Remembering to Think About It, Giving Back to It

I’ve been very fortunate of late–I was chosen by SXSW (South by Southwest) to present a Core Conversation on the topic of “Friendship is Dead” with David Armano (It was originally submitted as a panel with Bill DeRouchey, Matthew Milan and David Armano).

I’ve been very lucky in that I was also voted by the membership of the Information Architecture Institute to serve on their Board of Directors, of which I am the Director of Events and Marketing. Why I bring this up will make more sense in the next paragraph, I promise.

When I was chosen to speak at SXSW, one of the first things that came to mind was if there was a way that I could help support the IAI membership, so I asked Hugh Forrest if there was anything that could be worked out between the two organizations.  It turns out that there was something that could be worked out, and SXSW has provided the IAI with 2 free passes to the Interactive portion of the conference in the form of a scholarship that you can win by answering some questions.

You can enter to win one of these scholarships by answering a few easy questions in essay format online at:

http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/education/sxsw_scholarship.php

This is a pretty serious opportunity! SXSW is pretty commonly known as one of “the” conferences to attend–and this will be my first one to attend, and I’m pretty excited about it!  You don’t have to go to see me to win (although if you win, I’d enjoy meeting you while we’re in the same place!), but it would be great if you sought out some of the folks from the IAI that will be there:

• Journey to the Center of Design - Jared Spool
• From Freelance to Agency: Start Small, Stay Small - Whitney Hess, Jeffrey Zeldman
• Social Patterns and Antipatterns For the Win - Christian Crumlish
• Wireframes for the Wicked - Nick Finck & Donna Spencer
• Friendship is Dead - Russ Unger

(And if I’ve missed anyone, please let me know so I can add them!)

Okay, so that’s really cool stuff, and I’m really excited that the IAI is able to do this and that a couple of deserving people can go see something cool that they wouldn’t normally get to do. That’s awesome!

But…

The big point here is this:  If you belong to an organization and you are fortunate enough to find yourself in the position to attend a conference, put on a conference or know someone at the conference, or any other event or occurrence,  just take a moment to remember that/those organization(s) and see if there is a way that you can bring something back that could benefit other people who may not be as fortunate as you, me or anyone else lucky enough to attend.

The worst thing that can happen is that you can simply be told “No”. That’s not big deal–it’s something that was never yours to begin with.

But! If someone says yes, then there is opportunity! There is a chance you can help someone get more out of their membership–but more importantly, more out of their career.  There is karma galore, and maybe that’s not your think, but goodwill has a pretty good way of finding its way back to people who are giving of it.

Some of the people I’ve come to know the best over the years and I’ve learned to count on, seek out for advice, rant and rave to or just shoot the breeze with via a late night IM or Skype session, I’ve found through the IAI and IxDA.

I don’t think that’s any small amount of coincidence.

And I’m working to find new ways to give more back–for all of us. Giving back on my own would be a bit selfish–I’d love to share that awesome feeling that I’ve gotten just from being able to put together a scholarship that people can take advantage of.

The really cool part?  Just yesterday I got an email from someone else interested in this scholarship business–interested in helping us provide more scholarship opportunities.  Other people are seeing the benefits for their events, as well as the communities that we’re all a part of!

That’s just a little bit more of the awesomeness that is snowballing out of risking a simple question.

So please, whenever you hear of an event, or an opportunity to help someone else out–even generally speaking, but especially for our various communities within User Experience–remember the organizations and the members who could benefit from any event–small, large, local or across the globe.

All of these organizations help provide community and opportunities to connect with other professionals, mentors, people with similar passions, people who can help you solve problems and even communities where you can find your place.

It’s easy to forget that, especially when you’re paying a membership fee and you may be inclined to think that someone else is paid to do that.  In the case of the IAI, I can tell you with sincerity that we (board members, volunteers) are not paid.  I’m pretty certain that the fine folks on the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) board of directors are not either. I’m not putting that out there because I feel that I deserve pay or any other sort of reward.

Far, far from it.

If anything, I feel as if I am the steward of a role for an organization that has given me so very much–from a great community of professionals that I often believe are so far out of my league in this industry to some of the same people who I’m fortunate enough to call “friend” and “mentor” or “advisor”.  I have a global group of connections–there are few places that I could travel to without feeling as if there is someone nearby that I know and could meet with for coffee, dinner, or just a great conversation.

That, is fortunate. Oh–and if you’re in these organizations, you, too, are fortunate. This greater community of User Experience professionals are so very helpful, even when they’re wildly busy. They’re passionate about what they do, about the growth and maturation of the field, and they’re willing to lead by example and impart their knowledge and wisdom to anyone who is willing to ask for it.

That, is something I cherish and intend to do whatever I can to try and help foster and see that whatever stagnation may be happening comes to an end. We have so many tools available to us–any of us–that breaks down the distances between us.  Tools that help us create communities that are tighter, closer-knit than ever before.  I think 2009 will be a year of exploring and finding the tools that fit and bringing people closer together, helping them no longer be islands. I hope so. I’m going to do my best, which probably involves losing a bit of sleep, to see that it does happen–but it’s worth it, and it’s fun to tinker and have a group of people who are willing to do that with you.

Gosh! I think I just claimed that it’s fun to find failure with a group of like-minded folks.

Will you help find failures with me?

(Imagine how awesome the successes will be!)

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.

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.

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!