If you run a business, and you have a website, you may or may not know whether disabled users – the blind, the mobility-impaired, and others – can access your web site with their helper technology. And, from a lawyer’s perspective, even more important, you may not know whether you are violating federal law if you fail to make your web site accessible to those disabled users.

Targeting Your Web Site: Accessibility Litigation Update

If you’re in Austin attending the South by Southwest Interactive conference this week, you’re in luck. I, along with my co-panelist Anitra Pavka, will explain how recent cases in the U.S. have changed the way disability law applies to private business websites, the potential pitfalls of violating the law, and some measures you can take immediately to make sure that your website is accessible for all users and fully complies with legal accessibility requirements.

(Room C at the Austin Convention Center, Level 1, 5:00pm, Monday March 10, 2008)

I’ve got three:

• Rage Against the Machine: RIAA Litigation Update

  The recording industry has ramped up its litigation campaign against peer-to-peer file sharing suspects, with cases now numbering in the high thousands. This session explores recent developments in the various cases nationwide and how someone caught in this driftnet litigation might defend themselves.

• Among Thieves: Preventing Online Copyright Infringement

  Digital photographers, web designers, and graphic artists are extremely vulnerable to online theft of their work. This session will explore copyright and trademark law protections for the freelancer and small-shop digital professional.

• Targeting Your Web Site: Accessibility Litigation Update

  How recent court decisions expose web site owners to liability for lack of accessibility, and how to protect yourself.

If you’re interested in any of these (or any other SxSW panels), check out the panel picker and vote.

Via Dan: Weightshift’s SXSW Recap in Infographic Form

The triumphant reunion tour of Austin has now concluded, and I have a few final words to say.

It’s all about the people. The panels are great —or more to the point, it’s great that there are panels, some of which are great themselves —but the real reason these two lawyers went to Austin the first time in 2001 was to meet some folks. And we did.

Now we’ve got more friends than we know what to do with. (Well, we always find something to do.) And that’s what keeps us coming back when we can.

Long Time Coming

This year, I met two three people I’ve admired from afar. The first was John Gruber. I was talking to MJ in the hall, when John walked up. He shook hands, and I played the fanboy. I was all like “I totally have your site in my favorites folder.” He played modest, and was like “Yeah, man, that’s cool.” And I was like, “No really, Apple r00lz!” And he was totally cool with that, and headed off to his next panel.

I figured he was just being polite. But the next day, I was elbows-deep in feces at the foot of the convention center escalator —changing Nate’s diaper —and John leaned over the rail, gave a big friendly smile, and said hi, when he totally could have pretended not to see me and had every diaper-related excuse to do it. So Gruber’s the real deal to the same degree as he is smart, even to gushy fanboys who act like ninth-graders.

The second impromptu meet-up was Maura. She was talking to fellow Wildcat and conference attendee Heath Row, who I know from back in the day, and I injected myself in the conversation. (To my surprise, the other gentleman in the conversation, Kyle, was also an NU grad. Northwestern’s got a posse, y’all.) Maura, who is smart and funny online, turns out to be smart and funny in person. Charming, too, as she proved by laughing at my jokes. Typography jokes. I pin the needle on the geek meter, y’all.

I also met, albeit briefly, Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. She doesn’t just rock, she hacks! And she’s waaaaay cute in person. (I know. I’m taken, too.)

But the meetups didn’t end there.

Long Time Gone

Standing in the Lego Pit with my kids, I saw a guy there with his kids. He looked familiar. Then I saw his name tag. Turned out we went to high school together back in Tampa. He now lives in Austin and edits the in-house magazine for the conference.

The Lego Pit brought one more surprise my way. Just we saddled up for dinner on Monday, I saw a woman come down the stairs. I saw here face and realized, “I went to school with her!” Then, “I went to Northwestern with her!” (Posse, y’all.) Then her name popped into my head. I shouted, “Natalie!” She turned around, prepared to ward off a stalker or other freak, but recognized me enough not to flee. I used to date one of her sorority sisters, and hadn’t seen her since I graduated in 1992. She wasn’t attending the conference but was there with her husband —another NU grad —who was.

Long Time, No See

I hadn’t been to SXSW for the last two years and was really looking forward to it this year. If there’s any regret I have, it’s not missing every single keynote, even the cool one. It’s that I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with most of the people I came to see. Fortunately, I did get to spend it with a handful of people I like quite a bit — and won’t list here for fear of accidentally omitting someone —so that the main goal was accomplished.

I’ve already figured out what my panel will be for next year. See you there?

NOTE: See those em-dashes? I got inspired. Use — to do it. — also supposedly works and is easier to recall.

Matt Mullenweg by Laughing Squid

As SxSWi wraps up, you may be flipping through Flickr looking for visual documentation of the event.

I’ll post links to some photo streams that have caught my eye. For instance, here’s mine.

• George Kelly
• Michael Brown
• Laughing Squid / Scott Beale

Feel free to add more in the comments.

Yesterday morning I got up from my second panel and realized my wallet was missing.

I immediately sent out a Twitter request, slightly vague, on purpose. The guy sitting behind me had found my wallet, and turned it in to the proper authorities. Then, seeing my note, he replied.

I wasn’t seeing his messages because I wasn’t following him on Twitter, but he saw my follow-up broadcast and found me in the hall anxiously talking to my wife on the phone about how to fly home without my ID. He stopped to tell me in person that he had found my wallet and turned it in. A few short minutes later, I had retrieved the lost item – cash, ID, and everything else intact, of course – and made a celebratory announcement.

At full functionality, this may be the conference equivalent of an Amber Alert, and is probably the best way I’ve yet heard of using Twitter.

UPDATE: I also want to mention that the SxSW staff took this extremely seriously and were very helpful at every opportunity – even to the point where, the day after I had found my wallet, two of the staff who had my phone number but didn’t yet know about my good news called to follow up and offer additional possible solutions. Kudos to them, too!

I’m posting this here instead of Twitter because only hard-core Wasylik fans read this site. I’ll be hooking up with some friends tonight at the Driskill Hotel, 6th and Brazos, to discuss debauchery, the Internet, and the finer points of world domination.

No RSVP required, just show up with a thirst. Look for the rowdy group in the hotel bar.

Who: Me and others
When: 8pm tonight
Where: Driskill Hotel, 6th & Brazos, Austin, TX
Why: Fun, but world domination is a nice fringe benefit
How: Harder, baby, harder.

Back From the Dead

After two years with no Wasylik delegation, this year’s SxSW Interactive festival benefits from not one, not two, but four of us joining the tribe.

Distressingly Sober

Unlike previous years, involving copious amounts of alcohol and the occasional indiscretion, we’ll be observing this year with sobriety and moderation.

I’ll wait until you’re done laughing.

No, don’t mind me. I’ll just wait.

My Wife is a Panelist. Hawt.

Done? OK, then. Yes, Dineen will be charming and informative at the same time as she presents her panel, “Journalism in the Blogosphere: A Legal Guide to Internet ‘Press’“, which you should all attend if you don’t want to get sued.

Find Me

I am looking forward to seeing old friends, introducing them to my kids, and having an overall great time, even if it won’t be hoisting tequila shots. I’ll probably just overeat instead. So if you’ll be in Austin this weekend, and want to hook up, drop me a line here or keep an eye on Twitter to see where we’re hanging.

Also, I may periodically update this blog. No, tuck away your disbelief. Add me to your favorite feed-reader to keep up with that.

If you’re not at SxSW but wish you were, here’s two ways to check out the action:

• Keynote and Panel podcasts
• Flickr photos tagged with sxsw06

Psst… Mike… that’s another reason podcasts are cool.

Krempasky’s very large PR firm is looking for communications staff.

Krempasky’s not impressed at SxSW:

Back at SXSW, sitting through a panel on podcasting – when, why, how. It’s relatively interesting – but frankly – I’ve not heard anything that distinguishes advice about podcasting from advice about broadcasting events in traditional fashion. Why does everyone seem to think that podcasting really is the GREATEST THING EVER? Yes, you make sure to record the questions – yes, you speak in a way that an audience outside the room can relate to.

First of all, Mike, remember that this panel is geared towards web people with no broadcast experience, rather than broadcast people with no web experience. Hence, the fundamental broadcasting advice.

But to answer your deeper question, podcasting differs from broadcasting in a few ways that make it important.

• Anyone can do it.

  Podcasting is to broadcasting what blogging is to print media – open to all comers, low barriers to entry, no minimum audience required to make it worthwhile. In order to get a broadcast on the air, one must convince a broadcaster to accept your content. That’s much more difficult for small, independent media makers and novices than for established media makers. Because bandwidth is cheaper than spectrum and, by comparison, infinite, even podcasts with a small audience can sustain themselves without worrying that some other, more popular cast will push them off the air.

• Podcasts are portable.

  If you want to listen to a radio broadcast, you listen to it at the time the broadcaster presents it – unless you’re taping your radio. Once it’s broadcast, it’s gone, and if you want to hear the program later, you have to find someone else who recorded it or hope it runs again later. Broadcasts require you to be available and focused on the broadcast at the time the broadcaster choses.

  Podcasts, however, are portable in time and space. You can listen to a podcast anytime you want to after downloading it, and if you missed a previous cast, you can usually download that as well. (I’m a big fan of the official Lost podcast and was able to catch up on on the previously-run podcasts after finding it.) Now that mp3 players are as cheap and available as transistor radios once were, it’s easy to catch a podcast even in a place where you might not be able to get a radio broadcast – such as a plane or a subway train.

The portability of podcasts and the low barriers to entry mean that more people can listen than otherwise might, and more people can broadcast than otherwise might. Podcasting, then, increases both the production and consumption of audio content, and enhances the long tail effect in the process. That’s what’s cool about podcasting.

Like Jason, I’m missing my second consecutive SxSW conference after attending (for me) four consecutive years.

Our stories are similar: a shift in professional emphasis combined with significant change in personal circumstances (for me, a move to Florida and the birth of my second son), resulting in us missing out on a chance to share fun times with good friends.

I’m especially bummed about missing this year because my good friend Mike Krempasky will be attending for his first time this year as a panelist. I would love to be there to share the experience with him and introduce him to all my other good friends.

So, good friends, if you’re reading this, hoist a Shiner Bock for me in the lobby bar of the Omni. And if you’re reading this and you run across this man, share a Shiner with him too.