Thanks to Brady Forrest and Jen Pahilka for giving me not one but two slots this week in a high caliber lineup. It was awesome to meet and talk to so many folks in just a few days (talking to people is always where the value is). (Photo credit: James Duncan Davidson).

Its been awhile since I’ve been to a big tech conference around a singular theme (web 2.0) during its rise. To see both the promise and the hype swirling around together made for a fun couple of days. Walking the expo floor, where vendors and companies demo and pitch for your pleasure, gave me flashbacks to Internet World in ‘96 and ‘97. Back then, there were a zillion “push technology” companies, services and products. Now it’s “social media” or “web 2.0″, with a zillion companies all throwing the same jargon around and mostly failing to distinguish themselves from one another.

There are certainly good ideas in the mix, and I think Tim O’Reilly and Clay Shirky’s opening keynotes did more than any company I saw to speak for those ideas, or even attempt to describe what substance might surface from all the technology, energy and money bouncing around.

The problem for me is how infrequently people investing their lives making these things can describe how, at the end of the day, all of the potential described gets transfered into value. Or why the value provided is worth the risks and costs of using whatever they are selling (register for this, buy that, use this, etc.) It’s not a complex question, but it is the primary one I’m sure many attendees were asking: how much substance and takeaways can I fish out of the buzz?

I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t hear anyone mention how many amazing things are made, in 2008, by organizations with little interest in web 2.0 concepts - namely Apple, Toyota, your favorite film director, or your favorite music band. Not to mention all of the great amazing things the world produced before 1994 (the year the web, even in 1.0 form, was born). That’s not to say this alone proves anything - my point is only this: it is possible to achieve amazing things, without . Thriving communities, tribes, and cultures have existed for ages. If its possible to do well without whatever the new secret sauce is, it suggests there’s an underlying element that’s not being talked about. I’m convinced there is a more refined explanation for what people might gain from buying what the expo vendors are selling, but very few people seemed capable of even suggestion one.

The unspoken nugget / explanation / marketing line that might get me jazzed is this:

We have always been collaborative. Always been social. It’s in our genes and it’s what we have evolved to do well. Good technologies enhance our natural abilities, give us useful artificial ones, and help us to get more of what we want from life. Web 2.0 and social media make the process of collaboration and developing relationships more fun, efficient, powerful and meaningful.

Ok. Now we’re talking. With a statement like this I can walk the halls of the expo, or converse with the greatest web 2.0 pundit, and have a straight conversation. Will this get me more of what I want from life? More of what my customers want from me, or vice-versa? I can make tangible arguments about what I want or my customers need and sort some decisions out. But note that the statement above is devoid of hyperbole like revolution, ground breaking, disruptive or transformative, things that are entirely subjective. If you identify a real problem well enough, you never need those words: the people who have those problems will naturally find what you do revolutionary if you really solve their problems.

Ok, enough industry talk. Here’s some shop talk for anyone that saw me speak: I’d give my performance at my innovation workshop a B and the keynote a C+. The keynote was mostly new material and, surprise, I never found my rhythm. I gave it my best but it wasn’t a great 10 minutes. The other funny thing is that the tech crew warned me the remote doesn’t go backwards - it’s kamikaze style - a warning I shrugged off as I couldn’t imagine in a ten minute talk needing to go backwards. Well, guess what, I did. I could have asked them to go back if I’d wanted but didn’t, it wouldn’t have saved my performance anyway :)

Workshop slides here: How to Innovate on Time

Posted in On Tour, Software/Web development, Web 2.0 / social software | 4 Comments »

Later this month I’ll be down in SF talking at Web 2.0 Expo. I’m doing a half-day tutorial on How to Innovate on time, plus a keynote on the Myths of Innovation. The lineup includes Blaine Cook (Twitter), Matt Jones (Dopplr), Marc Andressen (Ning), Clay Shirky, Matt Cutts (Google) and more. Among other special events, there’s also an ignite talks event, one of my favorite things to watch, on Tuesday night.

If you use this magic code websf08sbg you get $100 off the registration price.

Posted in Microsoft, On Tour | No Comments »

Thanks to John Przyborski and Carrie Chisholm at CMU, last week’s lecture was videotaped and is now online at youtube.

This version of the talk is quite different from the version I did at Google almost a year ago, so it might be worth a spin even if you’ve seen that one before.

If you feel claustrophobic watching videos inside my site, here is the direct link to this video on youtube.

Posted in Myths of Innovation, On Tour | 2 Comments »

I had a secret. Back as an undergraduate at CMU, I’d see authors visit and lecture in the Adamson wing, this cool auditorium style room in Baker Hall. When bored, I’d imagine what I’d have to do in my future to earn an invite and speak to students in that same lecture hall.

Last week I got my chance. The magic day started with an invite from Paul Gould at MAYA design to stop by their swanky South side office for a tour, and a fun brownbag lunch. They have these awesome meeting rooms called Kivas, which are round, have floor to ceiling whiteboards, and invites the kind of communication and interaction that makes for great design sessions. I met some great folks and got warmed up for my afternoon talk at CMU.

Here’s me in MAYA’s Kiva:

And at the Adamson wing lecture hall at CMU:

The kicker was I got to see David Hounshell, the professor of the amazing history of engineering class I took as an undergraduate, that planted the seeds that led to writing the Myths of Innovation.

And to finish off the day, dinner with friends Faisal, Aleecia, and Eden Fisher, the latter being the prime mover in bringing me out to CMU this year (Thanks Eden for a most special experience).

Thanks to Paul for the photos of a magic day.

Posted in On Tour, Teaching/Training | 6 Comments »

Ok, I confess, I have seen worse keyboards in the world. But this is definitely the worst space bar I’ve ever seen. I found this gem at an Internet kiosk in the Minneapolis airport, on my way back from Pittsburgh last week.

My complaints:

• Do not SPLIT my space bar. The spot in the middle is where my thumbs work their magic!
• Really. I mean, it’s called a bar, not a series of goofy keys.
• Do not make the remaining buttons small, as hitting the side by accident results always in either 0 or 2 spaces.

Anyone else come across evil keyboards in their travels? I want photos!

Posted in Design, On Tour, usability | 7 Comments »

Joy of joys, I was asked to do a commentary on one my favorite shows. Marketplace, an NPR business news show, is running a story about the culture differences at Microsoft and Yahoo. Right after the story, there’s a short 2 minute commentary by yours truly (Prepare to cover your ears).

If you’re in Seattle, Marketplace airs on KUOW at 6:30pm today. You can listen to NPR live online here.

Once it’s online, I suspect sometime this week, I’ll post a follow up link.

It’s online now: transcript, summary, and audio.

Posted in Microsoft, On Tour, Software/Web development | No Comments »

I’ll be back at my alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, next week. Last time I spoke there was fun and hope to have another great crowd! I’ll be talking about stories from The Myths of Innovation, but will save lots of time for Q&A. If you’ll be there and have a question, leave a comment and I’ll get to yours first.

I’ll also be giving away a big pile of books to the first people that show up (at least 30). How’s that for a bonus? And yes, the lecture is open to the public.

Thursday, March 27th
4:30pm – Adamson Wing, 136A Baker Hall
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Scott Berkun, Author

Official listing here

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I’ll be doing two sessions at this year’s Webivisions conference. One workshop called How to Innovate on time, and a talk on the Myths of Innovation.

Registration: Register by March 31st and it’s $180 for both days, or $310 if you want a workshop too. After March 31st it’s $250 & $425 respectively.

Other speakers include Jeffrey Veen, Fast Company’s Lynne Johnson, Matt Haughey (MetaFilter), Dan Saffer (Adaptive Path), and more.

Hope to see you there. If you’re thinking of going, also check out Portland’s Start-up Weekend. Odds are good I’ll be there too.

Posted in On Tour | No Comments »

One highlight of webstock 08 was the fantastic design of their handouts, badges and bags. Most conferences, including design conferences, spend little effort on crafting the things they give attendees. The bags, swag, and badges are typically afterthoughts, rarely made with love, and infrequently reflecting any of the values espoused at the conference itself. Webstock kicked ass on all counts: an example for other conferences to follow. Here are some notes:

The badge

• The schedule is upside down. Since the badge hangs on your neck, the schedule, one day per page, is printed upside down so you can read it. Nice (first saw this at GEL).
• Not made of plastic . Is it just me, or is there too much laminated plastic at conferences? These badges are made of cardstock and heavy paper, with a natural hand-made feel. It has soft edges and fits comfortably in a shirt or back pocket.
• Cord made of fabric for easy reuse. Most conference materials have limited reuse and don’t recycle well: those plastic lanyards aren’t good for much. But since the cord isn’t the standard plastic clip-on cable, but a nice length of fabric, I can use it for something else.
• The only major design ding is the name is hard to read. I’ve yet to see a badge that was truly easy to read from conversation distance: they’re always crammed with affiliations and job titles making them not only ugly, but worthless (Here’s a good example for reference (scroll down to second picture)).

The bag

• Looks like a high-end hipster bag. Nothing says inauthentic faster than a design conference that gives 500 people ugly, black, generic, ‘50-zillion compartment but none that fit the things you actually need when traveling’ conference bag, replete with a garish logo carelessly glued (yet impossible to remove) on the front cover. Well the webstock bag doesn’t look like a conference bag: it looked so good I had to ask twice to make sure it was the conference bag, and not some special prize.
• Is made of canvas! I’ve been to dozens of conferences, yet this is the first bag made of a sturdy, high-quality, non-synthetic material. It feels like a well made thing to hold and gives the vibe it’s meant to be used, not just a token gift to make you feel better about the fees you paid to get in.

The t-shirt

• Looks like something from threadless. The front has, I believe, some of the public art from the city of Wellington, with the words Webstock underneath. It’s a nice yellow on grey, soft tones, and looks good with a pair of jeans. Unlike the dozens of conference t-shirts I’ve given away to goodwill over the years, I’m keeping this one.
• Came in women’s and men’s versions. Why should I care as a man? Well, I confess: I like to look at women. Especially when they’re wearing clothes meant to fit their curvy figures. I always hear people complain about the low numbers of women at design and tech conferences. Well, maybe if they followed some of webstock’s ideas, more women would be interested in finding out about their conferences.

Other bits

• Did not dig the food. I’m a foodie, I cook for myself all the time, and the food here was a problem. I admit it was awesome to see an entire vegetarian table and other special diets accounted for, but the food I grazed at at the regular tables didn’t have me coming back for more. I didn’t see anyone else complaining and everyone seemed to be eating tons, so perhaps it was me. That said, I gave up on the conference food part way through as F Inc, just across the street from the venue in Wellington, was great. I had some of my best meals of my two weeks in the country here.
• An agenda that took risks. I missed most of the first day, but what I did at the conference included: powerpoint karaoke, where speakers had to talk for 5 minutes with someone else’s slides, and an 8×5 session, where 8 speakers had 5 minutes each. These things mix up the pace of a long conference, give people a different way to communicate, and make interesting mistakes possible. The social hours had awesome live music, craftstock was fun: it was clear, all over the place, that the organizers get what good experience design is all about.
• I didn’t use the conference program. You can see it in the photo above of the bag, but I didn’t refer to it much. I’d read the basic agenda online and had the badge program. I can’t say much about its design, though it certainly looked great. My only gripe was that it had a page per speaker, making the book quite big, yet I struggled to find the specific speaker I was looking to track down (Mark from the 8×5 session). Do we need these big program guides anymore? This one sure looked good, but I don’t think I saw a soul with one at the actual conference.

If you get a chance to speak at or attend Webstock, don’t miss it. You’ll feel the love if you go.

Posted in Design, On Tour, Teaching/Training, Travel | 6 Comments »

I’m writing this from within my rented campervan, on the west coast of New Zealand. It’s a popular summer thing here and after 4 days we’re finally getting the hang of it. But 1000 kilometers back in Wellington, I spoke at Webstock, a most excellent little conference here in NZ.

Natasha Hall, Mike Brown, and the other organizers did a kick-ass job, lining up some great talent (Damian Conway was a highlight for me), a sweet venue, and a stellar job with the conference badges, materials and a gorgeous canvas bag (As Kathy Sierra said, ’stroke the bag’). If you get a chance to speak or attend next year, don’t miss it. They’ll treat you so well you won’t want to leave.

The photo is from Moeraki beach, and the famous, mysterious boulders. We head out to the glaciers via helicopter in a few hours, and hopefully we’ll see more cool stuff to write about.

Posted in On Tour | 6 Comments »

Tomorrow at 12pm EST I’ll be live on america.gov, answering any and all questions. Hope to see you there.

Posted in Myths of Innovation, On Tour | No Comments »

The web is a funny place. I get requests to speak and write for people all the time, but sometimes the requests are from unexpected places, like, say, The U.S. State department. After a short chat with Alexandra M. Abboud, the coolest government employee I’ve ever known, I agreed to write an essay for their newly launched america.gov website, called How to innovate right now.

As a kicker, they run a monthly live webchat: anyone can sign in live and ask me questions.

Go to the Ask America website on Tuesday Feb 5th, 12pm EST. (The site currently says 9am EST, but it will be updated soon).

If you’ve got a question you’ve always wanted me to answer, now’s your chance.

And if you can’t make it, leave a question in the comments. That way when no one shows up in the live webchat, I’ll have something to do.

Posted in On Tour | No Comments »