Vote For These SXSW Panels!

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SXSW is an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, TX.

SXSW allows anyone to submit proposals for panels and presentations for the conference, and these panels are put to a public vote using the PanelPicker.

There are thousands of panels available to vote for to be included in SXSW’s 2015 slate of programming (including two that we have!) But with so many panels to sift through, which ones are worth your vote?

Here are 10 panels we think would be awesome to see. Vote using the buttons below — voting ends on Friday, September 5, 2014 at 11:59pm Central Time!

Which panels do you want to see included at SXSW 2015? Let us know in the comments!

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10 Great Sites for Multicultural Stock Photos

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A picture is worth a thousand words, and for bloggers, it’s that realization that makes stock photos such an important part of their website.

If you run a site that focuses on diversity, here are a few sites that highlight the broad spectrum of races in photography.

 

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The New African Typography

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African typography is inevitably linked in the minds of many to tribal imagery, rough lettering, and loosely geometrical features. Designers wishing to convey an African sensibility in their work through typography are often left with stereotypical choices. A search with the keyword “African” on Typekit or Font Squirrel does not yield any results. Further queries on Fonts.com and Linotype yield these choices: African Elephant Trunk, Lagos Regular, Afroflare Regular, and simply “African.” This latter font family, designed by Anton Scholtz, is by far the most popular hit as it is also present in Google fonts. The font families are predictably called African Gold, African Jungle and African Textile. Needless to say that there is a glaring gap of elegant African-inspired fonts.

So what exactly qualifies as an African font? Is such a designation necessary or even desirable? With such a vibrant culture, Africa is teeming with opportunities for designers to get inspired and bring a fresh new look to a field that can be prone to dogmatism as to what constitutes good typography. Below are some designers aiming to showcase the cultural heritage of the continent and bringing it into the digital age.

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Revision Path on “The Digital Life with Kevin Lockett”!

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I recently talked with Kevin Lockett for his podcast The Digital Life with Kevin Lockett.

Here’s the description:

On this episode, Kevin Lockett talks to Maurice Cherry about his Revision Path podcast. During their discussion, Maurice talks about creating his company 3eighteen media, launching the Black Weblog Awards, hearing the criticism he had to deal with promoting African-Americans in technology and how Dwayne Wayne from A Different World played a part in his tech career.

I had a great time talking with Kevin. Make sure to check out his podcast at digitalkev.com. Thanks for the opportunity Kevin!

Listen To The Interview Here!

Vote for Our Presentations at SXSW!

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Big news! We have submitted two proposals for presentations for SXSW 2015 (Interactive and SXSWedu) and they are included in the SXSW PanelPicker!

We need your help to make sure these presentations included in SXSW’s programming for next year. Public voting accounts for 30% of the decision-making process for inclusion, and it’s an extremely competitive process.

So how can you help? By voting for our panels on the SXSW PanelPicker and leaving a comment! Here’s how to do it.

  1. Go to https://auth.sxsw.com/users/sign_in and sign in. If you do not have an account, click the “Create Account” link under that big blue button to create your free account. You will receive a confirmation email to activate your account.
  2. Once your account has been activated, enter your email address and password at https://auth.sxsw.com/users/sign_in and click the big blue “Sign in” button.
  3. You’re now on the main SXSW PanelPicker page. You can click the “Search/Vote” link to search for our presentation names, or visit our voting pages directly (see links below).
  4. Once you are on the voting page for the presentation, click the thumbs up icon to cast your vote. You can also leave a comment on this page as well (the more positive comments, the better).
  5. That’s it! Your vote has been cast for our presentation! Thank you!

Voting ends on September 5, 2014 at 11:59pm CDT. Check after the jump for our presentation descriptions and links directly to the voting pages. What panels are you voting for to be included at SXSW 2015? Let us know in the comments!

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