Hacking SXSW for Smiles and DorkBot Street Cred
How do we take social media off laptops and phones and create real-world devices that surprise and delight? First, we take the top Arduino hackers around the globe and give them a brief: make SXSW smile. Then we watch them bring their web-connected Dorkbot action to the streets of Austin. The team with the most social interactions on and offline wins. And we get to present the results to you.
What’s this about? We’re excited about the Internet of Things, but we’re also impatient. We won’t wait for R&D. We’re nerds and we want to make a point. We’ll walk the line between integrated experiences being useful tools to make our lives easier, and the ever-looming digital frontier of “over-helpful” electronics that analyze our every move. As we aim to create ever-smaller devices that connect us to our social grid, is it possible we’ll overstep a line? iPhone apps that analyze sleep patterns are great, but would we be intimidated by a bed which analyzed us while we slept?
Presenters
Dave Caygill is a creative technologist. He spends his time looking at client's problems and then devising creative solutions that have technology at their heart.
He has been working in digital since the late 90s, in a variety of sectors and roles. Kicking off by designing and developing the first multi vendor airline aggregator in the .com boom before leading the UI development of an award winning eLearning application which pushed the envelope on RIA development. More recently he's been the creative technology lead in London based agencies working in the advertising, charity and marketing sectors.
During his 3 years at iris he has been leading the London based team of over 25 developers and QA analysts and governed the iris worldwide group's technical excellence. His core skills are in the design and development of web and cross platform apps, platform integration, mobile, physical, creative technology across devices and formats. Landmark projects include the recent 2012 Mascot games site, VW Commercial Vehicles digital output, physical installations for Coke and Adidas, global campaigns for Shell and Sony Ericsson.
He believes the future of digital is being at the core of the business or organisation's aim, not the marketing bolt on, but the core enabler. Bringing utility and delightful experiences to the consumer does the selling for us.
Friday, March 9
