I’m pretty sure there’s a title that has never been nor will ever be used by anyone else…but it describes the past few days for me.
SXSW
This was my second year at SXSW - or just “South-by” to those who speak of it often. It was quite a different experience for me this year as last year I was there as an employee of EllisLab and spent a large part of my time helping out with the EE2 demo and other company activities. This year was on my own dime and I was free to make the experience my own.
I’m not going to bore you with the details of what sessions I went to—suffice it to say that the panels proved to be a mixed bag, some really valuable and some unbelievably unfocused. It’s hard to imagine how people who do creative work for a living -work that involves crafting messages for known target audiences, and have enough success at that work to get on a panel at SXSW can then fail so completely in this situation. I quickly learned to sit as close to the outside of a row as possible to make for a quick exit if the session was going in a direction that I didn’t like.
On the other hand the larger keynotes I attended where the speakers were higher level (folks like Lawrence Lessig, Kathy Sierra, etc) were interesting and entertaining - even if the subject matter wasn’t of immediate interest or the practical down and dirty how-to’s that I prefer.
The schedule was a bit frustrating - in that it seemed like at any given time there was either nothing of interest going on or four things that I wanted to go to. The latter turned out to be the most frustrating thing about the week - I don’t think I’ve ever been in a spot where the opportunity cost for any given action was higher. No matter which panel, event, or conversation I had it always felt like there were other ones that I should have sought out instead. Getting real-time updates from other attendees via Twitter didn’t help - they always sounded like they were either getting more valuable information or just having more fun than I was.
The EllisLab party got leaked out on a SXSW Twitter feed so was overrun with people in search of free beer and food but without a clue as to who was putting the party on. It started at 6:00, I got there about half-past and the Moonshine was already elbow to elbow and the crowd made it difficult to actually connect with other EE users. I suspect that if the event happens again next year there will be an invite system or some sort of challenge-response at the door in an effort to keep the attendance down to a more appropriate audience.
However - despite the crowds or constantly feeling like I was standing in the less-green grass I had a great time. I met a number of people I have only known on-line, reconnected with a good number of folks that I met at SXSW last year and met some new folks as well. I had a number of great conversations around the web in general, iPhones, ExpressionEngine, dealing with clients, publishing books, and more. I’m coming back home with a number of new ideas and some fresh thinking around everything I do online.
Thanks to everyone who made it such an enjoyable and exhausting yet energizing time. To those people I failed to connect with - my apologies for that and I hope to try again next year.
iPhones
If you follow me on Twitter you probably saw that I bought an iPhone 2 days before leaving for SXSW. I’ve been putting off getting into the smartphone world for some time as I just don’t use a cell phone that much. What I’ve learned already is that the main value of the iPhone (and likely other smartphones) isn’t that it’s a better cell phone—it’s that it’s a small computer that also makes phone calls if needed. I was able to keep up with email and Twitter on the iPhone - to the point where I really could have left my laptop at home (and will next time). At SXSW it allowed me to connect with people for meals and meet-ups that would have been much more difficult otherwise. It also allowed me to almost be in two places at once - about halfway through the weekend I discovered the value of Twitter hashtags - so when I couldn’t get into a panel on wireframing I chose another but kept an eye on the Tweet-stream for the wireframing panel (all tweets by people in the audience for that panel who included the hashtag). Obviously it wasn’t as good as being there and watching Twitter distracted me from the panel I was in, but overall I felt it was an added value - especially when some of the tweets indicated that the wireframing had some technical difficulties and went into question-asking mode after only a half-hour.
One interesting thing was that the members of the wireframing panel were also watching their tweet-stream and were getting and responding to audience feedback in real time. I’ll bet more of that will happen in the future - possibly even the audience questions will only be asked via Twitter vs. the open microphone and the opportunity it presents for verbal spam instead of true questions.
EE2.0
OK - now that you’ve completely skipped down to this point we can talk about EE2..;) I’m sure the folks at EllisLab will post a writeup with more complete information—but in the meantime here’s what I took away (in no particular order).
One caveat before going on however—I don’t intend this post to turn into a “tell me more about X” or “did it also have Y” type discussion. Please save those type of followup questions for the EE forums in response to the more official announcements.
- New field types: File and Number
- Centralized file management with integrated photo editor.
- Images placed in via filmstrip-looking interface (people said more like Wordpress).
- Gallery will be going away as a module, gallery-specific functionality will be in the weblog/channel module instead. Upgrade process will convert existing galleries over.
- Trackbacks probably not there by default but probably available as a module.
- New CP item - Accessories. These will be a way to add items to the Control Panel - such as contact info, links to screencasts, online manuals, etc. Pretty much anything you can build as HTML.
- Templates as flat files will save out with correct file extensions.
- Templates created at file level will be automatically generated within control panel.
- CP Publish/edit screen highly customizable, drag and drop field layout, re-arrange per tab, create new tabs. Layouts will be member group specific so you can have different from clients.
- Overall the re-organization of the CP should save much developer time in the mundane, do everyday type activities.
I’m sure I’m missing quite a bit - but definitely some stuff there to be excited about.
Edit to add: I know there is a great demand out there for more information about EE2 - but I have to both give credit and ask for some patience for the EllisLab folks. Imagine yourself with four back to back client meetings everyday where you had to show what you had been working on for the last year and field all the questions and concerns. Now do that for four days straight and throw in some late-night activities as well as hosting your own party in the middle of all of it. The EL folks were working hard and looking & sounding quite ragged by the end of it all. I’ve never seen a software company use this approach to engage with it’s users and I found it quite refreshing and an indicator of why I like working with these guys so much. So cut ‘em some slack, let them get caught up on family time and sleep, and I’m sure they’ll be back with some good info for us all…;)
Pinewood Derby
Which brings me to the Pinewood Derby - which was the reason I had to leave SXSW on the day I did. I have a boy and girl and they are part of a Cadets and Gems program through the neighborhood church. Both groups do a classic Pinewood derby where the kids each make a car starting from a standard kit of parts. The kids actually do most of build - cutting out the shapes, sanding and some painting. The cars then come home for final detailing and assembly. My kids both did well - my son excelled at being graceful while not placing (there are lots of boys his age and they are highly competitive), and my daughter swept the local church event and the regionals in the “best of show” category where the cars are judged on appearance. Pictured is her winning Hersey-Bar car. So I am now on the hook for a new display shelf where cars and trophies can be prominently displayed….
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