Matt Webb - Web Directions South 09 opening keynote

• In: Blog
• By: Maxine
• August 25, 2009

The final keynote for Web Directions South 2009 has just been announced: be there on the morning of Thursday October 8 to see what we know will be an exciting and inspirational opening keynote from England’s own Matt Webb.

Matt will be joining an already terrific lineup:

• local hero Cameron Adams talking about Google Wave at the end of day 1
• design ethnographer Kelly Goto explaining WorkFLOW at the start of day 2
• urban informatics consultant Dan Hill giving our closing keynote.

Matt is CEO of the design shop Schulze & Webb, which has a special focus on the social life of stuff. Projects include material prototypes for Nokia, Web strategy for the BBC, and an electronic puppet that brings you closer to your friends. Intrigued? He’s going to be speaking on the ever so slightly inscrutable topic of “Escalante”.

The long run to the turn of the millennium got us preoccupied with conclusions. The Internet is finally taken for granted. The iPhone is finally ubiquitous computing come true. Let’s think not of ends, but dawns: it’s not that we’re on the home straight of ubicomp, but the beginning of a century of smart matter. It’s not about fixing the Web, but making a springboard for new economies, new ways of creating, and new cultures.

The 21st century is a participatory culture, not a consumerist one. What does it mean when small teams can be responsible for world-size effects, on the same playing field as major corporations and government? We can look at the Web - breaking down publishing and consuming from day zero - for where we might be heading in a world bigger than we can really see, and we can look at design - playful and rational all at once - to help us figure out what to do when we get there.

Check out his recent presentation from Reboot, which is what got us inspired to contact him, follow Matt on Twitter, and see you at 9am on October 8 at Web Directions South :)

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