My Interview with Brian Goldfarb

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Brian Goldfarb, Group Product Manager of the UX Platform and Tools Strategy group at Microsoft. We spoke in Orlando after his keynote speech.

We chatted about multimedia, creative teams, designers, developers, Silverlight, desk clutter and endless email sessions.

See my recent coverage of his presentation, including Silverlight video of the whole talk.

My Interview with Michael Jahn

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing a true industry veteran, Michael Jahn. He's a printing industry consultant, color specialist, PDF evangelist and glob-trotting presenter. He's also a surfer, goof-ball and trickster.

We talked about what's changed for content creators, designers and publishers in the last 20 years. He's been involved with PDF since it was just "P" (for postscript). He describes why now is one of the most exciting times ever for digital publishing.

We spoke in Orlando just before his CRE8 presentation entitled, "What Color is Your Cheese Doodle?"

To learn more about the CRE8 Conference on Creativity & Technology, see my posts from the show.

To enter the mind of Mr. Jahn, view his blog.

This video is presented using the Veoh service. Learn more about Michael Eisner and his connection to this company.

The Conference on Creativity & Technology

Highlight video of our recent trip to the CRE8 Conference in Orlando this spring.

Microsoft Silverlight Presentation by Brian Goldfarb part 1

(Install Silverlight to view this video.)

The video above is part one of a keynote speech given by Brian Goldfarb of Microsoft at the 2008 CRE8 Conference. I attended the conference in Orlando and you can review my earlier posts from the show.

A cultural change is afoot at Microsoft, where the oft-neglected designer is finally getting a long-craved-for hug from the Borg. This time it really seems like they are serious about respecting user experience and good human-computer interface design best practices. For instance, Microsoft is part of the OpenAjax Alliance and they have even launched a full-on designer community.

Check out his presentation to learn about Microsoft's new approach to the entire "ecosystem of developers" which involves "collaboration between teams of partners". Microsoft is not only trying to provide tools to do tasks, but they are also addressing the need for workflow solutions. How do teams work closely together, freely exchanging ideas, files and deliverables? With the new products, a designer can open up a project that has been coded by a developer and vice versa.

Goldfarb leads teams dedicated to building upon Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), their unified application framework. Among other things, it allows developers to apply basic windows functionality (like spell check) into multimedia applications.

He spoke broadly about general changes in Microsoft culture and practice. He mentioned that their server is now standards-based, and the "browser is getting better, I promise".

He shared a variety of example Silverlight sites from their Gallery, including Break.com, HSN,and the mind-bending "Deep Zoom" technology on the Hard Rock Cafe site.

At the time of this presentation, Microsoft was seeing over one million downloads a day of the Silverlight plug-in.

The new products support HD video, adaptive streaming solutions, XAML, and DRM-ready features. Read my post about a recent all-day Silverlight training event I attended at Microsoft to learn more about all this stuff.

Goldfarb stressed that they are building demand. Now they need creative people to develop the supply. To that end, they are offering 10 gigs of free hosting! The video above takes advantage of this. They are encouraging the developer network by providing a free place to get started.

Silverlight is driving plugin adoption by offering content developers a free hosting and streaming service: "Microsoft® Silverlight™ Streaming by Windows Live™ is a companion service for Silverlight that makes it easier for developers and designers to deliver and scale rich media as part of their Silverlight applications. The service offers web designers and developers a free and convenient solution for hosting and streaming cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences and rich interactive applications that run on Windows™ and Mac."

Cre8 Day 3: Michael Eisner, the Master Digital Story-Teller

Yesterday the Cre8 Conference kicked off with keynote speaker Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney. He is a consummate story teller and master business man. Here are some of the creative ideas he shared.

Think inside the box.
Make sure the box is the right size.
Micromanage it.

Eisner is a notorious micro manager. Often this is a negative connotation, but for him it worked. He even called the front desk of our resort this week to complain about the shampoo and conditioner. Where were the easily-readable designs he instituted during his all-seeing reign?

He had great stories of his film-world adventures. There were the flops like 1980's "Raise the Titanic". Producer Lord Lew Grade once said of the over-budget fiasco, "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic."

There were the hits like "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Apparently that scene where Indiana Jones shoots the sword fighter came about because Harrison Ford had digestive problems as they were getting ready to shoot the final fight scene. Spielberg finally said, "Oh, just shoot him and you can go home." And thus was born a classic comedic scene where once was a planned battle scene.

He's doing some exciting things now-a-days. His new company Tornante is making short-form entertainment for digital distribution on mobile and Internet platforms. His son makes advertisements and is spending $1.3 million for 30 seconds. Eisner and his new stripped-down crew are spending $1,200 for 30 seconds. He called the Internet "creative experimentation." He's making "story-driven Internet video." Tornante is creating series like "Prom Queen" thru his company Vuguru.

He's a major stake-holder in Veoh, one of the top 30 sites in the US and the video site with the longest "engagement metrics" (people watching videos for more minutes than other sites). He also recently bought Tops, and is re-vamping the 50 year old brand best known for baseball cards and Bazooka Joe.

He talked about consistency and managing every little detail. Find out what the brand stands for and what it doesn't stand for. How big is the box? When he joined Disney, the international division was translating/dubbing the films with startling inconsistency. Huey, Dewey and Lewie were often being voiced by the same actor. Mickey had a different voice (and thus personality) in every country. By the time he left, you could barely tell the international versions of the films apart except that the characters were speaking in different languages.

He quoted famous industrialist Thomas J. Watson who once said "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate." Eisner also said that "to punish failure is a good way to encourage mediocrity. Fearful people will settle for mediocrity."

He sounds like he is having fun. He says he's making it up as he goes along. The Internet is a story-driven medium. He is a self-described Internet addict. He's helping to create a new form of distribution and learning how to generate programming for the Internet. His vision for the next 20 years is that digital is the place to be, the Internet will overtake all mediums as the distribution platform for modern story-tellers.

Cre8 Day 3: More People I've Met

As begun in yesterday's post, here are some more people I recently interviewed at the Cre8 Conference. Video and more faces to come. Meet the modern digital creatives.

Brian Goldfarb
Keynote Speaker, Microsoft Group Product Manager covering Silverlight, Expression Studio, WPF and more. High-adrenalin evangelist. Loves rain.



Christopher Smith
Cre8 Creator. AGI founder. Quark veteran. Author. Really loves hearing Disney tunes in the bathroom all week.



Alex Hamilton
Director of Business Development for Enfocus publishing software. Tools for digital designers.



Stay tuned for the interviews...

Cre8 Day2: People I've Met

I wanted to do a series of interviews similar to a guy I admire, Studs Terkel (see my recent post about him). I essentially wanted to use the opportunity of the Cre8 conference to talk to people about their jobs, what they like about their work, and what drives them crazy. I had a great time interviewing a variety of people in the digital marketing, desktop publishing and graphic design industries today. The video from these interviews will be available on this blog soon.

Here are a few of the people I met:

Michael Jahn
Graphic Communications industry visionary, surfer, globe-trotting presenter/performer, trickster.



Lesa Snider King
Entrepreneur, presenter, author, radio personality, motorcycle enthusiast, Led Zeppelin fan.



Ken Reeser
Sales representative for one of the coolest products ever, the Wacom Cintiq. Native Floridian. Former Apple deal maker.



James Healy
Inventor, tinkerer, entrepreneur. Founded the handy and necessary service FormRouter. Woulda been a dirt bike rider had it not been for all this computer stuff.



Ed Krug
Consultant, leader, guy who knows the ins and outs of the creative agency business first hand. Optimizer and fixer.



Stay tuned for mini-documentaries about what it's like to work in creative services, digital marketing and content development jobs.

Cre8 Day 2: Conference Music

Live and unLive music from the conference happenings. More peeks at Fred Gerantabee and band later (below, top).

Cre8 Day1: Have a Magical Day

We shot straight from Seattle to Orlando in under 5 hours. Practically the longest flight you can take from Seattle and still be in the continental US of A.

Lots of folks arriving at the resort all night and partying with Mickey at the pirate-themed open bar social. We met folks from Illinois, New York, Texas and Redmond, WA. They are from companies like Wacom, Microsoft, Adobe, Quark and countless other design agencies.

We are fully in the belly of Disney World now. There is no turning back. There is something perverse about being in a fantasy land for a business trip. For example, the cable for my internet connection was damaged so I called for a new one. Moments later someone arrived at my door, handed me the cable and said, "Thank you sir. Have a magical day."

(The view outside my room at 12:15am EST.)

Cre8 Conference for Creative Professionals

I'm off to Orlando, Florida for The Cre8 Conference. I'll post from the land of giant mice and plentiful oranges as I find wifi. Also I'll be capturing a lot of video and photos that will appear in the coming weeks on this blog after we sift it and edit it.

See and Hear Creative Leaders
"Come see Michael Eisner, former CEO of the Walt Disney Companies as he leads an all-star cast of creative, marketing, design, and communications professionals speaking at the 2008 Conference. You’ll discover useful information, including trends and tactics that you can take back to help improve the efficiency, creativity, and competitiveness of your organization."

I'll be staying in a fantasy land called the Disney Coronado Springs Resort. I love Seattle, but I need some sun.