Interactive Narrative, Ana Serrano, Sat., Apr. 22 10:30 a.m.

Ana Serrano is the Director of the Habitat New Media Lab at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.

AS: According to Janet Murray (her book is: Hamlet on the Holodeck)
the narrative aspects of the Internet are based on three qualities
- procedural, participatory,
- immersive and spatial (Z axis, 3D), and
- encyclopedic

So then, how do you create narrative using these particular qualities?

For the past 8 years we have been experimenting at the Cdn. Film Centre to see how stories can be developed in this new medium... the problem we've found is that the interactive aspects of the medium impact the extent to which you can be immersed in the story.

Murray has missed the aspect of 'immersion' which involves suspension of disbelief, focussing instead on the procedural, spatial and encyclopedic aspects...

Lev Manovitch is another theorist, (his book is The Language of New Media) but from my point of view, neither is it very useful in terms of building things -- it is interesting how he considers the database as a narrative... creating a space in which the computer plays a role... the new notion of narrative is fragments that are cross-referenced... the narrative is the path the user takes as they traverse the database... this is coming out of the cinematic tradition.

Murray is coming from the literary tradition.

Manovitch's theory is like cuts in film, fragments linked in such a way to tell a story. Ref. Eric Zimmerman and Kay Salen sp?, who sliced the debate open to look at what interaction really means... up to then, it was not much more than clicking...

In storytelling, meaning is what moves the story:
- cognitive interctivity
- functional interactivity, how you do things
- explicit interactivity, cues or instructions
- cultural interactivity, relations between users

What we seem to have forgotten is cognitive interactivity, how we make connections internally, whether the thing we are doing help us make meaning...
in the Sims, it's the story you are making up in your head as you are moving around in the space... this idea opens up the narrative possibilities, beyond the low level of narrative of other kinds of interactivity.

So, if we tried to show this visually [diagram of Bucky Fuller's tensegrity structure here]
We use a tetrahedron, a 3D figure, which is important because there is a fourth element that is not present in radio or in books, it is the user...
The four elements are:
tech ------------- narrative --- business --- user experience
Which correspond with:
platform---------- themes ------ target ----- viewing context
Which correspond with:
input and output - structure --- financing -- [something]

For example:
[murmur]
is a cell phone project... there a publicaly posted signs with phone nos. ...call and you get personal story about that place. Here is how it configures visually:
cell phone -- modular story -- local market -- location-based

We see certain genres are starting to emerge, like:
http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/
in fact these are just short form stories, linear content put on another medium
MadeinMtl.com (developed by Blue Sponge)
a tourism site
video is only one part of a much bigger story or message
it's telling a story using multiple media
but it is also written like a story... "I want to..."
traverse the city by your desires, very lyrical feel

audience question:
How is this different that what we find elsewhere?

AS: there are many different forms of interactivity, now we have some known genres
participatory storytelling (user generated - like Fray.com > Pet Stories!!!)
interacting with video... a number of sites do this differently

http://www.anyfilms.net/ by Samsung
uses icons to structure the story... the question is how do I as a user decode the icons and anticipate the way the story might unfold... there's a kind of play involved
http://2001.oncotype.dk/press/oneminute/ by Oncotype
user identifies mood and then it outputs a movie - it's always a tabletennis game, and it becomes a character study, can be a comedy or surreal or a tragedy or romantic

usmob.com.au > what it would feel like if you had broadband and you could watch TV and be online at the same time

WebbyAwards > Nominees > NOKIA's 20 lives

... blogger had to run... sorry... to be continued?

Note about presentation methods: Ana started her session by asking everyone attending to introduce themselves. This is very unusual and it was amazing to learn how diverse but highly qualified/experienced everyone was. Unfortunately it took quite a bit of time, leaving less time at the end for discussion.

Note about tech: The internet connection was unpredictable, fine for some presentations but slow for others. One way to deal with this would be to download content to your hard drive before hand. Another would be to boot up before the presentation starts and visit each site so the contents will be cached.

Blogger's question in his head:
Yesterday the panel on narrative, which really should have come after your presentation, wrestled with the distincition between creating an "experience" vs. creating a "narrative". Geoff Lillemon gave as an example of good online narrative, Wikipedia. eBay might be another example... the story is really the participation of you and everyone like you flogging and buying stuff online... it's like visiting the market... it's not really narrative in a linear sense but it is definitely experiential, there is the ebb and flow of desires... it is Murray's encyclopedic nature of the Web but you can see that she's getting at something more than an encyclopedia. It's not like opening a book, it is experiential in a different way because it is communal.

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Narrative Design: Friday, April 21st, 3:15 p.m. - PANEL NOTES

Siobhan O'Flynn moderating, with Colin Craig (Henderson Bas), Geoff Lillemon (oculart.com + modernista), Ron Gervais (iamstatic.com), Joshua Hirsch (bigspaceship.com).

SO: the whole question of story in the interactive environment, I don't agree that every interactive project has a story, so when brainstorming, e.g., does storytelling figure into it?

JH: sometimes the client has a story, a total agenda... sometimes it's a secret, like with War of the Worlds, got almost no assets, other times they keep just certain parts secret, so you end up doing kind of a prequel. In terms of working it sounds alot like working on a game, you describe what is done, you do this, and then this, etc. but a lot of that doesn't survive through production. Also, beginning, middle, end question, we don't often do that, it's rare, commercials have beginning, middle, end but interactive doesn't usually.

GL: it's almost like going from one media to the next, if you leave them with questions, then they are encouraged to go see the movie

SO: with Oculart, is it about story or experience...

GL: The story is in the creation process, was it long and tedious or whatever... like meeting someone, there's a flutter at the beginning, then there's the work and in the end its almost heartbreaking to leave... at the end you see it all and the process is in there somehow, you see it altogether.

RG: Your work is like other media, the aesthetic is full of the process, and that is pretty unique in a cool media like the net where it's hard to get things to emote.

GL: I'm working on a music project now using jazz, and like brainscanning that can pick up emotional variables, so the idea is that you composite pieces of music to generate a feeling.

SO: Are you designing for story or experience? Geoff's thing seems to be about emotion, not traditional narrative, not sequential.

GL: If you put things in sequence, it's never experienced the same way twice, but the pieces aren't necessarily very meaningful.

JH: In our work, if you strip away the structure, then the emotion is what is left.

CC: You are seeing more evocative work on the web because of the people who are working in the online environment; also it's about restrictions, you can only do so much in the kind of timeframe that you have people's attention for.

RG: I'm not sure that you can even apply the storytelling model to this environment, the fact that you have to click into an experience, you have to click and click but you can walk away at any time.

audience question: When you work on something, do you always start with a scenario and a frame of mind?

JH: Yeah, that's how we start out, even if it doesn't work out in the end, you have to incorporate the use and you imagine how they are going to "play" through things but then it doesn't always work how you think it's going to.

audience question: You don't have to have a linear narrative to tell a story; it's like a piece of art, there is no beginning or end... the Web generates certain circumstances, a certain situation, then developers have tools to make that... the new art will be made by engineers, because of the nature of Web tools, there are new possibilities.

CC: It's interesting that there are new narrative forms, the user experience is in relation to new kinds of experience; sometimes we can compete, sometimes we can't... we are limited but if we are going to contribute it's going to be through the things that are unique to our medium, like interactivity... but clicking buttons is not much different than flipping pages. The other thing is incorporating data; you see elements of it in blogs, in Yugo Nakamura's NEC site where user submissions grow leaves on trees and NEC plants real trees based on the number of trees "grown" by user submissions. Probably that was conceived of as a narrative.

JH: Will Wright's new game Spore - you start as a cell and grow into a creature, then a tribe, then a city, then a universe; the creatures populating your world are created by other people playing, drawn from data saved.

audience question: Like Twin peaks, the David Lynch thing; it evolved week after week. What if each time you visit, you get a different technology, image one time, video the next?

JH: With Flash 8, Grant Skinner was talking about interacting with mouse movement, not just clicks.

GL: I like the idea of aging websites... over 60 years, e.g. a site could alter, change, learn as it gains knowledge. You could give a website a lifespan.

RG: It's all about simulation; our reference to narrative is through the experience we've already had when we sit down to experience something on the Web, but there is no website that will provoke me to cry, or make you want to gush about it.

GL: But waht about a multi-player game and then something tragic happens?

RG: Gaming is a different thing all together, and it's true the best narrative sort of things online involve gaming.

CC: Scale is a big issue, there is so much money behind gaming; we can only make small experiences online by comparison. You'll notice online that there is a real individual sense, there are really no rules, the types of styles are far more individual and idiosyncratic, so despite all the problems it's really an ideal world.

RG: How the web is delivered to us is maybe determinative, e.g., having a wireless mouse, being comfortable and watching in the dark might open up some possibilities.

CC: Yeah, you are fighting so many things, lights are on, people are around, couriers are arriving... you are sitting up at a desk.

audience question: I work with Josh, but we did a campaign for the show Lost and it was wildly successful. We didn't think of it as a game but that's how people referred to it; it's not limited by our experience of other media; people bring their experience of other media to the Web.

CC: Where you took advantage of the media was with the fact that you can't control time; people explore at their own pace, the story unfold non-linearly.

SO: If you think about narrative spatially, then you don't think about it linearly. Also, before we lose it, Lost leveraged what people already know.

JH: Yeah, there was a barcode on the site that didn't mean anything and thousands of people downloaded it and tried to "decode" it. (laughter)

audience question: What is the definition of narrative? You're using it interchangably with experience. It is a confusion that also confuses the idea of authorship. If data is driving something it's not going to be as intentionally emotional as when a person is authoring it.

RG: There's a lot of talk about experience. I'm still trying to figure out what that is about. Narrative painting e.g. can tell a story but it is a still single image.

CC: My wife is an ESL teacher and they talk about people's experience as a narrative. I work in advertising where there is little opportunity to tell real stories but we still use that language to describe what we do. There is a vogue to incorporate your product into a story, e.g. Diesel. It's related to product placement in movies and games.

RG: It's something that we use to translate into an enjoyable experience.

GL: The idea of pulling in things, like the weather generating "story" with variables... can still create an experience.

CC: It's partly about how many options you build into it, the choose your own adventure model, 10 possible endings is a sort of superficial use of interaction as opposed to an infinite number of possible endings.

SO: HiRes is doing very resistent websites, not easy to get into and that is very interesting.

RG: Maybe it's just that no one has put enough money into an online web project.

CC: The gaming industry has, e.g. Warcraft, there is a new personal style.

audience question: What is good storytelling online? Can you give examples?

GL: Wikipedia.

JH: Web cartoons.

RG: I believe i've made my position clear.

SO: Certain puzzles lend themselves very well, that put the user into the position as detective, tracing the narrative, e.g. the Grudge, you know what your role is, so narrative and experience go hand in hand. If you understand the deep structure, you can design something very very rich.

audience question: Is there something that evolves beyond the web to other technology or devices?

GL: Yes definitely GPS, hot spots... we're doing something called locative cinema,
walks and rocks...

...
[bloggers questions: What about Hilman Curtis for short narrative or iamstatic's project last year called Growth & Pattern? There was a lot of narrative stuff there.
What is the reading experience that we are trying to compare to? And as Margot Knight asked what is the knowledge experience of reading online? You don't write a book and send it out to a focus group and then change the location or add a character or create a new event because of what they say.]

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On Freelancing by Philip Kerman - Friday Sept. 21, 4:30 pm

Phillip Kerman is a teacher, writer, and programmer with a decade of professional experience.

PK: The goal is to balance money, living and work.

Don't overinvest. Money is important but basically it's about having more than somebody else, like information, you need just enough, so don't overlearn, don't over invest in the tools, get just what you need.

Find what you like to do. Ignor what's hot... look at yourself. Know what you like, know what you are good at, then find the people who want that. Design the job for yourself.

Charge for everything. But also pay people to do things for you, they will take it more seriously, even if its' not that much.

Value yourself and be valued by your client. If they don't like how much you are charging, what you are doing, that's a problem. You want to find the positive in everything you are doing.

Do not feel bad about charging for your services. As a freelancer, you are chronically unemployed so you need to be wise and careful in getting and keeping clients. Never say the price, the game is he who speaks first loses; you want to find out how much they want to spend, then that determines how much you can do for them. If they name a price range, verbalize the high number and never go to the low number. Remember the contractor multiplier: you will always think you are making more money than you actually are. It's always an illusion, no matter how much you charge. I calculate, I send them the bill, I feel good, I get paid, I feel even better. But really, the only thing that matters in terms of running your business successfully is getting paid. It's not how you feel about it. You have to keep your perspective.

So how do you make money?
Geographic offset - move to a new location where you can define yourself however you want; in your local place you are typecast; moving can eliminate stigma of your past.

If you don't have the opportunity to move, you can still help yourself by stating everything in the affirmative; I am _____, whatever it is, just state it. Do not say I am interested in _____. That communicates lack of confidence and ability.

Go where the work you want to do is and when you get there, state what you do in the affirmative.

Be a jerk. Tell your clients what they need to know. Don't mince words. Be direct, not insulting or disrespectful, but honest. It's appreciated.

Golden Ticket: informational interviews... Learn everything about the co. where you want to work, make an appointment saying you want to know more about their company; it's less stressful than a job interview, you meet with people on a different playing field and at the very least you learn something. E.g. Second Story does a "show and tell," it doesn't have to be a big performance, you just want to find out if it is the right situation for you.

Learn to say no. Avoid flakey clients and bad jobs. If there are red flags going up, just don't do it! "pro bono" "portfolio piece" "internship", these are red flags. I've made mistakes, its hard not to but you get burned and you learn. It's not hard to get 100% booked, once you start saying no, you become more attractive. Take time off, don't get overbooked.

Balance things out, flatten it out, invest in your future, study. Writing and teaching can balance out your freelance.

Maximize your free time. People are always saying they are busy, but what I'd like to be able to say I've got time for things. Take your retirement all through your life, thrive on downtime, use the downtime in productive ways, e.g., learning from your colleagues.

Call people on the phone, make an appointment, just to talk. You never know where a casual conversation not focussed on anything in particular will take you. And you learn things.

Do the math. I have 588 months to go to age 90; Charge enough for your time, while also keeping things in balance.

Just quit / get fired. You sometimes have to do stuff you don't like, everybody does... but if you don't like what you are doing, don't do it. You will be better able to look for work, although you do spend more money, movies, lunches, etc.

Update your resume every year. I write down every project I've worked on, every piece of software I'm interested in, that way when people ask you what you are doing, you have an answer. Another tip, if you write a book, figure out how to answer the question What is it about?

Avoid multi-tasking: inevitably you will do things worse... you just get more stressed.

audience question: What if your hobbies involve multi-tasking?

PK: Some people say they can work and listen to podcasts, etc. What ends up happening is you are moving quickly from one thing to another, taking turns with your brain... You probably won't really remember much about anything you are doing.

Always know you CAN do it! Break down your projects into pieces; The Big Jump... take it one step at a time, one piece at a time, do studies, tests, so when you build the real thing, you have all the pieces figured out.

Haste makes waste. Take the time to invest in the things that make you productive; if you go too fast, if you ignor the voice that says you shouldn't do something that way, then take time out and figure out how to do it properly. It is a real skill to learn what not to do... figure out which things are important.

"Selling starts with the first no." (Dale Carnegie)
Well, programming starts with the first change, don't get overwhelmed...

Don't do things in order. Sometimes you have to, but
if you need shelter you want a whole house, no matter it's condition, not just a foyer that is perfect, so get the whole thing up and then go back and fine tune.

Don't fix every bug you find. Assess them and make a decision whether it's important to the client and if it's important to them, add it to the list of things to do... maybe in version 2. Do not, ever, play hide and seek, if you find a bug, don't avoid it, don't hide it... show them the bug, put it on the list... don't let the client find it themselves.

Don't hide from your clients. Show the client your absolutely best graphic ideas, but not everything, be an editor.

Don't do weekly meetings. Figure out how much meetings cost and meet when it's worthwhile. Keep them short and efficient. Avoid conference calls, client visits only when necessary.

Avoid bad energy. Hang out with positive people; you don't want to listen to negative stuff; if there's no respect for the project then it'll bring you down.

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Freelance, Sun. Apr. 23 1:30 p.m. - PANEL NOTES

Snow Dowd, moderating, with Lordalex Leon, Philip Kerman and Danny Paterson joining at the last minute to replace Guy Watson could not attend.

SD: How does your creativity work for you?

DP: I'm not an accountant or a business person, so I use an accountant to do billing and a lawyer so I can focus on what I do best.

LL: I learned the hard way about billing because I was part-time freelance while working so it wasn't so important.

PK: I'm low tech. It's pretty simple, I don't have employees.

SD: Do you guys work with other people?

DP: I haven't been doing it long enough to know how complicated it can be. The lawyer might review a contract and he flags things. It doesn't cost that much really.

SD: Even if you are very small, if you don't get paid by somebody, it is totally worth it to have a lawyer you go to regularly.

PK: As long as you are working on the project, you have some leverage on
I've been pretty good at avoiding the flakey client. If something feel's not right, then you shouldn't go there.

DP: In a hard situation, it's good to have a contract, like between friends, it's right there in black and white in case you have some misunderstanding.

SD: Where do you get your contracts? Draft your own?

LL: Yes, but then I got some input from somebody else.

PK: If somebody asks for a contract, I'll give them something simple, really simple. Often clients will have their own contract and you just have to watch out for some stuff. But even if you sign a bad contract, so long as you get the work done and you get paid, then you've dodged a bullet and that's fine.

DP: If you are looking at contracts that come from the client, it's useful to have a lawyer look at it because I've learned a lot.

SD: We kind of started at the end, getting paid...

PK: Yeah but it's important, if a client is hesitating on paying you, that's a red flag.

SD: Yesterday, Philip said you should also pay people who work for you, treat them like you want to be treated, it keeps things professional and you get better work.

DP: Everything is negotiable, if you point out something you have a problem with in a contract, often they will take it out.

SD: How do you get better clients, not just more clients, but better clients.

LL: I have lot of success going to business exchanges, or conferences in other areas where there are businesses that need websites and applications. Also go into forums, check out the job posts, post something. I also have a blog and use AdSense.

DP: One of the biggest mistakes I've seen people make is closing the door when you land a big client; you have to always have another line or more in the water, so that you have something to do when you finish the big project.

PK: You don't want to be 100% booked so you have time to look for work. It's easy to get overbooked, the hard thing is to keep consistent. But I'm thinking about how to get better clients and it's hard to answer. Saying no is important; wait for the better project. Always being out there and telling people what you have to offer.

DP: Almost all my clients are agencies or marketing departments, but they are the worst clients. The best clients are Financial Institutions and the like, where you are working directly with them and not through somebody else.

PK: You should analyze what was for you a great project and then go after that type of project.

LL: Don't always say yes, just like a goldfish, you can just eat and eat and blow up and die. I'd rather do a good job with fewer projects and then get good referrals. Avoid inheriting projects from other people, those projects are often in trouble. If they've fired their developer then that's a red flag, they probably have unrealistic expectations. [blogger's note: Don't make the mistake of thinking the previous developer wasn't any good, or that you are different, you aren't going to have the same problems the person before you did. 9 times out of 10, you are.]

PK: You can be quiet or encouraging without fully committing to the project and then if red flags go up, drop out later.

LL: If your projects are all good, then you can refer some out.

PK: I disagree, referrals can really backfire. If it doesn't work out, it ultimately reflects on you. What I do is to take the info about the client's project, give it to a few people and let them contact the client themselves, that way you are out of it.

SD: How do you develop a network? I think you have to be ambitious... so few people do that, contact the people who can help you... so long as you are cool about it.

LL: People mail me their CVs. One guy called me because he wasn't sure about going freelance and I told him if he had the gumption to call me, he was good at putting himself out there and would probably succeed. The biggest thing is having a positive attitude.

question: What about staffing agencies and using them?

DP: The best situation is 3 tiers: end client, agency, then you.

PK: I have no good things to stay about tech agencies, they are only looking for new clients, not new employees.

question: Isn't the pay rate very low though the agencies?

PK: Yeah, once I set my rate, if the agency adds to that, then it makes me totally uncompetitive.

question: How do you organize your work?

DP: I avoid any full-time contract, and on-site (especially if they won't pay for your commute, your lunch, etc.)

LL: I sometimes take onsite work but I make them pay for travel. Once or twice a week is ok, so long as they understand this is exceptional service.

question: What about out-sourcing?

DP and PK: Sometimes but depends on whether you're a good manager.

question: How do you know if you are the kind of person who can succeed at freelancing?

DP: One of my teachers once said to me it's whether you can handle waking up in the middele of the night worrying. It's stressful so success depends on your tolerance level.

SD: Yes, some people like the working, employee routine, others find that soul-destroying.

question: What do you do when a client suddenly expands the scope of work?

DP: Good contracts are essential.

PK: Staying hourly is a good idea, though practically I am going more towards fixed bids, but for that you have to have a very, very good understanding with your client about scope.

question: How do you do your billing, do you estimate number of hours?

LL: You can give it roughly and revise it as we progress at milestones.

PK: The client gets what they pay for, but you can look at some past projects and you will know how many hours were involved, more than you think because you'll know after the project is done exactly how much work it was... all the hours before and after included.

question: Do you get money up front?

PK: I don't... some people offer it, which is fine, but the best is if you bill periodically and if they don't pay then you have as leverage that you can stop work, not that you will, but it's there if you need it.

question: How do you handle project management?

... The thing to watch for is that you don't skip stages, build the time you spend managing the project, communicating with the client into your estimate.

question:Are you incorporated?

PK: LLC is important because it protects your assets.

LL: I am going to incorporate, for protection, for also to be eligible for some foreign contracts.

DP: Incorporation can be essential if you are going to get insurance... liability.

SD: You should limit errors and ommissions in your contracts rather than try to get insurance which is very expensive. [blogger's note: typically a contract might say that in the event of errors or ommissions of any type, your liability is limited to X dollars, not more than the fee or some portion of it.]

question: Ownership of libraries? How do you hang on to parts of the project?

LL: if the client wants me to use some of my previous work, then I am clear with them that it is my property.

PK: I always give the source files.

DP: If the client wants the source code, I'll stipulate in the contract exactly what part of it they can have.

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Convergence Panel, Sun., Apr. 23; 11:30 am

Evan Jones, moderating, with Robert Reinhardt (themakers.com), Adam Boozer (iqtv.com), Jennifer Chan (nowtoronto.com), and joined today by Michael Lebowitz (bigspaceship.com).

EJ: We go across a lot of media here, I'm wondering if you'd comment about integration, which it has been said, happens in people's heads, not in the marketing companies. What kind of unexpected things have happened with users?

AB: We were promoting a show online but what was surprising was when AOL came to the TV producer and wanted to put it into AOL... it's so transportable that that's easy to do.

EJ: How do you design for the unknown context, where something is purposed for another form.

JC: I'm always looking for ways to repurpose our print content. The biggest way is through XML, but also to keep things portable, small file sizes... it would be nice to be avail. on mobile phones... feed restraurant reviews for example, there's a demand for that.

ML: With XML, Adobe is pushing for making content universally accessible... as a builder of content, we are always keeping in mind multiple outputs, multiple touchpoints.

EJ: The great thing about cross-platform is that you can push your content to so many places. E.g., mobisodes... a television script just doesn't work on a mobile platform, so does content translate?

RR: XML is only one data form, it doesn't really matter what form you use, Flash can use so many different forms of data. But the issue is the content and whether it's appropriate for the particular medium. If Kodak puts its web content direct onto TV, it doesn't work, you don't navigate it the same way.

ML: We are always encouraging clients to consider not direct translations but to do offshoots, something that plays differently, more appropriately for the particular medium... knowing your audience and how they want to do things.

EJ: Web 2.0 is a buzzword... can we talk about user generated content and also using content from other sources... do we edit that content, do we filter it, does it need to be part of the picture

AB: We did a user thing where they were actually editing, and that content is so interesting... it doesn't matter so much what the interface or method of dissemination is, it keeps coming back to the basic content, is it good enough to be sustainable across different platforms.

RR: People were grabbing iFilm stuff and putting it up on MySpace. Instead of prohibiting it, iFilm went with it, skinning and branding the content and also using Flash to preserve a whole control environment that goes with the content.
A broadband search platform... NBC wants tight control over their content, they locked it down so much that people just didn't want to go there any more... the better way is to encourage deeplinking, it serves them better.

JC: You'd think the marketing depts. would see the benefit of viral spread of content and the kind of investment that the user makes in the content.

AB: But it terrifies them. If they give it away, the content producer who depends on content for revenue, the principle of giving it away is terrifying.
Volkswagon actually posts fictitious stuff on eBay and it goes from there.

JC: We give our content away, sharing it draws people to us... if you try charging for it, the readership just drops. Maybe micro payments are the answer, .99 for an iTune song.

AB: Behind the scenes footage and extra stuff can be made available for free.

ML: With Lost, we put things out to the world, it was good will, everybody knew it was marketing but we were honest... people started building their own websites emulating the official ones, even to the point that somebody registered a domain bigspaceship1.com that claimed to be related to us, the designers, it was a bit scary but ABC went with it all and it worked great.

question:
people are talking about having an online strategy for every TV show, has it become an expectation rather than an add-on.

ML: We wish! The big broadcasters are still clamping down on content. They'll go with it when they see its profitable but the change comes from the creators of programs themselves... writers are thinking how do we place this content everywhere... and they can have an enormous amount of power if they have had some enormous successes. It can be driven by production (the creators), not marketing.

AB: The broadcasters are still thinking in terms of how to drive traffic to the TV show... they don't want you to stay on the Web.

RR: If one broadcaster announces Web tie-ins, then the others all feel pressured to do the same... ABC announced MyABC... but the affiliates are cut out of it, so there are lots of forces at work, people who stand to lose money are going to affect how it plays out, but at the same time the affiliates aren't necessarily maximizing value either, e.g. they push ABC content out without consistency

EJ: How do you keep consistency across media. Do you have a system? Tricks of the trade?

JC: The source is one writer for one article but it gets edited differently.

AB: ML: A strong brand is easier to push through different media.

AB: A funny part of consistency is when you do something in one medium and the effect or look gets picked up in the other media... upstream.

EJ:

ML: There's a lot more money in broadcast so they can go into gaming etc. etc. ... the cost of entry to the Web is very very low, so you can see things moving from the Web out... the next step will be for something to move from the Web into a TV show...

AB: Jennifer Shiman's crazy bunnies moved up to Stars on Demand, so we are seeing it happen.

JC: There's a large pool of talent out there, and it's possible to break through to something big, like Flickr, started out in Vancouver. Musicians are looking more at their websites as a part of a more whole distribution model.

RR: When Larry David has another option to do something without going through the network... there is less and less the middle man, but there are exceptions, e.g. needing to get podcasts from iTunes... we need more gateways...
content producers need to negotiate with each of the devices, and that's a big obstacle.. I'm not arguing for standards but it's ridiculous how much account management has to go into creating all these different iterations for all the various devices.

ML: The long tail concept, a Wired editor starts with a story and now it's developing into a book. Self-published content can be right beside published content, three clicks away...

EJ: You are choosing content, iTunes features individuals on their homepage... how long before YOU become the producer.

question:
publishers seem sometimes to get angrier and to clamp down...

ML: it's adapt of die, the music industry didn't and won't still... Hollywood is making the same mistake, they are afraid of letting a single image out... if they don't figure it out... people want their content, their way....iTunes proved it can be monitized... publishers seem to be moving forward a little better...

Some films are being distributed on DVD, on demand, and at the theatres and that's working

RR: the gateway can fix the price, Walmart is proving that, they can force manufacturers to move offshore in order to keep price down...
but studios are still fronting the price for production, good quality, most independents can afford that... the studios are like banks, they are financing things and they don't like spending their own money, they need other people's money

question:
is there any danger of overproduction, where it's all over-written, webisodes and DVDs necessary to keep track of a TV show... the core value of the show can start to disappear for people who are interested but not fanatics.

ML: Like 24 maybe,,, you have to find this to watch this, see the 1st part to get the 2nd part... in the case of Lost, we wanted; ARG world that generates tons of fan built content and that could have been incorporated but they weren't ready to do that, adSense e.g., but we can also tie in sponsors but you can go too far

EJ: You set up an expectation with a show... a contract with the viewer, ReGenesis is a stand alone TV show but it requires that you've seen it from the beginning but that is explained up front and so long as that's the case, it ok

question:
with the convergence of games, web and TV, this is the new thing
TV radio film convergence is old school
is this

EJ: I think you saw the old type of convergence was tried and is gone.

ML: Sony owns the content, produces it, they own the hardware also, it's not that they are not good at it... there need to be checks and balances, they try to keep the content to their own devices but that doesn't always work

permanent link

David Fewer - Copyright Law, Friday 10:15 a.m. - NOTES

In advance of today's panel on copyright, here are my notes from David Fewer's presentation yesterday. Notes for the actual panel will be posted shortly.

DF: Blogging is the big news, wide use of template designs, everything is publicly posted. I even have one for a class I teach at the U of Ottawa... all content driven from the students. Wikipedia is a huge example, an encyclopedia online, all content provided by users. Not a professional organization but the information is spot on. flickr is another one... YouTube for sharing video... and of course P2P may not be user generated content but it is a sharing network with huge volume... e.g. is BitTorrent...

The point is that there is unprecedented sharing of content.

Talking about user-driven content, iTunes invites people to share mixes, playlists, reviews... not copyrighted content.
Txome, Canadian site, encouraging sharing... limited participation of artists in the sharing equation is a problem they are attempting to address, will be interesting to see how it develops.
Creative Commons addresses the issue that copyright is so black and white, either you have permission or you don't. What it does it give you a machine readable optional contracts that parcel up the available rights and give the author control over what rights they want to give... very accessible permissions system, one click to get an explanation of the different rights and permissions. CreativeCommons.ca is the Cdn. version.

Creative Archive Licence Group is the licensor for the BBC and is using CC licensing as is Cory Doctorow, serialized and available for free online, also reads his books and podcasts them... his view is that copying is not his enemy, obscurity is.

eBay; amazon.com... these are great resources whether you buy anything or not.

Indexing is a key component of the Internet... availability and permissions mean not much unless you can find stuff, which is what Google and others like Yahoo do.
Google is putting indexing in new places, e.g. blog index, news index, and... books.
Technorati is another, mostly for blogs

You won't find all of a book in Google Book Search, but a couple of pages. It's a bit like browsing in a bookstore.

All of this is happening because of the Internet, which is an open platform, nobody controls it, no gatekeeper end-to-end.
The other thing that makes this possible is copyright. Sounds funny, but the limitations inherent in copyright make things possible. Copyright is an imperfect tool.. also it is open, fair dealing (fair use)... e.g. the act of reading is not something that can be controlled by copyright

But there are efforts to strengthen copyright and its enforcement on the net:
net neutrality, the pipe holders don't control content, the content controllers are at the margins of the network, tho' that is changing somewhat

Break your devices - things that don't let you connect, move content from device to device:
a) through agreements between companies
b) through law that make sharing between devices illegal
c) through technology that bars sharing and requiring that tech to be implemented

The issue is not copying but distribution
the history of the VCR is indicative... Hollywood was incomprehending that something could be shown without knowing how many people might be seeing it
it's all about restricting consumer choices

WIPO Broadcast Treaty... trying to create a web-casting right - would be a new tier of rights; they argue the need the right to create incentives to create content, but there is no lack of people creating content for free on the net

Expand copyright... browsing, the exclusive right to read, e.g. at a library or bookstore, some court decisions say that an electroic copy made for browsing is a copyright infringement. Public interest advocates like myself disagree

Grokster decision, p2p outlawed
not a good thing from a public interest perspective

Other cases now against GoogleBook and BitTorrent, both of which are indexers

Para-copyright... WIDO Internet Treaties; DMCA; Anti-circumvention laws
DRM Digital rights management... tools that discard copyright, prohibiting access to the content

Anti-circumvention laws don't care what the copyright is, they just prevent copying
which displaces user rights, access rights
this is about enforcing license terms; absolute, not negotiable

But copyright is public policy, predicated on balance, looking after rights holders and users both. PTMs are driven by private concerns, seeking perfect control.

But the danger is stymying innovation
can't reverse engineer
hinders interoperability
conflicts with privacy protections
public domain includes a lot of content
competition - this about segmenting markets and milking consumers
educational use
justification - the incentive argument is not substantiated, tho' there was some of this at the beginning...
the real justification is control
and this comes at considerable cost

The goal is to find things that are compatible with copyright
e.g. DRM is unlikely to become enforced in Canada given the US experience
should be harmonizing, use US model of fair use, which allows parody reverse engineering and interoperability

What about alternative compensation schemes?

Despite efforts to curtail it and produce revenue, file sharing continues to grow... and we are seeing innovative new models all the time... and the problem is still that a lot of copyright owners are not getting compensated...

Greater restriction will not eliminate the problem, it will just tighten it up into more concentrated enclaves (dark nets)
the routine activities of Canadians should not be made illegal

e.g. radio, mandatory licensing, no one can prevent play so long as radio pays

Crown copyright... content generated by public dollars should be public.. have this in the US, but not UK or Canada

Public domain... you need to have boundaries in real estate, where ownership begins and leaves off... so we need to firm up

Net neutrality... we have been well-served by this and should be resisting the Broadcast Flag
Webcasting right
A2K (access to knowledge) - protections

Copyright is imperfect because we wanted it to be imperfect or because we just didn't have the tools or the situations of today didn't exist

- privacy is not a priviledge that we "enjoy"... but a right and we should resist spyware. Sony had a bad experience with this when it tried shipping CDs that had enforcement software packed into them. There was no notice, it operated poorly...

(my note: If copyright enforcers argue that without protection, incentive to create is weakened, isn't it the same kind of argument to say that with too much protection, innovation is stymied?)

questions:
As a producer I always have to get permissions to record people whereas public broadcasters don't seem to have to... why is that?

DF: it is driven by insurers, downloading the cost of potential litigation onto content producers. It is not clear that all releases are necessary.

Q What about shots of people used on websites
Qyou can be guided by celebrity rights... and privacy law
individuals have right to control images of themselves and you are not allowed to capitalize on some one else's fame

DF: Perhaps the question is whether the person is featured of if it's a mob shot.

permanent link

Future of Design, Sat. Apr 22, 11:30 a.m. - NOTES

Robert Peters, moderating, icograda.org
Matthew Richmond, choppingblock.com
Geoff McFetridge, championsdontstop.com
Peter Moller, mtv.ca

RP: issues identified in the introductions:
design comes first, searching the fringe, working for the beast

polls audience for age, most under 40, half of those under 30

since you were born the population of the world has doubled
in the last 100 years we have 10 of the hottest years ever recorded
the lakes didn't freeze in the North of Canada enough this year for them to be used as winter roads, a life line for remote communities
we have global military instability

...
so in this environment, panelists do you have ideas about this?

GM: I've only recently become aware of these things, I was always really just focussed on my work, I wasn't making work that was political but that was positive and cerebral... and I believed that if you are pushing people to think, to have positive experience, then that is doing some good
but then I realized that is not enough, that I've started questioning what we are doing at a more fundamental level... I feel I'm behind one part of the pack but for a whole school of design, I'm ahead

MR: there aren't really any ethics in art, there are but they aren't the mainstream... we wonder about technology, when does the barrage of tv and advertising stop? i discovered that i like old photos because there are no logos, we dont' have an opportunity to ask a client whether they really need a product like a bag, but we can ask how to treat the user with more respect

PM: technology is becoming more and more accessible... the world is overbranded,,, which isn't such a bad thing, there's no uniform, the public can choose... the question is whether we really have choice or is that only an illusion?
in a way, we are all teachers, we have to be really responsible... many more people have the ability to be creative, to express themselves, but we have to be responsible at the same time

GM: your intent as a designer is totally transparent... in design we have a clear language and a pretty educated public... but when you see people covered in graphics, what you see is the intent, sports, go for it, kill everybody, and that's the bottom for me

RP: so you saying "Just don't do it."

GM: no, not at all, it's just that it is so predictable, every logo is like a leaf growing out of something, it's all about change and improving

RP: is everyone a designer now? we were trained in the secret arts, like using "wax" and "camera-ready artwork", but now anybody can download design applications and go to work in an afternoon... Napolean tried to stop the spread of the printing press because he knew literacy would lead to revolution... Gutenberg made everyone literate... Kodak made everyone a photographer... Xerox made everyone a publisher... what is MTV making us?

PM: the world is growing up with MTV, it's a colourful world, people say they have been influenced by it, inspired to go into animation or whatever, and that's a good thing... I feel like what we do is making the world a little funnier, cool, grotesque, whatever... if you have a creative brand, you are helping things change and that's a good thing
after television there will be so many more options/outlets.... technologies will grow together that give people more choice... perception changes

MR: i am a child of MTV, no attention span (laughter), things are changing faster and faster, when we started we couldn't decide our identity, so we took a walk and stopped at a magazine shop and saw a NASCAR magazine and liked the look, so the idea became let's do that until we get tired of it and then change up...

GM: people complains abut pay but they do the work anyway, and there's so much independent stuff and people find out about it, which is great... but with MTV there was this concern about how to get your stuff on it... but now, a younger generation don't even care or even don't actually want to be on MTV... the whole structure of the industry is changing... and you could parallel this with design; maybe industry is chasing us and we don't have to chase

RP: fast twitch muscles are being developed, you need stimulation?

MR: yep! you work for 10 minutes then get up, you grab stuff and mass it up and keep doing that until you like it... it's about the machine producing the design

RP: so is it about the machine taking over the process

MR: no, it's about searching for something that hasn't been done yet

RP: ok, so can we talk for a minute about time and speed... in N.A. native culture decisions were supposed to be considered for seven generations... our model of the world is very different... politics has changed
63000 transnational corporations hold the balance of power in the world
it's reported in quarterly returns and daily in stock reports... accountability has changed; Oppenheimer said technology makes us faster and more powerful but not smarter... are we driving beyond our high beams?

PM: technology helps us all to get information faster and digest it faster... there is no one linear track anymore, you can stick in the 80s, or the 70s, it's a potpourri, which gives us creative types a lot of freedom; we never had this at such an extreme; there is nothing new; so you try to be clever and to educate people

MR: everything you say is true for design too, somethings always work, always look good, we look back on it, change it up

GM: part of the design the client wants is always something that looks like something else, and I always want to get past that and ask a different question, directed at the substance of it, what is going on here, and especially how can we slow things down, make less happen...
lets' take it out of the corporate structure... I work alone, I don't have employees, I focus on one thing at a time... business comes to me because I don't think like them...

RP: value is moving upstream... ways to be useful that involve passion, intellect, more than corporations have... to be corporate dreamers, not to be so practical, to be more experimental... there's real value in that
you've all touched on the issue of moreand more stuff: it seems to me that's always been the case, it's because we are part of nature, it's a cycle... so do you have some positive notions:

GM: yeah, in skateboarding you can one kid in totally loose clothes and on the next page in skin tight pants... and these things can co-exist comfortably there

RP: what are your dreams? what will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now?

MR: well, it would be nice to be in the position of being consulted for your ideas, for corporations to listen to what you have to say... if you do good stuff for yourself, then they might want to know what think.... and they want you to be honest;
maybe because things are moving so fast, it becomes more about them wanting to find some sense in it

GM: nobody can capitalize on a "look" anymore, it's going to be this wierd void, people will talk about it, make documentaries about it, but it will be intangible...

PM: there is so much change; we are getting more and more, so much you can't possibly keep on top of it; but we are all part of that... big money makers maybe are starting to ask

RP: thank you, Marshall McLuhan predicted somethings we are seeing now... we filter the past through the present;
(it's ok if you can't concentrate as long as somebody is listening, laughter)
it will be unmarketable void that the kids will own
the future is creative, its a sweet spot for designers
designers make thoughts visible and there's a lot of strength in that

questions:
DIY culture is the fad, everyone is a designer, there's a lot of ownership, people are self-branding... what about it?

GM: like the graphic material for this conference, it's talking in grocery language. I could talk in skateboard logos... and that's what's happening

RM: about branding... because the Web has no boundaries and no corporate ownership, this is great... everybody has the same amount of room

PM: branding is no longer a logo, you don't need to have that for people to know you, what you do, your product

question:
I'm really interested in the tools; not that we should turn back but I love to draw with pen and paper; with digital tools you never have to work that hard

GM: my first tools were Director and AfterEffects; you learn the tools and in each case you ask what can we do with it

PM: for us, the technology is our slave to make things happen; my first animations were done on Photoshop... I learned a lot
at MTV, we had a camera that we smashed to get a different picture... the designer can't be the slave to the technology

MR: e-paper is not going to fail, people are looking forward to that, stopping cutting down trees, I love to be able to zoom digitally, I can't do that with a real drawing... eventually digital drawing will be, maybe not as good, but certainly acceptable

question: there is just as much alienation and messiness and things breaking down as ever... I don't buy that we are going faster and that that's better... I think it's a conceit: human beings value what's rare and that has not changed

RP: I think time is rare, stepping back and just being, instead of doing all the time

GM: I think what you do is how you live, you have to create things that you can live in

RP: leave you with one thought

Fridgof Capra - the stone age didn't end because they ran out of stones, somebody came up with something better


(61+)

permanent link

Designer's Imagination: Sat. Apr. 22, 9 a.m. - NOTES

Niko Stumpo got stranded at the airport in Amsterdam. Tom Green stepped in at the last minute. Thank you Tom!
moderated by Margot Q. Knight (MK)
Will McGuiness (WM)
Jennifer Shiman (JS)

MK: where do you start/get your inspiration

JS: I read a lot and have a big interest in narrative so that's often where I get ideas

TG: I like pixel boards, I think it's the shiny effect... my students too are very inspiring... also on the Web, you look at what

WM: It's the world, music, books, walks...

MK: I go to the 750 section of the library, pull a bunch of books out onto the floor and spread them out... my parents are doctors so I looked a lot at their medical texts

MK: if you have a deadline, how do you get started then

WM: I'll just start generating ideas, moving things around, stepping back, looking at it differently, then doing more.... you have to take a certain amount of time

MK: There's this thing called a theta state, just above sleep, and I definitely try to get into this state,

TG: I get into that state, I get obsessed, my family complains because I become so unruly... with a new book I'm doing for Friends of Ed, it's uncharted territory, so I've got to think it through... all of sudden I got the idea "here be dragons" associated with old maps, meaning uncharted territory

JS: I get ideas just when I'm about to fall asleep. I keep a notebook by my bed.

TG: I tell my students to take a notebook wherever they go, a digital camera is a great idea too, just shoot, you never know what you may end up using.

MK: How do you motivate yourself for projects that are more ambitious, that are definitely going to take longer.

WM: I have to do timelines and budgets and stuff, i just have to keep the train moving... there are tons of personal things I've started and not followed through

JS: I don't get motivated gracefully, it's not pretty... walking, talking to people help... I have to try different things.

TG: deadlines are a powerful motivator

audience: what about the idea of beautiful? there's the work but then it's beautiful!

MK: yes, that is inspiring... the satisfaction of being able to do it
a famous teacher of mine once asked me "Show me something that I've never seen before, say something only you can say." this is about a place that no one else can come from...

TG: I'd say that's the single most important issue. I've never met a Flash person who think of what they do as work. There's joy in it. Wonder, fun and excitement. A lot of great work is happy accidents.

JS: There is a happy balance. I do one bunny short a month for Starris(?) Entertainment, so the deadline is an important motivator.

question: does it make a difference that it was YOUR idea, they came to you specifically

JS: yes, there was definitely more pressure but it was also great because they stand back, they just want to help you do what you do.
(NB) last year Derrick Hodgson said pretty much the same thing, it's a priviledged role to have people come to you but it's great

TG: deadlines are fearful, but then you are motivated to learn whatever you need to, and you do "get it," and then after I can use that directly in the classroom.

MK: you have to be able to live in an 'uncomfort' zone, to be comfortable in this area of doubt... but then you also have to have high self-esteem to make decisions and stick with them even though that thing is unlike anything else you've ever seen

question: do you find that you have experienced fluctuations in creativity...

WM: I haven't found a way out of a doldrums... but to go back to the fear factor, I've come to rely on the structure of deadlines, even since school, it's kinda sad that I need that... there are times when I feel more inspired but ...

JS: in terms of trying to move out of a rut, I have to be open just to get something down on paper, that can move you forward... the other thing is just to take a break... doing other things.... dragging out old projects and playing with them... reading what other people have done about their ruts

TG: the rut is a really cool place to be because you look at the options and are being very critical; so then I go and do something really different; kill things in an online game, browsing bookstores for hours, whatever... and then boom, you are out of it! I'm going to be talking to some guys about Rich Media, and they were beating me up about what I don't know about it, and it was bad until I realized what I have to bring to the table, then I was ok again

MK: I may have stretches of a year at a time where I don't know what's going on... but it's essential to keep working... I do experiments, little things... in 2004 I forced myself to do images without people in them, I interned at a video centre, I learned something about fibre optic... I didn't do anything specific with these things... one of my mentors said there is no such thing as creative block, it's just that you are not interested in what you are working on... you need to find an emotional connection to your project, if there is that, then other people will relate to it also...

question: what about 'the grind', just the daily routine... that feels so oppressive.

TG: if it's a job, get out... if I get bored, I move on.

MK: you have a finite amount of time and money, money being time because it's time spent making money... you have choices, you can live cheaply in order to start something... if the daily grind is consuming your life, you mght want to think about what you are doing

JS: retreats can be very helpful... you need to have a level of self-trust... there's a book called The Artist's Way, there's a writing exercise, every morning you write three pages of stream of consciousness, gets it out of you and you can move on the rest of the day... I like making lists, it makes you feel good, even if you don't follow them.

WM: I make lots of list, stickies, duplicated... there's a kind of self-trust that you are going to come up with something good... if if you aren't there yet, getting something done is the start

question: have you ever been completely satisfied? right after you finish you don't think much of it, after you leave it a while it looks a lot better

TG: I think it's a self-esteem issue... you are looking at yourself and saying you suck
my students say I have an ego problem... but my students treat me like a regular guy and that makes me feel great

WM: I've felt that, you get so dialed in that you are seeing it much more closely, seeing all the little flaws, but later you are seeing it from a higher vantage point and it looks better

question: I may hate what I've just done but other people coming to it fresh think it's great... so getting feedback is important; don't always take it to your Mom, but to people who will be frank

TG: you learn from your experience, keep your failures and learn from them

question: as a perfectionist, you could keep working on something forever, you have to stop and say, ok, that's it

question: I find it hard to be creative while you are also learning new tools
other audience: yeah, sometimes people have great ideas and do great things without more than basic tools, it's interesting

TG: for me, if you hand me a tool, I'll play with it, that's how I learn it... other people approach it more structured and it takes them a long time

question: doing everything by trial and error and experimentation is more creative, as opposed to people who learn

MK: like Eric Natzke said yesterday, he started out doing it the hard way but then learned the proper techniques... you benefit from learning the proper way of doing things, it can save huge amounts of time, but whatever level you are at is ok... you

audience: my teacher use to say if you think what you are doing is uglier, make it uglier... dwelve in it!

MK: Joshua Davis was really putting chance or randomness into his work. I wonder if others do that.

WG: Yes, that's important, I'll construct something, then take it apart, cut it up, lots of options, to get to a place you'd never have gotten to before

JS: I have to work with some element of chance... I can always go back and tweek things, there's a degree of intuition that has be there

TG: With a book, you have to submit a table of contents... I'd put in whatever I came across, chance broadens you... the AfterEffects book I'm working on, we can do banner ads in Flash using AfterEffects... you don't see things coming

MK: I definitely add randomness intentionally now, thngs were getting too tight, photography is like that

question: what are your environments like at home?

TG: I work portably, but my office where I can shut the door and put on my headphones

JS: I work at home mostly, it's low key, snug so it's important to get out

MK: my studio is at my parent's home and it's not where I live

WM: my studio is a total mess, rummaging through things, I neve put things back in
at home I create a big mess

fquestion: how do you stay focussed

JS: that writing exercise is helpful, and walking too

MK: lists, what you want to get done in the next six months

TG: how do you deal with complexity, break it down into pieces of what you need to do

WM: I started out as a webmaster, doing everything, then you are expected to write ColdFusion... it was hard to learn FLash and focus on design, so I haven't opened up Flash in two years... some people can do it all like Eric

permanent link

The Next Gen Flash Platform, Q & A - Friday, April 21st - NOTES

Flash platform rough notes - these are VERY unedited.
Guy Watson was unavailable, the panel was joined instead by Theodore Patrick of Synergy Systems, Washington DC, and Sho Kuwamoto from Adobe.
Mike Downey, Moderator, Adobe
Mike Chambers, Adobe
Chafic Kazoun, Rewindlife.com
Darron Schall, Darronschall.com

Mike C: The net lets you create software that is different than what you had before, eg. MS Word you are not going to put on the web, but for the web the applications are different, its stuff you don't want to carry with you, you leave it on the internet and its always there wherever you are at the moment

MS products are successful because there are so many developers working with it

Darren:
the best thing for the Adobe FLex environment it is growing in this way... e.g. it's FREE!
give away your development tools
free compiler
Flex
Flex builder is not free but it is a great builder environment so worth it

Where Flash shines is ability to connect to servers and share data across applications also video and audio, so its a more collaborative environment
opp. is there because I'm an Adobe consultant

Chafic:
older version of Flex was not viable, because had to sell license to Flex as well as to our app. but now don't have to do that so it works much better

Theodore Patrick (Ted) - at Synergy clients want apps that a easy, accessible
VB apps that they want to put out to huge user groups
you can use Flex to do that
Web 2.0 is about pushing the data model, leveraging power of users computers to process
Flash community has been on to this for a long time, more fine grained

Mike C:
AJAX is creating a lot of buzz, html is good at doing some things, Flash at others... so the question is whether this movement of logic to the client, bringing up data, is that ultimately going to benefit Flash

Chafic:
google:finance is a good example of Flash integration
some parts of things can be just plain html, but there are other places where Flash really shines
you always could do alot with html, but people are really waking up to that now

e.g. asynchronous call backs, we took
but binary sockets can be done easily with Flash in the browser

Mike D:
no visible swf

Ted:
downloading amf objects
connecting and exchanging data
most browsers don't have the capacity but with Flash you can structure data and parse data
so FLash is going to be leveraged in a whole bunch of ways
problem of compatibility between browsers

Mike D:
has been lots of misperceptions about what Flash can do
is all this buzz around AJAX going to benefit Flash?

Chafic:
maybe it'll take three years

question from floor:
the risk is that Flash just becomes this little media thing you throw on top of other things

Sho Kuwamoto:
for certain things, you stay with html if you don't need a great deal of interactivity but if you do need, e.g. events are being passed around, then Flash works great for that visual interactivity, complex user interface, then Flash is what you want to work with

Mike D:
actionscript is maybe going to become an industry standard

Ted:
processor capacity is not well used if you are sending line after line of presentation data, where with Flash the data just flows into the Flash presentation interface so it is so much more efficient

Mike C:
e_Trade, quote tracking widget, 200 x 300 px, put in the TSE code and you get the current price for that stock
they saved a huge amount of money on bandwidth charges

but the question is what kind of apps are being built? what do people need to start looking at to get into building these sort of apps?

Chafic:
real time applications/collaborations
who could have seen that the Flash player is everywhere out there
I use Adobe Illustrator religiously and integration now with Flash...
I do all my design work in Illustrator and just copy and paste it into Flash

Ted:
google:maps are impressive but its just about tiling
you create a tiling engine and it doesn't redraw the data on the fly, it fills the drawing

presentation with new data, which is much faster

Mike C:
if you don't have control of the data, that's a problem

Chafic:
yeah, I don't really agree with distributed data because if somebody withdraws or changes their data, that can be a problem for everybody else

Sho:
on the Internet, everything changes every 5 years
89-95
94-99 Windows, can do everything online
00-06 hasn't been as much innovation, nothing has changed, tools are better but what they do is about the same, but 5 years from now, you're going to see software that's really different

Darren:
social apps. are v. popular now... Flickr...
collaboration... something that the Flash platform is very good at making possible

Mike C:
how do you create an Outlook type experience on the Internet?
Avalon? Vista?
really expressive applications... if I can develop above the OS on a layer a rich

application, does the OS even matter anymore

Chafic:
a lot of what we deploy could be run by a dedicated fLASH processor
MS's angle is to make sure people switch to other platforms
Web 2.0 you can be on any device... it's going to be popular

Brian from audience:
OS is there to support desktop applications
Web apps don't have access to the whole machine
MAIA e.g. hard to imagine how it could run off the Web
also problem of multiple file formats... may be able to see the data but to manipulate it is

another matter
esp. realtime on the Web
there's a gap there
is the strategy to narrow the gap?

Ted:
clearly you can't build MAIA in Flash but you can do things like Writely(?)
some of the issues are technical only, performance is becoming less and less of a barrier
we're going to see apps move to the desktop and back to the Web, back and forth

Chafic:
co. called Wise, used to build big machines... a handful of full blown pc's... in five years it could be that 95% of their clients are running off the Web, with only a few full machines used for desktop apps.... could save a lot of money, maintenance
e.g. 500 people doing normal business things, could be running off the Web using Flash interfaces

Mike D:
what role do designers play in this big pie of FLash-base apps?

Sho:
the opportunity is huge, the interfaces UI are looking a lot alike but Apple is
doing stuff, more fluidity... will be pretty different in 5 years
understandable, beautiful, keep out of the way
you HAVE to have designers to do that
XD team, user experience group, had a designer went over to Apple, designed Aperture, scared Adobe, appeals to professional photographers, very simple interface to modify photos, unlike Photoshop that is getting more and more complicated... so now he came back and is helping simplify UI

Darren:
MS Office interface is radically different already

Mike C:
moves more and more to the desktop

Mike D:
everytime I visit Mike C's desk, he's always showing me something and saying he's going to

send it over to the XD dept. to make it look good... he starts early

Sho:
but you need to get the designer in right at the beginning, how the data is presented, it's not just a development issue

Ted:
now we have two , Flex and Flash that produce swfs...
you can transport Flash timeline into Flex and make it really compelling

Chafic:
I'm all for the design stuff, but... I always had the designer in at the beginning, its' painful but always worth it

Audience question:
it's not the design but the content, FLash can deliver so much complex content, video, audio... and the user needs to be focussed on the content, not the interface...

other Audience:
the interface can do only so much to drive the user's interest

Chafic:
but take stock info, that's basically the same no matter where you go,
so the interface makes a huge difference
I'll go to the service which has the interface that works best
real time UI is very important, it HAS to work properly or its useless
so that's not about just looking pretty

Ted:
drag and drop e.g. makes things so much easier for users, no forms to fill out

Q & A
do we have successful Flash apps that have at least 1% of MS's success

Chafic:
yes, but a lot of it is internal; takes a lot of machines to run them, can't set up here, and they are proprietary
there are some, Sales Force, but it is so bad, bad UI

Ted:
a lot of apps never get seen beyond the corporate internal network

Mike D:
but that is true of most applications, it's easier to build for internal use, that's where people start, very few become public knowledge

Mike C:
Breeze, Dot Net Win Forms...
Print Shop is the only one running dot net win forms
so MS is not very visible either in terms of successful apps

Question:
pushing Flex at our shop, are we going to see more presentations on Flex, where we can have stuff to demonstrate Flex's capabilities

Mike D:
yes, definitely

- end -

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The Next Generation of the Flash Platform, Q & A - Friday, April 21st, 9 - 10 a.m.

Flex 2/Flex Builder 2/Actionscript 3/Flash 8.5: Learn about the latest developments in the Flash family. Come prepared with questions, concerns and complaints: this is a question and answer session.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Primarily intermediate and advanced developers but even beginners will benefit from hearing the experts talk about how Flash is working better than ever.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
Practical insights into the capabilities of Flex 2, Flex Builder 2, Actionscript 3 and Flash 8.5.

Moderated by Mike Downey

Presenters:
Mike Downey (Adobe) | (Mike's blog)
Mike Chambers (Adobe)
Guy Watson (Flashguru)
Chafic Kazoun (Rewindlife)
Darren Schall (DarronSchall)

permanent link

The Adobe Roundup: Wrangling Your Workflow, Q & A - Sunday, April 23rd, 2:45 - 3:45 p.m.

Your opportunity to meet some of the folks from Adobe and ask questions about the roadmaps for Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and other tools, servers and solutions from Adobe. The primary focus of the discussion will be improving the designer/developer workflow and integration between the products in the Adobe Creative Suite.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Intermediate and advanced users of Adobe products with wish lists of things they’d like to see. Beginners who are eager to understand the more advanced capabilities of Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, etc.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
A better understanding of the way Adobe products work together and the ways they are going to improve in the coming year.

Moderated by Mike Downey

Presenters:
Mike Downey (Adobe)
Mike Chambers, Product Manager for Developer Relations for Macromedia Central
John Nack – Adobe Photoshop Product Manager
Phillip Guindi - Adobe Illustrator Product Manager
Bill Perry – Adobe Global Developer Relations for Mobile and Devices

permanent link

It's A Mobile World: Build It and They Will Call - Saturday, April 22nd, 4 - 5 p.m.

Learn how Flash is being used to create content for mobile devices, including Actionscript for Flash Lite, Mobile Emulator (profiles for every device that supports Flash Lite) and the advanced features of Flash 8.

Who This Presentation Is For:
This panel is for both the experienced Flash mobile developer and those interested in becoming mobile developers.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
Answers to your questions about design and programming for mobile devices.

Moderated by Bill Perry, Adobe, Global Developer Relations for Mobile and Devices

Presenters:
Bill Perry (Adobe)
Dave Yang (Quantumwave) / (Dave's blog on mobility)
Scott Janousek (ScottJanousek)

permanent link

Freelance: Straight Dope on Working Independently - Sunday, April 23rd, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.

Building a viable freelance business requires persistence and ingenuity. In this panel, accomplished freelancers offer insights into how to develop your business smarts so your creativity can work for you, with plenty of time for questions and answers.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Experienced freelancers and those just starting out will all enjoy examples of the potentials and challenges all freelancers face.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
Inspired and with ideas about the things you can do to raise your profile, build and broaden your client base.

Moderated by Snow Dowd

Presenters:
Snow Dowd (TheMakers)
Phillip Kerman (PhillipKerman)
Guy Watson (FlashGuru)
LordAlex Leon (LordalexWorks)

permanent link

The Business of Copyright: Sharing the Love - Sunday, April 23rd, 9 - 10 a.m.

File sharing? Open source? Creative Commons? The way in which media are being produced and distributed has permanently changed but what will the long range effects be? Copyright experts discuss the current copyright climate… how it works, where it succeeds and how new media producers should be legally framing their creative projects.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Business owners, producers, designers and developers at all levels.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
Even those with experience with air-tight, rock-solid contracts will learn about the new standards and expectations of creators and end-users. Mid-level managers and beginners will get a sense of best practices that can be applied to current and new projects. A handout created by Mary Barroll, LLB that outlines copyright issues and procedures for media developers will be available.

Moderated by Robert Labossiere

Presenters:
Ren Bucholz, (Electronic Frontier foundation Canada)
Aral Balkan (Ariaware)
Tony Tobias (PangeaMediaAndMusic)
Robert Labossiere (Klooj)

permanent link

Converging Media: Cross-platforms for the People - Sunday, April 23rd, 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Up to now convergence has generally meant producing coordinated programs or products in several media: print, broadcast and digital. But finally, the convergence everyone has been talking about seems poised to arrive: using your TV as a computer and your computer as a TV. Apart from the obvious questions this raises about business models and revenue, panelists tell us what to look for in cross-over and inter-media integration.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Producers, writers, designers and developers at all levels intent on catching the next wave in new media.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
Through personal experience and examples, panelists will deliver insights into the way cross-media products are being conceived and developed.

Moderated by Evan Jones

Presenters:
Robert Reinhardt (TheMakers)
Adam Boozer (IQTV)
Jen Chan (NOW)
Evan Jones (MysteryJones)

permanent link

The Future of Design: Do You See What I See? - Saturday April 22nd, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

In a world where everything is designed, from genes to whole economies, designers are expanding their expertise and scope of work. What are the designer’s commitments in the "big picture"? How do designers assess the impact of their work and develop sustainable practices.

Who This Presentation Is For:
Everyone who wants to find the deeper connections between their client’s business, service or product and the audience, and produce work that makes those connections visible and meaningful.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
A sense of how designers help their clients set their design objectives, find the most meaningful content, and render it in inspiring designs that leave clients not just impressed but coming back for more.

Moderated by Robert L. Peters

Panelists
Robert L. Peters (Circle)
Geoff McFetridge (ChampionDon'tStop)
Matthew Richmond (ChoppingBlock)
Peter Moller (MTV)

permanent link

Narrative Design: Finding Your Story - Friday, April 21st, 3:15 - 4:15 a.m.

Every new media project tells a story but what makes that story captivating and compelling? How do new media stories differ from storytelling in more traditional media like film and print? How do collaborative teams take a story idea and build it in rich media?

Who This Presentation Is For:
Everyone who is involved in developing the concept of a project and then a structure for it, including content producers, writers, illustrators, designers, site architects and project managers.

What Attendees Will Walk Away With:
If you’re already looking at every project as a story, you’ll leave with a stronger sense of how plot, character and narrative flow engage the viewer. Those less familiar with the narrative approach to design will acquire in a fresh way of looking at, and discussing, their work.

Moderated by Siobhan O'Flynn

Presenters:
Siobhan O'Flynn (Habitat New Media Lab)
Joshua Hirsch (BigSpaceship)
Ron Gervais (IAmStatic)
Steve Jackson (SmashingIdeas)
Geoff Lillemon (Oculart)
Colin Craig (TheNiceAgency)

permanent link