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Ed Schipul is the CEO and president of Schipul–The Web Marketing Company. Ed will be discussing how to take your non-profit to 11 in his SXSW speech “Pimping My Non-Profit–Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology.” |
MICHELLE:
Your SxSW Interactive Speech is called, “Pimp My Non Profit — Real Non-Profits Kicking Ass with Online Technology.” Does this perhaps involve putting TV screens in head consoles or in car trunks? How does one pimp a non-profit?
ED:
Man, you COMPLETELY nailed it! We have taken the concept of “LCD Screen in headrest”, with obligatory neon green highlights, and extended it into the social sector. People serving food at the soup kitchens will literally have the LCD screens mounted on their backs on neon green harnesses. We predict the level of pimp will be so fresh even the food will be fresher! Perhaps a small segment may go so far as to embed the units surgically, excluding subwoofers, but we will be satisfied if the fresh soup action is worn like typical pimp bling. Word.
OK, seriously though. Social media, and in particular widgets, have truly enabled rapid response at a low cost for non profits online. It is no longer an issue to raise money online as you can add a chipin widget to your blog. Or paypal. Or coordinate your events with moveon or meetup or any number of other services. So great, now we CAN do it, but how exactly? What are the actual best practices so the donor dollar goes to the cause, so the volunteers time and commitment are maximized, so the stress is the lowest and so the return on investment of social media can be returned in the form of bottom line results for non profits.
When we say “pimp your nonprofit” we specifically mean leveraging new media tools to create best of class bottom line results. And keep in mind most non profits have two bottom lines – one for the financials and one for the real goals of the nonprofit; the social issue. This is exciting stuff and our panelists are amazing. Specifically I will be joined by these four amazing social change makers:
Beth Kanter, bethkanter.org
Rachel Weidinger, Strategy for Social Entrepreneurs and on Netsquared here.
Michaela Hackner, Girls with Macs and World Learning.
Erin Denny, Netsquared
Be prepared for our panel to take a stand on recommendations. To look at real world case studies. To speak with candor about what works and what doesn’t. And to listen with humility to the audience who will also likely have some amazing ideas to benefit the group. Did I mention I am excited about this?
MICHELLE:
Speaking of pimping non-profits, what is NetSquared?
ED:
The official mission is to “spur responsible adoption of social web tools by social benefit organizations.” The Houston meetup group has extended this a bit to be an organization at the intersection of social issues and technology. And we have had some success connecting speakers to technologists to affect change. Sometimes it is as simple as SEO consulting for an organization. Other times groups like the Accessibility Internet Rally have joined forces with Netsquared to create complete accessible web sites for non profits.
And frankly it is also nice to meet with a group of people that speak the language and CARE about social issues. So perhaps the greatest success has been in connecting and encouraging dialog on social issues within the tech community. There is more to life than the latest startup. Seeing the success of organizations like http://www.savethecenter.org/ which in combination with a grass roots and a coordinated PR campaign literally saved The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation in Houston. That just makes you feel good. Netsquared was only a small part of the effort, but we were able to be a part of the solution.
The winner of last year’s netsquared conference was www.maplight.org which shines a light on money and politics. Another winner was http://www.freecycle.org/ - these are just very exciting and simple ideas that are affecting change. So yes, I am pretty excited about Netsquared!
MICHELLE:
You grew a mustache to help raise money for the Texas Children’s Hospital, but you did not win the contest. What is your strategy for next year, and do you have any potential mustache plans for SxSW?
ED:
Short of changing my genetics, I have little hope of winning this contest next year. So in the spirit of tilting at windmills I am ignoring these odds and moving forward with three courses of action.
When Ed is not acting as a John for various non-profits, he also runs his own internet marketing firm in Houston and speaks on various topics in social media. Are you having a hard time convincing your friends to come to South by Southwest Interactive? Read Ed’s writings on the three motivations of people to learn how to persuade them against being so lame.
*picture of Ed Schipul courtesy of Deneyterrio.
Many of you know that Lori Hawkins from the Statesman visited last week’s Austin on Rails meeting for the purpose of doing a feature store. Well, here is the article.
Ok, so our next party is at JBlack’s on February 12th. This will not involve buying flowers or candy, or calling around to restaurants trying to find the one place that isn’t booked. Will you meet the future Ms. (insert your last name here) at the February Geek Austin party? We doubt it, but at least you can count on having a good time.
We are cohosting this event with Dorkbot. Dorkbot is a group of many sorts that builds things and sometimes blows them up in the name of “electronic art” (in the broadest sense of the term). Want to see electronic art in action? Take your kids or the kid in you to the Austin Children’s Museum to check out De La Maquina’s “Electronic Gongs.” These Flickr photos don’t do it justice.
Will we be blowing up Valentine’s Day presents at the party? Probably not. Should you RSVP to find out what does happen? The link is here, my friends:
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/418904
Teres Solutions, Inc. is seeking to hire several full-time team members. Our company develops a web-based loan origination system for credit unions and banks around the country. Our software is built using the latest Microsoft technologies including C#, ASP.NET, and SQL Server. We are looking for people who are highly motivated, self-starters, and possess the drive and enthusiasm to make a tangible difference in growing our company.
This position requires a bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences, Management Information Systems, or equivalent. At least 2-5 years of web development industry experience is also a prerequisite.
Today Linear and I trekked down to Houston to attend “Got Social Media?” Despite an ugly traffic jam that left me literally in park for 20 minutes on 290, I was glad I went. Much thanks to Erica O’Grady for hosting.
Rather than give you a play by play of what you can read on the slides from the workshop, here are some cool people I met:
Giovanni Gallucci: Marketing Guru with Jordan-like Digg/YouTube/Twitter/Flickr skills. Yes, he can crash your site by getting you tons of traffic, but will we soon see his more artistic side?
Ed Schipul: Schooled us on the three motivations of people. Able to pimp your non-profit better than Galpin Auto Sports or Huggy Bear. Intrigued (or somewhat disgusted)? It doesn’t matter–check back later this week for my interview with Ed.
Chris Bernard: My last SxSW interviewee. Contended that there did not have to be blood in Web 3.0 if the community actively polices itself. That’s quite a relief to me, as I am not a fan of Ultimate Fighting or slasher films.
Aaron Belafonte (Aaron M. Baxter): My accountabilibuddy as designated by Kelsey Ruger’s game I will title “Get Off Your Duffs and Network, People”. A CSS obsessed web designer with a talent for drawing on actual paper. Will be present (unlike me) at BarCampTX.
Paul Chaney: Contact from Practical Ecommerce. Blogger/Blogging Consultant/Twitterer and Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka. Have a safe trip back to Louisiana!
Snax, will see you at Nuclear Tacos!
I also met some other SxSW panel speakers, who will hopefully make their Geek Austin debut soon.
Austin’s social media company Pluck (http://www.pluck.com/) is looking for a clever, motivated QA engineer to go all Curious George on our web solutions looking for bugs. We move quickly and always have something new to dig into and test before rollout. More importantly, we have free soda, junk food and margarita Fridays.
We aren’t looking for a mindless test monkey to sit in a tiny cubicle and execute test plans delivered on stone tablets from on high — our QA engineers work directly with the software developers to deliver the product. We expect our QA engineers to make intelligent decisions, contemplate tradeoffs, and figure out things — not fill out forms and bubble in pass/fail.
Prior experience using and testing web applications is preferred. Ingenuity, integrity, and an interesting personality are a must. Other desirable skills include previous QA experience, familiarity with a variety of browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari), experience with blogging and RSS, basic Windows administration/installation skills, and a working knowledge of Thai food. This is a fantastic opportunity for a bright individual to join a fun and exciting company making a big impact on the web.
Qualified candidates should submit resumes to careersinengineering@pluck.com to have resume reviewed directly by a hiring manager.
Disclaimer: All you bug are belong to Plucks.
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be part of the dynamic, talented and highly motivated team that developed the most powerful Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in the world. The TippingPoint IPS is based on high-speed ASIC/FPGA technology and state-of-the-art network processors. It eradicates network attacks and eliminates bandwidth hijacking at speeds up to 5 Gbps with latency measured in microseconds.
Minimum Qualifications
7+ years experience in software development * Experience developing embedded systems on an RTOS * Expert in C * Ability to debug at assembly level * Firm understanding of TCP/IP protocol * Excellent analytical, design and performance optimization skills * Experience with all aspects of the product lifecycle, from initial design through implementation and production * Excellent verbal and written communication skills * Preference for a fast-paced, high-performance work environment
Preferred Skills and Experience
VxWorks * Experience on x86 and/or MIPS architectures * Experience with network processors * Network security programming * Knowledgeable in C++
Education
BSCS, BSEE or equivalent experience
Check out Tipping Point’s Job Page
Pluck is leading the way in the Web 2.0 space, delivering software-as-a-service community and social media solutions to enable web audiences to participate in the news and with our customers’ websites. The Engagement Manager position is responsible for the day-to-day interaction with customers ranging from the media outlets like Washington Post and Better Homes & Gardens, to retailers like Circuit City, assisting them with implementation of our Social Media and Social Networking solutions.
Mosso, an early-stage startup backed by Rackspace, is looking for a Java Developer III. This is a rare opportunity to lead a team putting cutting-edge hosting concepts directly into practice, including: server clustering, virtualization, high availability databases, and centralized SAN storage.
The Software Engineer will be responsible for software development of web-based customer tools, provisioning system and system tools.
Job Requirements:
·5+ years Java development
·Web-based application development (JSP, Struts, Spring)
·Database development
·XML experience
·Web services experience
·Open source application & tool experience (Eclipse, CruiseControl, Tomcat)
Mosso, an early-stage startup backed by Rackspace, is looking for a Windows Systems Administrator. This is a opportunity to lead a team putting cutting-edge hosting concepts directly into practice, including: server clustering, virtualization, high availability databases, and centralized SAN storage. Our customers are web developers; your team’s charter is to help build them the hosting environment of their dreams. You’ll spend 100% of your time emerged in and obsessed with advanced hosting technology.
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Design is taking a new direction as websites become less like entertainment and news and more like applications for people to use. At the forefront of this shift is Microsoft’s User Experience Evangelist Chris Bernard, who is speaking this year at South by Southwest Interactive. You can find Chris at the finals of Microsoft’s Phizzpop Challenge at their SxSW after party. |
MICHELLE:
In your blog, http://chrisbernard.blogs.com, you write, “De Stijl, Bauhaus, Futurism. The short history of design is filled with a lexicon of terms and movements that inspire designers of today.” How can GeekAustin designers use the design and cultural cues of the past to improve their work everyday?
CHRIS:
We traditionally think of Web design with a focus on typography and illustration, which are important components of graphic design and are certainly important for the Web. But symbolism and photography and the study of film and motion were an important part of the classic design lexicon too. Take folks the Charles and Ray Eames, they pioneered a lot of the design principles we use in the realm of Web and software design today, but they also were product designers and adept at the use of film and motion as a communications medium too. Symbolism was an important part of their work when you examine both how they lived and how they structured and shaped some of the iconic forms they are known for. Today we see all this disciplines manifesting themselves in the current high-water mark of interaction design, which is the iPhone. When we look at next general platforms such as Surface and gesture-based computing designers that have knowledge of these disciplines will become far more important.
But you don’t need to be inventing the future to embrace these disciplines. Firms like Happy Cog and Coudal partners frequently apply their creative backgrounds in photography, film and motion to their work and in applying how they solve problems.
MICHELLE:
Why will there be blood with Web 3.0?
CHRIS:
The great promise of the Web, which I think has largely been delivered, is a common standards-based way which we can all build against. Nicholas Carr (blog) equates the ubiquity and power of the internet or network to be a breakthrough on the scale of electricity and the electrical grid. If we agree with this I think we can say that the Web browser in this equation is the light bulb. Everyone needs a light bulb, but there are other things they want to plug into platform too, such as phones, televisions, etc. What we’re going to see over time is a complementary merge of open standards, de facto standards and proprietary standards. It’s going to be difficult for enterprises or individuals to firmly ensconce themselves in one camp or the other exclusively I think, but I also don’t think people will pay much attention to it as market dynamics and sovereigns will exert significant presume on providers to optimize experiences. We’re seeing that today with debates about data-portability for example but we’re also seeing it with the browser itself. As marketers play a larger role in subsidizer or creating much of the content we consume in the digital realm there will be a strong urge to optimize across multiple platforms. So for example, if you’re Sony Pictures, you might very well sell DVDs and Blu-Ray disks but you’ll be developing your own digital distribution properties and establishing agreements with proprietary parties that are de facto standards like iTunes.
MICHELLE:
Your SxSW Interactive speech is called “Hollywood and Design and Literature: Just Who is Inspiring Who?” So, who is inspiring who?
CHRIS:
Blade Runner just celebrated its 25th anniversary this last November. Talk to anyone in advertising or interaction design and it’s hard not to find folks that draw inspiration from movies like that or literature from the likes of William Gibson or Neal Stephenson. More recently we’ve seen concepts that are real today (gesture-based computing and multi-touch interfaces) shown in movies like Minority Report, The Island and Children of men become reality. In fact some of the more notable artists that create these visions, artists like Mark Coleran for example, actual transcend both mediums, working in special effects and in software design. In Microsoft’s Surface team for example we recruit very heavily from creative disciplines that focus on animation, composition and motion design and it you look at the new APIs that Windows users for UI, WPF, I think we’ll eventually see the value of those disciplines start to be applied tom more mundane uses.
MICHELLE:
What are you looking forward to most at South by Southwest Interactive?
CHRIS:
The thing I’m most looking forward to at South by Southwest is a discussion around the massive convergence we’re seeing in marketing, social media and (although it’s not quite there yet) what I would call rich internet or rich interactive experiences. I’ve also got a personal interest in what the convergence of the media and internet means for film distribution, main independent film. SxSW is always a good place to chat with folks about that.
MICHELLE:
GeekAustin is looking to do a site redesign. Any suggestions?
CHRIS:
Hmmm, where to start. I think working a bit on the contrast might be a good a good start. One of my favorite sites in terms of design and approachability is www.designobserver.com. It’s simple, clean and the design doesn’t step on the
content. I think Web sites that work best are those that don’t get in the way of the content. Much like a museum doesn’t get in the way of the artifacts it’s designed to represent.
MICHELLE:
Please insert not so shameless plug here.
CHRIS:
One of the things that I’m very excited about is that we get to continue an event we started last year called the PhizzPop Design Challenge. In this event we structured a bit of a design
‘grand challenge’ (albeit a very short one) in which we got 36 design firms from around the country (San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin, LA and Boston) to compete against each other solving a variety of technology oriented design problems that ranged from designing a hotel concierge system, to a better social media platform and even an online independent film festival. All of the winners from those events will be competing against each other at SxSW for the PhizzPop 2008 championship. For GeekAustin folks that will be at SxSW, the PhizzPop Design Challenge will be a great event to check out on Monday night, March 11th at Maggie Mae’s.
So I planned to go to the Refresh Austin website to leave a comment to the effect of “Hey, what’s up with this bunk wiki that’s been outdated for four months?” and what did I find? A lovely, revamped website! Very cool. If you are looking to meet up with a diverse group of tech professionals in the Austin area, I suggest checking it out. You will see the calendar of all upcoming events as well as photos from previous ones. If you are too lazy to periodically check the site, there is this lovely tool called the RSS feed that will allow you to keep up with Refresh Austin without even trying.
The 2nd BarCampTexas will be held at the Fibertown campus in downtown Bryan/College Station. Centrally located between Austin, Houston, and Dallas, Bryan is a budding technology hub. BarCampTexas will be held on the last weekend in January (26/27). BarCamp topics range from advice on starting a technology business, developing software with cutting edge technologies, and anything else passionate, technology oriented people love. Everyone is encouraged to participate and present. You can find a list of planned presentations on the BarCampTexas wiki or just show up and present. BarCampTexas is sponsored by the Linux Journal, FIBERTOWN, and the Research Valley Partnership
To find directions, hotel accommodations, etc. visit the BarCampTexas.com website.
As many of you know, the first BarCampTexas was held in Austin 2006 in conjunction with BarCampEarth. Hat’s off to Ryan, Bill, Cody and crew for picking up the torch.
BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.
Bulldog Solutions is currently seeking an Event Manager to add to their Operations Team. The Event Manager is responsible for the set-up, coordination and management of live and pre-recorded Web events delivered as part of Bulldog Solution’s service package. Each event that Bulldog Solutions produces contains unique and varied circumstances, and our customers rely on our Event Managers to help organize these essential presentation details. Bulldog Solutions is looking for a technologically savvy, detail oriented, and customer focused individual to join our Event Management Team. This is a full-time salaried position.
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The SxSW Interactive Festival is full of interesting speakers from throughout the technology spectrum. SxSW fans like you can choose who you want to hear from using a Panel Picker. Fortunately for me, I was able to speak to the man behind the picker himself, Lindsey Simon. |
MICHELLE:
So I hear you work for some company called Google. How is that going for you?
LINDSEY:
It’s been a really eye-opening experience in lots of ways. I’m actually working as a front-end engineer inside of the User Experience team, and that has been a great opportunity to learn from folks with extensive experience in doing user-centered research and design. It’s a very different approach than what most startups go with, and also I bet why many of them don’t succeed. It is often amazing to me how sometimes even a little bit of well done research can make some substantial improvements to, or sometimes justify the killing of, a project’s direction and interface.
MICHELLE:
You created the South by Southwest Interactive Panel Picker. Please explain what this is and why it is so cool.
LINDSEY:
The SXSW Panel Picker was Hugh and Shawn at SXSW’s idea, and I’ve glued it together for two years now. Both times, their goal has been to try to get more feedback from the community about what kinds of panels and ideas they most wanted to see at the upcoming SXSW. Pretty ballsy for an already successful conference. If you’ve ever submitted panel ideas to most other conferences, you know the drill - maybe you get a form letter back (if you’re lucky) and then probably a form rejection letter - everything in between is a total black hole. This is at least something different and draws on the momentum that BarCamps all over the country have evidenced exists - conferences should be about group participation and not wholly one-way expert-to-masses sorts of things. That experience is more fun for everyone.
This year’s particular take on the panel picker was kind of funny for a few reasons. When the SXSW folks told me that they wanted to go all out with comments, star-voting, and login/registration for the picker it was like, okay, this fun little project a year ago is going to be a full-on webapp this time. Having recently made my Google transition and consequently become a pretty happy Gmail user, I started thinking how similar the two things are in a few ways. Comments are like email threads, Gmail has stars, etc.. So I just started using the Gmail design as a frame for the development of the
panel picker. It made loads of decisions about visual design way easier than the year before. It’s not like this kind of application needs to be in any way revolutionary, so once it was all done, we just left the Gmail skin on it as kind of a bit of an inside joke but mainly as an homage.
MICHELLE:
Your speech this year is called “Filching Design.” What do you mean by this, and why would a design decide to pilfer or make off with the belongings of other designers (sorry, had to look it up)?
LINDSEY:
This idea came directly out of the making of the SXSW Panel Picker this past year, but there’s some history to it as well. When I was originally developing Dishola, we started with all of the html, css, and layout graphics from digg and built the site into that already-beautiful ui. Of course we knew all along we’d go back and redo the design for Dishola, but for a few months, it made it both easy on the eyes and in many ways easier to develop. We didn’t waste any time haggling about typography, colors, look and feel, etc.. We had a pretty well-functioning prototype that we could get feedback on. It’s not like the social networking premise of Dishola was revolutionary, and the UI didn’t need to be. I was focused on the idea - a site which revolves around dishes instead of locations (restaurants). That is the thing that makes Dishola different from yelp, citysearch, zagat, etc… And by developing it in digg’s UI framework we were able to give our testers, many of whom had never heard of digg anyhow, an immediate impression that we were building a “professional” looking site. As such, their comments were much more useful and on-topic I believe than if we’d solicited feedback with it running in wireframes.
So when I found myself using the same approach for the Panel Picker this year it seemed like it would be fun to talk about the good and bad of this idea at SXSW. I suspect lots of web developers do this sort of thing from time to time. It’s not really about stealing design, but borrowing UI instead of thinking about it from scratch when appropriate. Luke Wroblewski’s going to be talking about some of his research on form design, and I think this plays right into the idea. “Don’t think about the visual design of your form, think about what it’s designed for” - and pick the visual design that most aptly suits this - and it doesn’t hurt that it is based on loads of his lab research.
It’s worth noting that there are most certainly times where this approach can be inappropriate and it can (rightly) be argued that it boxes you into some paradigms before you should.
MICHELLE:
Is there anything in particular that you are looking forward to at SxSW Interactive, or in Austin?
LINDSEY:
Camilla’s fish taco at Polvo’s, visiting with my Austin amigos, and drinking some Fireman’s 4 from a tap.
MICHELLE:
Do you have any shameless plugs you would like to promote here? Go ahead. We don’t mind.
LINDSEY:
I’m always trying to spread the word about Dishola.
