DMEC

An article I read this morning discussed Sprint’s intentions to partner with Google in a number of wireless endeavours: Sprint in Talks with Google

It seems that Sprint is open to allowing Google apps to work on their phones, with promises of a WiMax parternship sprinkled in for good measure.

With the rumors of the Gphone circulating madly, and Google’s support of an open mobile platform, it will be interesting to see how the major carriers react. During >play, Sprint VP Rick Robinson made the claim that his company was “tearing down the walls”, which certainly plays into Google’s hand.

But how will the other major players react? I guess for now, only time will tell…

Did you attend >play conference last Saturday? Would you give us your thoughts on the conference by taking this short survey?

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2273T9PHW3K

Thank you.

We do have full videos and you will soon be able to see all of them. Until them here is a slide show of many different moments at >play.

For me, one of the glaring non-features of mobile phones has been the lack of IM.  I know there are a few third party vendors that have dabbled in this area, but no one has really captured the market yet.  And sure texting gets you part of the way there, but per message fees and absence of a friend list leave it short.  Today’s launch of 3′s Skypephone finally makes this functionality a reality.  Not only can Skype users call each other for free, they can send free instant messages as well.  Hopefully this development will encourage US carriers and phones to include the feature before long.

It’s become clear to me over the past three years that >play is a totally unique event: an all-day party for digital media fanatics in the guise of an industry conference.

We had a special moment while planning this year during which we realized we’re not an industry conference (those multi-day, over-priced events in giant conference halls where everyone’s looking to sell something).  We’d been comparing our pricing to industry conferences, but suddenly realized we don’t need or care about the money: we want to attract the best and the brightest one day a year to catch up on all the changes from the previous year (April’s words from >play 2006 still ringing in my head).  Thanks to the incredibly generous support of our sponsors, we’re able to offer registration fees at a significant discount from per capita costs to run >play.  I hope every participant appreciates each sponsor’s support in making >play possible.

We are also not a conference designed specifically for students (although we do give them a break on registration fees – we’re students too so we understand the value of beer money).  We attract the professionals out there doing the real thing and making the people happy with the digital media technology.

To me, the surest sign of our success has been all the familiar faces in the crowd.  They’d had so much fun the year before – an annual dose of >play has become a staple in their lives.

It’s been such an honor and a pleasure to work with everyone involved in making this one day a year happen.  It’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish and I’m eternally grateful to our founders for the vision they had of DMEC and >play 2005.  DMEC has been my defining experience of grad school.  I’m continually blown away with the passion and organization of each of our members.  As thankful as I am to each of the organizers who took >play to the next level this year, I won’t attempt to mention each of them for fear of forgetting another.

I will offer one shout-out…as hard as we’ve all worked for the past few months, there’s one individual who’s been working hard for the past year and took the load upon her shoulders to make >play 2007 a success.  Without Myah’s leadership, there’s no doubt in my mind >play 2007 would not have happened.  Myah’s a remarkable talent – full of optimism, organizational perfection, and persistence.  I will miss being on her team and envy her future colleagues.  Here’s to you Myah!