SXSWi: tech assessment

I'm like the blog dork version of Sir Edmund Hillary, lugging my backpack full of digital survival gear around SXSW. I'm as lean as I dare, although a notebook, digital camera, iPod, and requisite power cords and USB cables still seems like quite a load while trying to squeeze into the one empty seat across a row of attendees.

There is, of course, LOTS of personal technology on display at SXSWi, and it makes an interesting statement about the blogging community relative to the general population. Or at least the population I'm used to seeing at more mainstream technology conferences.

First of all, Mac penetration is far beyond my expectations. I assumed that the heavy representation of coder / linux types would naturally lean towards a PC environment, but apparently the evolution of web-based architectures has freed up a majority of SXSW-ers to think different, just like everyone else. I'd place Mac penetration at a conservative 60% across the observed interactive crowd. Sometimes it seems larger, although the glowing Apple icons and reliance on powercord tethering might make the Macs overly visible. The remaining PC drones are an even split among brands, Dell's otherwise ubiquitous global domination having eluded much of this savvy crowd ... except me.

PCs and Macs alike are liberally adorned with a series of bumper stickers and alterna-logos, especially among the panelists. Some of the messages are purely for tech identification ("you are SO off my buddy list"), but many are of various products and websites that are vying for attention at the conference. It creates an interesting dichotomy of individualization defined by brand devotion; the new Iconoclasts are selectively loyal rather than abstractly independent.

And then there are the gadgets, or more specifically the absence thereof. I've seen loads of CE / blackberry phones, but where are all the iPods? SXSW offered a downloadable schedule in iPod format, so I expected loads of techie people to be wheeling their way through session listings. Not so, although this could be because the iPod is an absolutely sucky way to access any information, even music. In that same vein, notepads (the paper kind) are almost as common as notebooks and printed schedules are the default organizational tool.

SXSWi panel summary: convergence and transformation

Saturday 11:30-12:30 Convergence and Transformation
The term "convergence" implies a number of concepts, including the merging of technology, data, people, and socializing. Panelist John Tolva pointed out that technology convergence can be over-simplified to a scenario where "you put all your stuff on one box," but in fact convergence should cover larger concepts of interoperability; I believe his specific term was a "recombinant design philosophy."

David-Michel Davies volunteered the perspective of convergent media, or the "netization of traditional media." This aspect of convergence is particularly pervasive, since it doesn't even require the Internet (see: digital video). Traditional media is consistently trying to exert their influence (and paradigm) on the net, much as the RIAA and MPAA going to great lengths to preserve a known content model in the face of digital creation and distribution. Davies would prefer to make traditional media more like the Net.

Jon Lebkowsky addressed data convergence, particularly how the explosion of tagging is an effort to filter and interact with the increasing "internetization" of information. While even the most tech-savvy adults might have difficulty dealing with the overload, Davies urged the audience to "just deal with it." In other words, tune out when you're disinterested, tune in to things that generate interest.

My tangential take on this philosophy is that adults have grown up in a paradigm where information is precious. Searching and finding is still novel enough that many of us still prefer to embrace knowledge as something that is internalized rather than something that is pursued externally upon demand. To be effective in a convergent information economy requires embracing a paradigm where information is disposable and can be missed.

Products and services must take convergence into consideration, essentially building in hooks so that end-users can become designers themselves. Google Maps is not just a product unto itself, but it is a filter for information that can be used and leveraged in numerous ways far beyond its original intent. David Pescovitz furthered this point by saying that "Consumer" is such a wrong word to apply to end-users. "Customer" is better, but ultimately convergence dictates that many should be perceived as "Collaborators."

If everyone is a collaborator, and convergence has transformed the speed that information and ideas get identified, transformed, and assimilated, where does that leave independent culture and identity? In a spin-cycle culture, the true counter-culture comes from those who to some degree ignore the information overload, or act in spite of it. This can actually promote more real enthusiasm because counter-culture for its own sake quickly becomes unsustainable. When everyone has the directions to hipsterville, only the iconoclasts will find new and interesting ways to get there. This focus should help individuals stop evaluating convergence in perjorative terms (i.e. that change is good or bad), but rather in terms of the standards that make new developments most useful.

links discussed:
shadows
upcoming.org

SXSWi panel summary: beyond folksonomies

Saturday 10:00-11:00 Beyond Folksonomies.
The need to categorize and search online information has led in two directions: top-down taxonomy (e.g. hierarchical structures) and ground-up folksonomy (e.g. tagging). One panelist (I believe it was David Swedlow) described folksonomies as the pidgeon language an adult might learn when immersed in a foreign culture; an ideosyncratic shorthand for the information we produce and consume online.

The primary issue with folksonomies is that each person can produce their own shorthand for slicing and dicing information. While I might tag all SXSW data as "sxswi" (because it all comes from the interactive conference) someone else might tag theirs as "sxsw2006" to differentiate it from previous years. Such variations can have greater meaning to each individual, but hinder aggregate-level value creation and community building. Uncertainty also increases the costs and efforts associated with using folksonomies, so less engaged users (i.e. "the masses") will be unlikely to adopt them. Until these hurdles are addressed, folksonomies will have limited impact on markets and societies beyond the technorati.

The panel struggled to find a solution to this problem, and ended up debating the merits of automated tagging. While pure automation resembles a taxonomy, with all the same weaknesses brought on by rigidity, some form of implicit tagging allows users to leverage work that has already been done while retaining the flexibility of context and interpretation. Google searches represent an example of implicit tagging, in which the user receives thousands of "relevant" items, but the search algorithm has already determined which results are likely to be most meaningful based on the amount of activity (links) attached to each. This type of implicit tagging could serve as the lynchpin between organic folksonomies and more structural (and useful) taxonomies.

Some links discussed during the session:
POPFile
AttentionTrust

SXSW: day one

Going on 3 hours of drink-polluted sleep isn't optimal, but it's the norm for SXSW. Despite the hangover fog, I vowed to hit the conference running and make as many sessions as possible on the first day.

I ended up attending 4 of the 5 sessions, which I'll describe in separate posts. The quality varied over the day, but all the panelists were engaging and had something interesting to say.

By the last session, I could barely stay awake. Conveniently, the Metroblogging meet-up was happening at the Hideout, so I could get some sugary/caffeinated beverage to lift me up. But the conversation didn't last long, because then it was time for the day to shift from Conference to Anniversary mode (1 year ... and they said it wouldn't last).

With visions of meta-tags dancing in my head, I abandoned SXSW and met my wife for a predictably unbelievable dinner at Wink. You'd be hard pressed to find a restaurant in Austin with a better combination of interesting (and fresh) cuisine, cozy atmosphere, and genuine hospitality (as opposed to contrived graciousness).

Rachel and I needed to burn off some calories after dinner, and there's nothing better for calorie burning that gettin' down wit dat hacidic reggae mon. Matisyahu returned to the site of his popular live recording, and brought Balkan Beat Box along to up the Mediterranean hip hop quotient even higher. Both acts represent interesting musical fusion and a welcome departure from the usual litany of angst rockers and hip hop retreads that clutter the airwaves. BBB brought phenomenal energy to their middle-eastern inflected club jam, which Matisyahu built on with some great beat box work and a roof-raising rendition of "King Without a Crown." Ultimately, though, he is still a reggae act at heart, and there's only so much reggae I can hear before it all blurs into a non-descript chorus; pleasant, but a little boring.

SXSW: ground zero

The interactive conference doesn't open until Saturday, but of course Friday has its own share of SXSW activities, mostly administrative and social. I registered for the conference, and marvelled at the massive storehouse of swag bags awaiting owners. Later I met up with Tim and wandered between the Gingerman to Break Bread with Brad and the Red Bull House to mingle amongst the tech toys and blogerati, courtesy of Buzznet.

The whole first night was less crowded and chaotic than I expected. Hell, I even had my choice between two free street parking spots within 2 blocks of the convention center. Somehow I don't think that karma will continue as the interactive, film, and music events lever into full gear.

For never having attended SXSW interactive before, I also felt remarkably at home. It helped to hang out with Tim, who knows far more folks in the online community than I do, but it's also a very welcoming and (dare I say it) interactive crowd; not entirely the reclusive misanthropists that popular stereotypes would lead you to believe.

The Buzznet party was fun, although a little sparse given the pre-conference lag and competing events. I've never used Buzznet, but will give them a shot and compare with the much-enamored Flickr. As of this moment in the space-tech continuum, it seems their primary advantage is the ability to share video. I don't generate much video content, so that doesn't immediately compel me to double my photo-tagging workload, but it could be an interesting resource. The guys from Buzznet were very cool, and it was great fun meeting some previously unknown Zilker neighbors and chatting with Doc Searls. I guess it really is all about the conversations.