A talk by Douglas Rushkoff on 12th March 2010
[This isn't a word-perfect record -- if I got anything jarringly wrong, please comment!]
Online, things get extreme very fast and change a lot in a short space of time. There’s an overwhelming sense that we’re trying to operate society on obsolete social code, on the basis of legacy systems we don’t even remember that aren’t appropriate for what we want to get done. If we don’t understand these old systems, we have no chance of recognising the new programs that are layered on top. Understanding of this places people into one of two camps: the programmers, and the programmed. Grokking programming bias is really important because it helps us manage ourselves in context – the most important thing is to recognise that programming bias exists in the first place.
Continue reading ‘Day 1, SXSWi 2010: Program or Be Programmed (Douglas Rushkoff)’
Eagle-eyed readers (if there are any left) will note that I only ever update this blog when I go to conferences. (Sometimes not even then.) At the moment, I’m in lovely, sunny, springlike Austin for South by Southwest Interactive, which so far seems to be the most massive and diverse sxswi event ever. Where previously it was impossible to choose between 15 interesting and concurrent sessions, now it’s even less possible to pick one of 25!
The schedule kicks into gear after lunch (a meal that I’m probably not going to be requiring after stuffing myself with bacon and wholegrain pancakes [in that order] at breakfast), and if my notes turn out to be coherent after a session I’ll pop them up. Tweeting now and then from @jen_bolton too. If you happen to see me around, come and say hi!
…after an eventful week. Until Friday I was in Seattle visiting colleagues at ArenaNet – had some good meetings, did a little shopping, played a little Rock Band. Super fresh air out there, it’s really nice. Rained a lot, but that’s OK. And the Dalai Lama was in town for Seeds of Compassion, which was quite psychologically calming.
Before normality could set back in, I very unexpectedly got a new PC yesterday after considerable drama trying to put the guts of mine into Dave’s old case (in hopes of quieting it down some, as its constant roar was like riding in an airplane). Now I’ve got more speed (+), loads of storage (++) and Vista (?). I’m up past my bedtime playing with it. Which is bad, since I’m back at work tomorrow. Oops…
The line for badge collection was reeeaally long, but then I did just turn up about an hour before the first panel started so that’s pretty fair. Haven’t picked up swag bag yet but hear it’s absurdly heavy and there ain’t no pens (!!).
Dan sat next to me for the opener, Edit Me! How Gamers are Adopting the Wiki Way featuring NC’s own CuppaJo. I took notes, but Dan’s a better typist and he’s published his transcript already.
…post of a new year on this lovely, rusty old domain, which I appear to have resurrected despite claiming very recently that blogging doesn’t fit into my life right now (which I’ve been saying for so long that I failed to notice when it stopped being true – if it has.) Yay!
