Michael Leis

Now months removed from the presentation that Brian Reynolds (Zynga’s senior strategist) delivered at sxsw, his main points are still resonant and useful. Here’s what I’ve boiled down, which I hope helps you think differently, critically about what and how you approach your next social effort:

It’s all about the power of innuendo. Yesterday’s memorable SXSW talk, the one that will be ringing in my mind for some time was “The New Frontier of Social Gaming,” delivered by Brian Reynolds from Zynga. What he’s working in is fascinating: the science of people having fun together on the internet.

In one of the sadder moments of SXSW, as I was feverishly typing away on a live post about Gaming the Crowd: Turning Work Into Play presented by Andy Baio when the WordPress iPhone app crashed. Worse yet, Mr. Baio has not published the slides. Hope he will soon, because he presented a lot of [...]

In the second full day of the music portion of SXSW, the format is completely different, and pushed into a whole other gear. The SXSW Interactive conference is very much at the convention center, with associated social stuff in concentric rings outward in Austin. But if you follow this panel/social metaphor, then think of every [...]

With the social game business discussion that just ended on the always illusive third floor of the Austin convention center, that closes the panel curtain on SXSWi 2010. The last panel was interesting, talking about the different dynamics in making successful social games on facebook, just how hard it has become to be noticed, and [...]

Last time around at SXSW in 2008, the challenge was keeping it going through the many presentations I saw, not knowing many other people here in Austin. This year, however has unfolded a completely different and more complex challenge: between all of the panels I want to see and getting quality time with the people [...]

This panel is exactly why I come to SXSW. I know vaguely about Expression engine, know that it has been gaining momentum, but that’s it. Now I get the chance to hear from real programming rockstars who are using it, and get some use cases, insights and tips on how to best use the platform. [...]

Only got to see the tail end of RWTW part one. Fred opens by saying it’s time to nut up, He also admits that he loves prototyping, and can’t think of a situation where prototyping can’t help your design. As designers, we’re not making solutions, we’re making hypotheses, and building towards a solution. So the [...]

Hyping right in with Kevin Hoffman and the happy cog crüe talking about projects they’ve been in that have failed, and how to identify and eliminate those f-ups in the future. They’re starting with easy-to-recover from failure. Maintain scope Don’t borrow from one budget to pay for another. Just stop, and issue something like change [...]

As noticed by Amy Cueva as we walked around Austin, looking at this bunch of oddly adorned bicyclists, there seems to be a trend this year by brands to be as silly as possible, ultimately humiliating themselves before this audience in the hopes that (I guess) people take some pity on them and buy something? [...]