Now I'd like to pass the mic...

I have a couple more posts to make, one of which is going to be my 20 blog challenge tally. I know you're excited! But, right now I have to catch a plane back to Chicago. It's been fun. Thanks for following along.

Today the superstar crew of Sound Opinions arrives for the SXSW music festival. Todd Bachmann and Morrissey will be together in the same city, so it's sure to be magic.

UPDATE 03/21/06: It has just come to my attention that Todd is not the rabid Morrissey fan I was lead to believe. Repeat: Todd Bachmann enjoyed Morrissey as a youth, but he was by no means his favorite musical artist. Todd simply named his hard drive 'Moz.' It means nothing. Really.

The Future of Radio

I finally had my panel today. From what I hear all went well. It's kind of hard for me to tell how it came off, so instead of me trying to stumble through what little I remember of the experience, here's Justin Grotelueschen of Podcast.com (ed. note: he's also a WZBC radio producer) to offer his assesment of the proceedings.

Oh yeah, I'm in Texas!

So, I'm with a group of bloggers and we are jumping from bar to bar. BTW, these people can congregate! I haven't been to a meal with fewer than 20 people. It's unbelievable. The inertia from groups of this size make social planning near impossible, but they are such an inclusive bunch they hate to see anyone left behind. It's quite admirable really. ANYWAY, a few of the folks want food, so we decide to go to an all night diner that's a bit of a haul from downtown. So the legion begin to figure out the driving arrangements and I somehow end up riding in the back of a pickup truck. First off, I was certain this was illegal. I mean, come on, it has to be. But, I later learned that as long as you have more than liability insurance and the trip isn't work related, then it's perfectly fine. I'm telling you, Texas is friggin' crazy! So the bloggers were loving it and I was not at all pleased. I took a photo.


Intrepid public radio producer Roman Mars in the back of a pickup truck prays he will be "thrown clear."

Everyware

I felt like I was making bad choices by just going to the celebrity panels (see Henry Rollins, James Surowiecki, Jason Kottke-- OK, celebrity is a strong word), but I also knew that "AJAX: What do I need to know?" and other extremely technical niche programming wasn't for me. So I asked some geeks, what I should go to and the consensus was Adam Greenfield's "Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing." I have to give the geeks their due because Greenfield's was the sort of tech talk that was big picture and dense, but that everyone could and should understand and have an opinion about.

Adam has given a great deal of thought to the implications of a world where computers stop being the clunky desktop (or even laptop) utility devices, and are instead integrated into every manufactured object on the planet. The new IP convention is going to create enough IP addresses (that's the unique number your computer is on the internet) so that every grain of sand on earth could have one. Think about that. Every can of soda (OK, pop, I'm still learning to be a Chicagoan) can have an IP address. It can communicate all kinds of information back to the manufacturer about when it was purchased, how fast it was consumed, etc. Imagine water glasses that signal the waiter when it's empty. Imagine toilets that analyze and report the contents of your stool to your medical professional. These are answers to a questions that were never asked, but will likely come about because the lucrative information market will drive them into existence.

Greenfield thinks this could be a recipe for misery, but ubiqitous computing is marching forward anyway. So, he decided to introduce some principles of ubiquitous computing, just to start the discussion so manufacturers and the public could begin a discourse about how this will impact our lives. If these principles remind you of Aasimov's I, Robot you aren't the only one.

Principle 1: Default to harmlessness. e.g. ABS brakes. When ABS fails the automobile defaults to old fashioned braking mechanisms. The brakes don't go engage and disengage at 1000 times a second, but at least the car stops.

Principle 2: Be Self Disclosing. "Seamlessness" is a common word in design, but ubiquitous computing must be optional, so seams are necessary.

Principle 3: Be Conservative of Face. Don't unnecessary embarras, shame or humiliate the users.

Principle 4: Be Conservative of Time. Don't make unnecessary complications. I don't want to reporgram my shower every morning.

Principle 5: Be Deniable. Users can opt out always and at any point and alternatives must be available.

It's pretty common sense, isn't it? But, these sorts of standards are very difficult for engineers to agree upon. The engineering world simply isn't driven by top down thinking and regulations across companies and countries is near impossible. Anyway, Greenfield didn't really present them as "regulations" he just wanted to get people thinking so we didn't boldy go forward without considering all the implications. Think about this when you use your Chicago Plus card. It's already hooked up to your Visa. Do you want the RFID chip in the card to allow you to buy a hamburger at McDonald's? This is what's happening in Hong Kong. It's called the Octopus card. I wish ours had a cool name.

OK, that's enough thinking for today.

The "subscription" model and Jason Kottke

Here's something:

One year ago a very popular blogger named Jason Kottke (who is an OG in the blogging set and his site is quite entertaining--check it) decided to go pro. He put out a call for "micropatrons" who would collectively provide the financial support so he could blog full time and not resort to putting ugly, third party adds on his website. This may be beginning to sound familiar to you. The tech community calls it a "subscription" model, but that's not accurate. Non-subscribers still get to enjoy the service. What it is, is a pledge model. He did a three week drive and raised $39900 from about 1450 people.

Today as a keynote interviewee, Kottke declared this experiment in online fund raising a failure. He felt like he hadn't grown his readership enough to make the pledge model sustainable. This could be true. But more interestingly, he said he couldn't take the pressure of having 1500 bosses. He felt deeply beholden and more heavily scrutinized, as evidenced by the interviewer Heather Armstrong who complained "I saw you take my $60 pledge on a trip to Asia!" Kottke is now considering taking ads.

I have been through quite a few pledge drives in public radio and I tend to pitch a lot on the air. One of the points I always make is that I'd rather be beholden to the folks out there in listenerland than any underwriter, or (God forbid) advertiser. The pledge drive may not be everyone's favorite thing to listen to, but if there ever comes a day when you don't hear the pledge drive anymore, that is the day I will be fearful for the future of public radio.

The 20 blog challenge update.

I've gotten five more promises that I'd be mentioned in someone's blog, but I've had no follow through as of yet. I'm beginning to suspect that the bloggers are just humoring me.

One of these things is not like the other.

Without a laptop at SXSWi, intrepid radio producer Roman Mars, wades into a sea of snickering bloggers and bravely pulls out a book to read.

______ is the new _______

The day started with Henry Rollins. For those of you that aren't familiar with Henry Rollins, he is a kind of punk rock pundit that has parlayed being the 3rd best Black Flag singer into a cottage industry of subculture entertainments. Most notably he's been making his name as a spoken word performer for the past 20 years or so. He's a good storyteller, and I think it's excellent that he can get a group of teenage punks to sit down on the floor of an otherwise dingy club and have them captivated for two hours by something as simple as a guy telling a story. Anyway, he was being interviewed for the Film part of SXSW because apparently he has a cable talk show on IFC. I don't have cable, so I was completely unaware of this, but after listening to him talk for the first time in 10 years I thought, he hasn't changed much, but I wouldn't mind watching his TV show. So I guess he did his job today. Go Hank!

Notable Rollins quotes of the day:
"If music could've changed the world, Dylan, Marley and Hendrix would've done it already."
"If you really do what you want to do, don't expect a placid lake to row across."

The other part of the morning was taken up by me eavesdropping on the rows and rows of bloggers chatting up a storm (verbally, not virtually). Here's what I noticed: tech geeks love to use the expression, "_(blank)_ is the new _(blank)_." For example, "Convergence is the new accesibility" and "Obscurity is the new fame." This is a fun game you can play at home! "_(blank)_ is the new _(blank)_" is the new "six degrees of Kevin Bacon." See what I did there? Oh yeah.

More later.

4 hours in Austin= 1 session + 1 blog mention!

I've arrived in Austin. SXSWi is in full swing already. I'm bunking at the Omni with a friend of a friend named David Dylan Thomas who blogs about movies and things he likes, which is mostly movies. He's very nice and his blog's a good read even though his judgment is suspect as evidenced by his opinion that "Munich" was the best film of last year (it wasn't). Most importantly though, Dave promised to blog about me/Third Coast/Chicago Public Radio! So that's one down! 19 to go.

I've already been to a session today that featured James Surowiecki, the New Yorker writer who wrote The Wisdom of Crowds. It explains why the answer given during the 'ask the audience' lifeline on Who Wants to be a Millionaire is correct over 90% of the time even though our bias is that people in groups tend to sink the the lowest common denominator, act like mobs and chase Frankenstein with pitchforks. I don't know what it had to do with technology and "the future" but I was happy there was a session that wasn't just geared toward the blogger who wants to learn how to make money on their site.

Chicago Shout-outs:
In my effort to get into 20 blogs I figure I better give a little in return, so here's the Chicago folk I've run into so far today:
Andrew Huff, Cinnamon Cooper, Sandor Weisz

Post a comment and I'll pass along a message to them.

Peace out.

Out of the edit booth and into the bright, bright sun

Hello friend, I'm Roman Mars. Producer of Re:sound and one-third of the Third Coast International Audio Festival.

A few of Chicago Public Radio's finest are venturing out into the bigger world: leaving the land of our first Republican president for the land of our last Republican president (You're right, "latest" would be more accurate, but I'm sticking with "last.").

We're off to the Lone Star State for South by South West. It's a music festival, a film festival, and an interactive conference. What am I going there to see? You guessed it: The Interactive Conference! w00t! Blogging and web design are a lot like rock n' roll and cinema, but the creatives behind them are even pastier, with even more limited upper body strength.

My official role is as a panelist for the Future of Radio discussion that's being moderated by my friend and colleague Kevin Smokler.

My unofficial role is to get mentioned in 20 blogs. I'm bringing Third Coast Festival t-shirts as bribes, as well as Re:sound and Sound Opinions CDs. I'll keep track of my progress on this site. Wish me luck!