SXSW 2011: An Artists-Meet-Geeks FAQ
I’ve proposed a SXSWi 2011 panel called, “The Tools Artists Need Geeks to Create.” You should vote for it. Like, now.
But wait, you say, I don’t even know what SXSWi is, other than a bunch of silly letters. South by South West Interactive is a 5 day tech conference in Austin, Texas (where I grew up!) every March. The first year they held SXSWi (the music fest has been around since the 80's), they gave away the tickets for free. Ten years later, it’s a pretty BFD. Last year was my first time attending the conference in full — from interactive to film to music. I didn’t have a grand to lay down for tickets, so I volunteered (50 hours! During my spring break!), stayed with my parents, and scouted around for as much free food as possible. This year, emboldened by my success at TCG, I decided to make a go of being a conference speaker so I can again score free tix.
Ok. Awesome. Now I know what SXSW is. Why the eff should I care about your panel? A) Because it’ll be cool (I swear!). B) Because we should have having more conversations about building for the future. C) Because I was dismayed last year that there were so few arts-driven panels, and wanted to do my best to change that. D) Because you probably like Chris Ashworth. E) All of the above.
Whatevs. My vote doesn’t even matter. You’ve railed against vote mongering before haven’t you? Yes, yes, this is true. I’m trying to provide you with both useful information, as well as a request for action on your part. I promise not to beg, beleaguer, or badger you into voting. In point of fact, I’m quite fond of SXSWi’s crowdsourcing mechanism. First, we had to get past an initial screen of SXSW staffers. Now, your voting/commentary will only partially account for my potential inclusion into the festival. But your vote totes counts. Rock the vote.
Your panel’s lame. Can I vote for somebody else? Fair enough. Sure. There are some stellar looking panels out there. I’ve only made it through the first 1/3 of categories and given 63 thumbs up (of the 700 or so panels I’ve skimmed), but so far, I’m particularly enamored with these top 10:
- Beyond Word Clouds: Analyzing Trends with Social Media API’s
- Social Ranking: Finding Interesting User Generated Content
- Don’t Jump! Working Aboard a Sinking Ship
- Hacking RSS: Filtering & Processing Obscene Amounts of Information
- Its Nature’s Way: Innovative Tech Design Through Biomimicry
- Lighten Your Load: Successfully Leveraging Volunteers and Interns
- Cracking the Social Contest Code
- Beyond Mafia Wars: The Next Generation of Social Entertainment
- Likes, Favorites, Playlists, Designing Taste Interfaces
- Being Young and Rocking It
I’ll do a follow up post next week after I’ve been able to get through all the categories. There might even be some data involved about what the popularity/obscurity of certain categories might tell us about the future of tech (or at least, the future of SXSW), and some trends in ‘buzz words’ I’m already beginning to see emerge. Until then, for realz, VOTE.
