duration 42:32

In issue#18 we speak with Leah Culver and Daniel Burka, both representing Pownce — the coolest social messaging application!

Leah Culver is Co-founder and Lead Developer of Pownce. As a contributor to OAuth and supporter of various social network portability tools, she is considered a leader in open web practices.

OAuth is An open protocol to allow secure API authentication in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications.

If you’ve followed CreativeXpert, you already know that Daniel is Digg’s designer, and is also still involved with silverorange, based on the East Coast of Canada.

I’ve been a Pownce Pro user for several months. To me, it’s THE BEST social application I’ve used. The usability is second to none. One cool thing about this interview, aside from having both Leah and Daniel on the show, is the fact that Pownce members were the ones to develop the content!

Jump over to Pownce and sign-up now!

Thanks for your support and your requests to bring back CreativeXpert in 2008! It’s been a busy 2007, and with your help we can plan some more great shows! Alan

duration 36:17

In issue#17 we speak with Alan Musselman –Developer Relations for Adobe Fireworks CS3.

In this interview, both Alans discuss life behind the scenes of an incredible software release. We hear how Adobe has recognized the awesome power of Fireworks to hold it up high and say “world… use this for web graphics!” {ok, that’s what I’m saying, but still…}

One of the many cool features of Fireworks is the ability to import Photoshop files and all live effects are maintained. This level of control is a welcomed addition — the ability to preserve your document withouth having to go to Photoshop for small tweaks. We also hear about Illustrator integration, Hierarchical Layers, the new Page feature, the Common Library and the overall position of Fireworks within the Adobe community. It’s worth coming-over to check-out Fireworks.

Download a 30-day trial version of Fireworks at Adobe.com

Additional Reading:
A Sparkling Future for Fireworks
Adobe Developer Center - “Introducing Fireworks CS3″

duration 26:24

In issue#16 we speak with Chris J. Davis — designer, developer, writer, speaker, WordPressian and Habari Expert.

photo cred : Chris J. Davis @ chrisjdavis.org

Chris shares a behind-the-scenes look at the development of Habari. He talks about the other members of the team: Scott Merrill ~ skippy.net, Owen Winkler ~ asymptomatic.net & Rich Bowen ~ wooga.drbacchus.com. We learn about the vision and the future of Habari and what Chris is still doing with WordPress.

I’m excited to get involved at the ground level, reading-up at Google Code, the Habari dev wiki and glued to habariproject.org.

In the most simple terms, Habari is a collaborative open source blogging platform in active development. With Habari, you are given the power to create a blog or web journal of your own.

The official Habari Project site | habariproject.org

The Habari project over at Google Code
code.google.com/p/habari

More on Habari, from Chris’ site
chrisjdavis.org/tag/habari

While you’re trolling-around for more information on Habari, be sure to stop-by the “Being Chris J. Davis Photo Pool“.

Listen to win the book “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications” by Patrick Lenz! Packed with easy-to-understand instructions and sample code, Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications is the ultimate beginner’s guide to Ruby on Rails.

duration 24:53

In issue#15 we speak with Daniel Burka, xpert Designer.

digg this interview

It’s great to be back in the swing of things for CreativeXpert!

Also great is to speak with Daniel about his design experience. We hear about the Hinterland-based silverorange, where Daniel made some skrilla for Mozilla, and Wine Wednesdays at digg.

More on Daniel:

Silverorange is a small web development shop based on the East Coast of Canada. Several of us formed the company back in 1999 by merging our previous little companies (Whitelands and Metamedia) together. We do a wide variety of work including full site development as well as UI consulting and development. Lately, we’ve done a bunch of work for clients like Digg, Mozilla, Ning, Idee, Revision3 and more traditional development projects for e-commerce clients across North America.

I’ve been doing web design since high school {pictured at left} in Canada when we formed silverorange and I’ve had a hand in just about every project silverorange has been a part of.

I started working with Digg through silverorange a year and half ago and that developed into a long-term ongoing relationship. Last spring Kevin convinced me to move to SF (he didn’t have to twist my arm too hard) and I came to work on more of a full-time basis with Digg with the blessing of the silverorange crew.

Photo of Daniel: courtesy of owen byrne, digg.com
Photo of Daniel’s school: 98% lies.
Diggnation is pwned by Revision3 Corporation

duration 17:31

In issue#14 we speak with Mia Michaels, xpert Choreographer.

I had the great opportunity to speak with Mia who was relaxing at Mom’s house in Florida. Mia shares what it’s like to be one of the most in-demand choreographers today. She talks about working with Celine Dion, Cirque Du Soleil, Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance and beyond.

Mia clippings | Source, wikipedia.org:
Mia Michaels is an American choreographer. She has worked with Madonna, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, and Prince, and is best-known for contemporary dance choreography. She is a regular judge and choreographer on the program So You Think You Can Dance, and choreographed Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show “A New Day,” as well as a Cirque du Soleil show, “Delirium,” and several commercials such as those for Coldwell Banker, Ziploc and the WNBA.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Mia’s Website | Mia at Wkikipedia

PPST: We’ve opened the doors on our design forum. Check it out: www.creativexpert.com/forum

duration 22:43

In issue#13 we speak with Eric Rodenbeck from Stamen Design.

It was at digg labs that I first heard of Stamen. After sitting and drooling over the digg work, I knew that Stamen were Creative Xperts. Eric walks us through an interactive tour of digg labs, so while you listen, head over to labs.digg.com and follow-along. Eric tells us about his education in NYC and his move out west. We learn about The Cabspotting Project and Invisible Dynamics, sponsored by The Exploratorium. We also hear about the work Stamen is doing using the Flickr API to create Mappr. One last thing: Stamen is hiring.

so digg this…!

While at digg, digg this posting.
And tell your design peeps about CreativeXpert!

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Stamen.com, labs.digg.com, Cabspotting, Exploratorium, Mappr

NEWS LINKS:
Flash Turns 10!, Apple leads other PC manufacturers in customer satisfaction, Odd Job Jack releases all episode master Flash files

duration 21:35

In issue#12 we speak with Lynda Weinman of Lynda.com.

Lynda shares her history of building Lynda.com and their training methodologies. We also cover the Online Training Library — why Alan considers this a Lynda-send. Lynda tells us about the FlashForward Conference and why everyone should attend. Tickets are still available for this year’s conference in Austin, TX.

{lifted from Lynda.com}
Weinman has worked as a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, and Macromedia. She has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and lecturer at numerous design, animation, Web design, and computer-graphics conferences. Weinman and her husband Bruce Heavin co-founded lynda.com, a training company with headquarters in Ojai, CA, in 1995. She co-founded the Flashforward Conference and Film Festival, the largest Adobe Flash® conference in the world, in 2000.

{FlashForward.com}
The Flashforward Conference and Film Festival bring together the best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet. With the focus on Flash as a platform, Flashforward offers diverse knowledge and inspiration for everyone in the Flash community, whatever role Flash plays in their life and work. Flashforward is dedicated to providing education, inspiration, information, and community resources via our conference, website, blog, and podcasts.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Lynda.com | Helping media designers & communicators understand how to use professional tools and design to enhance visual communication through web, print, and motion graphics.
FlashForward | The best minds in the Flash design and development community, with an optional intensive workshop day, a three-day conference, and the largest International Flash-related film festival on the planet.

duration 23:57

In issue#11 we speak with Matt Shobe, co-founder and Chief Design Officer of FeedBurner.

Matt explains why feeds are so important, and why web designers should be using Feedburner.

{5-finger discount from FeedBurner.com}
He has over ten years of experience tackling design and ease-of-use challenges in web software design. Starting with the central Usability Group at Microsoft in 1993, and continuing with several startups through to the present day, Matt’s mission is to create enticing yet hassle-free user experiences through observant evaluation and design. The results include Yahoo’s July 2000 Top 50 Most Useful Sites award for Spyonit.com, desktop development tools for XML and Java-based alert development for 724 Solutions, and a host of other efforts for large and small companies alike, now including FeedBurner. Matt holds an M.S. in Technical Communication from the University of Washington and a B.A. in English from Purdue University.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
Matt’s Blog
FeedBurner’s Blog, BURNING QUESTIONS
Visit FeedBurner and create your feed. www.feedburner.com

• CSS WORLD AWARDS {CSSMANIA.COM} — Awards given to top blogs and web sites for excellence in CSS. First place: UX Magazine www.uxmag.com | Second Place: Veerle’s Blog http://veerle.duoh.com | Third Place: Vitamin www.thinkvitamin.com
• BROWSER SHOTS {BROWSERSHOTS.ORG} — BrowserShots.org allows web designers to view screenshots of their pages in different browsers, at different screen resolutions and with different plugins. LINK: www.browsershots.org
• THE WAYBACK MACHINE — In 1996, the Internet Archive began archiving the web for a service called the Wayback Machine. They’ve now archived 55 billion web pages. That’s enough web pages that if you were to print them all out using your roommate’s printer while he was at class and tape them end-to-end, you could reach the moon and back 28 trillion times. LINK: Internet ‘96

FeedBurner is now accepting volunteers to host and produce our podcast. Show off your skills and gain exposure for your podcast or podcast-related service. Sound interesting? Email podcast@feedburner.com today for details.

duration 21:57

In issue#10 we speak with Paul Miller a.k.a. D.J. Spooky That Subliminal Kid.

DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid (born Paul Miller, 1970), is a Washington DC-born illbient and trip hop musician, turntablist and producer. He borrowed his stage name from a character in a William S. Burroughs novel. {And this chunk was borrowed from Wikipedia} More on DJ Spooky…

INTERVIEW LINKS:
djspooky.com - DJ Spooky’s official site
rhythmscience.com - Get the book
In Fine Style - DJ Dpooky presents 50,000 Volts of Trojan Records

• Google’s Webmaster, Dennis Hwang {CNN} — Dennis Hwang may be the most famous unknown artist in the world — his work doesn’t hang in galleries or museums, but it’s been viewed hundreds of millions of times. LINK
• Adobe Goes Green {Treehugger} — The software developer recently announced that one of their San Jose buildings has reached the highest level of environmental efficiency and friendliness. LINK
• Scott Wade is an artist who’s favorite medium is dust. He works with dust on car windows. LINK

duration 41:54

In issue#9 we speak with Illustrator Richard May and Designer, Photographer Jason Arber of Pixelsurgeon.

Pixelsurgeon is an art, technology, culture, music, games and movies portal, that’s fueled by caffeine, a hand-picked team of newsposters, insanity and passion.

INTERVIEW LINKS:
pixelsurgeon.com - A digest of the creative, strange and interesting
blackconvoy.com - In short, it’s a collective
childrenoffinland.com - Jason Arber’s Design Thinger
richard-may.com - Richard May’s Illustration
audiosurgeon.blogspot.com - Pixelsurgeon’s podcast

NEWS LINKS: lullabot.com | twit.tv | orato.com | lynnster.com