This past Saturday I attended my second Barcamp DC. If you are not familiar with what barcamp is you can read what I have written about it in the past here and here.

This year the talk that really caught my attention was that of Jeff Brown’s, a teacher at Damascus High School in Montgomery County Maryland and a member of the Web Standards Project Education Task Force. Jeff’s talk focused on “Webucation”, and the still very wide gap between what is being taught in college Web Design classes and what is being practiced online and in the industry.

While have been teaching part-time at CDIA-BU, Jeff’s topic caught my attention because of an experience I had about 6 months ago speaking with a group of graduating seniors in a Design program (that includes web design courses) at a local well respected university. While talking to about 30 students I asked them questions like “Do you know what user experience, interaction design, or information architecture is?” with shocking results. Not only were they unfamiliar with the terminology, few seemed to care about possible opportunities in web design. HTML, and CSS? forget it. While I am very aware that I did not learn that stuff when I was in school, a lot of time has passed since then and I really expected more of a progression towards web standards, industry technology, and well… basic interaction design.

After having that experience it became very apparent to me that the majority of higher educational institutions are very behind. It has since been on my mind and it is one of the reasons I so excitedly jumped on board when I heard about teaching part time at CDIA-BU (because they are on top of their stuff). Throughout Jeff’s talk he shared his personal experiences of interviewing with a college and his take-aways from the interview only confirmed many of the predictions I had about other institutions and how they are handling teaching web design. After proposing possible classes he could teach the interviewer came back and explained that word processing and “flash animation (for gaming)” were possible opportunities.

So, what was Jeff’s advice on how to solve these predicaments? Find a non-confrontational approach and become a “Webucator”. Make it a priority to be a guest speaker for a class, visit a college campus, or just step up to be an example for students to follow. Jeff’s talk was definitely one of the most unique and inspirational talks I have sat in at Barcamp DC and I really felt like his message is worthy of passing along.

In addition to sharing his message I want to point out an easy way for any of you guys to step up and help Jeff’s mission as a “webucator”: donate to the Web Program at Damascus High School. Jeff teaches a fantastic group of High School students the wonders of Web standards, and is even taking them to the Future of Web Design Conference on Nov 4th. A High School field trip to see Paul Boag, Dan Mall, Hillman Curtis, & Khoi Vinh talk about the awesomeness of all things web? How rad is that! Even if it is just a few dollars it would be an awesome, and very easy way to contribute to the webucation of the people who will be determining the future of web design.

Donate Now »

Photo by Jason Garber

Art-O-Matic is by far my favorite local DC event. Now, an annual event, this gathering of creatives takes place in an uninhabited building that has been donated so that artists of all kinds can take it over for about a month. The experience is unique in the wide range of art forms and mediums represented, all juxtaposed right next to each other.

This years event has over 600 visual artists and 300 performers participating with two music stages, a theater space, dance space, a poetry room, a film room, and a classroom. If you decide to visit during the peek hours you can see anything from open mic to burlesque or even fire dancers (my favorite part so far).

When I first moved to the DC area from Richmond, a town that has a tight-knit alternative art scene, I was astonished at the lack of art community in the area. After going to Art-O-Matic for the first time last year I learned that it is not that there is a lack of an art community, but that there are many little ones spread all over the DC area. Art-O-Matic which is completely run by volunteers and donations, does a fantastic job pulling together the scene and throwing an engaging and eclectic party.

I went Friday for Opening night and tried to take it all in.With 10 floors of stuff to do and see you just can’t. I highly recommend checking Art-O-Matic out, and if you can… a few times because it is such an overwhelming experience.

Friday, May 9 – Sunday, June 15, 2008
http://www.artomatic.org/

In the 6th Grade the big field trip was to the Science Museum of Virginia for an overnight sleepover. At the age of 12 this is a big deal, and every kid anticipated it for months in advance. Each class got divided in groups by gender and the girls got to sleep in one wing of the museum and the boys in the other, and despite the fact that we were there to learn about science the real goal at that age was to compile all your super-cool magazines and makeup to share with the other girls and talk about kissing and boys and trendy stuff. As my group hunkered down with flashlights and started pulling out their crackly issues of “Seventeen” and “Teen” magazines I reached deep in my bag and pulled out my issues of “Macworld” and “MacAddict” to a snickering audience of pre-teens. There seemed to be disconnect and I honestly did not understand why no one was as super-stoked as me. It was like the beginning the Blind Melon Video with the little Bumble Bee Girl tap dancing… which came out in 1993, the same year I went to the Science Museum.

This year will be my third SXSW Interactive in Austin Texas. If you are not familiar with SXSWi it:

celebrates the creativity and passion behind the coolest new media technologies. In addition to panel sessions that cover everything from web design to bootstrapping to social networks, attendees make new business connections at the three-day Trade Show & Exhibition.

If you want the equally accurate Ze Frank Version of what it is…

Patrick Haney points out on his latest post that Cindy Li likes to call it “geek spring break” but I feel like its a little like Web Disneyworld. People are always so enthusiastic when they say “I’m going to Disneyworld!”. Well, take that tone of voice and sparkle in their eye and picture me saying “Im going to South By South West!”. Yeah… thats about right.

So why do I get so excited? In addition to all the reasons that I was excited last year…. when I walk into the convention center in Austin its a lot like that little girl busting through the iron fence and dancing with all the other Bees. Seriously, you can tap anyone on the shoulder there and they will be interesting, engaging and passionate… and/or Bad-Ass.
Between now and March 7th the anticipation is only going to build. I can hardly wait… expect more SXSW themed posts. I can hardly contain myself.