurking, you also begin to understand the behavioral patterns and personalities of others.

Just by watching.

Seems kind of passive, if not voyeuristic to me.

So, if someone serves you up content based upon the actions of others who share similar traits with you, or have identified similar likes and aspirations, then it would seem to me that is rather blindly doing so–you don’t know who those other people are, just that they’re like you.

It’s like seeing a bunch of nameless, faceless “you”-types running around and doing their business and getting content served to you based upon their–and your–collective actions.

So, Passive-Blind Voyeuristic Social would be sitting back and watching content as it is served to you based upon actions that others, identified as being similar to you, and then acting upon it, which in turn influences someone else’s results as they do the same.

Or, at least, so I think it is. Sure, there’s a good chance that someone else has already thought of this and has a better definition, but this kind of works for me right now, and it makes sense to me as another way in which we can interact–socially–without having to actually cross any lines of “faux friendship” and add to our ever-growing lists of contacts that we may not actually even know.

It’s a great way to provide context and direction to users without forcing them to reveal themselves to each other.

There is an unbelievable amount of power in the following statement:

People <like you> who <do something> also <do something else that you’re not doing>.

Don’t you want to know? iTunes has been doing it for us for quite awhile (and have since taken quite a few nickels from my coin purse), but that is very loosely based upon qualities of music–and not “qualities of Russ”; there’s an opportunity to go a little deeper and deliver content to our users that don’t require them to becoming visibly engaged.

I’m going to go ponder this for a bit. I’d welcome additional thoughts.

Note: Search engines have been offering up “What People Are Searching For Now” types of content since, like, forever.  This is different as it is actually based upon some identifiers that you have selected, and have in common with others, without actually having to engage them.

IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey

If you do not know by now, IDEA 2008 is going to be in Chicago on October 7-8, with a pre-conference on October 6th, put on by MAYA Design.  The conference is going to fantastic–we’ve recently added Jesse James Garrett to speak about the Aurora concept browser.

Behind the scenes, I’ve been the “Event Coordinator”–and while it has not always been clear to me what that is (it’s mostly “do as much as I can in every situation possible–fast!)–and it has been a lot of fun working a little deeper with the Information Architecture Institute and getting to understand “how things work” a bit more.

One of the roles I took on was to interview some of the talent.  We’ve got a great line up for IDEA 2008, including:

• David Armano
• Jason Kunesh
• Dave Gray
• Elliot Malkin
• Edwin von Gal
• Jesse James Garrett
• Chris Crawford
• Albert Canas
• Jason Fried
• Aradhana Goel
• Bill DeRouchey
• Andrew Hinton

My first interview was with Mr. Bill DeRouchey.

Many moons ago, Bill and I happened to have been up late on the same night. It may have been a weekend–well, it was any night, really, as we’re always up late.  Christian Crumlish had turned me on to some Brian Eno music and I was asking about alternatives. I don’t even recall what the selection was, but Bill made it–he set up a muxtape for me so I could find some new tunes to work/study by.

I checked out his website, watched is presentation from Interaction08 and we started some email chatter.  Before long, we were doing random emails, talking about book ideas, swapping war stories and a bunch of general back-and-forth humor.

We built some trust.

We became friends.

We hashed out a panel for SXSW called “Friendship is Dead” (and you should vote for it, please!).

We reviewed secret paperwork for each other.

We (gasp!) even spoke on the phone!

And I even asked Bill his thoughts about this in the interview that is now live on Boxes & Arrows:

RU: Over the course of 2008, you and I have become “friends”—at least I’d say that, and I believe you’ve said that. We most likely will not meet face-to-face until October at IDEA in Chicago, yet I’d say we have built a level of trust and respect for each other—we’ve even worked “virtually” on putting together a panel presentation for SXSW together. How do you think that happened, and who should we blame?

This fascinates me too. It’s true. We’ve never met face to face and we’ve only talked on the phone once, but we’ve had enough online interaction to build both trust and friendship. How the hell is that possible? Tracing it back is an interesting case study. On Twitter, I noticed a few friends (people I have met f2f and trust) keep talking to @russu. Okay, I’ll see what this guy is up to. Seems harmless enough, okay, follow. Then we made some connection on music, and the conversation developed from there. But is this really different at all from meeting people in the “real world”? You meet through mutual friends, connect on something simple, and then just keep talking. That’s the beauty of Twitter. People are giving you many opportunities to connect in some way. Sometimes it clicks and you make a new friend. If you never actually meet, so what? Yes, it’d be a shame, but geography should never be a barrier to connecting with other people.

Please take a moment and read the entire interview, and get to know Bill DeRouchey a bit better!

SXSW Panels of Interest

I personally submitted one panel for SXSW and actively participated in the submission of 2 others.  Beyond these, I also have several friends / peers / colleagues that have also submitted their own.

Each of these is worth seeing on their own merits, but they all also need your votes so that the rest of the SXSW-attending world can get to see them as well. Please take a few moments of your valuable time and vote positive for these panels!

Friendship is Dead - Russ Unger, David Armano, Bill DeRouchey, Matt Milan

Your Name Sucks! - Kit Seeborg, Christian Crumlish, Andrew Hinton, Russ Unger & Dave Taylor

Social Patterns and Antipatterns For The Win! - Christian Crumlish, [and others, yours truly participated in]

Micro-Interactions in a 2.0 World - David Armano

Engaging Youth: Getting Them Off the Sofa - Bill Bulman

Learning From Broadcast to Make Immersive, Evocative UX - Michael Leis

See What I Mean: Using Comics to Communicate - Kevin Cheng

Being a UX Team of One - Leah Buley

Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web? - Laura Roeder

Old Media Finds New Voice Through Twitter - Colonel Tribune / Robert Quigley

Influencing Internet Legislative Changes: Why and How - Sachin Agarwal

The Problem With Design Research - Robert Hoekman, Jr.

The 7 Rules for Great Web Application Design - Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Try Making Yourself More Interesting - Brian Oberkirch

User Experience 2009: More Crap You Already Know - Dan Willis

Let’s Get Social: Moving From Me to We - Aaron Strout

Fly, Peacock, Fly: Generative Visuals Without a Line of Code - Mario Klingemann

From Global to Mobile: What’s Next in Local, Contextual Search - Don Turnbull

The Street is a Platform - Andrew Huff

Don’t Be A Dick: Creating Sustainable Work Environments - Dave Lippman, SISU

Good Design, Powerful Content Management - Guild Copeland, SISU

Crowdsourcing: Shark Jumped or Wave of the Future? - Ross Kimbarovsky, CROWDSpring

Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community Speaks - Mike Samson, CROWDSpring

Managing Your Online Identity Outside the Walled Garden - Joshua Porter

Designing for Sign-Up - Joshua Porter

Mobile 2.0: The Next Frontier - Chris Bernard

Okay, that’s a lot, but there are some pretty great people with some pretty great ideas.  They’d all appreciate your votes (as would I!).  Check them out, sign-up for SXSW and please vote up the great panel ideas!

If I have left anyone off, it was definitely an accident.  Please share your favorites and/or my oversights!

SXSW Registration & Hotels

SXSW Registration is now open.

So what, right?

Well, I’ve never been before, but those “in the know” (as well as the fine folks who send the SXSW Panel Submission emails) say that if you intend on attending that you should sign-up now and book your hotel right away.

That’s no easy task, for what it’s worth.

The hotel registration form has a drop down that coincides with a Google Map. The hotels are listed in order of proximity to SXSW, but you cannot see the prices unless you sift through each of the hotels.

One by one.

That’s not fun.

Fortunately for you, I decided that I should not be the only one to go through this hell, so I’ve copied down all of the hotels–in order of closest to farthest to/from SXSW, along with the prices for 1-4 occupants.

Without any additional ramblings from me:

*Note: Not all hotels may be available due to registrations filling up quickly!