I’m blogging from BlogathonATX, being held at Conjunctured Coworking here in Austin. It’s pretty clear already that this event is a big hit :) I’m in the Talkathon room at the moment, one of the two rooms people can go to for expert advice (the other is Techathon). The conversation is lively, there’s lots of laughter, and people are making all sorts of new contacts. The two Writeathon rooms are quietish, with writers hunched over their laptops blogging away.

Clearly there’s a demand for this type of event. It’s not quite a BarCamp — there are no presentations — yet, like BarCamps, it’s a free event and plenty of opportunities for attendees to bring up their own topics.

I’m a roving expert, wandering back and forth between Techathon and Talkathon, but one of the really cool things happening here is that pretty much everybody is an expert in something. An official Social Marketing Expert might need tech help, and a Tech Expert might need Social Marketing help. I ended up offering some advice as a Travel Expert, which I sure wasn’t anticipating, but kind of the nature of this event. Conversations are all over the place.

Ilene Haddad is our Ringleader. This is her brainchild, and I’m quite certain she’s astonished at what it’s become. She has done an absolutely fantastic job putting it together. It’s been a blast being part of it — I can’t wait for the next one :)

My rockin' outdoor shower

I have a sweet outdoor shower — a wonderful thing in Texas. It’s the master shower. There is only a tub in the master bath. There’s a dinky indoor shower upstairs, and it’s become a badge of honor that I’ve never used it in the 10 years I’ve lived in this house.

I absolutely love my shower. So do the frogs. They come out a minute or so after the water comes on. I’m not sure if they’re just curious about where all the wet stuff is coming from or if they’re trying to avoid all the suds. I’ve always been fond of frogs, so this doesn’t bother me one bit.

Sadie & Kody: uninterested in non-sheep

My two border collies, Sadie and Kody, have always peacefully coexisted with them, and in fact seem a little afraid of them. Hey, if they’re not herdable, why bother, right?

But then Tip came along. She has decided that the frogs are obviously there for her entertainment, and joins me in the shower daily, eagerly awaiting their appearance. For awhile, a frog would come out and pretty much just hang out in one corner. If I noticed it, I’d pick it up and put it out of Tip’s reach, but lately she’s been getting pretty strategic about the whole thing and usually beats me to the poor little critter.

Tip: stalker of frogs

She snatches it up and trots it out into the yard, where she tries to get it to play with her. After much batting and tossing and barking, the unfortunate frog stops moving, and Tip loses interest.

Lately though, the frogs come out and immediately scamper to safer ground, as though they know what might be in store for them. Sometimes they even succeed. So how is this happening? The ones that met their unfortunate fate at the paws of my dog couldn’t exactly send word. Do they send “Danger! Danger!” signals as they’re carried off? Have they been sending scouts to watch the action?

Crowdsourcing: The Good

Crowdsourcing has been behind some truly great products and initiatives. Wikipedia and Linux are perhaps the best-known, and there are indeed stellar examples of the power of this model.

Other great examples include:

• The Netflix Prize for a 10% improvement on their recommendation engine.
• reCaptcha and their innovative use of the millions of typed words to help digitize old books.
• Foldit invites people to play a game that ultimately results in new protein-folding strategies.
• Microlending companies like Kiva are pooling small amounts of money and loaning it to poor business owners with enouraging results.

Opinions can do well as crowdsourced projects, although I contend people are more likely to supply them when they are bitching rather than raving. Still, reviews and other opinions certainly provide value, and I admit I readily use them when deciding on restaurants, books, and products. Companies like Yelp, Amazon, and Ebay are learning to navigate the intricacies (and legalities) of the relationships between businesses and reviews, making the content even more valuable in the process.

What do all these good examples have in common?

1. There is governance. Although anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, all contributors are not equal. A hierarchy of editors ensures that spam and misinformation are quickly weeded out. It’d be nice to think it’s all perfectly democratic, but it’s not, and it wouldn’t work if it were.
2. Crowds are used to solve problems or to offer commentary, not to determine strategy or any decide critical business issues.

There’s gray area, of course. Most software developers actively solicit feedback for new features and general improvements. Notice, though, that they rarely promise the most popular suggestion will be implemented. The people responsible for the business strategy are wisely learning what their customers want, but they know better than to leave the final decisions to the public. The customer may be good-intentioned, but they just don’t know enough to always be right.

For some excellent crowdsourcing stories and analysis, be sure to read Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.

Crowdsourcing: The Bad

Logos. I cringe every time I hear someone brag that they crowdsourced their logo. For one thing I have an intense distaste for doing work on spec. Most logo crowdsourcing sites (as well as contests) do just this — a bunch of designers create a logo for free, getting paid only if the company likes and select it. But logos are critical to the identity of a company. It’s not just a matter of what looks nice on a business card and a website banner. The always-meaty and useful Smashing Magazine ran an article called Vital Tips for Effective Logo Design, accompanied by this graphic. Do you really want to entrust this critical piece of your image to starving artists out there eager to get their hands on your $200? Pay someone what they’re worth and get it done right.

Strategy. No one knows your business as well as you. Get Satisfaction and UserVoice are great for site-based feedback and ideating. Customers/readers make suggestions and vote on their importance, and the companies do with those suggestions what they will. Austin’s own BountyStorm lets companies post questions with a bounty (usually in the $5 – $15 range) for the best idea. Some questions are perfect for this model — creative Valentine’s Day ideas, for example. Some are a bit worrisome — ideas for a first tattoo (Yikes! Isn’t that supposed to be a deeply personal decision?). And some just don’t belong there. There are a ton of people asking for business names, taglines, and marketing strategies. Do they really think they’re going to get what they need from a stranger? For $10?

Crowdsourcing SXSW: The Ugly

And now we come to the issue that drove me to write this post in the first place. Programming at paid conferences should not be crowdsourced. Not even part of it. This will be the ⁶th year SXSW is letting the general public vote on panels, and the 6^th year that attendee complaints have swelled about the quality and selection of that programming. Lots of folks come to town and don’t even bother attending the conference, opting instead for the appropriately crowdsourced BarCamp Austin. Last year at SXSWi some really great panel ideas with excellent panelists never made the cut, while panels presented by often pathetically underprepared heavy hitters filled the schedule. The panel-picker was at least a little easier this year, with the option to vote thumbs up or down rather than assigning a number of stars as a rating.

This approach sounds really good in theory, but what ended up happening last year was would-be panelists filled our Twitter streams with panel pimping promotions and microcelebrity popularity contests, while many deserving panelists truly working at the edge of our industry were left in the dust. Bloggers with 10s or 100s of 1000s of readers ready and willing to vote for their panels crowded out those doing interesting, paradigm-changing work. SXSW is too important to the industry to run it as a popularity contest.

I’m not sure what the best solution is, but I have a few ideas that would improve the SXSW experience..

• Make it clear that there is a committee that is ultimately responsible for the programming. Not just 40% of it. All of it. There should be 2 (preferably divergent) experts in each area of content (coding, architecture, marketing, social media, business, etc.). The committee could be nominated by the public, and chosen by SXSW staff. Or nominated by staff and chosen by the public. Continue to accept panel suggestions from the public, but leave the deciding to the committee.
• Create a SXSW advisory group committed to uncovering and featuring new voices and industry trends. Some of the A-Listers are fantastic presenters. I’m in no way saying they shouldn’t be on the schedule. But there are some amazing thinkers doing cutting-edge work right here in Central Texas. Commit to finding them. Ask the public for suggestions of inspiring speakers they’ve seen in other settings and personally encourage them to submit a panel.

This year’s pimping wasn’t nearly as bad as last year, due in part to a bit of a backlash to the whole system, as you can see by the following Tweets.

What do you think? Is it time for SXSW to change the way they manage programming? How do you think it should be done?

I’m organizing a Co-working Meetup at SXSWi :)

I’ve had the iPhone for nearly 4 hours now, and can’t do anything with it. I went to iTunes to activate it (had to do some updating, no big deal, but took a while) and everything seemed to be going fine. After the final activation OK I got a message saying it may take a while to activate – they’d be in touch.

What? Wasn’t AT&T anticipating this?

I got an email an hour later saying:

Phone service is scheduled to be disconnected on your current phone at or after 8:29 PM EDT on June 30. Please check your email and be prepared to reconnect and activate your iPhone before that time. Please call 877-800-3701 if you’d like to make other arrangements.

I called, got a very nice woman who tried to be very helpful. She got my SSN, my driver’s license number, all the usual personal info. Could she do anything? No. She did give me a new number to call, though. I called it, and was told to enter the number I’m trying to transfer to AT&T. It wasn’t recognized. I tried again. Nada. So I had to call the original number again. Went through the same thing, gave all the info again, only to hear "yep, it’s going to be 6-24 hours before you can activate."

I don’t care about the number. Can I use the iPod? No. The Calendar? Datebook? Anything? No. No. No.

So here I sit. I got wrapped up in the hype, which was totally fun. I paid $200 to get a spot at the front of the line. And now I can’t do a damn thing until sometime tomorrow. Maybe even tomorrow evening.

I am not happy. I’ve been forced to marry AT&T, and I already want out.

See followups:
iPhone: still crippled, but getting there
Update: Latest post is iPhone: iCal glitch and why it took me 22 hours to set up my iPhone

See also
Number 15 in line for the iPhone in Austin
I found my iPhone line-waiter :)

Apparently I can buy two iPhones. If you want one, let me know before 6pm. Looks like I’ll be in the first group in the store :)

I surreptitiously shot some video of the line in Austin before the guards stopped me. I couldn’t get much without causing another fuss about the "no pictures" law. I wonder what exactly they think they’re "protecting" with this "law". They wouldn’t even let the news in this morning. Wouldn’t you think all of Apple’s neighbor stores would be happy to have their storefronts plastered all over TV and the blogosphere?

I was able to convert the raw video from my Flip Video Camcorder to Quicktime just fine. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to embed Quicktime movies into Typepad, so I thought I’d upload the video to YouTube, then grab the embed code from there. No luck uploading to YouTube, though, and I don’t know if it’s me or them, but the whole site seems to be crawling along. This is the first time I’m uploading a video there, though, and I’m not entirely sure what to expect.

See also:
I found my iPhone line-waiter :)
Number 15 in line for the iPhone in Austin

Wow, I so found the right person to wait in line :) Patrick is great – he scoped things out last night, talked to security guards, talked to Apple folks, got as much info as he could, and kept in contact with me all along. I found a line-waiter with a great work ethic! Ultimately Barton Creek Mall didn’t allow any camping, so he got in line early this morning. Here we are, number 15 in line, doing part one of our business transaction.

I’m trying to get a picture, but there are security guards around saying there’s a mall law that disallows pictures, and he’s being a real asshole about it. I’ve got some video, and I’ve got my iSight camera, so I’ll manage, but I’ve asked for proof of the "law". That seems to have done the trick – we got "special permission" to take a picture. Sheesh!

OK, this picture serves as proof that I owe Patrick another $100.

I vacillated. First I figured I’d pay someone to stand in the iPhone line for me. Then I had this brilliant idea for a headline: “I’ll buy you an iPhone. Really.” I thought I’d get some serious traffic with a headline like that. I had it all figured out, though. This would be the post:

I’ll buy you an iPhone. Really.
All you have to do is wait in line for me at either store in Austin, TX, with an end result of me getting the beefiest iPhone available.

What I expect:

1. You’ll get there 24 hours in advance with a friend, and camp.
2. You’ll bring all your own gear and food.
3. You’ll be a nice person (as will your friend) – when I show up an hour or so before the store opens, I expect you to have made a few friends, and I expect no dirty looks when I join you.

What I’ll provide:

1. I’ll be there when you start, and stick around for a bit. I’ll take our picture and post it to my blog, as proof of my intention to make good on the deal.
2. I’ll show up shortly after you call me, take the place of your friend, and take care of the actual purchase.
3. I’ll buy you the 4Gig iPhone (or the 8Gig if you want to contribute the difference).

So leave a comment, and tell me why you should be the one to do my bidding :)

Needless to say, I didn’t post this. As it turns out, I’m not willing to spend $500 extra for an iPhone on day 1, and traffic for the sake of traffic isn’t particularly appealing either. I started thinking again about standing in line myself. I have my flip video, a camera, a laptop with broadband wireless… I could liveblog while in line.

Then, of course, I thought about being in line in the sun. Or the rain. Yeah, not my style. So I hopped on Craigslist and found Patrick, who’s willing to stand in line overnight for $200. I’ll be meeting him at the south store this evening.

It’s pouring out. I sure hope he’s got a tent.

Update: as of 6pm Thursday, 24 hrs before the launch, there’s no line at the south store in Austin. Patrick is already scoping things out. There is question as to whether camping is allowed. Regardless, looks like I’ll have a sweet spot in line. Thanks Patrick!

A sign telling us to read the signs? I see these all over Texas. Are they elsewhere, too? Is this another example of some department needing to use up their annual budget or what?

This is the second hive of bees that has chosen to make my yard their home. The first had been living in an enormous fallen Live Oak tree (although it wasn’t fallen when they moved in…). I was able to have that hive relocated. They guy who moved it said they were, in fact, Africanized bees.

I noticed this second hive in another Live Oak several months ago, while there was a small, wiry, brave man crawling up my steeply-pitched roof to get at another tree that needed attention. He pissed off the bees when he was using the branch for leverage. I could hear the buzzing all the way from the porch. I called the same bee guy, who told me we couldn’t move this hive without losing most of the Live Oak. Lose a 300-year-old (at least) Live Oak or kill the bees? Not a hard decision. The bees would have to go.

So Blake came out and give me an education in bees. These were not Africanized bees, nor were the previous denizens. How did he know? Apparently the fact that I had not been swarmed when slamming the door/mowing the lawn/yelling for the dogs was enough to convince him. These were run of the mill honey bees.

I also learned what happened one morning a couple of years ago, amidst several meetings with the first bee guy regarding my hive. I had assumed this event was related to the bees in my yard.

I walked out to my car one morning to find it carpeted with bees. My car is off-white. There was barely a hint of white showing anywhere on the top or the hood — the bees were solidly packed. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was going on. Had these bees come to die on my car for some reason? Then, as I got closer, I realized they were moving. Barely, but they were moving. So I stood there staring at the 1000s of lethargic bees covering my vehicle, wondering what to do. I needed to leave. I had a brief twinge of guilt at the idea that I may kill them by taking them on the road, but it didn’t last long. I left. They scattered.

Blake filled me in. Apparently swarms of bees stop en masse to sleep. It happened not long ago to some guy downtown – he came out to find his parked car covered with sluggish bees, and called the cops. The cars surrounding his were clean. Again, it was a sleeping hive.

Is Blake pulling my leg? I did a very quick search, and found this brief description of sleeping bees, but found nothing about resting swarms. I’d think if sleeping swarms were a common occurrence, we’d hear of this more often. Anybody have any info?