Once again, we had another great BIL Conference! This year’s was a bit smaller due to some last minute hiccups (like moving the event forward a day), but it was still a wonderful experience.

BIL 2010 By the Numbers

• Speakers: 30
• Attendees: 200
• Livestream Viewers – simultaneous: 1,000
• Livestream Viewers – total: 50,000

Articles

• Christina Gagnier: A BIL and TED Excellent Adventure – Huffington Post
• 3rd Annual BIL Un-Conference – 562 City Life
• Steve Jurvetson’s Talk @ BIL Conference
• BIL 2010 Participants Welcome
• BIL and the Future
• The Elephants in the Room at TED – Robert Scoble (brief mention, but great post)

Photos on Flickr tagged BIL10 (see the sidebar)

Videos on Youtube

If you have an article or video you’d like added, post a comment or email me.

Thanks again to the whole BIL Community for putting together BIL 2010, and we’ll see you back in Long Beach next year.

The ’structured’ talks have ended and BILians have broken up into groups around Long Beach and LA. Sunday is a half hour away, and there are a variety of options to join on.

There appears to be three popular main options for Sunday — Visiting a Rube Goldberg Machine, Hike the Geek, and Whale watching.

Rube Goldberg Machine, 11 AM, Near Echo Park in Los Angeles
OK Go, a top group of musicians and Syyn Labs, a group of astounding engineers, teamed up to create a large-scale Rube Goldberg Machine for a video. One of the designers has agreed to give a talk about the design and construction of complex chain reactions. The talk will also include a tour of the Rube Goldberg Machine. The number of participants for this is limited by space, so please RSVP to oddboy@gmail.com if you would like to come and you’ll receive an address to show up at (confirmation e mails will go out at 10 AM).

An LA Times Article about the Machine, “A walk through OK Go’s new music video death machine”
One of their early videos…
Another popular video…

Hike The Geek, 12:30 PM, Bolsa Chica Wetlands
Hike The Geek is an attempt to increase Vitamin D production in, well, geeks. It’s one of the most intellectually stimulating events in the Los Angeles area, while remaining moderately physical. This week the organizers are catering to the BIL community by putting the hike near BIL.

http://www.hikethegeek.com/LA/

Directions From BIL, head south on East 2nd St to the Pacific Coast Highway. Continue South on PCH unitl Warner Ave. Take a Left on Warner Ave., and an immediate right into the Bolsa Chica parking lot.
The Good Free Parking, although may be crowded.

The Bad On Sundays, open from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm

Notes Bordered on one side by Pacific Coast Highway and oil fields and houses on the other, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve wetlands is a 300 acre coastal sanctuary for wildlife and migratory birds. There’s a wooden bridge crossing over a tidal inlet and a 1.5 mile loop trail providing spectacular wildlife viewing.

Whale Watching, 3:00 PM, Long Beach
It’s whale migration season and Long Beach is one of the best places to watch the whales, dolphins, and sea lions. In addition, a number of talks will be taking place on the boat on the way out and from the whale watching areas. Todd Huffman will be talking about the role crowd sourced communications played in Afghanistan and Haiti.

To attend this event purchase a ticket from the whale watching company: http://is.gd/8lCcu

If you have other activities you’d include BILians in please make notes on the wiki: http://bilconference.pbworks.com/BILxOutside

(Post rideshares as well)

Post what activity you’re going to be doing on Twitter with the #BIL10 hashtag, and @ www.twitter.com/bilconf to get it reTweeted.

Thanks!

BIL

Check the wiki for events during and after BIL this weekend. Some events being planned:

Whale Watching (Saturday and Sunday)

Aquarium (Saturday and Sunday)

Queen Mary (Saturday and Sunday)

Scottish Festival (Saturday and Sunday)

Saturday Night – Club Nights, Dancing (Saturday)

Ad Hoc Medical Study (Saturday Lunch)

Walking Tour of Signal Hill (Sunday, 11:00 — 1:00)

LA Street Food Festival (Saturday @ 1:30pm)

BIL Breakfast @ Starling Diner?? (Saturday @ 8:00 am)

If there’s something you’d like to do, add it!

BIL2010 starts tomorrow.  Doors open at 9 a.m. on Friday, and it’s a rush of ideas through Saturday, and then we’re spilling out into Long Beach through Sunday.  This e mail is to equip you with the facts you need to get the most out of this intense event.

“Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.”
–General Omar Bradley

Participate online
Our twitter hashtag is #bil10
Watch the livestream of the talks here.

Sleep:
There are several hotels within walking distance:
Wiki: http://bilconference.pbworks.com/Where-To-Stay

Travel:
LGB is the closest airport, LAX is good (SNA OK-ish)
Driving, 405 to 710 South, streets from there.  Public transport good too.
Wiki:  http://bilconference.pbworks.com/getting-there

Food:
Dinner + Reception Friday and Saturday at Rock Bottom Brewery
Wiki:  http://bilconference.pbworks.com/Evening-Activities

Parking and Venue:
We’ve got a bunch of parking spots at the MOLAA.  After that, the street.
Please as always, carpooling is best!!!
Wiki:  http://bilconference.pbworks.com/BIL-Venue
Pics of Venue: http://2010.bilconference.com/2010/02/physical-space/

Museum of Latin American Art
628 Alamitos Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90802-1513
Google Map

The Schedule:
The schedule is up: m.bilconference.com/
The start time has been moved to 9 a.m. to fit in more awesome talks
The schedule was decided by a super secret cabal of Illuminati
Mistakes were probably made — the schedule will change
If you have questions, ping oddboy@gmail.com

Want to speak?  There’s still time! Speaker Signup
Join the Ranks of our Speakers!  http://2010.bilconference.com/category/speakers/

JIL, Feminine Perspective
JIL is a BIL, but with less male engineers:  http://www.JILconference.com/

DIY Filming
BIL needs some volunteer videographers to document their experience
They will get a FREE HD FlipCam, courtesy of Google Sidewiki
Want one?  http://2010.bilconference.com/2010/02/the-google-sidewiki-bil-2010-challenge/

BILxOutside
In protest of chairs, Todd Huffman is giving his talk on a whale watching boat:  http://bilconference.pbworks.com/Whale-Watching

Tired of sitting still?  Do something at BILxOutside: http://bilconference.pbworks.com/BILxOutside

About the Talk
So when Santa delivered this pine box and electric screwdriver, I was very curious…And delighted to find a gonzo huge rocket motor… a bit over 8 ft. tall. For context, the largest motor I have launched so far is 1/8 the size, a sparky N.

And the Aerotech G motor in the foreground used to impress me… It’s the largest you can buy without a license, but now I see why theothers chuckled that they make good igniters.

The machined aluminum closures and graphite nozzle are on the left, as well as the infamous o-rings. Next step – anodizing the aluminum. Then we have to pour the solid propellant grains, just like the Space Shuttle boosters.

I’ll post some photos below of the rocket this baby will fly in… Should hit Mach 2.4 on a single stage… and Mach 4.3 and 250K+ ft. altitude with Tom’s two stage bio-sampling rocket.

About the Speaker
Steve Jurvetson is a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a leading venture capital firm with affiliate offices around the world. He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail (MSFT), Interwoven (IWOV), and Kana (KANA). He also led the firm’s investments in Tradex and Cyras, acquired for $8 billion. Current Board positions include Synthetic Genomics, SpaceX, NeoPhotonics, Tesla Motors, and Wowd. Previously, Steve was an R&D Engineer at Hewlett-Packard, where seven of his communications chip designs were fabricated. His prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research (TEM atomic imaging of GaAs), and computer design at HP’s PC Division, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek. He has also worked in product marketing at Apple and NeXT Software.

Past Talks
TED2007 – Steve Jurvetson on model rocketry

About the Talk
Crowdsourcing saved lives after the Haiti earthquake. Part of the reason I’ve been so behind in planning BIL is I’ve been in Miami collaborating with members of the open-source / open culture community (Sahana, Ushahidi, OpenStreetMaps) and the US Government (USSOUTHCOM, US Coast Guard) to respond to the crisis in Haiti. I’ll give an inside look on how these two cultures worked together in ways that have never been seen before.

About the Speaker
Hello my name is Todd Huffman, and these are the things that I do… toddhuffman.pbwiki.com

About the Talk
There is very little in our world that is actually impossible – it’s just that a lot of the time, we are missing one of 4 key elements: attitude, approach, action plan or accountability. This talk addresses each of these elements in turn, suggesting methods that will guarantee success on virtually any goal! Time permitting, the talk will focus on bonus topics: dealing with procrastination and staying motivated.

About the Speaker
I am a professional multi-tasker and am passionate about what I see as the two “extremes” of humanity: surviving (grand human challenges) & thriving (innovation, technology and creativity), and how we can use the latter to address the former.

As to how that translates into “what I do,” depending on when and where we meet, that answer could be Chief Medical Evangelist for CiviGuard Technologies, lead for partnerships development with the TEDx Silicon Valley Media team, co-founder of Space Without Borders (using space technology for global development), motivational speaker, Singularity University & International Space University Alumnus, Canadian medical student gone rogue, martial artist (1st degree black belt in taekwondo), musician (piano, singing/song-writing), writer or expert in a field I like to call “rocket surgery” – the point at which space tech and medicine converge.

Previously, I have completed degrees in neuroscience and space studies, and am halfway through a medical degree. I have served as VP Research for an inner city free-clinic for high-risk youth, VP Research & Development for a national organization promoting youth involvement in space exploration and development and Co-founder/Director of a community-wide anti-bullying program for school-aged children.

Published works include papers on telemedicine for the developing world, a book chapter on space spin-off technologies for medical benefit and clinical neuroscience. I also conducted pre-clinical and early clinical testing for neuroArm, a neurosurgical robotic arm based off CanadArm technologies and worked with the Crew Medical Support Office at the European Astronaut Center in Germany.

About the Talk
You gaze into the Cloud Mirror, and it gazes deep into you. It will violate your privacy, especially if you carelessly litter the Internet with sensitive personal details.

The Cloud Mirror is an art piece which temporarily merges visitors’ online identities with their physical selves. It uses augmented reality, computer vision, and Internet web services to identify visitors by name; mine the Internet for photographs and facts (dirt) about them; and superimpose that data in an on-screen comic book thought bubble that follows the visitor’s motion.

About the Speaker
Eric Gradman is an interactive artist in Los Angeles, CA. His work often features computer vision, large-scale projections, unusual sensors, and custom electronics to produce fun environments that compel people to interact.

Past Talks
BIL 2009 – The Perils of Robotics
BIL 2009 – Demo: Brainwave Controlled iPhone App

About the Talk
At BIL 2008 I introduced the future of robotic cars. But they’re still a decade away. This talk will focus on technologies that are on the near term horizon, or even available now. It will also outline new thinking in the design of transportation and energy based on modern computer technology that can be used while the people are still driving. I’ll show videos of cars today avoiding pedestrians and valet parking themselves, and simulations of intersections without stoplights taking us down the path to automatic transportation.

About the Speaker
Brad Templeton has just completed a 10 year term as Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the leading civil rights defender in cyberspace. He is also on the boards of the Foresight Institute and BitTorrent Inc. He was founder of ClariNet.com, the internet’s first dot-com, rec.humor.funny and Looking Glass Software. He is also a panoramic photographer and Burning Man artist.

Past Talks
BIL 2009 – The Evils of Cloud Computing

About the Talk
This talk will focus on a project in Wellington New Zealand entitled Sentimental Plastics. As part of the IntensCity Urban Design Week artist residency in 2007, Morgan Barnard and Robert Appierdo used a shipping container in the busy Courtenay Place entertainment district in Wellington as studio space and live urban screen. During the month-long residency, Barnard and Appierdo conducted workshops where they interviewed Wellington residents and gathered plastic bags to serve as raw material for the culminating Live Cinema performance and installation. These workshops focused on looking at ways to creatively reuse and up-cycle plastic bags. Bags were transformed into reusable material using a widely known heating method. The material was then used to create practical items and projection screens for the installation. The shipping container was transformed at night into an urban screen, evolving from and responding to the surrounding urban and data environment. The project culminated in a Live Cinema performance, projecting interviews and data-mined content onto screens made from up-cycled plastic bags. This talk will review Sentimental Plastics and look at Live Cinema and Urban Screens as a space for community entertainment and engagement.

About the Speaker
Morgan Barnard is a new media designer, filmmaker, and lecturer living in Los Angeles, California. For the past 12 years digital media and new technologies have been a core element that has informed his practice as an innovative artist and designer. From the early days of interactive digital media production at the California College of the Arts to film & video industry experience in Los Angeles and New York, he has worked with media through digital technologies to tell stories, create experiences, and engage audiences. In 2005 he received a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program in New York University creating a thesis that explored interactive storytelling and immersive narrative experiences. After graduating from NYU ITP, Morgan stayed on as an adjunct faculty member teaching courses in new media production video and interactive media. In 2006 he was awarded a Production fellowship at Eyebeam Atelier where he worked with artists creating documentaries and designed interfaces for live video performance. His background in documentary, music video, motion graphics, and post-production informs his academic practice. He is currently working on interactive installations, locative narrative, live video mixing and the creation of custom hardware and software for live visual performance.