SXSW 2010 « Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World

Archive for the ‘SXSW 2010’ Category

Mar

Creative, General, SXSW 2010, Social Media, South by Southwest 2010

What do you see?

I don’t blog, I rarely tweet, and sometimes I kinda Facebook. And I definitely don’t Foursquare or Gowalla yet (unless they are having a party, then I Gowalla all night long). Facebook was barely mentioned. Twitter was talked about until the CEO gave a keynote, that, well, had an opt out of around 40%. How did they plan to make money again? Here at SXSW, everyone is using foursquare and Gowalla’s location based socializing tools to find out what’s going on. My not-so-early adoption could be the reason the few parties I went to were all outside, in the rain.

After 4 days of sessions, meet-ups and introductions, I feel like the whole experience has been an illusion. Everything is so intangible. VC money is flowing again, even though nobody seems to know how they are going to make a profit. Why is the money coming in? Because somebody has to fund these exploratory start-ups, and the first one to find a way to monetize the internet wins. That is, if the internet needs to be monetized at all.

Imagining User Experiences

Then there is the design discipline, which I always find engaging. Only one session I attended on design actually showed any design. And I’m glad most didn’t. I think we’re pretty much there when it comes to the power and value of good design. We know it works, and we use it well. That’s why the idea of design fiction captured my attention. Imagining possible future scenarios for our clients businesses as well as our own might be entirely necessary to survive the rapidly changing cultural landscape.

Context was a common thread, the when and where of making things work in the right place at the right time (maybe design fiction can help us out here?). Dj Spooky , a seminal recording artist in the sampling and remixing world, is changing his game. He’ll soon lose his turntables, and attempt to take his art where it hasn’t been before. Everyone can be a dj (and a photographer, and a film maker, and a reporter etc.) so he’s embracing this cultural shift, and has created an iphone app to bring djing to the masses. He’s embraced this change ahead of the curve in hopes of surviving as a relevant artist. We know that digital tools have changed the creative landscape dramatically. The effects on our culture have been, and will continue to be great. So let’s be ready for it, even lead it.

“All the old ways are crumbling. Everything’s ridiculous. Devolution is real. No one owns it anymore.” - Devo. Their ironic take on major label marketing and social networking was in step with their classic satirical social commentaries. Mother LA is their agency, and the presentation they gave was hilarious, from the ridiculous use of focus groups to determine what the most user friendly color for the Devo energy domes should be, to data-driven-product-design for the band. “What’s interesting about this approach is we haven’t sold anything yet. We need to gather data to determine what the product should be.” Other funny tidbits: “We were always Lego lyricists from the beginning.” about having lyrics crowdsourced, to “Chatroulette is more devo than DEVO.” Their entire presentation may have been an illusion.

“Kinda sorry I missed #brucesterling at sxsw - sounds like he was disasturbating all over Nerdvana once again…”. From the final keynote speech twitter stream of Bruce Sterling, futurist. He spoke after I began writing this, and boy, did he blow up the illusion big time. “We’re basically networking while Rome burns” about both the state of our nations financial crisis, and global warming. When he spoke about the state of the internet today he said “None of us is on top of our game. The game is on top of us.” Clearly we have some thinking to do, morally, socially and culturally.

I make things. I like to see artifacts that look like the work we make day in and day out. I’m used to being fed tutorials and how-to’s. So wrapping my head around the SXSW experience has been a challenge. But the illusion is real. The ideas are everywhere. And I think I just might be able to apply some of this thinking in a practical way back @Brunner. Peace.

Mar

Integration, SXSW 2010

Converge

by Ernie Mosteller, VP, Creative Director/Emerging Media

Since SXSW Film and SXSW Interactive have overlapping schedules, and since there are a number of subjects that would be of equal interest to those who work in film as well as those who work in interactive, there is a whole series of panels under the heading: “Convergence.” Registrants to either festival can attend.

Given my 15 years as a director before returning to the agency side in an interactive role, it’s no wonder that these panels are consistently my favorite. But this year, something’s different in the Convergence rooms. Nothing has changed about my preference for the subjects discussed. What has changed, however, is the makeup of the other attendees.

Last year, when panelists or speakers would ask, “Who in the room is in film?” about half the room would raise their hands. “Who is in interactive?” would bring up the other half of the hands in the room. But this year, more people — a lot more — are simply keeping their hands up as an affirmative answer to both questions. Which says everything about the capabilities of online, the emergence of new production techniques, and the shift in the way people consume media.

Film didn’t get me into the web. I was into the web long before it had the capability to do film — or, well, much of anything that we take for granted now. But since I also was/am a filmmaker, film certainly has informed my view of the web, including some of my ideas about user experience, linear and nonlinear narrative in nonlinear space, the way things move — lots of things we consider all the time when we’re thinking about and designing things with pixels. Of course, once the web became capable of delivering video, the game changed for both film and interactive. The makeup of the convergence panels this year is evidence of that.

Not long ago, if you were a filmmaker, and you were on the web, it meant two things: One, you were really a video maker, which wasn’t seen quite as good as being a “filmmaker.” And, two, the things you made weren’t usually seen in “legitimate” distribution channels — like TV shows, commercials, and theaters.

All that’s out the window now. All of it.

HD Digital production changed the process and economics of telling a story with moving pictures. Bandwidth and quality compression changed the delivery mechanism. And now, no serious “filmmaker” — or “legitimate distribution channel, for that matter — can live without the web. And conversely, the web experience is becoming increasingly dependent on content that moves. Convergence isn’t complete. Yet. But it will be soon. The Convergence panels prove it by putting film and interactive where they belong: In the same room.

Mar

General, SXSW 2010, Social Media, South by Southwest 2010

Split Personalities

by Heather Knight,

I used to be quite proud of my ability to compartmentalize the public and private parts of my life. I attributed it to my nature as a Gemini. But as the whole gets split more and more (what I share with friends vs. family vs. co-workers vs. clients), even I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed.

In danah boyd’s keynote about Privacy and Publicity, she spoke about the conundrum of no longer being able to separate your private and public selves. Among her examples was that of the teacher on Facebook: things that might be acceptable when with your friends (drinking, cursing), might not be so acceptable in the presence of your students or their parents. We now all must WORK at keeping our lives compartmentalized. So be careful before you hit “Accept” on that Friend request.

But it’s not just the decisions you make today. It’s how they’re used 3 weeks, 3 months or 3 years from now. Jaron Lanier spoke about the difficulty of being a young person who has not developed a social existence outside of the Web. Can you ever escape your awkward teenage self if it’s memorialized online?

In a panel discussion about Hunch.com and the increasing integration of personal data across web sites, an audience member in her 30s wondered a similar thing from a different standpoint: My tastes are different at 35 than they were at 16. Will the Web show an accurate reflection of me? Even if it has been tracking me all along, am I not more than a sum of my searches?

Right now, you’re not. As a result of client-related searches that I’ve made at work and the fact that our servers are located in Pittsburgh, I get served onlie ad content based on the preferences of a 45-year-old Pittsburgh resident who worries about whitening her teeth and is in the process of trying to find a college for her child, instead of the 37-year-old, DC-area, non-tooth-whitening DINK that I am.

But, presumably, the algorithms get better and the information gets connected across more sites and — as long as I keep going online — the Web will eventually have an almost perfect picture of me. And not just demographics and purchase behavior, but hopes, fears and real-time geolocation.

Of course, that information can be used for good (providing me with life-changing recommendations that I never would have come across otherwise) or evil (when my insurance company denies me coverage because of that unfortunate crack-pipe tweet). Or is that any more evil than what insurance companies have always done? The statistics are just a lot more personal now.

Perhaps Warhol was only slightly off. Instead of 15 minutes of fame, we all get to be 15% famous — not enough to be chased by paparazzi, but enough to be ensured that we’ll never apply for a job without them bringing up that 5th grade trip to the principal’s office. Digitally, my permanent record seems a lot more permanent — and a lot more accessible.

So perhaps I’ll put that ability to compartmentalize to good use. I’ll embrace my Northern quasi-twin. How difficult can it be? Maybe I’ll even start a Facebook page for her.

Mar

SXSW 2010, South by Southwest 2010

Focusing On What Matters at SXSWi

by Aaron Cacali, Interactive Creative Director

One of the great things about South By Southwest Interactive is that many of the topics that are covered at the conference aren’t selected by the conference organizers, but by the digital community. The topics of the sessions at SXSWi are just as telling as the details of what is said in the sessions themselves. What’s important now, and what will be important, tend to dominate the discussions here. It’s a great barometer for helping focus our efforts and our attention over the coming year.

So what are some of the dominant themes this year? The mobile web and branded mobile apps. Content strategy. Tapping into the wisdom, content and influence of crowds. And a deeper dive into the psychology and sociology of the social web. Your brand may or may not be thinking about these things right now, but judging from the insights being shared in Austin right now by some of the leading minds in the interactive world, you will be. Soon.

And what isn’t being discussed? The question of whether you should be on social networks or not. That has been answered and we’ve moved on to an exploration of how to do it more effectively.

Also the discussion of tradition versus digital agencies, who leads the creative process, which one comes up with better thinking and idea, etc. is completely absent. It has a topic in past years, but now it’s gone. Why? I believe it is because, to this forward thinking crowd, that question doesn’t really matter anymore. If you’re worried about what kind of agency should be thinking about what kind of ideas, you’re missing the point. Let the pages of Advertising Age and Adweek rehash that discussion - this crowd has moved on.

Don’t get me wrong: the prevalent topics here don’t matter because they are being discussed at SXSW. They are being discussed at SXSW because they matter. Much of the discussion is centered around how to more effectively connect with people. How to keep them interested in what you have to offer, how to earn and retain their trust and how to stay with them no matter where they are and what they are doing. This is extremely important for brands who want to stay connected to consumers in the face of the massive changes that are taking place in our use of technology, our consumption of media and our patterns of communication.

And to help the brands that we serve make and keep those connections in this new and changing landscape, well, that’s why we’re here.

Ideas for a Smarter, Faster World

Archive for the ‘SXSW 2010’ Category

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