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SXSW Interactive Sketchnotes 06 - @soupiset ((tag: #sxsw, #sketchnotes, #viznotes, #makevsgather)

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SXSW Redux: six takeaways for youth media publishers, designers, game developers and marketers

six takeaways for youth media publishers,
designers, game developers and marketers:
click to see my original post at Toolbox Studios' blog:

 6. Teens [still] don't Tweet. While Twitter was hands down "the" tool at this year's SXSW Interactive (and one we recommend be part of any company's corporate communication plan... see more at #5), the 140-character micro-blog trend isn't being as eagerly adopted by teens. Anastasia Goodstein's YPulse teen panel again validated this hunch: You're just not going to reach a majority of 14-to-18 year olds with the über backchannel. Better to occupy the mobile space and MySpace. Facebook is there as well, but the "I wanna customize my space" fave MySpace is still top dog among this cohort. Should be interesting to see how this trend develops as Facebook and Twitter continue to dominate and grow the microblogging/lifestreaming space.

5."Not making plans is so totally Web 3.0." — this line from Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, framed a second, related truism—Twitter was clearly still the rockstar and darling of sxswi. As McCarthy pointed out, when lines to get into parties at the Austin confab got too long, flash-mob intelligence via Twitter created new meetups, new parties, on the fly.

With a multitude of third-party tools and add-ons, Twitter offers increased freedom and mobility to stay on top of news and events in whatever niche you're interested in following.

And to those following the youth crowd, just because they aren't all on Twitter (yet), that doesn't mean their socializing isn't happening on the net—teens are embracing MySpace and Facebook, but moreover, they're embracing the relationships emerging from those connections. As Harvard fellow and youth media scholar Dana Boyd points out, "We have this belief that kids are just addicted to social network sites. If anything, they’re addicted to their friends. This “addiction” to friends is precisely what makes social networks so important, especially for tweens, who are more limited in their socializing options (until they can drive). There’s school, extracurriculars and the movie theater on the weekends, but with social networking they can be sure not to miss a single OMG moment.”

4. Get out of the way and let your audience explore. Interestingly, this reminder came out of an interactive game development session, although it was emphasized in later Web 2.0 panels as well. As one gaming expert stated, "the complexity of our gaming interfaces should level up with our users as they proceed [with gameplay]." The key idea here seems completely intuitive, but it found new currency with me at the Playing On! Interface Lessons from Games session: when we design games, instead of front loading the game with tutorials or a discursive set of rules, we should allow the player to start gameplay and learn progressively.

In the 2.0 panels, this prioritization of the audience surfaced more in the context of public relations and customer management. With social media, we all know you can't exert control over everything online as you once could. You can't play by the same rules, either. You have to learn to listen to the conversation, insert yourself/your company genuinely, and be okay that you can't predict or dictate the outcome. You can only monitor and react to it.

3. Design is still king. Evidenced everywhere I turned. Good design creates context. Good branding creates curiosity, loyalty, buzz and desirability. Too many examples to name. Okay, maybe one: Alex Bogusky's B-cycle (bicycle sharing) initiative.

2. It's all about R&R. Not rest and relaxation, but rewards and reputation. A fascinating seminar borrowed from the language of game playing mechanics and found parallels to be brought to bear in all of our social media apps. Rewards will need to move beyond simple point-tallying and actually show bling for levels attained (exemplary games display which level a user has achieved, which in turn earns him/her instant street-cred). The best of these apps incorporate some kind of collecting mechanism as well—a metaphoric trophy case—to show off those accumulated points. Whether it's medals on an army officer's uniform, merit badges on a girl scout's sash, or a collection of karate level belts, humans collect visual indicators of our advancement. Finding creative ways to do this on the application level rewards your avids, and offers a clear path for noobs who want to engage with your brand.

1. A Social Vote for Change Probably the most memorable session I went to was a lunch at Stubb's BBQ, where the topic was "Social Media for Social Change" — a lot was said about the distinction between using social media for charity and using the same tools to effectuate actual social, systemic, societal, or institutional change. 700 people RSVPd for this lunch. I was lucky to arrive early, which means I got in the door, actually ate a great brisket lunch (ironically/awkwardly eating my BBQ sitting next to two new friends who work at PETA2), and settled in for the conversation. The panelists included pioneer Beth Kanter, David Armano, Scott Goodstein,  Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg. For an engaging overview of the conversation, read Kanter's brilliant summary blogpost here.

Breakout Session: Between Heaven & Helvetica

“[A]n art work has value as a creation because man is made in the image of God, and therefore man not only can love and think and feel emotion, but also has the capacity to create. Being in the image of the Creator, we are called upon to have creativity.… We never find men anywhere in the world or in any culture in the world who do not produce art. Creativity is a part of the distinction between man and non-man. All people are to some degree creative. Creativity is intrinsic to our mannishness.” — Francis Schaeffer

Yesterday I gave an hour-and-a-half design breakout session for participants at the 2009 Baptist Media Forum at Camp Buckner, up near Inks Lake. The seminar was entitled Between Heaven & Helvetica: How Good Design Can Energize Your Existing Communications.  I hadn't delivered a talk that long before, so I was a little nervous to say the least. I figured I'd leave a half-hour for Q&A and prepared what I thought was an hour's worth of content.

My stated purpose was to "embark upon an interactive, multi-sensory conversation among 
designers, self-proclaimed non-creatives, quasi-creatives, and people who have 
to work with creatives in order to sketch at the intersection(s) of good design, good theology, and our role 
as culture creators." True to form, it was meandering and quirky — a soupçon of  history, theology of the Imago Dei, a little design philosophy and advice, and visual inspiration/stimulation (I hope).

About 15 minutes into it, I realized I had too much content, but pressed forward, and we ended up getting through most of it without much compromise. Before I went on, my friend Marcus Goodyear gave a great presentation on online community building; I knew he was going to skew his content heavily (actually completely) online, so I weighted my presentation toward traditional media and channel-neutral branding design.

The preso was a mashup featuring three youth media case studies tied to some theological points I made at the presentation's "history unlesson" ... as well as a gallery of twenty logos I had designed, which I will glom together and present to you below. I also re-fashioned and re-presented my "six design nuggets for non-creatives" talk as a 10-minute overview.

I was really pleased with the mix of people — I asked the group of media professionals (I assumed I'd be getting mostly PR folks, writers and editors) to classify themselves (how modern of me): almost a third of the room comprised designers and creatives. Another third considered themselves quasi-creative, and only one guy thought he was a non-creative.

My friend Tim Snyder made the trip out to the hill country with his visiting friend (my new friend) Josh. They audited the whole session and Josh participated in the interactive [Playdoh sculpting!] portion of the talk as well. With them and Marcus and my friend Brad Russell from The Baptist Standard there in the room, I was more at ease than I would've been.

After the presentation, Tim and Josh and I spent the rest of the day together. On the drive back to San Antonio, we stopped in the Blue Bonnet Café in Marble Falls, TX. That's Josh and his chocolate meringue pie. After that we crashed at my house for a bit ( I really needed a nap) before heading to Alamo Drafthouse Theater to see Slumdog Millionaire.

It was a nice break in the middle of the week.

I leave you with an excerpt from an essay by Leland Ryken that I published in Communiqué back in the day, and dredged up for the conversation yesterday (but didn't have time to share with the group):

"What does the image of God in people say about the arts? It affirms human creativity as something good in principle, since it is an imitation of one of God's own acts and perfections. Someone once wrote, "As image-bearer of God, [people possess] the possibility both to create something beautiful, and to delight in it (Kuyper 142). Christian poet Chad Walsh once wrote that the artist "can honestly see himself as a kind of earthly assistant to God..., carrying on the delegated work of creation, making the fullness of creation fuller" (308). This applies equally to those who are not themselves creative artists but who delight to enter into the creativity of others. And it stands as a rebuke to those who disparage God's gift of creativity in people."

Here's a handful of the logos I've designed* — I used these in the presentation:

 

*the All Saints logo was a collaboration between myself and Von Glitschka, whose work also made it into the presentation.

San Francisco Trip, rear view mirror

So like I said, Amy and I just got back from eight days in California.
Click for a first gallery (more to come)

It was wonderful on so many levels. First and foremost? Time alone to rediscover, enjoy and relax with Amy. A celebration of fifteen years of marriage. The weather and the flights and food and the downtime were all superb, the journey and the destinations were picture-perfect and meaningful. The friends we reconnected with along the way were hospitable and fun and funny and myriad. The trip was even educational (learned a little about wine during the first third of the trip and a little about youth media in the last). I did a much better job about living in the moment. Didn't spend my whole time behind the lens or buried in sketchbooks. Our 5 senses were each a little more alive, aware, acute.

Wednesday
We flew San Antonio to San Diego to San Fransisco (the via santa?); wove through the City, over Golden Gate Bridge (stopping only long enough to snap a quick photo) and drove all the way up hwy 101 to our B&B in Cloverdale. Stopped along the way in Santa Rosa for farmers' market. Italian  for dinner. Strolled Cloverdale's main street; Explored our B&B's gardens.

Thursday
On Thursday, Amy and I were awakened by the time zone difference and the excitement of being in a new place — plus, we got a good night’s sleep in a very comfortable bed. Where the night before had been hot and humid — Wednesday had reached 106°F in this inland part of northern California — this morning was crisp and cool. Large temperature differentials are a hallmark of Sonoma County — good for grape-growing. We got up and milled around the upstairs of the B&B a little: there’s a little hospitality room on the other side of the house that has coffee, hot tea, a small ice maker, and a fridge with sodas, juice and water.

After a bit we decided to go out for a pre-breakfast walk in downtown Cloverdale. The B&B is on Third St. just a block off Cloverdale Drive, the main street, and pretty much in the center of this tiny town. We took our time, snapped some iPhone shots of interesting buildings, and after some searching, eventually found Underground Coffee wedged in the back of an antique store. Amy: a blueberry muffin; me: a dolce latté. On the side wall of the antique store four large murals depict historical scenes of life in Cloverdale — one for each season, though the seasons were vaguely depicted and to the point where for  a while we weren’t sure which painting matched which season. Heading back, I snapped a tiled panorama of Pick’s, a hamburger joint that’s been around for 70 years or so.

Breakfast was fun: we had two house mates, a young couple from Stockholm, who were enjoying California while on vacation and probably enjoying the favorable exchange rate as well. We were served Dutch pancakes with homemade pomegranate syrup— as well as some apple-gouda sausages, mini muffins and coffee. I also had a light peach nectar which had the consistency of apple juice, and Amy and the Swedish couple had orange juice. Don, our host, would disappear from time to time, bringing out the small courses; first, the muffins, then the sausages and pancakes, then returning with the syrup. He’s a good conversationalist and was very interested in helping us plan our day in the Dry Creek appellation. Within fifteen or twenty minutes, we had recommendations and a highlighted map.

We toured a handful of Dry Creek wineries and ended up sampling wines at fewer than we stopped at. Asti's Cellar No. 8, Fritz, Ferrari-Carano (mostly for its well-tended gardens). We enjoyed a picnic luncheon overlooking Lake Sonoma (note the Dublin Dr. Pepper we enjoyed with panini from the Dry Creek General Store. Later in the day we fell in love with Bella vinyard and its wine caves and checked out quaint Preston winery as well. Romantic drive along West Dry Creek Road to Quivira. Poked around bookstores and stationers in touristy-but-serene Healdsburg, and walked barefoot in the cool grass in their town square. Back at the B&B's beautiful gardens, we watched dusk turn into night as we traded stories with the innkeepers Don and Mary before turning in.

Friday
More fascinating breakfast conversation. More guests had arrived, and our table mates included a couple from Nova Scotia and our Swedish friends. We packed up the car and kicked back in the gardens before bidding farewell to Don and Mary and the Swedes. Instead of retracing hwy 101 back to San Francisco (hereafter, the City), we decided to take the scenic route, which allowed us to explore the Eastern side of 101, back through Healdsburg (found some cute shops and a really cool kwanset-hut antique store). Peeked into Simi winery but didn't stick around for the tour.

Lunch in Windsor, mostly to find free Wi-fi. Happened upon a pizzeria on its second day of business. During lunch's email-check, we discovered one of my dear high school friends is pregnant, and another high school friend was in the Bay area touring colleges with her son and her high school aged daughter.

Friday afternoon we made our way into the City, did a driveby of The Haight, and settled into Golden Gate Park where we toured the Botanical Gardens for a couple hours. Then it was off to Grace Cathedral (that's where my friends Vanessa and Will are both associate pastors), where we met up with Ryan, Holly, Paxton, and others in the Seven community, because the Jesus for President tour coincidentally had rolled into town. Cobalt Season played during the intermission, and I had an amazing evening, and got to say a brief hello to Shane and Chris. And I met the head of Grace's labyrinth guild. They have a guild that takes care of their two Chartres-styled labyrinths (one indoors, the other out). Made me want to learn more about the Psalters.

The Sharps pointed us to Liberty Café for a late-night nosh in Bernal Heights, but it closed as we were walking up. Rats. We ended up getting really turned around and frustrated with driving around the Mission District before settling on a 24-hour diner, then coming back to Ryan and Holly's and crashing.

Saturday
Slept in. Way in. Smelled the coffee sometime after 9:30 and stumbled toward the aroma. Then I saw it. The view. The house where the Sharps are house-sitting has this amazing view of the water. It's breathtaking in daylight and beautifully sequined at night. We chatted with Holly and Ryan, ate some AMAZING Cali cinnamon toast, watched Pax, and made plans to hook up with Lisa and her kids at the notable Zachary's Chicago Pizza at Berkeley (note to self: the drive from Oakland Hills to Berkely on 13 was amazingly beautiful in July). We walked around Trader Joe's, then made our way (with a hot pizza in hand for our hosts) back to Casa Sharp where our Emergent friend Adam Klein was celebrating his birthday. His extended family members were there as well as his Seven friends, many of whom Amy and I met for the first time. From about 1pm to maybe 1am we enjoyed the longest pool party in my remembrance, with some really neat people as well. I built a little fire when it got cold and we were thankful for the heated pool (thanks again, Ryan). At some point in the evening, rock-n-roll photographer and friend Daley came to the house as well, after shooting a wedding in Berkeley. Everyone was in rare form that evening. Rare form.

Sunday
Our original plan was to visit St. Gregory of Nyssa for a "now-for-something-completely-different" worship experience (watch the whole video if you have time). But the pool party and travels had decided for us: more sleeping in. So here's what we did. More morning coffee and cinnamon toast. (Sorry, Bob, we never made it to bakesale betty either)... we lounged and caught up on email. So did Daley and Ryan and so the whole breakfast table looked like an Apple convention. We just embodied the sabbath. Rested. Then said some sad good-byes and snapped some photos before Amy and I left for the Union Square area. Crossed Bay Bridge into the city and before long, arrived at Hotel Nikko. Checked in and rested a little in our room before walking up (and up and up) to California, back to Grace Cathedral, where Amy and I were the guests at a Sunday School class (in a beautiful library) where they were talking about being Ordinary Radicals. Vanessa and Will invited us there so we could talk about our faith-journey, our Trinity House experiences as well as our Covenant experiences, and a little bit about my role in illustrating Jesus for President.

Then we went up to the choir part of the cathedral and had a beautiful evening contemplative service with a Eucharist. Sigh. It was really amazing, and an amazing cap to an amazing weekend. Vanessa, Will, Matt, and Anna treated us to dinner and laughter at Farmerbrown afterwards. Then it was back to the hotel, time to shift into Conference Mode.

Monday/Tuesday
Soon I'll blog more about the 2008 YPulse Mashup, an international youth media conference that drew a diverse crowd. Prosocial was the meme this year. Like founder Anastasia said here:

"While we do focus on effective ways to reach youth with technology, our audience is about one third non-profit/advocacy organizations so branding could be branding for a company or branding for an agency serving youth. [We had] sessions on this year's election, youth activism, on whether girls are the new geeks, and [one on] what folks who create web sites for youth can do about cyberbullying.

So it was not just about "selling stuff to kids" it was also about using those technologies effectively and authentically to reach them whether it is with a product that is actually useful or a message that could save their lives or inspire them to create social change."

Wednesday
Was a travel day, so following a night of Chinatown and cable cars, it was nice to just sit on a plane and be. The kids gave us a great welcome, as did my parents, who along with my mother-in-law, took care of the four little ones.

More blogging soon. Again, check out the photos.

I'll post more once our 35mm gets digitized.

bricolage :: manhattan, brooklyn, west cornwall, and back again

i waited to blog about my recent new york trip, hoping some unifying thread would be found running through the whole of the tapestry — some way to serve up the sights and sounds and smells of the last week that would remain engaging. some way to let you experience some of the energy of the city, some of the joys and loneliness of being a solo guy traipsing around manhattan, of being a fish out of water in a consultancy full of anglican vibe, some of the small pleasures in meeting new friends, in logging a few precious hours with some heretofore online friends, in spending a few quiet evenings with friends danny and kristen trying restaurants in their park slope neighborhood of brooklyn.

no magical thread has been found, other than a celebration of the beautiful, threadless remnants that would not be sewn together, and a new label for that tendency of mine towards assemblage, appropriation, pastiche, and montage: yes, the word of the week was bricolage.

bri•co•lage (n)  Something made or put together using whatever materials happen to be available

robert wuthnow's book after the baby boomers: how twenty and thirty-somethings are shaping the future of american religion was the preparatory text for the consultancy hosted by trinity church wall street; one of the main pulls from the text was the idea of spiritual tinkering:

Like the farmer rummaging through the junk pile for makeshift parts the spiritual tinkerer is able to sift through a veritable scrap heap of ideas and practices from childhood, from religious organizations, classes, conversations with friends, books, magazines, television programs and web sites. The tinkerer is free to engage in this kind of rummaging...

maybe i'll post some of my new york sketches soon. but for now, i'll post a few of the photos i shot (haven't been color corrected yet or anything).

m is for: manhattan. moma. mosaics.

then after brooklyn, guggenheim, apple store,
i headed out to west cornwall, connecticut:

social networking and youth ministry

here’s an article syler just wrote on social networking sites and youth ministry.

youth media trends

an interesting group of excerpts from my friend and work associate julie:

The focus of the YPulse 2007 Mashup (a conference all about youth and technology ... on July 17) could be summed up in two words: social networking [especially]... niche social networking that cater to specific audiences and/or specific interests. The general consensus of conference attendees was that niche social networking sites will eventually supplant the 900-lb gorilla sites like Facebook and MySpace.Here’s just a smattering of emerging social network sites for youth market niches:

• Bebo -- similar to MySpace but more geared to the U.K, Australia and New Zealand; also recently announced a partnership with Al Gore’s Current TV for young adults.
• Hi5 -- for young adults; music focused.
• Piczo -- for girls 13-15.
• Mosh -- for Yahoo users; in development.
• Takkle -- for high school athletes.
• Elhood -- a Hispanic social network launched on June 26th.
• Panjea -- Founded earlier this year, Panjea aims to combine social networking with money. It enables several ways for artists to get paid, and has its own unique points system.
• Tagged -- A social network mainly for teens, unlike other networks Tagged has a unique concept of being 'tagged,' building 'tag teams' and earning points to be the 'Ultimate Tagged Team'. Tagged has been slowly growing on the teen population mostly in the U.S. although still remains secondary to MySpace.
• MyYearbook – originally created by a teenager for her own high school; now has more than a million users
• ConnectU -- tightly focused on college/university students, but limited to only a certain number of them around the world.
• Stardoll – dressing stars like online paperdolls; for tween girls; building a similar reputation to the hugely successful NEOPets from a couple years ago.
• Imbee – a safe and secure social network for younger kids.

[Note, Paul here: I'd like to add one more: Yomod.com  is a free safe social media site for the youngest kids on the Internet (8-14 years old).  Yomod offers age-appropriate videos and a secure community.  Their mission is to "create a safe online destination for kids to interact with media in creative ways."]

Interesting comment from the YPulse conference teen panel (a handful of typical teenagers from across the country)They all agreed that they use social network messaging rather than e-mail, even though they may inadvertently call the messaging they do “e-mail.” Now that mobile phones allow Facebook messaging interface, they rarely go outside the “walled garden” of Facebook to communicate with friends. All on the panel said they only use traditional e-mail to communicate with adults. They might check it a few times a month.

This is a great jumping off point to an article titled, “Is E-mail facing extinction?” Below are some memorable quotes, but the whole piece is worth reading [here] Some interesting implications for people entering the work force, where e-mail rules.

• “Email is ‘old school.’ … Today's teens are using very different public and private digital communication tools than the rest of us.”
• “Less than 20% of the 13-17-year-olds surveyed profess to using email to communicate with friends, compared to 40% of adults ages 25-54.”
• "It would be a mistake to assume that today's teens and early twenty-somethings will shed these habits and become email addicts like the rest of us as they get older.”

And here are some stats from the Pew Internet & American Life Project that further plan the seed.

• 91% of all social networking teens say they use Facebook, My Space, MyYearbook and the like to stay in touch with friends they see frequently. (This, instead of e-mail.)
• 82% use these sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person.
• 72% of all social networking teens use these sites to make plans with friends