SXSW09 Panels: Programming and Content

This post is one of a series of recommendations arrived at by
going through the entire list of South by Southwest panels that are up
for consideration for 2009.

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SXSW 2009 Panel Recs: Programming and Content

Learning from Architecture
John Athayde, Hyphenated People 
 "Designers
and programmers have been referencing Architecture since long before a
computer was involved. What can we learn from the field that taught us
that less is more (Mies)? Is your website a sign or a decorated shed
(Venturi)? What is a pattern Language (Alexander)? From Vitruvius to
Palladio to the modernists and the digital revolution in architecture,
see and discuss how these fields intersect and influence each other."

Why People Search Still (Mostly) Sucks
James Reffell, Yahoo!
"Despite search, social networks, and gushy articles in the New York
Times about Googling exes, looking for people online is often
unsuccessful — and sometimes it’s successful in creepy ways. We’ll
cover the issues that keep us from good people search, and what we can
do about it."

Yes, You Can Make Beautiful Sites with Drupal!
George DeMet, Palantir.net, Inc.
"A panel of Web gurus will share their experiences working with creative
partners and colleagues to develop visually stunning and highly
functional Web sites using the Drupal content management platform.
Learn tactical tips and tricks that will help you bend Drupal to your
will and create your own beautiful sites."

Coding for Civic Participation
Clay Johnson, Sunlight Foundation
"There’s a revolution happening in government transparency. We’re using
technology to make government more accountable to its citizens. A panel
of experts will talk the details about new APIs and tools that make
government data more accessible so that you the programmer can change
the world."

Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content
Louis Gray, LouisGray.com
"RSS aggregation has reduced the massive ocean of Web content into
something more manageable, but we are still left overloaded with
information and manual searching. This panel will explore new avenues
for finding the Web’s best content, and how this more intelligent Web
will affect major media companies, online publishers and consumers. We
have confirmed Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb as a moderator."