Rohdesign Weblog: Travel

Here you'll find all posts file under the Travel category.

March 12, 2008

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes

Welcome BoingBoing readers! Be sure to check out my follow-up post called Lessons Learned from my SXSW Sketchnotes too!

SXSW Interactive 2008 Sketchnotes are up!
I've just completed scanning, tuning and uploading 34 pages of sketchnotes I captured in my pocket Moleskine sketchbook at SXSW Interactive earlier this week.

I think the sketchnotes turned out well, and it was no problem for me to continuously create them for nearly every session I attended. I certainly went through ink in my G2 mini pens — I'm glad I brought several along.

With the SEED Conference sketchnotes being pretty popular, I'm curious to see how these SXSW sketchnotes are received. While sketchnotes capture concentrated concepts for each session well, I think they're even better at awakening ideas stored in the minds of session attendees.

Speakers Featured
Here are the speakers featured in the SXSW Interactive Sketchnotes: Naz Hamid, Veronica Belmont, Casey McKinnon, Ryan King, Glenda Bautista, Ariel Waldman, John Gruber, Michael Lopp, Jim Coudal, Dan Rubin, Didier Hilhorst, Eris Stassi, Lea Alcantara (sorry for the Leah misspell in the notes!), Ben Brown and Frank Warren.

Finally, here's the FlickrSlidr Slideshow set:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did creating them! :-)

Stats on Flickr — Wow!

Check out Shaun Swick's very cool SXSW Sketchnotes 08 Flickr Set for another perspective.

Dave Gray does his style of sketchnotes on 3x5 notecards, check out his set from VizThink08.

Permalink | Comments (19) | Sketchnotes | add to del.icio.us

March 11, 2008

Rohdesign Podcast 05 - SXSW Roundtable Discussion

I've now recorded and posted Rohdesign Podcast Episode 05 in Austin, a little longer 16 minute roundtable discussion on the patio at SXSW interactive. It's posted as an MP3 and as a web-based flash player:

In the fifth episode of the Rohdesign Podcast, I talk with Ashe Dryden, David Overbeck and Carlos Ortega about their impressions of SXSW Interactive, favorite sessions and why you should consider attending SXSW 2009.

Permalink | | Podcasts | add to del.icio.us

March 9, 2008

Rohdesign Podcast 04 - SXSW Interactive Edition

I've now recorded and posted Rohdesign Podcast Episode 04 in Austin, after 2 days at SXSW interactive. It's posted as an MP3 and as a web-based flash player:

In the fourth episode of the Rohdesign Podcast, I talk about networking at SXSW, excellent design sessions I was able to attend, sketchnotes progress and plans for Sunday's activities.

Permalink | Comments (5) | Podcasts | add to del.icio.us

March 6, 2008

Off to SXSW Interactive 2008!

Wow. in a few hours I'll be on the plane to Austin, Texas with my Web414 buddies, ready to experience everything SXSW has to offer.

I'm excited and a little bit nervous, as I have no idea what to expect. SXSW seems overwhelming right now, but I'm sure I'll settle in and enjoy myself once I'm in Austin with my friends.

From Friday the 7th through Tuesday the 12th, I'll be enjoying SXSW, and therefore reading mail sporadically, so you may not get a reply for 24-48 hours.

Talk to you all again in a day or two! :-)

Permalink | Comments (3) | Travel | add to del.icio.us

February 7, 2008

Attending SXSW Interactive 2008!

For the past few years, I've been very intentional about attending thought-provoking conferences and events, to learn, grow and meet new people.

In 2007, I attended BarCampMadison, UX Intensive, SOBCon07, BarCampMilwaukee2 the SEED Conference and excellent monthly Web414 meetings through the year.

For several years I've heard great things about SXSW (South by Southwest) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Many of the people I admire attend yearly, I've enjoyed podcasts from the event, but it's never worked out for me to attend.

That will change in 2008. On March 7th, I'll be heading down to Austin, with fellow Web414 members Ashe Dryden and David Overbeck. We're all excited to see first-hand, just what all the SXSW buzz is about.

Thanks MakaluMedia!
I've been given the opportunity to attend SXSW as art director and designer from MakaluMedia. I'm very thankful for this opportunity, and I plan to make the most of my time in Austin. I'll attend multiple sessions, take notes and capture sketchnotes similar to the ones I did at the SEED Conference and UX Intensive.

Advise the Newbie
Since this is my first time to SXSW Interactive, I welcome tips and ideas from seasoned veterans. I'm also open to Austin tips and suggestions from any Austin dwellers out there who would like to share. Just leave a comment below. :-)

Contact Me SXSW-Goers
I also want to meet old friends and new people while I'm at at SXSW. If you're attending SXSW Interactive 2008 and would like to meet for a coffee in Austin, drop me a line with the subject SXSW. I'd love to connect before I head down to Austin.

Resources
As I prepare for SXSW Interactive, I've compiled a selection of resources to share with other SXSW attendees, and those interested in the event:

SXSW Interactive 2008 — The official site.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Time) — SXSW Panels, time schedule.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Day) — SXSW Panels, by day.
SXSW Interactive 2008: Panels (Category) — SXSW Panels, by category.
SXSW Registrant's Guide — Registrant's guide.
SXSW Registrant's Mobile Guide — Mobile registrant's guide.
SXSW '08 Insider's Guide — Information and forums on Ning.com.
SXSW Baby — Un-official Weblog and forums for SXSW.
Ze Frank Explains SXSW Interactive In Under a Minute — Classic Ze Frank humor!
SXSW Core Conversations — Directory for informal conversations.
SXSW Past, Present, and Future — Great podcast interview with Hugh Forrest, Director of Events for SXSW Interactive on the history, culture and future of the event.
SXSW Geeks Love Bowling — Bowling with SXSWers, Sunday, March 9th.
Airbag: Hampton — Greg Storey's Guide to SXSW Newbies.
John Phillips — Beginner's Guide to SXSW.

Have a resource to share? Email me and let me know!

Permalink | Comments (8) | Creativity | add to del.icio.us

October 30, 2007

SEED Conference Thoughts & Sketchnotes

Whew! I'm back from Monday's excellent SEED Conference in Chicago.

What a great event! The Illinois Institute of Technology and Rem Koolhaas' Tribune Student Center building, was an incredibly cool venue. Funky lines and the architectural space provided a unique backdrop for the sessions of the day.

Carlos Segura
All of the sessions were very good, though the most interesting for me as a designer was hearing Carlos Segura speak. He talked about taking risks and thinking deeper for clients and going beyond only what they ask to figuring out what they really need.

I was especially inspired by the Corbis Stock Photo case study, where Carlos' team changed the stock agency's overall approach to consider their clients (designers) and in doing so, changed an entire industry.

Segura also stressed keeping small, working on projects and with clients you really want to work with. Good work comes from these situations, and by staying small you aren't constantly taking jobs you dislike just to keep everyone busy. In fact, this turned into a thread that connected all of the talks of the day.

Jason Fried
Jason spoke very briefly, so he could open the floor for lots of Q&A time. He recommended these 5 items:

Watch out for red flags
Keep your team small
Make sure your staff has alone time
Keep meetings short and focused
Make tiny decisions instead of massive ones

Jason also recommended a small team size, though his perspective focused a little more on communication issues with small vs. large teams and scaling projects to fit your team size rather than scaling your team to fit scope.

I resonated most with Jason's call for alone time. I work remotely, but even though I work alone, there is always a temptation towards IM, email or phone calls, and I find that blocking out chunks of alone time makes a difference. I know this may be a tough one for the multi-tasking generation, but I think it really can help your focus.

Jim Coudal
I loved Jim Coudal's candor and relaxed approach, and especially his openness in sharing his firm's successes and failures. He shared several stories and films, and drew ideas from them. My take away:

Be curious
Choose people on their taste
Don't be afraid to fail

Jim talked about his curiosity and how many of the things he's been curious about have turned into business ideas. Curiosity helps with client work, since you can get to speed quickly and often see a problem from a different perspective than the client.

He also talked about identifying people and hiring them on taste over technical talent. Not untalented people with taste, but rather if you had to choose between two people and one had good taste, go with taste over talent.

Coudal suggested that failures are OK. They're learning experiences which often create opportunities that might never have happened otherwise. You have to learn to identify and capitalize on unexpected opportunities that often grow out of failures.

Discussion Session: Segura, Fried & Coudal
The most interesting of the sessions was the final hour or so of open discussion time with Carlos, Jason and Jim at the front of the room. They fielded all sorts of questions from attendees about their ideas. Questions about small teams, marketing, simplicity, community, building products while still managing client work, questions about creating apps that rely solely on other platorms (Facebook), and more.

Of all the sessions, this was the one I and the 4 other guys I met, thought was the best of all. Why? Because they had a chance to respond immediately and candidly to random questions. I also enjoyed hearing them discuss and explore ideas in depth that hadn't come out in their talks. Finally, it was interesting to hear their similarity of thought and subtle differences of approach and opinion on the same questions.

Sketchnotes
As mentioned last week, I took my pocket Moleskine sketchbook along and captured 17 pages of sketchnotes, from the entire day's talks and discussions, including Carlos Segura, Jason Fried, Edward Lifson and Jim Coudal.

I didn't try to capture everything said during yeterday's event, since others were probably doing that.

Instead, I took time to listen and analyze the talks, distilling and capturing the main ideas I was hearing. By doing a bit of on-the-fly processing, it forced me to boil down what was being said, then express it in ink on the page in a way that would be meaningful to me and to others who might read my sketchnotes later.

To make the notes interesting, I played with typography and images with the sketchnotes, to provide a little texture and depth beyond pages of gray text.

SEED Sketchnotes on Coudal Partners
Seems my notes have struck a chord. Jim Coudal of Coudal Partners emailed about my sketchnotes on Flickr and made mention in their Fresh Signals feed. Thanks Jim!

SEED Sketchnotes on Signal vs. Noise
Awesome! 37signals noticed them too: Mike Rohde's SEED Conference 2007 sketchbook notes. Thanks Matt!

Pretty cool to have speakers and sponsors mention notes taken during the event. :-)

Overall, SEED Conference was well worth the time and price to attend.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Permalink | Comments (5) | Design | add to del.icio.us

October 27, 2007

Going the SEED Conference in Chicago on Monday

Picture 1.png On Monday morning I'll be boarding the Amtrak in Milwaukee and heading South for the SEED Conference in Chicago. It's being put on by 37signals, Segura, Inc., and Coudal Partners at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The event features Jason Fried, Carlos Segura and Jim Coudal, leading a presentation and discussion on design, entrepreneurship, and inspiration. I like the work all three of these guys have done, so it will be a very interesting day:

You'll learn about taking control of your own work, seeking out methods to inspire new ideas, and adopting unconventional ideas about collaboration and business. The SEED conference will fill your head with knowledge you can use.
This isn't about theory, it's about practice. You should attend if you're a designer (print, web, video) or a business-minded soul who's looking to take your creative ideas and turn them into something satisfying and bankable. Anyone creative with an open mind will take away something useful.

Sketchnotes
I'll be taking sketchnotes, similar to the set I did for the UX Intensive back in April, 2007. I have a Moleskine sketchbook at the ready. I hope I can keep up with the presentations and discussions! I will post the collection of sketchnotes to my Flickr account, so others can view, read and learn from them.

If you're attending the SEED Conference on Monday the 29th and want to meet at the event, drop me a line and say hello.

Permalink | Comments (2) | Web Design | add to del.icio.us

July 16, 2007

Back from Belize with Sketchtoons

Whew! I'm back from my service trip to Belize — I had an AMAZING time!

The country was wild and beautiful, the people of Belize friendly and hospitable and the food was so very delicious. We all had a wonderful week.

Our Meadowbrook team was just incredible. Every student and leader stepped up when it counted and gave of themselves every single day. It was exciting sharing Jesus' love with the people of St. Margaret's Village.

The staff of Praying Pelican Missions, who managed our trip, did a superb job providing for our team. I have to send special thanks to Matt, Tatiana, Laura, Bree and John for a great week in Belize!

I have many stories to share: wild bus rides on the Hummingbird Highway, tons of village kids waiting for our bus to arrive every day, a visit with a Mennonite family, sharing their home-made pineapple juice, and discovering that the Internet reaches to remote Belizean villages. Those stories will come as I catch up at home and work.

Meanwhile, I'd like to share a set of Belize Sketchtoons. I'd hoped to do more sketching in Belize, but there just wasn't time in such a compressed week.

Thanks to all who prayed for us — we felt your prayers in Belize.

Permalink | Comments (10) | Travel | add to del.icio.us

July 6, 2007

Departing for Belize

Wow. It's finally here — our departure for Belize, Central America.

Very early tomorrow morning my wife and I depart, along with 4 leaders and 26 students, for St. Margaret's Village, in the Cayo District of Belize.

Back in February, when we had our first team meeting, this weekend seemed so distant. Back in April, when I posted about the upcoming trip details, it still felt so far away.

I'm excited, and naturally, I have some nerves about the trip, having never travelled with such a large group, nor to Central America. But even with so, I know this is going to be an amazing experience for our team.

The past 2 months have been crazy for our family, to say the least. Yet, Last night, I realized we've managed to sell our house, buy a new house and prepare ourselves and a small army for an intense week in Belize. I think we've done OK. :-)

I especially appreciate your prayers for our team this coming week. Please pray that we would gel as a group around our goal, we would represent Jesus as we serve Belizeans, and that we would all stay healthy and return home safely.

I can't wait to share my stories, sketches and photos here on the blog when I return!

Images: Wikipedia

Permalink | Comments (5) | Travel | add to del.icio.us

May 16, 2007

SOBCon08 Suggestions

Now that I've taken a little time to unpack my thoughts about SOBCon07, I felt it would be a good time to share my suggestions for SOBCon08:

• More Workshops — I would love to see more workshop sessions, like we did with the "Iowa Caucus" of Mike Sansone, Mike Wagner and Drew McLellan. The ideas and collaboration from this session was energizing, but we ran out of time.

• Longer Breaks — I wished for more/larger gaps between sessions, to congregate with others and get to know them better. I just popped out to meet with people to solve it, but I'd prefer not to choose between sessions and meeting others.

• Free WiFi — T-Mobile WiFi was available for individual purchase, but I'd prefer a free, SOBCOn WiFi service to encourage more blogging during the event. I think 3 or 4 WiFi base stations would have been about right to avoid a saturated network.

• SOBCon Speaker & Attendee Page — I'd love to see an official speaker and attendee page on the SOBCon site, with names, photos, bios, 5 favorite posts and blog links. This would help new attendees "meet" other attendees before the event.

• Unified SOBCon Page & RSS Feed — What about a single Page and RSS feed, where any post with "SOBCon" and "SOBCOn08" tags would be included? Attendees could follow a single feed, and see every related post before, during and after the event.

• All Day Coffee — In the afternoon on Saturday, a couple of attendees and I were searching for coffee but found only stacks of soda bottles. It'd be great to keep hot coffee available all day, for those of us who like the rich, black brew. :-)

I hope these suggestions will encourage the '07 attendees to suggest some ideas in the comments, and be useful for SOBCon08 next year.

Permalink | Comments (13) | Blogging | add to del.icio.us

May 15, 2007

Unpacking SOBCon07

I'm not surprised to find myself still brewing and unpacking the reverberations of this weekend at SOBCon07. The conference was a concentrated burst of energy, community and challenges, that I haven't been able to completely process.

Part of it for me, and I think for many attendees, was diving headlong into something completely new, without any expectation of what to expect, or what we'd get out of it.

I didn't know anyone but my buddy Phil Gerbyshak, so I had to step out and meet some new people. That's the wild thing though — people were stepping out to meet me, treating me as an old friend.

Some of this must be chalked up to knowing Phil, but much of the warmth and friendliness of other people seemed to be at the very core of the SOBCon vibe.

Here are some observations after much brewing and pondering:

We all came to give and take. Everyone present came ready to give something away, while being confident they would receive that much and more in return. Everyone I met was sharing energy, which encouraged me to keep sharing my energy.

This was our conference. Bloggers dreamed it up, handled the logistics, showed up and then created it like a barn raising. We connected and encouraged each other, challenged each other and made it happen. Two nights in a row, I witnessed people spontaneously gathering to talk, pulling chairs into circles until no chairs were left.

We are brands, like it or not. One thread running through the Saturday sessions was how we're all projecting a brand (ourselves), whether conscious or unconscious. From our writing to our blog design, everything we project and communicate is our brand. The challenge for everyone was how to sync your brand with who you really are.

We're communicators, not bloggers. David Armano challenged us to stop calling ourselves bloggers, and instead consider ourselves “conversation architects.” I'm a communicator — whether with words, sketches, graphics, sound or video — I aim to communicate with others through this space on the web. Rohdesign is now operating without "Weblog" in the title to reinforce this idea.

Conclusion: I had a great time at SOBCon07!

It was more powerful than I expected, and the people were wonderful. I've already established relationships with several people I resonated with, and plan to build more relationships as the week goes on. Relationships really are at the heart of SOBCon.

I was also challenged to step my communication to the next level. After 4+ years of writing at Rohdesign, I'm energized to keep on sharing, encouraging and learning.

I can't wait for SOBCon08!

SOBCon07 Attendees:
Liz Strauss
Wendy Piersall
Andy Sernovitz
Phil Gerbyshak
David Armano
Mike Sansone
Drew McLellan
Mike Wagner
Terry Starbucker
Christine Kane
Rodney Rumford
Ben Yoskovitz
Chris Cree
Robyn Tippins
Diego Orjuela
Vernon Lun
Jonathan C. Phillips
Sandra Renshaw
Brad Shorr
Timothy Johnson
Tammy Lenski
Sean Rox
Muhammad Saleem
Lorelle VanFossen
David Dalka
Todd And
John Yedinak
Joe Hauckes
Tim Draayer
Jeremy Geelan
Carolyn Manning
Sheila Scarborough
Steve Farber
Dawud Miracle
Doug Mitchell
Jeff O’Hara
Dave Schoof
Jamy Shiels
Adam Steen
Hannah Steen
Chris Thilk
Barry Zweibel
Eric Bingen
Ellen Moore
Cord Silverstein
Jean-Patrick Smith
James Walton
Sharan Tash
Vernon Lun
Tony Lee
Scott Desgrosseilliers
Mark Murrell
Kammie Kobyleski
Easton Ellsworth
Mark Goodyear
Ann Michael
Kent Blumberg
Ashley Cecil
Robert Hruzek
Sabu N G
Mazur Krystyna
Lisa Gates
Franke James
Chris Brown
Troy Worman
Karen Putz
Jesse Petersen
Terry Mapes
Andy Brudtkuhl
Lucia Mancuso
Peter Flaschner
Derrick Sorles
Thomas Clifford
Rajesh Srivastava
Claire Celsi
Jason Alba
Alex Shalman
Cristiana Passinato
Brad Spirrison
Ari Garber
Dr. Rob Wolcott
Cheryll Cruz
Sharon Scherer
Jason Wade
Jill Pullen
Doug Bulleit
Wendy Kinney
Brenda Friedrich
Ella Wilson
Chelsea Vincent
Ayush Agarwal
Paul Mangalik
Premchand Kallan
Xochi Kaplan
Michael Snell
James Bergstrom
Raj Majumder
Keith Levenson

Special thanks to Jonathan C. Phillips for providing this extensive list of attendees. :-)

Photo: Vernon Lun

sobcon07

Technorati Tags: sobcon07, rohdesign, mike+rohde

Permalink | Comments (12) | Blogging | add to del.icio.us

May 11, 2007

SOBCon07: Day 1 Impressions

I've spent a good day heading to and spending time at SOBCon07, and wanted to capture a few impressions here before I head to sleep.

The people at the conference are just amazing. I mentioned knowing only Phil coming into SOBCon, but it didn't take long to meet many friendly, warm people.

I met Tim Johnson and Director Tom (Clifford) over lunch, Mike Sansone and Clare Celsi in the restaurant, Terry Starbucker and Franke James in the lobby... and the conference hadn't even started!

I'd have a hard time naming everyone I met here, but in general everyone treated me warmly and as one of the crew right away. I feel right at home in this crowd.

Christine Kane provided a wonderful performance tonight. She's a great singer and musician, with an on-stage presence that made me feel at home and relaxed.

After the music we had a delicious light dinner, including pastries and veggies, cheese and sushi, all of very high quality. After eating, we had an open mic time, where we each shared a little about ourselves and what we do on our blogs.

After the kickoff even ended, I spent time hanging out in the room and then in "Le Bar" with many of the bloggers here at the conference, listening to their stories and how they blog. There's a common theme I see emerging from every attendee: a general amazement that this convention is really happening and that it's awesome to finally meet these friends in person.

I think it's fascinating and encouraging to watching online-only relationships expand and deepen in face to face connections. Coming in as an outsider of sorts, I'm able to see this dynamic occurring between people.

After only the first day, I've concluded I've made a great choice in attending SOBCon07, simply to meet so many wonderful, friendly people.

I can't wait until Saturday! :-)

Permalink | Comments (6) | Blogging | add to del.icio.us

May 9, 2007

Getting Ready for SOBCon07 in Chicago

Tonight I had a great talk with my Milwaukee blogging buddy Phil Gerbyshak, who I'm traveling with to SOBCon07 in Chicago this Friday and Saturday. I'm excited!

Phil and I are doing a road trip from Milwaukee to Chicago for the event, enjoying the time driving down, and taking it easy when we arrive. I can't wait to see Phil give his keynote speech on Saturday and talks from other speakers on the schedule.

Of the about 80-some bloggers attending, I know one — Phil. Still, this is a great opportunity to meet and get to know many new bloggers. This is Phil's crowd, so I'm sure I'll meet new people through him, and on my own.

I'll be sketching and taking notes at the event and may continue the sketchnotes approach I experimented with at UX Intensive... we'll see. I'll post a report of the weekend's activities, along with an analysis of the conference.

If you'd like to attend SOBCon07, there are still spots available.

Permalink | | Blogging | add to del.icio.us

April 27, 2007

UX Intensive Chicago 2007: Thoughts & Sketchnotes

This week I attended Adaptive Path's UX Intensive: Interaction Design Workshop in Chicago. I've decided to share my thoughts on the event and my set of sketchnotes on the blog.

UX Intensive event was a 4-day series of workshops and lectures, and of those 4 days, I attended 1: Interaction Design. Here are my thoughts about that particular event:

The Speakers & Venue
Overall it was a good experience. Dan Saffer and Kim Lenox are both very smart, talented designers who know their stuff. I gleaned good ideas for tweaking my own design process, and was affirmed in the approach and process I already follow.

The Black Orchid was an OK venue. The room was relatively spacious, and the food was quite good. The tables, however, were designed for drinks while listening to jazz — not ideal for taking notes or working, and not positioned ideally for a conference. I got a bit of a cramp from sitting at an angle at my table, trying watch the speaker and take notes.

Workshop or Lecture?
UX Intensive was billed as a "workshop" even though Wednesday's Interactive Design session was actually a day-long series of lectures. Even though the topic very much interested me, by about 2pm I was having a hard time focusing, even after a second Starbucks cappuccino.

I heard from Matt and Que, 2 guys I met at my table, that Monday's Design Strategy and Tuesday's Design Research sessions were true workshops, with activities and interaction between the attendees — much different than Wednesday's lectures.

Concepts I Liked
There were many good ideas shared by Dan and Kim, some of which I'll note below:

• Research is useless in a raw, unstructured form. It's critical to filter the information and draw insights and conclusions from your research that can be applied to the project. I liked Dan's suggestion to use physical and visual representations of research, using post-it walls and drawings on various surfaces.

• Brainstorming for quantity and brainstorming in categories. Dan suggested brainstorming sprints with limited times and an emphasis on many ideas in that time. I also liked his idea of brainstorming within narrower categories, then displaying findings in a matrix or a grid.

• Failure is OK. A 50% failure rate was suggested as a good thing. I've noticed that in my sketches, the more ideas I can get through the sooner I usually find a solution. Trying out ideas that may fail, lead to a good ideas, so I find this to be very true.

• Good designers make better guesses. Intuition is important in design, and it's based on making good guesses. Dan shared principles and techniques for making better guesses and decisions.

• Living Documents. Kim Lenox talked about designing for suites and platforms, suggesting the use of living documents, sharing information and innovations, consistency and that interaction designers need to think about the integration of 3 key areas: the PC, the Internet and mobile devices.

• All products are broken. By starting with this premise, we're free to try and improve products rather than making them perfect and completely free of brokeness. Dan talked about good areas to focus on for fixes, breaking fixes down into smaller chunks, and the use of quick n' dirty wireframes with screenshots (I use this approach, and it works great!)

• Constant Communication. Use various tools such as blogs and wikis within your team, to keep communication lines open with each other, and to capture information as living documents.

View my detailed notes in my UX Intensive sketchnotes on Flickr.

Suggestions
I'll end this post with my thoughts on how the Design Interaction portion of the UX Intensive event could be improved:

• Call it a workshop only if it has workshop activities. I came expecting interaction and activities with my design colleagues and instead got a day of lectures. Workshop activities would have broken up the time, made it easier for me to focus on the ideas and apply them practically.

• Add more breaks. We had breaks for lunch and for the morning and afternoon sessions, which were great. However, because of the day-long lecture format, by the afternoon I needed mini breaks in-between the individual sessions. By about 2pm I was losing focus on the topics that a few mini-breaks may have helped with.

• Show more real-world examples. We had some nice examples in the lectures by Dan and Kim, but I wanted to see more of them to illustrate the concepts presented. Having more examples might also have helped my focus in the afternoon.

• Go narrower and deeper. I think reducing quantity of material covered and focusing on deeper real-world examples, discussions on those ideas and workshop activities might improve the relevance of the information to attendees. So much info was presented, that I couldn't adequately digest, discuss or apply with those ideas to my own design practices.

I hope these thoughts are helpful to fellow designers, and might be useful to Adaptive Path in tuning and perfecting their UX Intensive series in Amsterdam in June.

Many thanks to MakaluMedia (my employer), for sending me to the event.

Technorati Tags: uxichi07, chicago, design, rohdesign

Permalink | Comments (2) | Web Design | add to del.icio.us

April 26, 2007

Korean Soup Sketchtoon

On Wednesday I had a great visit to Chicago, for Adaptive Path's UX Intensive Interactive Design Workshop in Chicago's Old Town. I'm currently scanning in my sketch-notes from the event (which I will post tomorrow), but in the meantime I wanted to post a sketchtoon from my dinner in the evening.

I had the pleasure of traveling to Chicago with my friend Hyeon "Sean" Kim on the Amtrak Hiawatha to UX Intensive. After the event, I met Sean on the Brown line EL train at Sedgwick to Rockwell station to visit a Korean restaurant on the North side of town.

Sean had a Korean restaurant in mind, but after walking to Lawrence Avenue and searching, we realized it had closed or moved, because a new condo was sitting right at the corner where it should have been. It was actually good fortune for us to walk the neighborhood, since we came across Han Bat, a small, family-run Korean Soup restaurant, right on Lawrence Avenue.

Our Korean dinner was delicious. Sean was worried that old-school, hard-core Korean Seolleongtang soup might be too unusual for me. Now he knows I love unusual new things, including Korean soup, kim chee, pickled radishes and corn tea! :-)

The sketchtoon was created in my Moleskine sketchbook, while riding home on the EL. Sean and I contentedly recalled the details of our delicious Korean dinner. I colored this piece later on, to add just a little more detail.

Now I can't wait to try more Korean foods!

Technorati Tags: chicago, korean, uxichi07, rohdesign

Permalink | Comments (12) | Food & Drink | add to del.icio.us

April 18, 2007

Serving in Belize: July 2007

I've had many wonderful opportunities to visit and spend time with friends in interesting places.

Travel has provided memories I'll treasure for a lifetime, and looking back, I believe travel has fundamentally changed my viewpoint, thinking and life for the better.

So, as you might imagine, I'm always interested in travel experiences.

This July 7th, my wife Gail and I will help lead a team of 31 adults and high school students from Meadowbrook Church, to serve the people of Belize, Central America. We're both excited about this opportunity to follow Jesus' example of loving God through service and love for others.

St. Margaret's Village, Belize
We'll be serving one week in St. Margaret's Village, a mountain town in central Belize. We're partnering with a local church, visiting orphanages and hospitals, playing sports with local kids, light construction work around the town, giving guitar lessons and leading church services.

As the departure day approaches, I'm realizing just how much of an impact this trip will have on our lives and the lives of our students.

Belize is a fascinating Central American country, located just south of Mexico and East of Guatemala on the Caribbean Sea. Belize has the 2nd largest Barrier Reef in the world, and because of a British colonial heitage, is the only English speaking country in Central America.

Belizean culture has a strong Caribbean influence, even though the country is located in Central America. People of Belize consists of different 9 main ethnic groups, including Creole, East Indian, Euro-Americans, Garifuna, Mestizo, Mennonite, Mopan, Kekchi, and Yucatec Mayas.

Prayer & Partnership
We invite you to pray for our team, as we prepare for the trip. We want our team to be open and ready to serve. We ask for safe travels to and from Belize, and that our team would have a positive impact on the people of Belize and they on us.

If you're interested in partnering financially, we welcome your support. We're raising about $1,800 per person for the trip, so every dollar brings us closer to our goal. If this interests you, feel free to use the button below, to donate:

Or, if you prefer sending in a tax-exempt donation, send it to my church directly:

Belize Youth Mission Trip Donations
Meadowbrook Church
1025 North 70th Street
Wauwatosa, WI 53213

http://www.meadowbrook-church.com/

Travelogues & Sketches
Finally, those who know me, know I can't resist writing travelogues and sketching while I travel — I intend to do both on the Belize trip and provide reports here on the blog of my experiences.

I can't wait! :-)

Permalink | Comments (3) | Travel | add to del.icio.us

August 2, 2006

Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone

As a fan of the Tour de France, one of my favorite Tour blogs is Martin Dugard's at Active.com. I've thoroughly enjoyed his writing while following the Tour across France. His writing style is approachable, easy to absorb and has generous portions of personal observations and interesting historical details.

Martin's blend of readability, observation and historical detail bring his subjects to life.

Because of his writing style, I picked up Martin's Last Voyage of Columbus last November. Just 3 weeks ago, I found a copy of Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley & Livingstone at my local library.

In a nutshell, Dr. David Livingstone was a Scottish explorer in the mid 1800s, credited with walking across Africa, is sent to search for the source of the Nile river. When he goes missing, several expeditions are sent to verify if he is dead or alive, but only one man, American journalist and adventurer Henry Morton Stanley, finds Livingstone alive, and utters the famous line to him: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

It would seem knowing the end of the story would make for a dull read — but no! Dugard does and excellent job of building up the back-story on both of these remarkable men, and their contemporaries. Dugard shares details on both their accomplishments and defeats, which led them their moment in history.

I was surprised by the hardships both Livingstone, Stanley and other explorers and their support staff were willing to endure to criss-cross Africa. Tribal wars, cannibals, slave traders, swamps, rivers, lakes, mountains, deserts, insects, wild animals, disease — you name it, they experienced it.

I knew this was a great book when I found myself yearning to read just a few more pages on my vacation last week. I would take time morning, afternoon and evening to read this intriguing story. It definitely passed my 100 page book test. :-)

After finishing Into Africa, I had a better understanding for the people involved: both Livingstone and Stanley, but also for their contemporaries, the state of the world and Africa itself. I've added a new piece of mental map to my understanding of the 1800s, and its impact on our current culture.

If you have an interest in history, exploration, Africa or just enjoy a good story, I highly recommend Martin Dugard's Into Africa.

Permalink | Comments (2) | Books | add to del.icio.us

June 28, 2005

A Fez of the Heart: Mini Review

Several weeks ago, at a local rummage sale, I came across the book A Fez of the Heart by Jeremy Seal. It took a few moments to realize this paperback was one I'd purchased in 1994, lent to a friend, and never got back. So, I drove a hard bargain, and bought the book for 50 cents, happy to have a second chance at a reading it for the first time.

Jeremy Seal's account is a travelogue of his time spent in Turkey, searching for the origins and present day occurrences of a hat — the Fez. His interest in the fez brought him to Istanbul to begin a journey around Turkey, seeking actual wearers and historical information related to the country, the culture and its hats.

While I'm not an expert on Turkey, I enjoyed his description of the country and its history, particularly the end of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey. I learned a bit more about Turkey's history and the sometimes unusual blend of East and West, and of course quite a bit about Turkish headgear.

Probably the most interesting part of the book for me came at the 3/4 mark. Jeremy is given a hand-made Fez by an elderly hat maker and feels compelled to wear it on the street. As the Fez is technically "illegal" in Turkey and has cultural significance for Turks, this was a larger challenge than it might appear. Seal becomes quite self-conscious in his be-fezzed state, and receives added notice and scrutiny all the way back to his hotel — before removing and hiding his fez.

While Jeremy's travelogue-style account isn't what I'd consider a historical reference, it did increase me curiosity about Turkey's history. Several of the book's Amazon reviewers challenge Seal's history and information, so I do plan on exploring books like Turkish Reflections : A Biography of a Place by Mary lee Settle for more historical detail.

Still, historical accuracy and personal opinions of Seal aside, I looked forward to reading this book each night before bed, and passed the 100 page mark quickly. I found it an interesting perspective on Turkey, Turkish cultures and the Turkish people themselves.

As the book ended, I found myself drawn to learning more about the Turks and their country. I don't know if I'll have the honor of visiting Turkey, but I feel this book put the spark in my mind and heart to consider it, should the opportunity arise.

Permalink | Comments (8) | Books | add to del.icio.us

June 13, 2005

Cafés and Sketching in Madison

This past weekend my wife Gail and I had a very enjoyable Friday night and Saturday visiting Madison, Wisconsin, home to the University of Wisconsin. Gail had meetings to attend for work on Saturday, (nice of her to bring me along eh?) which meant I was free that morning to find some interesting Madison cafés.

I walked several blocks form the Hotel, on the directions of the concierge, to Dunn Bros Coffee, and was pleased to see they had free WiFi and fair trade coffee. However, the shop didn't open until 10am! What kind of coffee shop opens that late?

Fortunately, I had noted several cafe locations on my Madison map just in case. I turned up Lake street and headed to State, where I immediately saw a Starbucks. I really wanted to experience a local cafe though, So I walked up State and found a Steep and Brew, which is (I think) a local chain.

But I kept going as I knew of one more place on State that seemed like a local place, called Espresso something or another. Well, I found it, but it too was closed, even though the sign said it should have been open.

I made the decision to head back to Starbucks, where I knew could get net access and reasonably decent coffee. Before firing up the laptop, I pulled out my trusty Moleskine Sketchbook for a relaxing sketch, which you see above (click for a larger view):

The sketch started as a pencil scribble and then expanded as I moved to the Uniball Signo 207 gel pen. I intentionally keep my strokes loose at first, to try and capture the mood of the view I had from my Starbucks table.

Since the sketch might be a little unclear due to looseness, here's a brief description of the scene: I was seated at a table facing the window onto State Street, across from a Walgreens and other shops. The dark figure on the lower right is an older gent enjoying a coffee, and just outside of the window are bicycles on bike racks. You may also notice trees outside, and a woman walking down the opposite side of the street.

I was unsure how things would go when I began, but am now quite pleased with this sketch. It's a little unusual for my Moleksine style, in that it began so loosely. Generally my Moleskine pen sketches are quite tight and measured — with this sketch I tried to remain loose.

I hope you enjoy viewing the sketch as much as I did making it!

Permalink | Comments (9) | Sketches | add to del.icio.us

June 4, 2005

PalmSource DevCon: Day Four

Thursday was the last full day of DevCon and I was amazed how quickly time had passed. It seemed as though I'd only arrived the day before, each event blurring into the next. It was for this very reason I'd made the effort to keep notes and (eventually) blog my experiences — so wouldn't lose my memories of DevCon.

Natara Boyz, Part II
On the ballroom level I'd staked out a table and coffee to catch up on email, and was literally replying to Bryan Nystrom's note from the evening before, when he and George walked up. I closed my Powerbook, and took advantage of some undivided time with the Natara crew.

I had a chance to ask a few more Bonsai questions and chat about other items with them, until a few fellow User Council members wandered to our table. We all had a good discussion of our DevCon impressions, up until the first talk of the day.

Dave Fedor on Smartphones
David Fedor (PalmSource) spoke on development for smartphones, which differ in many ways from traditional PDA devices. David spent time explaining PalmSource's view of the smartphone experience: more focused applications, use of d-pads and keys, constant wired access and the distinct nature of a mobile user interface.

I crept out of the next talk on selling software online, to try and get caught up on my blogging. I'd felt the urge to write, but never seemed to have any free windows in which to get writing done. So often this is the case when traveling, so I finally decided to keep detailed outlines and catch up with posts after the fact. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to meet someone by getting too hung up on recording my experiences.

Meeting Ivan Phillips
As I finished updating my outline, I noticed someone at the next table, speaking with Justine Pratt of Creative Algorithms, who I'd met earlier in the week. I introduced myself to Ivan Phillips, CEO of Pendragon Software (the guys who make Pendragon Forms). Ivan was very easy to talk with, so very quickly we shared our backgrounds. Soon we were discussing the Palm ecosystem (the new buzz word around DevCon), challenges PalmSource and Palm OS developers will likely face. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ivan.

Lunch with Chuck Horner, Palm Fanatic
For lunch I ran into Chuck Horner, whom I'd met last year at DevCon. Chuck is a pastor of a church in Hayward, CA and a total Palm-powered fanatic. He runs both the Personal Computing Community - Palm Users Group (PCCPUG) and San Francisco Palm Users Group (SFPUG) so Chuck is a very busy guy. We had a great time catching up while munching our lunches. I'm always amazed and a little humbled each time I meet Chuck, because he has so much energy!

More User Council Meetings
Our User Council meetings started later today, and were quite good, as we met with PalmOne and PalmSource folks to listen and discuss challenges faced by both companies going forward. We had a chance to learn more about the dreaded NVFS memory issues and the solutions coming soon.

Coffee with Dan Royea
After the last two meetings, I left my gear in our private meeting room, fellow Council member Dan Royea and I snuck out for a coffee. Dan and I are both big coffee fans, so it was good to hit the local Starbucks in the walking mall behind the Fairmont for some good, dark brew.

Near the hotel we spotted the park across the street and decided to find a bench, enjoy our coffee and catch up. Sitting in the sun, enjoying good company, good coffee and good weather was just the break I needed after a busy convention week.

Dan updated me on his son (recently diagnosed with diabetes) and how well he was dealing with the changes. I shared a bit about Nathan and some of the funny stories from the past year. Dan is one of the guys I look up to as a father to emulate, because I can see how much he loves his boys. I truly appreciate his example.

Palm OS on Linux
After relaxing a while, Dan and I headed back to DevCon and slid into the Palm OS on Linux presentation by several PalmSource programmers. Most of the specifics were beyond my level of understanding, however I did get the sense that PalmSource is aiming to open up as much of the underlying Linux layer as they can. It seemed there was also a strong desire to give back improvements made by PalmSource to the Linux community, rather than an obligation to do so.

In general, I see PalmSource aiming for an OS model something like Mac OS X: building a Palm-like user experience on top of a Linux core, with as much standard stuff being used as possible. PalmSource would also generate some code for mobile use, some of which would be released back to the community (depending on where it's added or used).

Hal Schechner, the User Council's resident Linux guru said he liked what he was hearing, so I think in general most Linux minded people will be pleased with the PalmSource approach. As with anything which is still pretty conceptual, only time will tell going forward, but I think this bodes well for both Palm and Linux users and developers.

Final User Council Meeting
We had our last User Council meeting with PalmSource folks, just prior to Michael Mace's ending keynote presentation. This meeting focused on the Windows desktop experience and I think our group provided some good suggestions to the team we met with. Hopefully we'll see the results of our discussions soon.

All in all, I feel we had excellent meetings with all of the groups we met with. I thought we shared the thoughts and concerns of real users and took back some good information for the Palm user community. If anything it's good to simply be there as representatives of the users, to remind PalmSource and licensees who it is they are making products for.

Michael Mace, PalmSource Jedi Master
What can I say about Michael Mace's presentations — they're always the highlight of DevCon. If there was one presentation you don't want to miss, it's the Mace presentation. This time Michael spoke about the 3 kinds of users (actually 4) their research shows dominate mobile device use:

Communicators: interested in keeping in touch via email, IM, voice, whatever they can use to keep in touch. These users will pay a premium to do as much as is possible. They're very attached to their phones, looking at their devices almost as family members, pets or children. These users tend to lean toward smartphone devices, because they provide multiple communication options.

Information users: interested in information but not such heavy users of wireless phone, IM or email as this could be more distracting than helpful for their needs. More likely doctors, attorneys or business folks who rely more on data (local or networked) than voice or communcations.

Entertainment users: Those who are interested in mobile entertainment, such as movies, TV, music, gaming and so on. I can see how the LifeDrive will be popular with this group (though I can also see how the Sony PSP could also appeal to this group).

Basic users: These are users who simply want basic, focused features — a phone for voice and maybe SMS and camera. They won't pay for anything more than the basics. I think this is where the "Rome" project could offer a Palm OS mobile experience to standard and feature phone users.

There were videos of actual users, expressing how they felt about handhelds, smartphones and phones, amazingly, some groups were very attached to their devices, others who had a more detached relationship with devices, seeing them as business tools. I think the display of real focus group video helped send the message well — much better than Michael simply stating stats and figures. It was another excellent presentation by Michael Mace.

My Mobile Connectivity Epiphany
In my weblog posts I often talk about my work style being that of a not-very-mobile person. I work at a Mac with constant broadband access, so a Treo or other fancy phone doesn't seem practical for my regular daily needs.

My heavy use of a little Virgin Mobile pre-pay phone during the week, provided some good insight to me on how a connected mobile device could become important to someone. I was constantly using voice but even more SMS messaging, because it worked so well for connecting with others at the show and keeping in touch with Gail back home.

Even though composing SMS messages was a royal pain with my el-cheapo phone, I found myself doing it anyway, and could immediately see how addicting a Treo or other smartphone device could be for a mobile person. As the week wore on, I would simply take my little phone along, ditching the Zire, and Powerbook in the hotel room — it was enough.

Oddly enough, this experience seems to have rubbed off on me — now when I go out my phone is always on my person, even though my mobility is just as limited as before DevCon. I suppose experiencing the freedom and power of constant connection was needed for me to see how others come to rely on the connected mobile devices they carry.

Sushi with the User Council
After the show ended, the User Council gathered and walked to Smile Sushi, and excellent little sushi restaurant near the Fairmont on 86 South 1st Street in San Jose. Wow, what excellent food they offered our group of nine diners. We ordered 3 sushi combo plates and a few other items and ate like kings and queens.

I believe the owners gave us way more food than we ordered, probably pleased with a large group helping them make rent for the month. Not only were we well-fed, but it was great food. By the time we stood up from the table, we were all full for just $20 each, including tip!

Breaking the Fellowship
After a walk back to the hotel, we took a group picture, and began parting ways. A smaller sub-group of guys headed to the hotel grill to hang out a while and enjoy the California night. It was very relaxing to kick back on the patio, shoot the breeze and enjoy our last few hours basking in the fading glow of DevCon 2005.

I had an early flight the next morning, so I spent an hour on the patio before my farewells to the guys. Back in the hotel I finished packing, checked email and closed down for the night.

DevCon Summary
It's now Saturday, more than a week after DevCon, and I can still sense the energy boost from the event. I really think this year's event was special, providing hope and a spark of energy to myself and many others I spoke with.

Adoption of Linux under the hood, shifts in personnel at PalmSource and PalmOne, moving the Palm name back to the hardware side and positive networking experiences have excited me about the Palm world again. There is of course some level of "show glow" to be considered. Only time will tell how well PalmSource can parlay the Palm on Linux to developers and device makers and how their competition will react to the shift.

However, at the very least, PalmSource and PalmOne (now Palm, Inc.) have some momentum and an opportunity in a forward, upward direction. I hope that each company can capitalize on the energy and excitement at DevCon, using it to innovate and provide opportunities for developers and great devices and solutions for us users.

Thank you Larry Berkin and your staff at PalmSource for having our User Council out to the show. Thank you to the User Council members who made the week great fun. Thanks also to the old friends and new acquaintances I've met last week and readers of my blog. As much as I enjoy the technical and mental part of DevCon, the social aspect is still my favorite part of the experience.

So, until (hopefully) DevCon 2006, this is Mike Rohde. Thanks for reading!

Permalink | Comments (3) | Palm | add to del.icio.us

June 2, 2005

PalmSource DevCon: Day Three

Wednesday began with a breakfast meeting with my friends Bryan and George at Natara, and my partner in crime, Michael Ashby. I'd been looking forward to introducing the Natara boys to Michael, who I think may be the world's biggest Bonsai and DayNotez fan.

Over freshly brewed coffee, the four of us discussed the conference, PalmSource's direction with Linux, Natara products, blogging and more. Bryan has been a reader of my blog for a while now, often leaving comments here. He's also a bit of pen freak like me, and begged that I not mention any more pens on the blog, because he feels compelled to try anything I suggest. Bwahahaha! :-)

I also had a chance to get to know George a little better, and ask some detailed questions about his baby, Bonsai. As a former Brainforest and current ShadowPlan user, I was curious to see the benefits of Bonsai on the Palm. George was kind enough to do an on-site demo, and I was duly impressed. I especially like the clean user interface and several features of the app.

Of course Michael and I gently hammered on both guys about Mac sync, though I do know they have limited resources for this. Bryan is actually a Mac user, so our pleas were not lost on them. in fact they hear the same request from Mac users all the time. I know they'd love to support a Mac outliner like OmniOutliner, so we talked a bit about how Michael and I might help move that forward. The most promising solution would be a conduit, working in conjunction with The Missing Sync. We'll have to see what we can do to keep the dream alive.

Emotional Design
i was very excited about the keynote for Wednesday with Don Norman of the Nielsen Norman Group. Norman's talk centered on how emotions play a part in our reactions to the things we work with, even at the lowest levels. He touched on the importance of design, especially with the mobile devices people will carry in the future. It was an excellent talk.

I was very pleased to see a design talk integrated into the conference, especially for developers who might have the tendency to place design last in their list of tasks. I informally polled the developers and friends I spoke with about the Norman session and they all enjoyed it thoroughly — a good sign. In fact, the most impressed of my contacts were those who had low expectations for Norman's session!

The Rome Project
Larry Slotnick spoke after Don Norman, and presented the 'Rome' project from PalmSource — more or less a spec that's aimed at so-called "Feature Phones" with small screens and more phone-oriented options (d-pads, buttons and phone keys). It was good to see PalmSource embracing this space, and I do hope they can bring some of their UI expertise to this new OS variation.

LifeDrive Hands-On Experience
During Slotnick's talk, I had a chance to play around with a Life Drive owned by two of the people seated at my table, one of which was Justine Pratt of Creative Algorithms. My first concern about the LifeDrive is the size, and happily it's much less of a brick than I first feared. The shaped back of the device helps with this, though I still have to say, the size, especially the length is right at the edge of pocket-ability.

Construction of the device seemed solid, with metal case, and a nice overall tactile feel. The screen is gorgeous and the buttons and D-Pad very nicely designed. I did notice a bit of an OS lag however, as reported by others who have reviewed the device. It was pretty minimal, but noticeable, especially after coming from my speedy Zire 72.

I've heard reports of around 2.5 hours battery life at fill tilt (watching movies off the drive), longer with MP3 play and even longer for regular use. I suppose this is an achievement considering the hard drive, big screen and stagnation of battery technology in general. I think there's a built-in expectation of old Palm users that the battery should last weeks, as it used to in Palm Pilots of years ago. While I'm sure that would be wonderful, I think we old-timers need to accept that where we're going (at least for LifeDrive-like products) is going to be more laptop than a handheld-oriented in power. I wish it were otherwise, but that's the reality, at least today.

Overall, I was impressed with the LifeDrive. I think despite its imperfections, LifeDrive represents a decent first step into a space that will exist along side phone-oriented devices. While I'm still very pleased with the balanced features of my Zire 72, I could see myself enjoying a LifeDrive.

Expert Guides Luncheon
Following more User Council meetings, Jen Edwards and I met up with Eric Cloninger and Ivan Dwyer of PalmSource and Michael Yokoyama author for a lunch together. Jen, Michael and I are 3 of the many PalmSource Expert Guide authors attending DevCon, so we were invited to a lunch on PalmSource for our efforts in this area. Expert Guides are web resources at the PalmSource site aimed at helping Palm OS users find applications to achieve certain tasks, in my case, writing with a Palm-powered device.

We had a very tasty lunch at a local Thai restaurant a few blocks from the Fairmont, talking Palm-stuff (of course) and other things as well. Near the end of lunch Michael Mace stopped over and chatted with us a while. He updated us on the state of Expert Guides and his desire to continue their expansion into new areas. So, if you have a unique idea for an Expert Guide, please apply!

Meeting The Etherfarmer
Between User Council meetings, I had the pleasure of meeting fellow designer and Etherfarm blogger, Narayan Nayar. He and I have had email exchanges and have worked on a project together, so we decided to try and meet briefly in person. Using my mobile phone's SMS and voice services, Narayan and I were able to coordinate a meet up in the hotel lobby. We were able to talk about DevCon, Treos, Palm on Linux, design and Narayan's cool new corporate job in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, he had to head back to beat traffic, but I still very much enjoyed the quality time had. Thanks Narayan!

USB Drive Burners
After the User Council meetings were finished for the day, the Council was tasked with copying PDFs of the session presentations onto 350-some 128MB USB drives. The group established a little assembly line process and within 40 minutes we had the job nearly completed. We had only a minor error at the end, finding 3 USB drive caps separated from their drives. We dug through nearly every closed box to locate the 3 cap-less drives, but did complete our mission successfully. :-)

Party Time
Our timing was perfect, as the DevCon party began minutes after we'd finished our work for the day. In a private room in the hotel, a band was set to play on stage. Food and drink of all sorts was set out for the attendees, so our crew showed our DevCon badges and walked in to enjoy the fun. The food was very tasty, and the band was OK, but not spectacular.

Craig of our group was on a mission to win a new Treo 650 in the SplashBlog contest, by shooting the most photos and posting them with SplashBlog. You can check out the DevCon group SplashBlog here to see some of his shots.

Walgreens Run, Thwarted
Michael Ashby, his wife Holly and I decided to leave the party a little early to hit the local Walgreens. It was good to leave the hotel confines and get outside. Within a few minutes we'd arrived at Walgreens, which had closed at 9pm. Bummer. In fact, I think Michael and I tried this same run in 2004 to find the place closed at 9. I need to make a note to get over there earlier in 2006.

Hanging with Kerry Woo & Dave David Kendall
I grabbed by Powerbook and headed to the lobby to write and catch up on email, but ran into one of my blogkids, Kerry Woo, some folks from Motricity (PalmGear.com) and Dave Kendall chatting. Kerry convinced me to skip the laptop time for chatting (and I agreed), so we hung out for a while.

I learned more about Kerry's work and his commuting lifestyle between Nashville, Tennessee and Durham, North Carolina. Wow, what a life the guy leads, living in North Carolina and flying home every 6 weeks or so for long weekends. I don't think I could do it.

Dave Kendall leads an interesting work life at UltraSoft, working very much as I do, from home and in collaboration with others around the world. His company, UltraSoft, develops UltraSoft Money, DataShield and one of my old-time faves, Brainforest.

Both guys were very fun to talk with, each sharing great stories about their lives and Palm-related experiences. Even though we were all night owls, the fatigue of the long DevCon day set in. We called it a night around 1am (I think), to get a little sleep before getting up to do DevCon again on Thursday.

Wrapup
I was pleased to experience another fun, busy day. As the DevCon progressed into day 2, I sensed that energy and excitement levels were rising. The addition of Linux under the hood seemed to offer developers a gleam of hope for the future that just wasn't there in 2004. We'll see of that sense of hope continues Thursday and on into the following months.

And with that, I'll wrap up Wednesday's entry. Until next time...

Permalink | | Palm | add to del.icio.us

May 31, 2005

PalmSource DevCon: Day Two

After a busy Monday settling in a meeting old friends, I was ready on Tuesday for my first full day of the DevCon. I found coffee and settled in for the keynote, wondering what the scoop might come from outgoing PalmSource CEO David Nagel.

The Keynote
What a surprise we got, learning that PalmSource had sold rights to the "Palm" name to palmOne for some 30 million bucks. Wow. As the news sunk in though, I found myself thinking it's a good move. I constantly see and hear conversations where the whole "PalmSource vs. palmOne" naming issue truly confuses people — even long-time Palm fans. Better to move it back to the "hardware" guys where it seems to have more connection. Now PalmSource has the challenge of finding a new name that's memorable and fits their new direction.

Powered Up Award winners are announced: SplashBlog (photo blogging tool), Quicknews (RSS reader), Village Sim (Simulation game) and The Missing Sync for Palm OS (Mac OS X sync tool) and all 4 seem very worthy recipients. I actually need to investigate Missing Sync for myself, as its features are looking more and more compelling.

Chris Dunphy of PalmSource demoed the new PalmSource Installer, which can install Palm OS apps and databases via web to sync or even better, over the air (like to a Treo). I was able to play a bit beforehand with the installer and it's very nice — even supports Macs! I do hope developers embrace this new tool as I think it makes the user's life easier and therefore will likely make sales increase for developers.

Again I was surprised that Dave didn't mention his resignation directly in the keynote (though I understand he did address this announcement after I left the PUG meeting Monday). Maybe the PR guys are afraid to broach the subject or maybe Dave is reluctant to, but I think a better course would have been to embrace the facts and be straightforward with the audience. Maybe that's just me.

After the keynote, I had several User Council meetings. In general our council was very well received by both PalmSource and their licensees. While I can't share details of those meetings, the Palm community can rest assured that we're representing them well.

Meeting Justine Pratt
At a break I had the pleasure of meeting Justine of Creative Algorithms over coffee, which we'd intended to do during the week. She actually recognized me as I was heading back with coffee (one good side-effect of my picture on the blog) so we took time to connect and chat a while. I learned quite a bit about the business she and her husband run, and her connections to other Palm community folks like Sammy and Shaun. I enjoyed this chance to get to know Justine and her family's business story.

Lunch with Bob Russell
Following another set of internal meetings, I ran into Bob Russell of MobileRead.com at the lunch buffet tables. Bob and I have traded emails in the past year, so it was again nice to meet someone in person I've known only virtually. Over lunch we had a chance to share our backgrounds, interests and talk about Bob's difficult decision between a new Treo 650 and a LifeDrive.

PalmOne vs. Tapwave Stores
A friend of mine was very interested in an unlocked Treo 650 (GSM) for use in Europe, so I took a chance at 3pm to stand in the palmOne store line for about 30 minutes to pick one up. Later on I heard there was a limited supply of 50 LifeDrives (and 50 rain checks). I was fortunate to get through in about 25 minutes but some attendees waited as long as an hour and a half for devices.

The Tapwave folks also had a special deal on Zodiac packages, though sadly enough, their store was like a ghost town compared to the palmOne store. I should mention that Tapwave was selling devices earlier that day, but it was still an interesting comparison to observe.

Coffee with Russell Beattie & Ewan Spence
In the afternoon, I was able to connect with Russell Beattie, a fellow mobile device fan, blogger, and recent hire at Yahoo. He'd stopped to pick up a Zodiac at the show, and meet with Ewan Spence of AllAboutPalm.com.

Again, it was good to meet an online acquaintance in the flesh. It's always interesting to connect writing and small photos with the real people. Russ was much taller than I'd expected: my impression of him was that of a friendly, happy, mobile-minded wookie (minus the fuzzy outer coat). Ewan on the other hand, was straight out of Braveheart, complete with tartan kilt, sporran and a mediaeval shirt with a hand tied collar.

The three of us spent a little time in the hotel lobby over coffee, discussing the entire Mobile space as it related to PalmSource and palmOne. The general consensus around our table was that the Linux direction was welcomed, with some concerns about PalmSource's ability to shift quickly enough to get something compelling out the door to complete against Microsoft and Symbian.

Both guys were a complete riot to hang with and the time went entirely too quickly, but has been the case with my entire week. I'm finding that quantity of time is not so important as quality and often the most interesting discussions happen at the spur of the moment. Through this I've learned to be open at any time to chat with anyone.

Dinner & More Networking
Dinner was served in the exhibit hall, stocked with hot asian and Mexican foods to nibble on. Near one entrance stood a flowing fountain of chocolate sauce, which attendees could use to cover varied food items with a rich chocolaty coating. Dip-able food items included all sorts of fruit, pound cake, marshmallows and even chunks of Snicker bars. Mmm, good.

Spent a little time during and after dinner catching up with developers and friends, including a chat with a team working on an interesting sync solution (I hope to share more soon). It had been a long day, so it was good to retire to my room, for an evening of capturing travelogue notes, and keeping up on email before crashing for the night.

I was pleased with the meetings I was fortunate to have on Tuesday, with Justine, Bob, Russ and Ewan along with the many other folks I spoke with. Being a social person it's always a successful day when I am able to connect with others interested in similar things, like the mobile space.

Next up: Wednesday's report.

Permalink | | Palm | add to del.icio.us

May 27, 2005

DevCon Short Status Report

You may have noticed that I've not yet posted any of my day's entries here since Day One at the DevCon. Well, I'm here to assure you all that I am indeed planning to post on each day in detail.

This year has been a much busier one in general and that's a great thing. I've talked in person to many people I know virtually and have met many interesting folks by intent and happenstance on at the DevCon. It's actually been a blast!

The unfortunate side effect of this is a reduced opportunity to write down my experiences more regularly. But be assured that I've taken detailed notes of my days (something learned after trying to write travelogues on the road) and will be expanding those into detailed posts over the weekend.

Overall, my impression of DevCon has been very positive, particularly for PalmSource and palmOne. I sense a bit of new energy around the Linux direction that hasn't been around for a while now. We'll see if that energy is maintained going forward.

So, I am soon off to my flight and back to Milwaukee. I'll post my entries here as I find the time over the weekend and probably early next week, so stop on back.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Permalink | | Palm | add to del.icio.us

May 24, 2005

Palmsource DevCon: Day One

You know it's going to be a long day when the line for the security check snakes off past the airport Starbucks cart to another concourse. On Monday I was certain this was an omen of troubles to come. I was wrong. The line through security went surprisingly quickly, though the trip to San Jose would take longer than expected.

No WiFi at the terminal, even though it was promised on several signs on the way toward my gate. No matter, I decided to start reading and preserve the battery of the Powerbook. I'd brought along my copy of Microserfs (a fave of mine) to see how well the story resonated more than 10 years later. I'm happy to report Douglas Coupland's writing is still funny and natural.

Odd Luggage & Tight Squeezes
On the way out to the plane, I saw an older gent carrying a bowling ball, complete with the original AMF cardboard box, wrapped with his baby blue ball carrier. Only in Milwaukee would you see someone with a bowling ball as a carry-on. Well, Milwaukee and Cleveland.

Stuck on a small plane to Denver. Worse yet, stuck in the most cramped front seat next to a selfish, inconsiderate businessman, who hogged the space all the way to the Mile High City. By the time we reached Denver, I had a serious crick in my shoulder from the pretzel-like shape I'd adopted. Thanks buddy. Arg!

Meeting a Cool Google Dude
In Denver I grabbed a bite to eat, and boarded a Boeing 757 (thank the Lord!), ended up sitting next to a very cool guy from Google. We had quite a bit in common, chatting most of the way to Denver. He didn't share any top-secrets with me, though we had a good discussion on why I liked Google, on software tools, trends on technology, jazz, web and logo design, blogging, podcasting and more. I always enjoy being seated next to interesting people.

Got to San Jose at least 15 minutes late, due to headwinds. At the baggage claim I received two messages; one from User Council co-member Jen (PocketGoddess) and a second from Renee that David Nagel had resigned. Yow! I wondered what was up, with Nagel calling it quits on the eve of PalmSource's big DevCon.

Jen and I shared a cab into the Fairmont, where we checked in without fanfare. It felt good to be back at the hotel where I'd built good memories the year before. This time I'm in a 9th floor room, with a nice view of San Jose and prime viewing of incoming jets. I dunno if it's just me, but the low-flying jets over high-rise buildings freaks me out slightly. Must be a 9-11 thing.

Settled into the room, then connected with my partner in crime, Michael Ashby and his wife Holly. They had spent a