Hippo Dignity

It’s overcast here, which is a drag - there’s so much sky in Cape Town, and by all accounts it’s spectacular when it’s sunny. But hopefully the sky will clear tomorrow, when we have some more tourist time.

(I just went to check the weather forecast online, having forgotten that I’d already logged off the Internet, since as noted before the cost is metered. I bought four hours worth and have already gone through an hour and a half. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s not that I use that much Internet time — I got through most of my email fairly quickly — but that so much of what I do with my computer now presumes that I’m always online. I downloaded MarsEdit so I could compose blog posts about all this offline; so far so good.)

Presumption is also a good place to start thinking about the Interactions conference, and about this trip, since the former was so much about using and challenging them, and this trip just overturns them, or exists outside of them.

(more…)

If I had to choose, I don’t think my first viewing of the Las Vegas strip would have been jet-lagged and stomach-achey from a turbulent flight.  Still, I can’t imagine it wouldn’t have been overwhelming anyway.  And this from a woman who functions at her best in New York.

The Bellagio water spectacle, so beautifully captured at the end of Ocean’s 11, is even more impressive visually in person, but it’s spoiled by being choreographed to “I’m Proud to Be An American.”  I have been reminded more than once on this trip so far how different New York is from most of the rest of the country, but I’m in the sort of mood where that seems pretty all right.

I may end up posting some notes from the conference here: apologies in advance if your geekiness doesn’t intersect with mine.

One advantage of having worked in several different fields is that you know the same old bullshit when you see it.

Jason Kottke pointed out that web conferences still aren’t getting any more diverse, despite the regular rounds of discussion/debate on the topic, and sure enough, started another round of discussion/debate.

It’s so striking to see the same rationalizations come up in different forms in different fields: why don’t we bring in more women to speak/write? Because there aren’t more A-list women speakers/writers in our field. How would women become A-list speakers/writers? Um… by speaking at conferences/publishing with us, of course. But they aren’t as interested as guys in those technical topics, and anyway, we just wouldn’t feel comfortable going out and finding people who are… different from us.

Anil Dash has a smart, smart rundown on why the Old Boy’s Club is a mug’s game in the end: go read it, and save me the time trying to make the basic case that the blinders of privilege will leave you in the end just as sightless as a sharp stick in the eye.

Ironically, I’ll end this by noting I’ve just received my first invitation to speak at a conference - one on industrial design, not web technology. If all goes well, look for me at the IDSA North Eastern District Conference in late April.