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SXSW is ramping up for its 2020 conference and has announced their first wave of keynote and featured speakers. Former President and COO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé and artist and musician Kim Gordon have been set as keynote speakers while a huge roster of artists, musicians, tech leaders and storytellers have been added as featured speakers. The 34th edition of the South by Southwest Conference and Festival is slated for March 13-22, 2020.

The initial lineup of featured speakers includes a conversation between Sin City and Alita Battle Angel director Robert Rodriguez and iconic actor and comedian Cheech Marin, Fixer Upper‘s Chip & Joanna Gaines, IMDb Founder and CEO Col Needham, writer Roxane Gay, legendary musician Nile Rogers and more.

“We’re kicking off the 2020 season with a captivating group of speakers. From Keynotes Reggie Fils-Aimé, who oversaw Nintendo of America during its most successful era, and Kim Gordon, a...

Fox Business Network’s Liz Claman will host her Three Days in the Valley special starting tomorrow. Fox Business Network’s (Fbn) Liz Claman heads to Silicon Valley for “Three Days in the Valley,” an exclusive three-day behind-the-scenes look inside the high-tech capitol of the world. Starting Tuesday, September 10th , Claman will provide viewers with unprecedented access to tech industry heavyweights, up-and-comers and venture capitalists as she investigates the state of the technology business along with its new trends, products, and stars. From Fbn: Tuesday, September 10th – Thursday, September 12th; 10 Am-5 Pm Est Interviews Include: September 10th: Intel CEO Brian Krzanich; Intel Fellow and Director of Intel Labs Dr. Genevieve Bell; LUMOBack Co-Founder & CEO Monisha...

Will tech-powered cities revolutionize the way we live or hand corporations the keys to our privacy? A new study by the Rockefeller Foundation offers conclusions.

Who will own the brains of smart cities--citizens or corporations? At stake is an impending massive trove of data, not to mention issues of privacy, services, and inclusion. The battle may be fought in the streets between bands of Jane Jacobs-inspired hacktivists pushing for self-serve governance and a latter-day Robert Moses carving out monopolies for Ibm or Cisco instead of the Triborough Bridge Authority. Without a delicate balance between the scale of big companies and the Diy spirit of “gov 2.0” champions, the urban poor could be the biggest losers. Achieving that balance falls to smarter cities’ mayors, who must keep the tech heavyweights in check and “frame an agenda of openness, transparency and inclusivness.”

Those are some of the conclusions of “The Future of Cities,...

Between Google and Apple TV and a slew of Internet-enabled televisions hitting shelves this holiday season, it's only a matter of time before the keyboard replaces the remote control. Right? Not according to Intel Fellow, and Most Creative anthropologist Genevieve Bell, who, after spending years studying consumer habits, believes the PC isn't taking over the TV.

Speaking at a small Intel gathering today in New York City, Bell discussed how many companies including Intel sought to bring computers to the living room--and were met with near-universal failure.

"Do you want to live in a world where your Tivo says, I'm terribly sorry, before you can see this next show, I have to defrag myself? Or the next time your set-top box says, I know we're in the middle of the playoffs but I need new drivers--no content view until downloaded?" Bell said. "People don't want their televisions to turn into a computer.

Genevieve Bell knows your digital habits better than you do.

Genevieve Bell, Thinker in Residence at Intel, Stanford PhD in Anthropology, and all-around bad-ass technology-in-society expert, released her much-anticipated report, Getting Connected, Staying Connected: Exploring South Australia’s Digital Futures, earlier this week. Fast Company has had its eye on Dr. Bell for some time now; we chose her as one of our 100 Most Creative People in Business while she was still hard at work on the report.

Key findings from the report suggest that, as Bell told FastCompany.com, "New information and communication technologies are deeply embedded in many people’s everyday lives, but they are sharing space and attention with older, stubborn technologies like TV, radio, and newspaper."

Bell is kind of like a female version of Jan Chipchase, but for Intel. (Chipchase was formerly at Nokia and is now at Frog Design in Shanghai). She travels the...

Seventy-five percent of people feel it's just fine to use computers and cell phones on the toilet, according to a new Intel survey conducted by Harris Interactive, despite what the survey calls "hygiene considerations and awkward explanations."

 

So why do we care? Dr. Genevieve Bell, Intel's director of user experience, says this kind of information is all part of understanding how technology has become "increasingly engrained [sic] in our daily lives," and how we hapless toilet-texters are supposed to set boundaries on accessibility.

The study continues: "[M]any online adults view the need for constant connectivity as a function of expectations set by the current business culture, with 55% agreeing that the nature of business today demands people always be connected...even if it means taking a laptop on vacation or answering a call during a meal."

The study also quotes an etiquette expert from that bastion of manners, the Emily Post Institute,...