Keynote: Baratunde Thurston – How to Read the World
Posted by: Kiana Fitzgerald
March 10, 2012 at 6:03 pm
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Saturday, SXSWi
| Tagged: baratunde thurston, jack and jill politics, keynote, SXSWi, the onion
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Preview: Coding the Next Chapter of American History
Posted by: Susan Raybuck
February 12, 2012 at 11:14 pm
Jennifer Pahlka at a recent convention
Keynote addresses are always special, but organizers of the final keynote of SXSW Interactive must have saved the best for last. Jennifer (Jen) Pahlka, founder of Code for America, a new and unusual non-profit, will give that address.
Pahlka, who spent some of her childhood years in Austin, started out in the gaming media industry. Among her many accomplishments, she led the Game Developers Conference while with CMP Media, served as executive director of the International Game Developers Association, was involved in the creation of the Web 2.0 conference, and later managed the Gov 2.0 Summit, both spear headed by Tim O’Reilly and O’Reilly Media.
The seed for Code for America grew out of discussions during and following the Gov 2.0 conference events. While previously not very aware of government and those involved in the public sector, she found herself inspired and impressed by many she met and the stories they shared.
“I saw that there were just amazing, wonderful public servants who really care about this notion of doing things together.” She came to understand through that experience that “government is essentially what we do together that we can’t do alone.”
Cities were facing significant barriers to meeting the challenges of the 21st Century however, with budgets shrinking year after year in the face of a rising demand for services, a gap in capacity and body of knowledge in IT departments in most cities, and lack of streamlined practices found in the private sector. The city level of government was, she realized, where government had the most impact on the daily life of people, while what happens in Washington, D.C. is often more abstract.
Pahlka wanted to help but at first did not know “how to get developers from the Web 2.0 world to care about government.” In hearing a bit of the story of Teach for America, she realized that some of its structure might be the model she was looking for to involve the tech community to care about government and become part of the solution.
Continue reading “Preview: Coding the Next Chapter of American History” »
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| Tagged: Code for America, developers, Jennifer Pahlka, keynote, public service
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Saturday Keynote SXSW 2011 with SCVNGR “Chief Ninja” Seth Priebatsch
Posted by: Jon Zmikly
March 12, 2011 at 5:32 pm
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| gamers, games, Saturday
| Tagged: keynote, scvngr, seth priebatsch, sxsw interactive
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James Powderly Keynote Address
Posted by: Maira Garcia
March 16, 2009 at 4:13 pm
James Powderly, an open source artist who founded Graffiti Research Lab and political activist, talked about his work Monday in his keynote address at SXSW Interactive 2009. Check out the video below to see what he said.
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| Monday
| Tagged: Graffiti Research Lab, james powderly, keynote, open source art, sxsw interactive, SXSWi, virginia heffernan
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Preview: The Unholy Marriage of Video Games and Film
Posted by: cooper cherry
February 17, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Id Software
Aside from being uber excited to hear Wired editor Chris Anderson‘s keynote, there are a million other panels I’m anxious to check out. There are so many awesome panels this year that you can’t help but miss out on something interesting.
As a filmmaker and video game lover I’m looking forward to checking out From Framing Shots to Pushing Pixels: Crossing Between Film and Video Games . The panel takes place on the last day of the interactive at 5 in room 12AB.
Rodney Gibbs, studio head at Fizz Factor and Mark Bristol, cinematics director at Id Software, will be presenting on the increasingly myopic line between film and games. Gibbs oversees the development of both console and handheld games at Fizz Factor. Id Software is responsible for giving the world the generous gifts of Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake and Mark Bristol worked as a storyboard artist on the Christopher Nolan film Memento, which is in my personal top ten films of all-time. Its therefore imperative that I attend this panel and meet this guy. I hope you are ready for a stalker Mark.
The focus of the panel will be on how to translate skills back and forth between the platforms. In a climate where video game releases are larger than film openings and where games have incorporated many aspects of film this panel promises to deliver some serious bang. Its almost a no-brainer that these two platorms will continue to converge, so get ready for “the way of the future.”
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| Tuesday
| Tagged: Chris Anderson, film, Fizz Factor, Id Software, keynote, Mark Bristol, Rodney Gibbs, SXSW, SXSWi, video games, Wired
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