LMedia

It’s hard to believe ONA11 Boston is a week away. I still remember crawling out of bed Sunday, Oct. 31 2010, in disbelief that the conference was over and I was still alive. There was certainly a Rally to Restore Sanity last year and this time it had nothing to do with the future of journalism.

Journalism was more alive and sane than it had been in years in Washington, D.C. last year. You will not be disappointed this year either. You’ll find the drum beating louder than ever at the Boston Marriott Copley. As mentioned in the September American Journal Review, “It’s important to note that we banned the phrase ‘future of’ anything this year,” says Jane McDonnell, ONA’s executive director.

The term wasn’t banned because we gave up on the future, the term was banned, “because journalism has already entered that future.”

After six months of planning, I finally got a chance to really absorb what programming was offered this year. There are a lot of do not miss sessions. I thought I’d outline a few I’m really looking forward to attending.

On Thursday, Brian Boyer and Ryan Mark of the Chicago Tribune are leading a session on agile product design and product management. They’ll share insights on scoping, scheduling and executing on projects in an agile-inspired, iterative-driven fashion. The Tribune news apps team has served as a model for many in the digital products space so I’m really looking forward to meeting Brian and Mark. Also, I’m hoping to learn more about the plans for the PANDA Project.

After the agile session, I’ll be helping with the event planning and volunteer coordination. However, if I get a chance, I’m going to sneak into the career summit to see Juana Summers speak at 3:30 p.m. on the Workin’ It panel. Juana was my intern at WaPo.com. I knew then she’d be my boss one day. If you need some inspiration, head to Salon H-K to feed off the energy of this panel of young professional rockstars.

Friday kicks off bright and early with Vivek Kundra, who served the Obama administration as the first federal Chief Information Officer. Even though this is a fantastic start to the day, admittedly, I’m most excited to hear the lunchtime conversation on the role social media played on both sides in Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya with Andy Carvin of NPR and Jen Preston of The New York Times.

Other sessions I’m really looking forward to include Amy Webb’s famous tech talk and the session on making it work with a small staff. There is a great story to tell about Technically Philly and Sean Blanda tells it well. I’m hoping Sean will just livestream Amy’s talk on Technically Philly so I can watch both sessions simultaneously.

The day winds down (or gets started for some) with a Cheezburger and maybe an update from Ben Huh on the Moby Dick Project? Also, a cold beverage with our SND friends at the Back Bay Social Club.

Teresa Hanafin of Boston.com brewed up a special treat for Saturday. You will not want to miss the The Real World Boston: Augmented Social Experiences.

My must see Saturday session is Journalists Behind Bars. Dorothy Parvaz of Al Jazeera English; John Yemma of The Christian Science Monitor; and James Foley of the GlobalPost (via Skype) continue our conversation around the Arab Spring with a discussion about their experience being held captive. It’s an honor to get the opportunity to listen to the stories of these journalists inperson.

As others share their lists, I’ll update this post with their recommendations. I can’t wait to see everyone in Boston!

For the second year in a row, I headed to Whitefish, Montana to spend a week with the Sievers. This is why I will be going back again.

Hellfire from Vksiev on Vimeo

Race day eve always looks the same. This year, it’s complimented by the Butler/VCU game, but nonetheless, it’s the same.

Protein shake at 4. Pasta at 7. Between 4 & 7, the playlist is built. This year, I had assistance from a digital dudette. Although some of the songs were not really my style, I did find some gems in this list.

Therefore, I thought I’d pay it forward and share my CUCB 2011 playlist here. I’m hoping to cross the finish line rawking out to Little Lion Man or Bleed it Out.

At SXSWi, Lynn Teo, creative director & head of user experience at AKQA, chose 80 iPad apps to share with a packed ballroom, critiquing each one based on four considerations: size, shape, form and mechanics.

The key takeaway from this session for me was her effort to articulate through various examples “form informs function.” The slides from Sunday’s presentation are not available, but the AKQA Interface Design Practices are in a Scribd doc. In this document, this concept is addressed.

Visual design is not functional design. Simplicity and ease of use are much more important than visual complexity. Do not sacrifice function for form.

One way to do this, is by bringing elements of the real world into your application said Teo. A great example of this is Audi’s iPad application, which launches you into a showroom. This real-world experience is one most of us can pull from the memory bank. Navigational elements move you around the virtual showroom just as you would in the physical space.

Another way to bring clean, simplistic navigational elements and visuals into your app is by turning back the clock and using a table of contents, or directory, at launch. The Museum of Modern Art does this well by using its physical space as the table of contents for the application. In reviewing the app, Rudy Pastore said, “this is the information age at its best” and the app “brings [the] museum to life in your hands.”

The Pulse was also mentioned for its use of a table of contents and Wired for its use of layers.

Simply put, a clean, simplistic, utilitarian design is beautiful. We could all learn something from Instagram and how to elegantly execute ideas.

If digital is the future, and this showed up on my web portal when I logged in at the hotel last weekend, does this mean the business traveler has a new best friend in CNN?