dConstruct 2011

I'm fairly certain that me and @wiscombe are BFFs now. Pretty excited about that, as it happens.

There was a fairly weird response to dConstruct this year. Last year set the bar so high (Merlin Fucking Mann, anyone?!) that it was pretty unreasonable to expect this year to be as good. You can call me wrong if you want, Jeremy, but it wasn't. Some talks didn't have enough time (to the fault and credit of the speaker) and some had way too much. Some waffled on without so much as a water biscuit to feed my thoughts and some were over-self-indulgent (if entertaining) and directionless.

With the bad out of the way, Kelly Goto is amazing. She had a lovely story and was engaging and entertaining. I was lost in time whilst she was talking and upset when she skipped through some seriously interesting-looking slides.

Frank Chimero is a rockstar. He has the huge, effortless, accessible lexicon that he seemingly whimsically dips into and pulls out perfect words and a flawless delivery. He spoke as a bewildered user, suggesting that we've all collected enough awesome stuff online and conjectured that it's about time we started making the stuff we already know is awesome more accessible. He made some excellent points and I felt really inspired to build something whilst he was talking and when he was done.

Matthew Sheret talks my language. He's in love with the things he carries in his pocket and he's a total nerd. I had some interesting ideas off the back of his talk and I'm looking forward to getting an Arduino, a bunch of RFID chips and scanners and making something cool for my key-ring (yes, Benjie. Let's do it). He linked our personal associations with the things we register just before the front door closes to totems in Inception, Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver and a material symbol of ourselves and what's important to us. You're not clearer-defined by anything more than the things you simply cannot go anywhere without, right?

And now, some photos that are chronologically and/or geographically linked to the event. They're irrelevant in every other way.

James Moss has this amazing face that I always want to point my camera at. Just look at him. What a dish.

Pete and Craig smugged it up with these ridiculously cool MailChimp hats that I just missed out on.