CarlaBorsoi.com

My lovely 75 year old father was asked to join Twitter by one of his oldest and dearest friends.

This was his response:

Some folks just love to sit and twitter…
It makes their hearts go patter-pitter…
It makes their eyes go all aglitter,
But I will hope you won’t be bitter
If I am not a big committer.
And ’cause I’m choosing to forgit ‘er.
Please don’t think that I’m a quitter
Or a low repulsive critter.
There are lots of folks much fitter…
You could get a baby sitter
Or a famous home run hitter…
Those are folks you might consider.
How about a counterfeiter
Or a German Messerschmitter?
But for me and all that twitter,
For now I say I will omit ‘er.

There’s more musing to be done on SXSWi, so be on the lookout for this.

As in years past (2007, 2008), here’s a complete list of all the shows I saw last week, and the top 10 shows of the week. I had the pleasure of spending the week seeing bands I’ve wanted to see for a long time (hello, The Hold Steady and The Thermals) while also checking out new-to-me bands and artists. Some of which were fantastic, and some of which were just okay. With the exception of one weird show, everything was pretty darned good.

Note: I did lose some of the notes from Wed, so I’m missing a band or two.

Star means I’d suggest checking ‘em out if you’ve got the chance.

Top 10 2009 SXSW Shows

1. The Hold Steady
2. The Thermals
3. The Little Ones
4. Drink Up Buttercup
5. School of Seven Bells
6. We Were Promised Jetpacks
7. The Peekers
8. The Emeralds
9. +/- {Plus/Minus}
10. Alessi’s Ark

WEDNESDAY

Sad to say! I can’t remember the first band we saw

Drink Up Buttercup* at Beauty Bar

This band rocked it hard - playing garbage can lids, an energetic show on a Wednesday afternoon. Would highly recommend seeing them live if possible.

Maus Haus at Emo’s Annex (IODA Day Party)

OK.

Blind Pilot* at Emo’s Annex (IODA Day Party)

Nice band I had no knowledge of beforehand — enjoyed their mellow tunes and the combo of male & female vocals. Can’t stop listening to them now.

We Were Promised Jetpacks*  at Emo’s Annex (IODA Day Party)

These guys kicked ass and evidently blew the socks off quite a few people during the week.

Future Clouds and Radar at The Dog & Duck

Unfortunately, this set turned into a bit of background music as we were near the back. Enjoyable none-the-less.

Arms & Legs at Pangea

Arms & Legs had the distinction of being the only band we saw all week to play compressed air into a microphone. Not sure it added much, but was interesting. Mellow, but a bit disappointing to see two drummers playing click tracks and not creating the potential dynamic.

Other Lives at Buffalo Billiards

Super mellow, but disappointeing in the end. Left the show to go check out other stuff.

Vetiver* at Emo’s Jr.

Something I want to check out later, but wasn’t a rocking show.

The Black Jacks at Paradise Lounge

Angus & Julius Stone* at Buffalo Billiards

Walked into this show after the Black Jacks and was stoked by the loveliness of the music. Definitely want to check out this band some more.

School of Seven Bells* at Buffalo Billiards

Amazing.

Mother Mother at Habana Calle 6 Patio

Meh. Couldn’t get into the vocals, which were so distinctive they drove the music.

THURSDAY

The Bones Royal at Peckerheads

Energetic, basic rock.

Great Lakes Myth Society at Red 7

Another show, like Other Lives, where I was disappointed. Evidently it picked up after we left, but didn’t inspire me to listen to them again.

The Hard Lessons* at Red 7 Patio

We walked outside after Great Lakes Myth Society and found ourselves totally rocking out to these guys.  Just what we needed. Plus, they did a Neil Young cover.

Trail of Dead at the Mohawk

Black and White Years* at Elysium

The Arkells* at Cedar Street Courtyard

Really want to listen to them some more.

Sam Roberts* at Cedar Street Courtyard

This Canadian brought his own crowd, but we really liked him too.

Two singer-songwriters whose names I didn’t catch at Dirty Bill’s (Yes, I wrote down EVERYTHING we heard.)

Sybris* at Prague

Caught the tail end of the set and wish we’d seen more.

+/-{Plus/Minus}* at Prague

A great way to end the second night of music. I’d been listening to their stuff non-stop before I hit Austin and it was great to see them live.

FRIDAY

Friday we agreed to take it easy, and still managed to see 12 bands!

Obits* at Club de Ville for Insound’s 10th Anniversary SXSW Birthday Party Presented by Saucony Originals and Hot Freaks!

These guys were a great way to start the day.

Horse Feathers* at Club de Ville for Insound’s 10th Anniversary SXSW Birthday Party Presented by Saucony Originals and Hot Freaks!

Also, really enjoyable.

American Analog Set* at Club de Ville for Insound’s 10th Anniversary SXSW Birthday Party Presented by Saucony Originals and Hot Freaks!

I love this group. They are super chill and perhaps not best fit for an outdoor show offering $2 all you can drink beer. Still, I adore them and would love to see them again.

The Thermals* at Club de Ville for Insound’s 10th Anniversary SXSW Birthday Party Presented by Saucony Originals and Hot Freaks!

OMS! OMS! I have been DYING to see this group and they did not disappoint. I love them. Really, better live than recorded. The best type of show. Professional, polished in terms of performance, but still rock’n'roll.

The Hold Steady* at Club de Ville for Insound’s 10th Anniversary SXSW Birthday Party Presented by Saucony Originals and Hot Freaks!

You know, I don’t know why I haven’t been in love with this band forever. Being the end of a day show, they played almost 90 minutes, like seeing a full show. Blew away everything we’d seen (including the Thermals!), by executing tightly, and just fueling the end of the day. If you’re not a fan now, you need to go buy everything and go see a show!

Pete & the Pirates* at Cedar Street Courtyard for Blackberry Party

Radio friendly pop, these guys have the potential to be huge.

Beach House* at Cedar Street Courtyard for Blackberry Party

I love the sweet sound of Beach House, but after the rousing set by Pete & the Pirates, this was a little too mellow for my mood.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down* at MoMo’s

We walked in near the end and were immediately wanting to tap our toes and get grooving.

The Rosebuds* at MoMo’s

Love this band, but their live show, after all the preceeding ones in the day paled slightly. Still, worth checking out.

The Japanese Motors* at Emo’s

Enjoyed their sound but wasn’t willing to brave the crowd right away. Would have loved to have seen more of their live show.

Black Lips (featuring GZA) at Emo’s

I don’t even know where to begin with this. Basically, it seems that some members of the Black Lips ran into GZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame, smoked out, and decided to do a show together last minute. Not a good idea. I can’t dignify this with further commentary, but I will tell the story complete with hand signs, confusion and crowd responses if I see you in person.

King Khan & The Shrines* at Emo’s

They have a pom pom player. ‘Nuff said.

SATURDAY

Diego’s Umbrella* at Yard Dog

How can a band that does a highly stylized violin version of the Final Countdown be bad?

Ponderosa Stomp featuring Roy Head & Barbara Lynn at Perdenales Lofts Pavilion for the Shiny Objects & Butler Bros BYOC Vol. 4

Fun all around.

The Emeralds* at Perdenales Lofts Pavilion for the Shiny Objects & Butler Bros BYOC Vol. 4

They were definitely on my list to be seen, if possible, having found them on a Japan Nite Sampler last year. Performing in leather on a warm Texas day, they wanted to get the crowd riled.

The Peekers* at Perdenales Lofts Pavilion for the Shiny Objects & Butler Bros BYOC Vol. 4

This band had a sound I’d been seeking all week - sweet female vocals, and a lovely pop sound.

Asteroid Galaxy Tour at Maggie Mae’s

The Little Ones* at Maggie Mae’s

I’d been dying to see this band, so got right up in front and watched them rock out. Fun fun fun.

Immaculate Machine* at Habana Calle 6

A good follow-up to the Little Ones. Not as frenetic.

Alessi’s Ark* at Stephen F

What a lovely and gorgeous end to the week. Turned on to her by one of my oldest friends, Sandy, and just loved her melodious voice and sweet stage presence.

Thanks also to the awesome folks I got to share my musical adventures with:  Cloudwrangler, Kmeelyon, Weegee, Chim Chim, Tornado Magnet, Sandy, and the RVIP Lounge!

How do we think about the influence within the context of age, gender and race? How often should we think about it? How do we put the conversation in the proper context? How do we avoid being caught in a trap of only celebrating the same individuals when trying to call attention to a larger, systemic issue?

These are all big questions, and were sparked by the Ada Lovelace Day Celebration, taking place on March 24th. The concept behind the day is to celebrate women in technology and their achievements, to provide both inspiration and to call attention to the fact that while women have embraced all career fields, including technology, it still appears there’s issues in getting women seen in the forefront of the field, including as matter of course. You’ll have articles calling attention to women in the industry, but it seems to me that it’d be a lot more fulfilling if were considered without having to push extra or create special articles about them. As well, the same women seem to get lauded over and over again, understandably so, but it’d be nice to see people dig into the guts of businesses and determine who is actually building things and making useful technology for the rest of us.

This problem has been especially well commented on with regards to tech conferences, where it’s easier for a woman to use the bathroom (due to less women in attendance) than it is to get on the speaker roster. It does seem that conference organizers do try and reach out, but it doesn’t always come to fruition. Many times, the same faces show up again and again, often because they are the ones that get asked, or that know organizers, or perhaps because they actually say yes.

However, none of these bigger questions answer the request from the Ada Lovelace organizers, which is to celebrate a woman in technology. Rather than pick a woman specifically running a company, or building something (although I will admit to being completely tongue-tied when introduced to Kim Polese a few years ago), I thought it would be useful to look for someone who contributed to something behind the scenes.

In order to pick someone like this, it was necessary for me to think about the things that help run business, the analysis that can be performed to best do various jobs, and a skill that runs across many disciplines. One discipline that fits the bill is statistics. Researching female statisticians led me to Florence Nightingale David, who wrote a classic treatise on game theory - Games, Gods & Gambling. (Never heard of game theory? It’s definitely an under-pinning of an algorithm or two.) She also worked as the Chair of the Biostatistics department as UC-Riverside. Every reference to Florence talks about how she ended up in her field, when someone explained they wouldn’t hire her since she was a she. Thankfully, undaunted, she went on to publish multiple books, academic papers and monographs.

Women, including myself, need to learn from the example of creating tools for ourselves and to find other paths when one way is blocked. It does mean that we need to look for opportunities to promote and integrate ourselves into the overall consciousness so that we are not seen as separate, or requiring extra effort. Truthfully, the same could be said for any group not in the mainstream, when it can be hard to pull ourselves out of the fast-moving river where it’s easier to float along without thinking.  

Personally, I’m hopeful that Ada Lovelace day shows a diversity of women to emulate, admire and celebrate, and that we don’t get caught in looking only at the top of the field, at the moment, without reflecting on who laid down the road.

More information can be found about Florence here. For the statistically inclined, there is also an award established in her name given to a female statistician of merit.

I’m getting super excited about South by Southwest, which starts next week. There’s a ton of great panels, interesting speakers, and excellent opportunities to socialize and be entertained.

The panel I’m on, Developing Super Senses:  Tools to Know Your Users, will be on Monday, March 16th, at 5pm in Hilton Room C. It’s been delightful to work with Julie Melton, Mark Trammell, Nate Bolt & Andy Budd.  It’s been boiled down to a structured conversation so that those who attend can listen to us argue, debate and discuss the merits of different types of user testing. We’ll also talk about how you use those results and get people excited about it. Andy rightfully pointed out that too many times you attend a panel and the groups says “We had this awesome conversation over breakfast” and proceeds to bore you by agreeing on everything. We’ve decided to let it all hang out for you and play civilly but to let our disagreements manifest themselves in passionate discussion.

There’s so much great stuff to see and participate in — and I’ll be in Austin for all of the festival - interactive, music and film. If you’re attending check out the schedule I’m putting together over at Sched.org. They’ve also created a sweet widget to allow you to listen to the music I’m interested in seeing.

Check it out and let me if you’ll be there too.

Normally, an email chain letter will arrive, only to be mercilessly hit by the delete button. Often the same happens with certain memes. However, sometimes one comes along which gives one time to reflect and to share. Recently, the lovely Juliette Melton tagged me recently and her twist on the meme allowed me time to think about things I can do longer that were once like breathing, or things I do now that may actually be interesting to you (then again, maybe not;). 

Here’s the rules of this meme — as you might suspect, similar to all:

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

• I’m a former theater geek, mostly technical. For one production, I designed the costumes, despite the fact that I can’t sew very well.
• When I first moved to San Francisco, I used to write concert reviews for Ink19 - which was a regional music ‘zine in the Florida/Georgia region, now purely online. I wrote such a scathing review of one show (not to be named) that the editor refused to publish it.
• In graduate school, we did a global business practicum in Bulgaria. Our group stayed almost 2 weeks in a small city named Kotel. While there, the Peace Corps volunteer facilitating our trip found out I had been a DJ and got me on Radio Bimako. After I returned, I would send the station occasional cassettes of my radio show from WPRK, which they would rebroadcast.
  
• For one college summer of employment I worked for a subcontractor of what was then Martin Marietta. It felt incredibly unethical to be working on a project to teach people how to use the particular targeting system. It stressed me out so much I used to go into the conference room and do cartwheels to relieve stress.
• I have never been to Angel Island.
• As my after school job in high school and college, I worked at Truffles & Trifles, a gourmet food shop. During the holiday season, the shop was well-known for its delightful gourmet gift baskets. I can still package a basket and make a bow blindfolded.
• My kids crack me up on a routine basis and would form the basis for a fabulous sitcom, if it were ever in my nature to exploit such things.

And per the rules, I’m yelling “Tag, you’re it!” to these fine folks (in alpha order):

Be the Boy

Cloudwrangler

Kurt Collins

M-D November

The Slackmistress

Tales from the Multiverse

Teeny TIny Hearts

I’ll be heading to visit my alma mater, Rollins College, at the end of January for the annual President’s Council Meeting. While there, the Crummer Graduate School of Business, part of the school, has asked me to come speak to both the school’s marketing team, as well as to students.

This all began when the Donald Hale, Director of Alumni Relations & Development, called to talk to me about working in technology. See, when you have a small school in Florida, it’s inevitable that you’re going to end up producing MBA students to feed into the local economy, which in Florida is predominantly focused on tourism, real estate and finance.  One of the first questions Donald asked me was one the students keep asking him: Should I be on social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook when I’m looking for a job?

My emphatic reply was “Absolutely. In fact, if you’re not findable online, in this world, who wants to hire you?” Which is true. In the webby world, not having an online presence can be a real detriment to your career. If you don’t use the tools you’re marketing, developing, or analyzing, or those that complement or complete yours, why are you in this industry? One of the reasons that I moved to San Francisco 13 years ago was to be around people creating a future world view and the tools with which to live that life. Being passionate about the industry in which you work makes you not only a better employee, but also makes you a happier person.

This visit, and planning remarks to share with students and faculty, comes in a week in which a much-beloved, but little used web & mobile service called Dodgeball announced its shutdown. (Well, to be clear, its corporate overlords did.) This topic has been well covered by those closer to the product. However, that clear feeling of caring about a product and mourning its loss shows that a group of folks created a product borne of being engaged in what people want. One of the things I want to share with the Rollins folks is the idea that knowing what’s happening in an industry involves more than just reading the latest WSJ or Fortune magazine, but living and breathing alongside what’s transpiring. It just so happens that the products being created in the realm of technology are things that touch our daily lives.  

I look forward to sharing some of the online tools that I use on a regular basis with these students and how it can enhance their online presence, while being cognizant of the fact that many do want to go into more traditional fields, which may frown upon excessive displays of personal information.  However, given that more and more people do just this, it may be that our social mores must adjust. Something to discuss in a few weeks!

I jokingly twittered earlier today that Joe Bob Briggs is penning my life script. This is mainly because of a series of deaths for various friends parents, grandparents & friends - Joe Bob would simply tally the body count, give it 3 1/2 stars and move on. However, in real life as experienced online, some have chosen to twitter or update their Facebook status as a way of letting large groups of people know about the passing of this family member or loved one. However, what’s odd for me is how people respond to these public announcements in such a public way.

Is it really appropriate to merely @ someone on Twitter, or to post on someone’s wall on Facebook? I’m not certain. I had breakfast today with Dr. Keely Kolmes, who will be covering relationships and social media in a core conversation at SXSW2009. This may be yet another area for her to cover at that time. For me, the most important thing is a direct communication to the person without expecting a response. A hand-written letter expressing condolences is always appreciated. A call offering assistance with specifics is good if you live nearby. Simply typing “I’m sorry” and doing so publicly, is probably okay, but it seems to lack the element of meditation that should come with offering condolences to someone.

Are we escaping the discomfort of confronting the mortality of those close to our own lives by using a few simple words to comfort others?

Inspired by Tantek’s Communication Protocols wiki, I’ve started my own.

This details my preferred methods of communication, motivations and how to interact with me. My sense of etiquette is also detailed and will be updated over time.

Please note these are my preferences and everyone likely has their own, so create your own!

After a very exciting victory for Barack Obama, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

My friend Ryan summed up the current feeling of elation in a recent post:

“I didn’t think I’d ever see masses of people on the streets of San Francisco chanting “USA! USA! USA!”. You see, the left coast liberal elite loves America too, we just sometimes can’t get excited about it.”

Now the thing is, we actually have to show that all the bake sales, fundraisers and concerts can translate into ongoing action.

I’m totally impressed with the transition website, http://www.change.gov/,  but what excites me in this time is the number of places people are talking about what they can do. Check out the thread on Get Satisfaction about “What Can I Do to Help?” What are the things we should be doing to change our own behaviors to create a better country and deal with the abundance of domestic issues at hand.

My comments on this thread are related to Barack’s nomination acceptance speech, in which he stated that we would all have to make sacrifices. While I am anxious to hear specifics of what he envisions, I also feel that this very much has to come from the populace as well. This is our duty as citizens, to figure out how we fit into the overall fabric of this country and how our actions impact everything.

I want specifics on the sacrifices we can make from our President-Elect’s perspective, bucketed into different areas: finance/economy, education, environment, etc.

I think there’s some basics: increase the amount that is put into your savings account each month, live within your means, take public transportation where possible, shop local, buy made in the USA, pay attention to key local initiatives, attend a school board (or other governmental meeting), reduce your electricity needs.

What suggestions do you have?

I’m here in Los Angeles this fine weekend, to celebrate the birthday of the ever-lovely Slackmistress. Nomi and I have made our trek this year and anticipate in-person viewing of BeTheMarriage: Live on Ice. This is Nina & Will’s weekly show to chit chat, philsophize and tell us what’s been going on in their world.  Tune in tonight at 8 pacific to check it out!