The Queen City has an excessive amount of publications. In addition to the city’s long standing staple, Creative Loafing, several other mags grace the entrance ways of local hotspots. The ones I most frequently run into are Uptown Magazine, Amps 11, and QZ (Queen Zine).

Uptown Mag has incredible printing quality and features a nice, glossy cover, however; it’s totally a front for the Real Estate Market…ads abound. I know that they need to pay the bills, I just wish they would replace the latest spread about “Condos Starting at the 200s” with some good substance. They do get props on the most recent issue for featuring Jim McGuire photography.

Amps 11…poor Amps 11. The layouts are just unbearable. The content is somewhat compelling in and it’s impressive how they break down every show in the region in a comprehensive show calendar. But I just can’t myself more than 10 minutes with the excessive use of fonts, red ink, and poorly placed advertising.

With it’s rauncy typographic placements and Enquirer style compositions, QZ is one of the strongest examples of smart editorial layout in all of BankTown. Little Shiva knows her hierarchy. The text is well balanced with the accompanying art and the columns aren’t ruined with a random jut-out from an ad. Uptown Mag recently agreed. Check out the Little Shiva table of contents in the May 2006 issue.

Jordan Stone (wefail, sofake), the most professional and kind human on the planet, rocked out the South by Southwest Web Awards again in 2006. His site for eminem was a winner in the Music and People’s Choice categories duplicating his 2005 accolades.

Mr. Stone also won for Best Acceptance Speech for appropriately pissing off all the bloggers.

Our friends at Interactive Knowledge were nominated in the Art Category for Off the Map, but the AIGA Design Archives took the home the award.

~ David Tisdale

As I was putting together my calendar for SXSW Interactive 2006 I kept bumping into two key terms that are currently floating around the web world: “Web 2.0″ and “Digital Convergence”.

Web 2.0
A buzzword marking the Internet industry’s transition from the dot-com era. Whereas dot-coms attempted to take a brick-and-mortar operation — such as a bookstore — and replicate it online, Web 2.0 companies draw on the Internet’s vast pool of information and technical resources to deliver new user experiences.

My Thoughts:
Recognizing one’s weaknesses and using resources to compensate for them is a crucial tool in owning a new-media business. As long as accountability is present, everything is kosher…I’m proud to proclaim that this blog was a pre-built application called WordPress.

The implications of Web 2.0 vary. An inexperienced internet business could thrive by using (and reselling) open-source applications and design templates. Developing a conceptual and unique product is out the window. While a new media specialist could utilize the resouces to deliver a product that is far superior, and cheaper, than what could be developed from scratch with a large inhouse workforce.

Digital Convergence
A concept that was born during the dot-com era but is just now becoming a reality. The process by which all these separate media become digital and come to be delivered via the global network is known as Digital Convergence. i.e. Books, photographs, movies, televisions, stereo systems, letters, post cards, baby pictures, billboards, telephones, fax machines.

My Thoughts:
Acquiring tangible items is a basic need for all humans. True, this might evolve into a need for more data and a screen to look at, however, the suggestion that books will be extinct is pretty bold. All information is not on the internet and getting it there will be a long time coming. Go to a library. Travel. Shake hands with a person.

The most important aspect of Digital Convergence is the impact on Communication and Knowledge. Communication becomes easier which makes the world much smaller. Knowledge becomes broader and brighter which makes the world better.

~ David Tisdale