No DBB this week (or next) -- Saving up for Tech4Turn (4/25)

We will not be having our Tuesday Digital Brown Bag (12:30P) this week (Tu, 4/7) or next week (Tu, 4/14) because we are saving up all of our guests for the "Technology for the Turnaround" event on Saturday, 4/25. We will have dozens of experts, companies, and other cool people at Tech4Turn -- and everyone is invited (see below). But we will be meeting Tuesday, 4/21, for my (in)famous talk entitled "Get A Job!" Now more relevant than ever!

What = Technology for the Turnaround (4/25) UGA

We have a whole different type of day planned for "Technology for the Turnaround: A Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste." No stuffy panel discussions. No pseudo sales pitches. No too-long explanations of what you already know. Nope. Tech4Turn is all about ideas -- ideas that can help us get ahead. And it is FREE! You can read all about the day at http://www.mynmi.net/Tech4Turn/. But here is a thumbnail sketch of the day. And all most of the activities are at the Miller Learning Center at UGA (http://www.slc.uga.edu/)

1:00 -- Welcome
1:15 -- Innovation for the Turnaround

Jennifer Dorian (Senior Vice President of Network Strategy and Brand Development -- Turner Entertainment Networks) will share her ideas for where we can find and build innovation.

1:45 -- Quick Fire Trend Discussions

Our goal is to come up with a list of technology trends that are going to play the biggest role in shaping digital media after the economic turnaround. We will be calling on our invited guests and other attendees to tell us what to watch for in areas like gaming, social media, online video, advertising, mobile, etc.

3:00 -- Break

Yeah, we will need it.

3:15 -- Student Show-Offs

New Media Institute and other Grady students will be showing off the projects they have been working this semester. These are going to be rapid-fire as well. Plan on walking around and talking to students about their projects for no more than 5 minutes. Then I will push you to move on. We will probably have 15 different team projects for you to see so we have to go fast and hard.

5:00 -- Networking Reception
Everyone is invited to the Dean's Garden at Grady for an informal networking reception. Bring your cards and be ready to network, network, network!

Who = Technology for the Turnaround (4/25) UGA

We all know that it takes more than a great program (like the one above) to make a great event. It takes cool/knowledgeable/fun people. About 75 people have already RSVPed for some part of the day. By going to http://www.mynmi.net/Tech4Turn you can RSVP to network with the people who are attending from these and other organizations:

Engauge, Patrick Davis Partners, BBDO, Kennesaw State University, AT&T, JWT Communications, Translation, Community Newspapers Inc, University of South Carolina, What's Up Interactive, Digital Insight (Intuit), Verizon Wireless, Schematic, Cohn & Wolfe, Delta Air Lines, Funny or Die, Charleston Magazin,TBS & TNT Digital, Nurun, Goizueta Business School, MediaHound Development, Plexus Web Creations, Newell Rubbermaid, National University, Atigeo, Marriott International, Fuzebox, Inc. Magazine, Startech Global, Atlanta Woman Magazine, JWA Public Communications, Turner, Axcess Online/The Silicon South, StyleCaster.

And the list keeps growing.

Video New Media Update -- Internet TV, Netbooks, and Adolescent Movie Maker

This week's version of the Video New Media Update (http://www.newmediaupdate.net/) looks at internet TV and netbooks. And they interview a filmmaker even younger than UGA students. Check it out. Lots of fun.

My Free / Open Source Experiment

A quick update on my attempt to only use free or open source software. It is going pretty well. Had a lot of input about graphics programs (yeah, Gimp is pretty cool). But I have started to hit a couple of problems. Google Docs has been excellent for creating documents to share online, but when you attempt to move them to dead trees (as in printing them out) you can run into trouble. For example, I made a handout in Google Docs then went to print it out. Instead of going straight from Google Docs to the printer, you have to export the document as a PDF first. Then you can print it out. But what if you want to insert page breaks? Since the Google Doc document only exists in a browser window, page breaks don't matter there. And the PDF isn't editable when it gets to your local machine so you can't insert page breaks there. About the only way I have found to adjust for pages is to keep checking the Google Docs print preview after adding blank lines to the document. Kind of clugy. Google readily admits that printing isn't a strong suit of their software. And they would rather us save the trees by working online all the time. But that isn't terribly practical yet.
So the lesson here is that some of the rather basic features we take for granted in commercial software might not work in free software. In fact, free software might even structure the task (like printing documents) differently than pay software. The problem is we have all been weaned on commercial software so we have bought into their paradigm for computer work -- it might be difficult to break old habits. But it ain't enough to make me give up -- yet.