ProductCamp Austin

[Paul Young]

Refresh Austin,

Hello, my name is Paul Young, and I am organizing ProductCamp Austin.
In the spirit of BarCamp, ProductCamp is an un-conference about
Product Management, Marketing, and the product development process.
There will be sessions covering everything from dealing with GUI's in
product requirements, to how Product Management can be effective
working with Agile Development, to career planning for people
interested in transitioning into and out of Product Management.

If you're interested in how products and software are designed,
prioritized, built, released, and measured, this will be the event for
you. ProductCamp is a great opportunity to learn from, teach to, and
network with Product Mangement and Development professionals in
Austin.

ProductCamp is a FREE event and will be held Saturday Jun 14, 2008
from 8AM-6PM at the St. Edwards University Professional Education
Center near 183 and Mopac.

For more information, and to sign up as a participant, see:
http://barcamp.org/ProductCampAustin/

Thanks, and we look forward to meeting you at ProductCamp!

Paul Young

[~~ Monica Roesch ~~]

Hi all~~
 
This is an FYI (not spam)...
 
At the last meeting, we discussed getting some Refreshers on the panels for SXSW.
 
Well... guess what? The 2009 Panel Pickers submission process opens on Monday, June 2nd... and we'll have until Friday, July 11th (2 meetings) to do whatever as a group.

So, if you want you to organize a panel or a solo presentation for the 2009 SXSW 
Interactive Festival, complete details on what kind of information needed for the Panel Picker will be posted on the SXSW website later this month.
 
For 2009, they are looking for more expert / advanced ideas (as well as ideas that are more technically focused). Hmmm... sound familiar?
 
E-mail SXSW at in...@sxsw.com with any questions.
 
Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
 
~~ Monica
 
 

---

Windows Live SkyDrive lets you share files with faraway friends. Start sharing.

[Pat Ramsey]

So....

I have a crazy idea of a Refresh meeting / brain storm to talk about
what topics would be good to present. What's wanted? Desired? Sought
after?

I had a mixed-bag of reactions to panels this year compared to years
past. I'm asking myself, OK. What do I want to see next year? What can
I present next year? Do I revamp/refine what I presented this year, or
do I develop something new?

Thoughts? (Apologies if I'm rambling. I had a tasty lunch.

Cheers!

Pat

On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 7:34 PM, ~~ Monica Roesch ~~
<heym...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all~~
>
> This is an FYI (not spam)...
>
> At the last meeting, we discussed getting some Refreshers on the panels for
> SXSW.
>
> Well... guess what? The 2009 Panel Pickers submission process opens on
> Monday, June 2nd... and we'll have until Friday, July 11th (2 meetings) to
> do whatever as a group.
>
> So, if you want you to organize a panel or a solo presentation for the 2009
> SXSW
> Interactive Festival, complete details on what kind of information needed
> for the Panel Picker will be posted on the SXSW website later this month.
>
> For 2009, they are looking for more expert / advanced ideas (as well as
> ideas that are more technically focused). Hmmm... sound familiar?
>
> E-mail SXSW at in...@sxsw.com with any questions.
>
> Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting!
>
> ~~ Monica

--
Pat Ramsey
ramse...@gmail.com
http://www.patramsey.net

[Mark Phillip]

I'm definitely on the "more expert/advanced topics" bandwagon, but how do we do that 9 months out and stay relevant?

 

I'd love to see SXSW put a few smart, well-spoken folk on the hook to do a talk but not force them to choose a topic until early in '09.  At least that way we could things fresh.

 

 

 

Thanks,
Mark

http://areyouwatchingthis.com

[David Humphreys]

I had a similar thought a few years back -- it'd be great if SXSW/I
had more tech and production, less "blogging is cool." More "Make,"
less "Wired." ... Some friends of mine and I rallied and got Jesse
James Garrett and Dylan Schiemann of the Dojo project to come out and
talk about Ajax that year, which was fun.

Then it occurred to me that perhaps we were asking too much of SXSW/I.
Perhaps most people are there to hear "blogging is cool," and the 60
minute slots don't lend themselves to depth.

Then BarCamp started sharing the same weekend as SXSW/I, and that
seems like a fine, fine thing to me. Some can go to SXSW/I; others to
BarCamp; some to both.

If we want to have more depth, perhaps we should get behind BarCamp?
Their format -- get together that day and figure out what to talk
about -- certainly beats the "9 months later, will this still be
relevant?" problem.

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 2:18 PM, David Humphreys <da...@dbhumphreys.com> wrote:
> I had a similar thought a few years back -- it'd be great if SXSW/I
> had more tech and production, less "blogging is cool." More "Make,"
> less "Wired." ... Some friends of mine and I rallied and got Jesse
> James Garrett and Dylan Schiemann of the Dojo project to come out and
> talk about Ajax that year, which was fun.
>
> Then it occurred to me that perhaps we were asking too much of SXSW/I.
> Perhaps most people are there to hear "blogging is cool," and the 60
> minute slots don't really lend themselves to anything deep.
>
> Then BarCamp started sharing the same weekend as SXSW/I, and that
> seems like a fine, fine thing to me. Some can go to SXSW/I; others to
> BarCamp; some to both.
>
> If we want to have more depth, perhaps we should get behind BarCamp?
> Their format -- get together that day and figure out what to talk
> about -- certainly beats the "9 months later, will this still be
> relevant?" problem.

> --
> David Humphreys
> da...@dbhumphreys.com
> http://dbhumphreys.com
>
> St. Joe's Choir
> http://www.myspace.com/stjoeschoir
> http://stjoeschoir.com
>

--
David Humphreys
da...@dbhumphreys.com
http://dbhumphreys.com

St. Joe's Choir
http://www.myspace.com/stjoeschoir
http://stjoeschoir.com

[Mark Phillip]

Well that makes me think (even though this is not what you intended David), that maybe as "Austin Refresh" we could approach SXSW/i and ask for two TBA panel slots, with the understanding that as the date got closer we would choose a topic.

 

Like the MLB and NHL All-Star games and their "last player in" contests, we could host a poll on refreshaustin.org in early '09 letting people choose the panel that they'd want us to cover.  With the spread of talent that we have in Refresh I bet we could cover pretty much anything..

[Jon Lebkowsky]

I'm on the SXSW Interactive advisory board, and I've coordinated whole tracks as well as sessions for the event. I'd be happy to make the ask for the two slots, and meet with other Refreshers to talk about what might work.

~ Jon

--
Jon Lebkowsky
512 762-6547
AIM, Skype: jonlzebub
Blogs: http://weblogsky.com | http://worldchanging.com | http://e-patients.net | http://smartmobs.com
Companies: http://polycotassociates.com | http://socialwebstrategies.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jonl

[Chris Latham]

Some topics I've had on my mind lately, but not very technical:

- Redesigns Suck: why large redesigns can be a bad idea, why we should take a more iterative design approach, and how to convince clients to avoid redesigns

- When Divorce Isn't an Option: for those of us that are working in an in-house model and don't have the option to "fire" our clients, how do we keep moving forward when a client won't take your recommendations, honor your deadlines, and is doomed to self-destructive behavior and still wants their website done on time?

- Crisis Communication: a look at how organizations and people communicate when there is an emergency.



If anyone out there is thinking of a topic that's CSS/design related, I'd be in for developing it...

[Mike Cravey]

The Crisis Communication resonates with me. I contract for the state of Texas website and when Rita hit, we were up all night for several days straight making updates, uploading evacuation routes maps, providing the most up to date links for aide, news, etc... We have addressed some of our technical issues but there are some things we have not addressed yet. So I would be interested in hearing about plans that can be put in place while everyone is still sane that would help with those times that are not as proned to logic and reason.

[JD]

Large re-designs are a great idea, if your site is underperforming.
Granted, they should be tested in small increments, but dollar signs
push those large-scale maneuvers.