I'm from a city called London that has a Thames River, a Covent Garden Market and streets named Oxford and Piccadilly...and it isn't located in the UK.
Just wanted to share a couple of pics that I snapped on day 2 at SXSW. Though they might seem somewhat disparate, I think they both reflect the atmosphere that makes SX a second-to-none festival.
I started off the day with Tim Berners-Lee's presentation on Open Web. I was surprised by the number of "Who is Tim Berners-Lee?" inquiries I heard in the lineup going into the presentation. For those who don't know, Berners-Lee is credited with being the inventor of the World Wide Web. You can find my live tweets from his session below. The man talks a mile a minute and every sentence was packed with 2-3 points that I might consider to be the most profound thing I've ever heard.
At the end of the day I came across this fun little scene on Sixth near the conference center (pic below). The sun was setting, the day sessions were winding down, and the parties were just getting started. These dancers and their zombie marching band were wandering up and down the streets getting everyone riled up for the fun night ahead.
We said goodbye to the German punks who had driven us across the border just outside the customs area and walked down to the on ramp which was only a few hundred metres away. As luck would have it, we were picked up after a relatively short wait - and a relatively short wait on that particular journey meant about an hour. We were offered a ride by a German hippie sort named Karl with long straight hair, wearing sandals and Birkenstocks. He had an immaculately clean Volvo and had always dreamed of going to Canada. His interest in hearing about Canadian landscapes was insatiable.
Having completed a trip across the country on the Trans-Canada the year before, I had plenty of material to contribute to our discussion. After our first stop John and I switched spots so I could break our usual routine and take the front seat. We easily chatted away the 100 km Karl originally offered to drive us, which lengthened into the next major city and by the end of the afternoon became an offer to drive us all the way to Flensburg, on the German/Danish border.
Part way through the journey, Karl shared his sandwiches with us and at dinner time, he paid for our dinners. When we approached Flensburg he pulled over to call his girlfriend and consulted with her before inviting us to spend the night at her place. In the morning, he mentioned, his girlfriend's brother would be driving into Denmark and could give us a ride as far as Kolding.
I grew to very much like Karl and his girlfriend Marlene during that part of the trip. They were a bit older, but not by much, and I imagined that given the opportunity, we could easily become friends. They were both very keen to visit Canada and mentioned they would look me up if they ever happened to travel across the ocean to visit.
But those days were different. I don't think I knew what an email address was at that point. Facebook and Twitter were over a decade away and, as I was traveling, I had no phone number and no fixed address to pass on. The short of it was, I had no contact info to give them, other than to let them know that I was from London (the other one, in Ontario, Canada) and that they should try to find me in the phone book if they ever happened to pass that way. Hopefully I'd be there...
As I had come to understand on previous trips - realistically there was next to no chance that any semblance of an ongoing relationship would come out of our meeting. I think that's a big difference between then and now. When you traveled people would come in and out of your life for a short span of time and when you said goodbye, it was almost a given that you were saying goodbye forever. Sometimes that was a great, and sometimes not so much.
A few friends have asked me to write about how I came to use the name, theotherlondon, so here it is: a collection of stories from June 1993 to October 1994 that include my experiences working in Switzerland and the UK; my engagement to a German blacksmith in Paris; our road trip across North America in a ’67 Volvo with an Australian footballer, and oh yes, my introduction to something ‘new’ called the Internet. You can find the first posthere.
I've been lucky enough to attend past SIGGRAPH conferences in Boston and Los Angeles, and having traveled a fair distance from my home base on both counts, I thought it was wonderful this year's host city was nearby Vancouver. A fantastic opportunity to rub elbows with an amazing array of world class digital researchers, artists and developers right in our own back yard.
Anyone would jump at the chance to go to SIGGRAPH. Right?
I especially appreciated having the opportunity to share the experience with many SIGGRAPH newbies, though admittedly, enticing friends to join me in attending the conference was more of a struggle than I had anticipated.
What SIGGRAPH offers everyday folks (with an interest in technology), like me
But I digress, or rather, perhaps I should digress! The reason I love attending SIGGRAPH is, when it comes to exploring forward thinking concepts in technology, in my books this event is the bomb! I've repeatedly observed those seemingly abstract new developments eventually mature into more mainstream interfaces, tools and services. It was at SIGGRAPH that I first encountered early examples of micro-blogging systems (like Twitter), augmented reality gaming interaction (like Wii), and new ways of interacting with devices (like your new smart phone). Along with discussions on the science of these technologies I've also heard early rumblings on the social and legal implications that go along with these developments. Questions on privacy, morality and ownership that might surface down the road. Then of course there are the artists who use the technologies to comment on current issues in society. Much food for thought.
I really enjoyed attending Josh Williams’, CEO of Gowalla, game-mechanics themed presentation, Chasing Virtual Good in the Real World at SXSWi 2010. That said, I was pleased when Seth Priebatsch’s, Chief Ninja of scvngr, SXSWi 2011 keynote, The Game Layer on Top of the World, was announced. I was keen to see how the inside conversation on game mechanics in the real world had progressed over the past year.
SXSWi 2010: Chasing Virtual Good in the Real World, Josh Williams:
Through discussing his experiences developing PackRat and Gowalla, and sharing some of his observations on user behaviour, Williams provided great insight into what compels people to participate in game type activities online. Williams went on to point out that game play mechanics were not just limited to location based services, but were becoming more and more prevalent in behaviour all over the web, and in the real world, too.
SXSWi 2011: The Game Layer on Top of the World, Seth Priebatsch:
I expect this is a bit of a moot point but, what a difference a year makes! Over the past year, it seems game mechanics have gone well beyond ‘creeping into real world behaviour’. In his keynote at SXSW 2011, Priebatsch proposed the game layer might provide solutions for 5 pretty large problems facing our world today, including issues with education systems and global warming.
Inspired by an experience I had at SXSW Interactive a few weeks back, below is a list of my top 5 fave digital media/social media researchers – scientists, artists and teachers whose ideas and theories have made the biggest impact on my professional values, changed my life, and oh yes, rocked my world.
Why I think Michael Wesch is awesome: From my point of view, if digital media research has a pop superstar, it’s Michael Wesch. Wesch conducts cutting edge studies on the effects of new media and then, to leave no doubt he’s got his finger on the pulse, he produces viral content about his research. Having started out on my career path in the mid-nineties, my knowledge and understanding of the Internet was, at first, pretty much limited to pure mechanics. Wesch was one of the first researchers I encountered whose work made me consider what was happening beyond the tools and code.
Research interests: The effects of new media on society and culture
Why I think Tim Berners-Lee is awesome: I don’t think I’d be alone in suggesting the world would be a very different place if Tim Berners-Lee wasn’t one of the good guys. As the inventor of the web, Berners-Lee was/is uniquely positioned to influence the user experience. Where others might have focused on leveraging potential business opportunities, Berners-Lee has concentrated his attention on championing the protection of human rights and spearheading initiatives related to accessibility, standardization, open access data, and net neutrality.
Research interests: Continued development of the web
Why I think Florian Thalfhofer is awesome: I expect it might be easy to assume German artist/scientist/inventor Florian Thalhofer to be a token wild card entry on this list, but that isn't the case. I attended a workshop on Thalhofer’s database cinema software, the Korsakow System at a SIGGRAPH Conference in 2006. As you know, at the time the web was as bit of a different place, static content was king, web 2.0 was in pre-explosion mode, the popularity of personal blogs and podcasts were starting to gain steam, YouTube was just coming out of it’s infancy. In this environment, the Korsakow System was, and still is to some extent, a precursory exploration of non-linear, user driven narrative taken to the extreme. A tool designed to deliver all the necessary components of a narrative with minimal structure, where the user can navigate a story in whatever random way preferred. My introduction to the Korsakow System was the first time I considered how much and how little influence the content creator truly has on the audience - an audience with the ability to control their own experience…or so it would seem. As a little additional tit for tat, Thalhofer chose to name his system, invented way back when in 2000 by the way, after Korsakoff’s Syndrome, an affect of extreme alcoholism characterized by apathy, an inability to maintain focus, memory loss and invented memories. How’s that for visionary?
Research interests: Non-linear, interactive narration
Big accomplishment(s): Inventor of the Korsakow System; numerous international awards and exhibitions
Why I think Rey Junco is awesome: I’ve repeatedly experienced first hand the difficulties associated with introducing social media tools and services in a higher education environment. In fact, it’s been the bane of my existence for the past six or seven years. I am indebted to Junco whose research appeared as a light at the end of a long, dreary tunnel when I had the pleasure of attending his presentation at SXSW Interactive 2011. Junco uses quantitative methods to assess the effects of social media on student development, engagement, and success. His revealing studies are the first I’ve encountered to reliably bridge the gap between the rigid ideals and expectations of academia and the pragmatic, laissez-faire attitudes that permeate online culture. Not an easy feat.
Research interests: Social media in higher education
Big accomplishment(s): The best higher ed related presentation I’ve ever attended at a digital media conference; numerous awards and publications
Why I think Tim Blackmore is awesome: For many current and former Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) students at The University of Western Ontario, Tim Blackmore is that memorable professor who wakens enthusiasm and kindles interest enough to make all the years of struggle and hardship worthwhile. When I decided to return to school in 2004, I’d already worked in the web industry for almost a decade and I felt I had a pretty good grip on how things were put together on the web. It was a huge eye opener for me when I began the 3-year MIT program in FIMS. Blackmore’s introductory course, then titled MIT025, was the first course I took. The material we covered helped me gain a much broader perspective of the web and other digital technologies, a stronger understanding of why and how the web had evolved to it’s present state, and a better idea of where things were going.
Research interests: Ways that culture and cultural products revolve around each other
Big accomplishment(s): In my books, Blackmore is the most awesome professor ever; numerous awards and publications
While composing this list, I realized it would probably be appropriate to put together a corporate counterpart ‘My Top 5 Fave Digital Media/Social Media Business Leaders’. Stay tuned…
South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of film, interactive and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas. In 2011, SXSW commemorated it’s 25th year and was held March 11 to the 20th.
Many sessions this year focused on methods and best practices for designing for multiple platforms and devices. Of the talks I attended, the folks who seemed to have the best grip on the situation were the technology design team at NPR, their basic approach summed up in a handy acronym for their content publishing strategy: C.O.P.E., Create Once Publish Everywhere
I’d be remiss not to mention what appeared to be this year’s catch phrase du jour, ‘The Game Layer’, huge in the spotlight of hot topics at SXSWi this year and subject of Seth Priebatsch's March 12th keynote address . That said, I can’t realistically list it as one of my take away highlights as I work in an industry where we’ll probably guffaw over this one until the 11th hour is upon us.
As a surface summary, I'll also offer that my second year at SXSW Interactive was way less overwhelming, and subsequently a bit more illuminating, than my deer-in-the-headlights initiation last year. I should point out that I’m still every bit as worn out - any energy I saved through planning and foresight was quickly folded into a ramped up social schedule centered around reconnecting with people I’d met last year. Well, I've got plenty of time to recover before SXSW2012. Can't wait!
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart performed a set so smokin' hot at Sapient Nitro's Mix at Six, SXSWi 2011, one of the stage monitors caught fire during the finale. Photo originally posted in my SXSWi 2011 Flickr set.
In the eight plus years I've worked in higher ed I've come across a fair number of instances where I've been pleasantly taken aback at the lengths students will go to in the name of school spirit. I'm not talking about the gewgaw of costumed athletics fans cheering in the stands at football games and the donning of extreme hair styles during orientation week, I'm referring to the undertaking of projects of such momentous and lofty scope as to make me wonder how the students involved a) didn't consider the improbability of success; b) came up with the idea in the first place; c) managed to find time to do their homework; and d) all of the above (sorry about that, I couldn't resist).
If such displays of school spirit are any indication of how much the students involved love the institution they attend, then going by what took place on filming day for the UVic lipdub project this past weekend, it's fair to say that I haven't come across any students who love their university as much as the students at UVic - and I'm not just saying that because I work there and I'm supposed to say stuff like that. Come on, you know me...
The lipdub phenomenon and 'the other UVic'
The libdub phenomenon has been glee-ly weaving it's way around the Internet for a number of years. The 'official' lipdub site reports that the first lipdub production was filmed at Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany and lists charming slightly-lost-in-translation advice on how to produce your own lipdub video. A good number of higher ed institutions around the world have answered the site's call to 'Join it!' by developing and broadcasting lipdub videos to varying degrees of success. In Canada, perhaps the most successful example is the L'Université du Québec à Montréal's 'I gotta feeling' video' that has currently received almost 7 million hits on YouTube.
In May of 2010, a lipdub video was produced by UVic, not the University of Victoria, in Victoria British Columbia, but the less-abbreviated Universitat de Vic in Spain. Reports on the web suggested the video had most people (including Perez Hilton, I kid you not) believing it had been produced at the Canadian UVic. Being the socially sensitive, humble, west coast institution it is, the general response at the University of Victoria was to an extent, one of slight moral confusion. The Spanish version received fairly positive accolades world wide - and rightly so - but while I think it's fair to say many members of the University of Victoria community appreciated the unintentional praise received by way of the success of the other UVic, the truth of the matter was, the video fell short of accurately reflecting the true spirit of the community and environment to be found at Canada's UVic. In short, some felt that our own UVic could do better.
The University of Victoria (UVic) lipdub project
The following exert is taken from the UVic lipdub news release posted on the official UVic lipdub website. Visit the website to view information on the amazing accomplishments of the group of UVic students who organized the project.
When Shawn Slavin, a University of Victoria undergrad, saw UVIC Spain’s video, he decided that his UVic (“the real UVic”) should and could do bigger and better. Slavin’s project is shooting for a Guinness record by hopefully inspiring over 3,000 members of the community to sing, dance, and perform on UVic’s campus on Saturday, September 25. Slavin says, “I also hope this project unites the university community in a way I’ve never seen before. This is an opportunity to make a name for both UVic and the city of Victoria.” Read more.
It's 9 am on a Saturday, I'm tired, my head hurts and I'm learning choreography to a Michael Buble song.
Thus it came to be that I woke up at 6am on Saturday, September 25, 2010 to head down to campus for filming day, participating simply as an extra in the big dance number to be featured at the end of the video. As weekends usually go for me, it didn't start out as one of the best of morning experiences. I posted the above status update to Facebook soon after I reported for registration to my assigned classroom.
Gladly, I soon realized that no attention to detail had been spared, including the provision of coffee and breakfast and the understanding that most participants would require additional instruction if they were to master the choreography developed for the video (I meant to practice more, honest I did). By the time our group, last name ending with the letter P, made our way over to the UVic fountain at 9am for the shooting to begin excitement was high and all seemed clear that we were going to go for it...big time!
Filming of the big finale wrapped up around noon and with it, my brief participation in the UVic lipdub project came to an end. I headed home with a new appreciation of the talent and earnest dedication to be found in UVic's student population. The experience was by far the most overt demonstration of school spirit I have ever witnessed, manifested in the core group of students who pulled it all together and the 900 or so UVic community members who followed their lead. Congrats to Shawn Slavin and team, and thank you for an amazing experience.
Can't wait to see the video! It's going to be awesome (way better than that other UVic lipdub)!
Got up and made my way down to the convention centre just before 9am to take in as much SXSWi as I could on the last day. The sessions/events I attended over the course of the day included, 14,000 Songs in 28 Days, Social Business, Keynote: The Future of Business Delivery, Cracking the Books: User Generated Content Management in Education, 140 Conference (Twitter) and the very fun Interactive Closing Party Hosted by (mt) Media Temple at the Mohawk.
I was a both sad and relieved to have the conference wrap up - with all the activity I was starting to feel a bit frayed around the edges - but part of me wished it wasn’t over. Or rather, part of me wished I had made plans to stick around for SXSW Music. Next time ;)
It wasn’t a perfect experience, there were a few bumps along the way, but the issues were relatively minor and not out of the ordinary for a large-scale conference (long line-ups for registration, occasional long waits for shuttles, and the false alarm evacuation come to mind). I attended one or two sessions (out of the 20+ total sessions I took in) that were disappointing or not what I expected, but the solution was simply to move onto another panel discussion or event.
As a whole I had a fabulous ‘noobie’ experience at SXSWi. The opportunity to listen to, and sometimes even speak with, the creators and developers of the tools I work with was priceless. The conference was well organized and I found the content to be extremely useful. On the networking side, I made a lot of great contacts and more importantly, some new friends.
SXSWi 2010 was one of the best professional development experiences I’ve had and I’d definitely love to come back for SXSWi 2011. Thanks Austin and SXSW!
I'm guessing most people in the attendance at Dries Buytaert’s session, RIP Content Management System, myself included, don’t require a Drupal pitch to understand the benefits of going open source. That said, it didn’t detract from the geek thrill of listening to Buytaert, creator of Drupal, plead it’s case. The room - one of the ballrooms on the main level of the convention centre - was packed to capacity and despite complaints on Twitter about the lack of content and new information, nobody left. Buytaert took us through the ever expanding list of government organizations, corporations, and institutions who build their sites using Drupal. Upgrades introduced with Drupal 6, Drupal’s scalability, and the upcoming release of Drupal 7 were also touched upon. I was very pleased to get the opportunity to speak with Buytaert afterwards and came away with some useful information that will be of great help with a project I’m currently involved with at UVic.
Too bad about Monday’s keynote address! I think we learned at this keynote that a popular interviewer and a brilliant, visionary mind do not necessarily make for a great presentation. I’m not exactly sure what happened but of the 3,000 people who packed the main exhibit hall to listen to Evan Williams discuss Twitter, the majority had vacated by the time the address hit the half-way point. Things did start off with a bang with Williams announcing the new Twitter’s new ‘@’ platform - integration for websites called @Anywhere. The rest of the interview went pretty smoothly with Williams talking about his involvement in Twitter’s continuing development and strategy; his thoughts on building the company both externally and internally; his view of the Internet as a facilitator of the democratization of information and the role he expects Twitter will play.
Finished off my day at the Adobe All-Access Happy Hour with some yummy food, free drinks, tons of give-aways and a team of Adobe experts on hand to demo the latest updates and new products. Updates and new products included Flash Mobile development tool and Browser Lab which allow you to overlay opaque renderings of web pages in different browsers. How awesome is that?
What happened at the end of the day was probably the highlight of my entire SXSW experience, and similar to our trip to the Olympics, it had nothing to do with the core focus of the event, but with music. Half way through the day I noticed on Facebook that Billy Bragg was playing a surprise show at the British Music Embassy that night! Unfortunately I already knew I was too pooped to make it to the late hour of midnight when he would be taking the stage. That said after the Adobe Happy Hour wrapped up, I headed over to the BME on the off chance that I might catch a sound check and guess who was there, hanging out! Now that I think about it, perhaps running into Billy Bragg is appropriate to the conference…in addition to being one of my fave musicians he is also my social media hero. Check out his NoBonus4RBS Facebook page for an example of his handiwork.
He may not be a techie but he’s got the social part down pat.
When I arrived at the convention centre at the late hour of 10am things were relatively quiet. I spent the morning checking out some of the sponsor lounges and then hit the exhibition floor. The exhibits for the film and interactive portions of the conference share the same space, which makes for a neat mix of exhibitors some of whom you might not normally see at an interactive and web trade show, but whose products and services are still relevant.
The theme of the day - for me at least - was social change. Of the keynotes so far, Valerie Casey’s address, “Systems Design Inspiration” has by far been my favourite. Casey’s presentation focused on fostering sustainable practices through systems design and included specific tactics of implementing change. Casey’s approach included, examining issues in a larger context, creating the right measurement of success and acknowledgment of the concept that it is necessary to change the purpose/goal in order to effect change. In closing Casey observed that the Interactive community has to be the leader in making change and called for audience member to step up to the plate.
I followed up the key note with the very well attended Crowd Sourcing Innovative Social Change. The session was held in a packed room with a very enthusiastic audience who were given the opportunity to participate in some real-time crowd sourcing. Joining the in-person attendees were a fair number of followers participating in the discussion from around the world.
The HTML 5 Accessibility panel included presenters Cynthia Shelly from Microsoft and John Foliot from Stanford. Along with the Designing for CMS and Objective C Crash Course for Developers this was amongst the more technical presentations I’ve attended. Shelly and Foliot demo-ed the still in development HTML 5 and provided a fairly detailed tour of the new document semantics. The discussion branched into the idea that these technical updates should be accompanied by a shift in attitude towards providing a better quality browsing experience for the disabled.
I finished up the day at the 13th Annual SXSWi web awards - a semi-swanky night of fun held at the Hiton. Our host for the evening, Doug Benson, did a fantastic (occasionally abrasive) job on the mic.
I’ve noticed some whining on Twitter about the caliber of the SXSWi panel discussions this year, but I have no complaints. True, they haven’t all been mind-blowing, some have been a little slow, and/or not what I expected, but so far I’ve found the experience to be pretty impressive. After all, with such an expansive selection, you really can't expect them to all be stellar.
Here’s a little rundown of the panels I attended today:
Web Content Management Systems from a Designer's Perspective
Scott Fegette – Adobe
Chris Charlton - xtnd.us
I expect this will turn out to be the most useful of the panel discussions I will attend at the conference, mainly because it was of it’s relevancy to a project I am currently involved in and a particular problem we’ve been struggling to solve for weeks. Scott Fegette started things off by going over specific concerns to be addressed when designing for CMS. His talk included tips on handy Dreamweaver functions that are specific to the process - I’m particularly excited about trying out the ‘Use Generated Markup’ option.
Chris Charlton concluded the session with the more technical details, focusing specifically on designing for Drupal. He shared information about a slew of very useful tools including a free program called Drupal Theme Starter, available on xtnd.us (a quick GUI for generating .info files for Drupal) and a list of the specific Drupal files connected to the theming process. For additional details, check out the back channel.
How to Create Viral Video
Jonathan Wells - Flux
Margaret Gould Steward, User Experience Manager - YouTube
Jason Wishnow, Director of Film and Video - TED
Damian Kulash - OK Go
With memories of how flakey less-seasoned ‘experts’ can get when they start talking about what makes a video go viral, I have to admit had some reservations about this one. Thankfully they turned out to be unfounded. The session was full of simple, straight-to-the-point steps to take to ensure your content has the opportunity to go viral. The discussion by-passed low-brow ‘viral by accident’ content (e.g. Charlie bit my finger) and delved into the much broader market driven by people who ‘do viral video on purpose’. Tactics included: building your audience; enabling embed; using metadata; distributing on multiple fronts; leveraging ‘Superspreaders’; and exclusivity.
Damian Kulash of OK Go kept it cool by sharing his experiences producing music videos with his band. To finish off the session everyone was invited to participate in the shooting of a rip on the ‘Surprised Kitty’ viral video, ‘Surprised Audience.’ “Everyone remember, there are five, ‘Koochie, koochie koo!’s before, ‘You look like a little monkey’. Ready?”
I was looking forward to this session as I’d attended a fabulous similar offering at a SIGGRAPH conference a few years back. When all is said and done, however, I don’t have much to say about this particular panel so I’m going to leave it there (it just didn’t have much to offer in the way of content). For information about traditional publishing media outlets transitioning to digital formats see remarks on, “New Publishing and Web Content” panel below.
Keynote address Danah Boyd - Privacy and Publicity
Danah Boyd is an eloquent and passionate speaker who really knows her stuff and I’m sure her presentation was more than appropriate for the majority in attendance. That said, I drifted a little during this one. Working in external relations in higher ed I am well acquainted with the multitude of privacy and ownership issues associated with publishing user-generated content. I hear about it every day, and I mean, every day.
Someone on the back channel remarked that Jeffrey Zeldman should moderate every session at SXSWi. Agreed! Zeldman somehow managed to ensure this end of the day panel was paced for worn out conference goers. Quick and sharp enough to keep everyone engaged and relaxed enough to give tired brains a chance to process yet more information.
Most importantly, the discussion seemed to address all the right questions. Where the presenters in the ‘Media Armageddon’ discussion asked, ‘How many of you would pay to access the NYTimes online?’ and received a show of hesitant hands (in what appeared to be a room full of journalists). The presenters here asked, ‘How many of you would pay $3 to access the NYTimes online?' and were answered by a confident and positive response from those in attendance.
In this discussion the pros and cons of media publishing today basically stacked up like this:
Pro: It's a good time to start a publishing company. When you have an industry in the midst of change, opportunities for new models emerge.
Con: ‘It’s a terrible time to try to shoehorn existing content models into the web’. For existing models to exist they need to be open change. Paul Ford’s specific recommendation went a bit further to suggest, that publishers must first ask, ‘How do I serve and interact with people?’, then build publishing and editorial above the conclusions reached.
While I had witnessed the defensive side of this discussion earlier on in the day with one panelist simply seeming to insist traditional publishing models must be allowed to survive or accountability would be in retreat. The discussion here ended on a more pragmatic note to say that if everyone working at a newspaper looses their jobs because someone hasn’t figured it out yet, they will just go work for someone else who has. We don’t know what the future of publishing will look like, but it will come.
