Suddenly, half of America has a games device in their pocket. This panel examines what the ubiquity of mobile means for the future of the videogame medium.

Moderator: Matthew Bellows GM, Floodgate

The popularity of web applications with a social context has exploded in the last year. This session will look at how social interaction can be applied to a brands online presence to generate a deeper connection with the customer. We will discuss what can be learned from these interactions, how market research can be conducted, and how a brand can enter the conversation without turning its audience off.

Will advertising drive adoption of mobile data and WAP services, or stonewall growth as carriers goose subscribers for more fees, while clogging data pipes and cluttering user experiences on the handset? Do consumers really want an all-in-one media and communication device? Won't enthusiasts choose the BEST device for the media over an all-in-one solution? Challenges around delivering that device are discussed including battery life, storage capacity, and user experience.

Videos are becoming ubiquitous in higher education -- in classrooms, in distance learning, and in presentations of university events for audiences worldwide. But how effectively is this media being used? As user participation flourishes in YouTube, Wikipedia, and iTunes, it is time for a breakthrough in video-based education. What kinds of hybrids will emerge when educational video breeds with participatory media?

Online video isn't all about goofy homemade footage. As online video matures, it's become a powerful vehicle for instructional content from Photoshop training, to do-it-yourself projects, to product demos. Come explore how it's done and how you can cash in on the growing popularity of instructional video online. What's the best model for distributing your instructional videos? How can you monetize your instructional videos? How important are production values? A couple of leading producers of instructional video take you behind the scenes for the inside scoop.

With the unprecedented accessibility of recorded music, how can we discover that hot new band when there are millions of possibilities at our fingertips? Fortunately, many companies address this very question. Find out which service creates playlists worthy of a veteran DJ, and which service recommends tracks like an iPod set on shuffle as they battle it out in the ultimate playlist smackdown. Based on audience feedback, trophies will be awarded.

Moderator: Colin Brumelle Prod Mgr, Bryght

In competition, they'll kick your *!*#$. In real life, they're master marketers. Learn how girl gamers promote their teams to gain members, publicity, and break down barriers. From word of mouth to sponsorships to appearances and more, girl video game teams are making headway in a male dominated field. Learn from these successful marketers how to market your company and grow your audience. It's real advice from real marketers.

Moderator: Joel Greenberg Sr Planner, The Electric Sheep Company

Broke, but have delusions of grandeur? In the past, this meant perpetual disappointment, but today, a hundred bucks and a couple of cajones can get you far. Learn how to start an Internet business on a shoestring; heck, a broken shoestring. Ideas, tips, tactics and more from people who have done it.

The explosive evolution of online collectivism should and will be leveraged to make business and political decisions. In this presentation, Amy Vickers will discuss the pros and cons of various forms of online collectives, blog networks (9Rules Network), prediction markets (CrowdIQ and Hollywood Stock Exchange), and even microfinance collectives (Kiva.org). She also will provide a framework for selecting the best solution for your needs.

Blogger Hugh MacLeod has espoused the notion of "The Global Microbrand" or a small, tiny brand that sells globally. The Global Microbrand is nothing new but with the advent of the Internet and blogging it's much easier for merchents and even consultants to reach a global audience. For many, blogging is an avenue to creating a personal Global Microbrand and getting off of the corporate hamster wheel. This panel will focus on the two most well known stories -- English Cut and Stormhoek -- showing how blogging has changed the rules and allowed small players to break out and play to a global audience.

Moderator: Hugh MacLeod Blogger, gapingvoid.com

Many great art, book and manuscript collections survive because an individual had the foresight or good luck to save the good stuff. Libraries and museums owe a debt to individual dealers, collectors and packrats for saving illustrated Czarist plate books from the Soviets, and WWII letters from the trash-heap. Who are today's collectors? What are they preserving? How will they manage fragile born-digital collections long enough share with future generations?

Moderator: Carrie Bickner Web Developer, The New York Public Library

Over the years, Central Texas has emerged as the mecca of massively multiplayer game development. Why did this happen and what does this mean? How will the massively multiplayer market change in the next five to ten years -- and, assuming such changes occur, will Austin be able to retain it's position as the geographical leader of this genre?

Moderator: Gordon Walton Co-Studio Dir, BioWare Austin

The television viewers of today are demanding greater choice, flexibility, and access. At the same time, the central technologies for building and maintaining social networks around the world are the phone and the Internet. Frog design has reconciled both trends and developed the vision of a supermodal Zoomable User Interface (ZUI) that fundamentally changes the way viewers navigate and make choices.It breaks up today's grid-based EPG templates and assembles content in accordance with relevance to user-chosen topics and interests. ZUI 'opens up' television by offering thumbnail image menus in four margins around the screen thus allowing the viewer to continue watching the current show while considering other options. Beyond each menu is a grid with thumbnails suggesting further programs; for instance beyond the recommendation margin menu is a recommendation grid which suggests programs viewers are likely to be interested in based on their previous viewing history. This presentation will introduce this groundbreaking interface and discuss if it provides the metaphor for the TV experience of the future.

Combinatorial media has emerged as a new form of interaction design. It may be customized to a variety of contexts and retransmitted as a form of social currency. This panel will look at the emergence of combinatorial media forms, interactive offerings that are highly structured and designed, but are intended to be repurposed and altered by their audience. These forms blur the distinctions between conventional interactive content and home-made content through a variety of novel technologies and techniques.

Moderator: Sean Uberoi Kelly , eTonal

This panel will bring together representatives of the browser groups at Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera. All of these companies currently participate in the W3C's standardization initiatives around "next generation" APIs and formats. But we once all feuded bitterly -- the panelists should know, since many of them are veteran browser wars combattants. Have we all grown up now? And, given proprietary developments (e.g. Microsoft's XAML) where's the Web *really* going?

Moderator: Arun Ranganathan , AOL

This panel presents and discusses unique aspects of the design issues and technologies involved in developing "pervasive electronic games." Pervasive electronic games are experiences that move game play into the real world, outside of the usual venues in which electronic gaming occurs. Moving from sedentary venues (living room, video game parlors) into more quotidian spaces is made possible by the proliferation of mobile communications devices, ubiquitous network access, global position sensing and electronic location tagging.

Moderator: Julian Bleecker , USC Interactive Media Division and The Near Future Laboratory

How will information survive? Will digital archiving keep our information and memories intact, or will we lose more bits than we save? What do books mean in the digital age? Will old time publishing survive? Who are the real bookmakers today? What does it mean today that anyone can be their own publisher?

Moderator: Peter Merholz President/Co-Founder, Adaptive Path

In 2006 the Internet reached one billion users for the first time. Although this is an impressive and significant milestone, a billion people still make up only 16 per cent of the world's population. Moreover, the people who are not yet online tend to be quite different than those already using the Internet, in terms of their locations, their incomes, and their education and literacy. Nevertheless, the billlions of people in poor countries are increasingly in the fastest-growing economies, what economists and business leaders call "emerging markets." And there is a near-universal demand for communications technologies. In fact, 2006 is also the first year in which the mobile telephone business will sell one billion handsets in a single year. Most of the growth in mobile telephony is coming from the developing world.The computer industry is beginning to adapt to the conditions of emerging markets in Brazil, India, China, Russia, Latin America and Africa. New devices are appearing, such as Advanced Micro Devices' Personal Internet Communicator, or the low-cost laptop computer developed by the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child. Some countries are pushing free, Open Source software such as the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Others are experimenting with new technologies for connectivity, such as wireless or even asynchronous "data mules." Over the past two years there has been a burst of innovation in IT solutions for developing countries, and, for the first time, IT companies are beginning to view the poorest half of the world as a market opportunity of immense significance. International organizations such as the United Nations are also now committed to bringing the Internet to the entire world's population.The panel on "Finding the Next Billion Internet Users" will look at the challenges and opportunities of this new effort of introducing and sustaining Internet use in the developing world. The panelists will discuss the current picture in developing countries, and some of the more successful strategies for bringing the next billion users online.

Moderator: Gary Chapman Sr Lecturer, The University of Texas at Austin

Experts in direct response marketing andrelationship marketingdiscuss howto usesimple relationship marketing techniques and copy writing to dramatically increaseyour client base. We will also addressthe topic of direct response marketingvs. relationship marketing.

Moderator: Jen Blackert Mktg Consultant, Unstuck Marketing

This panel intends to explore the product lifecycle (or lack thereof) within very small software development shops.The goal is to explore the experiences of successful small developers and discuss the design process. Panelists will represent significantly different platforms and technologies to give a broad set of (hopefully) differing opinions.

Moderator: Michael Lopp Sr Engineering Mgr, Apple