7 Quick Reasons why Writers Should Attend SXSW...

I wrote this post for Zyzzyva

Writers have been coming to SXSWi since its earliest days. Science fiction novelist Bruce Sterling has given a closing day presentation for nearly a decade. Jonathan Zittrain, Steven Berlin Johnson, and Clay Shirky have all promoted books there. And I was fortunate to introduce Malcolm Gladwell before his Blink keynote in 2006.

And yet even when lubricated with breakfast tacos and Shiner Bock, South by Southwest  Interactive intimidates even the most outgoing, least literary among us. It’s big, loud, forward-thinking, and impatient with tradition, characteristics few writers affix to themselves. It is also not friendly to Luddites or slow adopters. Do you know what a “hashtag” is? Does not knowing bring you pride? If so you’ll find few kinsman here.

You should still go. I’ve attended the last 11 years and few events (perhaps BookExpo America and the invention of Twitter) have been as valuable to my own  writing endeavors as South by Southwest Interactive. I may be on the louder, impatient side myself, an ESTP disposed to hosting parties rather than crafting prose. But hang on to your doubts for a second and  allow me to break down why I’d like to see more of my literary colleagues at SXSWi next spring.

Read the rest.

Ten Things I Learned at SXSW Interactive 2011

I have attended South by Southwest Interactive every year since 2000, have been a speaker since 2003 and on the advisory board since 2004. This year's festival was held March 11-20 as always in Austin, Texas. 

Each year as soon as I get home, I put together an essay on my impressions of the event in the form of a list of ten things I learned (previous years: 2008, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002). I haven't done this in a while but have a commitment this year to not let the festival vanish like a dream as soon as it ends. These essays are a way of remembering what happened at South by Southwest and trying to make it relevant afterwards.

With that I bring you...

Ten Things I Learned at SXSW

1. SXSW is not "over." Maybe for you it is. But please stop saying so, because I've heard it all before. I'm an 11-year veteran of the conference. I've heard moans that its moment had past since about 2003. What that really means is "South by Southwest is no longer what I want to be. So I'm going to resent its success and salt the earth so nothing may grow there again. Since it's over for me, I declare it must be over for everybody." 

That's just as egotistical and silly as it sounds. SXSW is different. Bigger, louder, more monied and crowded, yes, and in many ways replete with assholes marketing something you don't need and will probably never hear of again. 

You also need not engage with any of it if you don't want to. You don't have to go to the huge official parties or even acknowledge the poor sunburned college kids  hawking you "free water. Free breakfast tacos" if only you'll listen to a few words about their startup. Just as there are plenty of Penn State students who never attend football games, South by Southwest is now big enough (about half the size of Penn State actually) that your experience can simply be what you make of it. Don't like big crowds? Go to lunch with a few friends instead of the keynotes. Would rather talk about ideas than products? Make smart decisions when selecting panels. Sick of hearing about the must have app? Download none of them. Think the conference is no longer as geeky as it should be? Check your facts. Journalists, artists, academics and filmmakers who have never written a line of code have been come to SXSW Interactive since the day it was born. If your definition of "geek" is "people who know PERL", then SXSW Music might as well mean "only for people who can tune a Gibson SG." 

If you can't wrap your head around the change then 1) You've moved on which is fine. Life is all about change or 2) You lack imagination. Either way, saying "it's over" is terribly unfair to the staff who put a year's worth of work into the conference existing at all (and do a damn fine job of it), the volunteers who sacrifice a week of their life just so you don't get lost looking for Ballroom D, the speakers who prep for months to provide you the attendee with good content and most of all, the first timers and newcomers who weren't lucky enough to have been there in the imagined "before" where everything was so wonderful. 

As my friend and fellow conference vet James McNally once said "Every year is someone's first year. Do you want to be the jerk who keeps talking about how great everyone was until you, the newcomer, showed up?"

I would rather live in the solution than the problem. And I learned from SXSW way back when it was something smaller, but different, not better. 

2. I still wouldn't want to be a newcomer now. I had the good fortune of first attending SXSW when a conference badge cost a few hundred bucks and there were as many attendees then as there are speakers now. I could afford, in all fashions, to know nobody and make stumbling, incremental progress towards having purpose and conference friends I still spend time with today. When I felt like I belonged (around year #4) I made damn sure that any newcomer I met was welcome to spend time with my group of friends and learn a few ropes. I was afraid if it took them as long as it took me to feel at home that they'd never come back and never get any of the priceless gifts the conference has given me.  

Now, South by Southwest is a) way too costly for this kind of gradual learning and b) So large that many newcomers take one look at the schedule and declare failure or exhaust themselves trying to attend everything. They end up frustrated and beaten down by this thing everyone has told them is a miracle. And who wants to pay a king's ransom for that kind of letdown?

Conference staff has made valiant attempts to make freshman year at SXSW a little easier. The annual "How To Rawk SXSW" panel is a great first day orientation session. I've heard veteran/newcomer meetups were part of the official program this year though I also heard its damn hard to get veterans to sacrifice an hour in their schedule for them. 

This is a very big knot to untie. Newcomers don't always identify themselves as such and are attending South by Southwest for such different reasons that a one-size-fits-all solution is folly. I will say this though: I know of at least a dozen old-timers who, for the price of one platinum badge, would be more than happy to both participate in and/or administer some kind of "SXSW Big Brother/Big Sister Program" where a vet is paired with a greenhorn (or several. Like student advisors in college) and acts as a personal resource leading up to and during SXSW itself.

It's very labor intensive solution but exactly the sort of thing that makes the conference so special. 

Whose gonna take that one on? I promise you Hugh, Shawn and the folks who run SXSW are listening. 

3. SXSW is a lousy place to launch a product. There are a class of first timers who know precisely why there are in Austin and what they must accomplish. They are the proprietors/early employees of startups who are hoping catch the attention of the 20,000 attendees (whose presence at least indicates an interest newfangled technology) and repeat the success of Twitter and FourSquare who both first caught fire at the conference. 

We hear of those success stories because they are rare exceptions. South by Southwest is a fantasm of noise, information and over stimulus all washed down by alcohol, breakfast tacos and too little sleep. After 5 days of it, You're lucky if you remember your own name. A few more responsible souls than I come home, dutifully sort through their swag then try new products they've heard about at SXSW then tell their friends about the ones they like. The rest of us get home and regard those products as noise we're ready to turn off. 

If you're one of the lucky startups with a boatload of money, go ahead and sponsor a giant party. I won't be there but someone--lots of someones--will. If you're small and wily (like Freshbooks, like Squrl) do something clever like cooking bacon on a mobile grill (Freshbooks again. Those wonderful Canadians) or just hang out and have good conversations. But don't...

4. Market something at SXSW by shooting for the middle. Somewhere between small and wily and giant and omnipresent lies the path of douchbaggery. Or as my best friend Dave (a 9-year conference veteran) said "the douchbag is the early adopter of the mainstream. Someone who knows there's money to be made off a trend but didn't get to the party fast enough to be part of it." 

If you're wondering if you're a douchbag, you probably are. But don't worry. Easy to avoid for SXSW 2012. Just follow these simple rules. 

a) Stop hardselling. Whatever silly rules you have about "not letting them out of the room", leave at home. The attendees at SXSW are too smart for that. 

b) Stop bragging. Nobody cares how many times your product was mentioned on CNN. Presidential candidates and heads of state have stalked these halls. Your app for bulk purchase of car insurance does not impress us. The attendees at SXSW are too smart for that. 

c) No booth babes, backward baseball caps, street barkers. or yelling "free stuff" into a crowd. This is SXSW not frat orientation day at Fresno State. The attendees at SXSW are too smart for that. 

Are we getting the message? There's a reason why people love SXSW and tolerate say, CES. Because its about something more than selling. Violate that and we'll not only ignore your product, we'll make fun of it and you behind your back. 

 Side note: This entire list was developed over the course of 1 hour myself and my friend Carla Borsoi spent at a Westside Austin mansion that smelled like spilt Red Bull listening to some douchbag talk about which hip-hop musicians use his product. That'll teach us to hop in a nameless hummer limo instead of going to lunch. 

5. You will miss something. Worrying about what you might miss if you decide to do x (hoping in a strange limo) instead of y (being an adult, sane person) is a waste of time. You will miss something. Lots of somethings. In the week or so leading up to SXSW, I dutifully go through the schedule and fill in checkboxes knowing full well there simply aren't enough hours in the day for me to do 90% of the things that sound interesting. It's an activity that maps nicely to awaiting the arrival of a guy named Godot.

I do it anyway. A schedule is a baseline, to know what South by Southwest has to offer should you not know what to do next. It is not a commandment. Thanks to age we live in, nearly every presentation, film screening, even band is either documented for posterity or available thanks to the webernet afterwards. The enthralling conversation you're in with someone you just met is unrepeatable. And moments like that are why conferences, despite their wild expense and bulk, endure. The spontaneous collision of people and ideas cannot be replicated in virtual space. So if you've made the commitment to come to SXSW, take full advantage. Wherever you are if you're creating, learning, growing or just enjoying yourself, that's where you're supposed to be. Don't second guess it. 

6. What does your body need? Just because you're not at home does not mean the laws of nature don't apply. And you will get nothing out of SXSW by not listening to them and therefore spending the entire conference tired, sick, and half-tweaked out on 3 AM beer and queso sludge. 

I'm 37 and an early riser. But I get to see my SXSW once a year and I'd rather not turn in at dusk every night while we're all in one place. That means I do one large coffee in the morning, a nap around 5 PM, another large coffee when I wake up, multi-vitamins every morning and a little time at the hotel gym if I can manage. And I don't screw around with it. Because its the only way I can actually do SXSW and enjoy it rather than try and beat it at its own game and complain I'm not as young as I used to be.

7. Breakfast. I'm good in the morning, even when I'm tired.  I was baffled by how many people I wanted to meet were too. So while I had zero luck scheduling meetings during the day (my friend C.C. Chapman is a master at this. I'd like to know how) I met with someone for breakfast nearly every morning and started the day off feeling on fire before 9 AM. The 30 minutes between when the alarm goes off and you sit down with your migas are murder. But the rest of the day, at least for me, is always better if I make something of the first half of it. 

8. Limits. Since 2006, I've tried to fit in at least a few days of the SXSW Music festival which happens right after Interactive. Since 2009, my wife has been part of that crazy project with me.

I don't know how many more years we'll be doing this. We're just too worn out by the end of Interactive to want to take part in much of anything. And much as I we would like to just keep to ourselves and go to movies and concerts, the giant, loud, not-as-nice crowds for music make it rather unpleasant. We've got several good music festivals at home or maybe we'll try CMJ one autumn. But we'd both rather leave Austin on a tired-but-up note than a beaten down regretful one. 

9. Priorities.   

I'm no longer at a place in life where I need SXSW for my big insights. My insights build up continuously over the year. Since my job pays for some portion of my attendance at the conference, I need to hold meetings and attend sessions relevant to our future as a company.

But most important is time with friends, relationships I've built over 11 years of people I love I only get to see once a year. So while I can't just declare Austin a 10-day vacation, real, in-person, intimate time with friends wins out over loud parties with celebrities. As seductive as the chance to dance with Pee-Wee-Herman or her DJ Diplo spin live is, those guys aren't going anywhere. And friendship is too precious and valuable a thing to swap out for that.  

10. I'll be back. In spite of all the inconvenience that comes from SXSW Gigantism, I will be back next year. I still love the people, the knowledge, the vibe, even in my creeky veteraness. I'm proud of the staff for what a remarkable job they still manage to do despite its growth. I'm incredibly grateful that there is still room on the docket for events like The Old Timers Ball, Fray Cafe and 20x2 stalwarts of the SXSW of old. I love that my wife was a speaker this year, her 3rd, and I get to see the conference through her younger less-jaded eyes. 

Most of all, I how many wonderful people coalesce around this conference, people with passion, big ideas, and an optimism as boundless as the sky. That those same people see kindness, sharing and brotherhood as just as important, says a lot about them. And just as much about the event, the call across continents that brings them to Austin each spring. 

See you next March!

Report from the Start Conference and Day 3 of Birthday Celebration:

So the Start Conference, a disgusting amount of Rock Band with a few friends and a day long, day 2 birthday celebration with my sweetheart (consisting mostly of watching old movies and eating sinfully) has put be a bit behind. Still I wanted to recap what I picked up on Thursday because I had excellent time and left buzzing like a coked-out ferret.

In order then...

Session 1: Launching a Business that is not on the Web

I walked in late to this one (it's my birthday and I wasn't rushing) so only caught a few scattered details. Among them...

• Beloved San Francisco coffee establishment Ritual Roasters is opening a shop in Napa, which will shake up the mellow vibe in that wine growing reason significantly.

• Somehow in my travels, I have missed Rare Device, an art gallery/shop in the Hayes Valley neighborhood of San Francisco, not too far from the girlfriend's workplace. When to correct this oversight and visit? Hmmmm.


• Overheard during panel: Grockit is a startup experiment in worldwide peer-to-peer learning (i.e. does everyone in the world have something to teach everyone else and can we all learn something new from one another). Founder is an old friend Michael Buffington.
  

Session 2: Marc Hedlund, founder of Wesabe.

Mr. Hedlund gave a rundown of 5 principles one should hold near their heart when beginning any entrepreneurial endeavor. My comments in italics.

• Do the idea that won't leave you alone. Hooray for saying this one out loud. Too often in technology, ideas are rewarded for being well-thought out, clever or well-timed. Which are all good things but "clever" doens't get you out of bed day after day or enable you to stay home from Free Biscuit Night at your local soul food restaurant to work and feel good about it. Hard work that doesn't fell like hard work comes from passion and since passion is an intense, usually outward emotion, the average geek finds scairwee to express, it can be deprioritzed at the beginning of a project, which is deadly. Put simpler, you gotta love what you're doing with ardor, not careful respect.

• Only work with people you like and respect. Easy. Jerks are toxic and piss in the pool where the whole team floats. See Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room for what happens when you let jerks  run things because their success is valued more than their character.

• A good idea is not a business. A great need is. See Principle #1. Who does your idea serve other than you? Does it ignite someone else's passion and not just yours?

• The best way to get funding is not need it. This also applies to a job interview, getting published, any professional relationship where one party can make something happen for another. That imbalance of power is corrected when the asking party comes across as doing just fine, thank you. No one wants to be in business with someone desperate or needy. They want to jump on a train leaving the station and going places. This has applications far beyond business. Do you want to date someone who needs your affection to feel whole or someone who's leading a winning life already?

• No means maybe. Yes means maybe. This has something to do with venture capital but I either didn't understand or wasn't listening. Wasn't exactly an inspiring way to end but the first four were platinum.

Session 3: David Hornik, August Capital

       I don't get Silicon Valley-style VC at all but if ever that industry had a human face, it's Dave Hornik who grew up in a socialist Jewish home, wears jeans and converse to work and blogs about his business at VentureBlog.

I've met Dave. He's normal, real, and is doing for venture capital what Carl Sagan did for astronomy. He's welcome to leverage my upside or mid-manage my arbitrage or whatever you call it anytime.

Session 4: Julie Davidson and Narendra Rocherolle, founders of 30Boxes.

This husband and wife team also run 83 Degrees, a software consultancy firm that also mentors other small companies. There was a lot of business jargon here I didn't really understand. So I mostly left with the impression that you have to be very healthy to work with your spouse.

Session 5: Merlin Mann.

• "People who leverage the openness of the Internet for their own selfish reasons need to be told that that's wrong."
• "Do not become a professional nuisance."
• "How do we bring the entrepreneurial spirit to everything we d
• "It never hurts to surround yourself with really smart people who know how to communicate."

Here here.

Thanks everyone. I had a great time with you on my birthday.

(Re)Met at SXSW 2008: Ariel Meadow Stallings

This year at SXSW, I met/ran into Ariel Meadow Stallings a fellow writer whose work I came to (and continue to) admire from the pre-bronze reaches of Web 1.0. Neither of us could remember if we had actually met in person before but since we had about 8500 friends in common and it was Fray Cafe, where we had both just told stories, it didn't really matter.

Ariel is one of those people you simply want to check in with every so often because she's always doing something cool. She blogs (for fun and professionally), has written a book, runs events and, in few uncertain terms, has an existence light years more narratively sexy than mine. I'd be jealous as heck if she wasn't so nice about it.

Since I've been going to SXSW for 9 years now, I don't meet as many new people as I used to. Making new friends has become a nice, if rare, surprise, like finding ice cream in the back of the freezer. And when they have a work/life balance going on that I admire, that's like finding two pints. And neither is vanilla.

I'm in the midst of some heavy professional reevaluation now so in addition to bookmarking Electrolicious, I'm keeping an eye on Ariel's projects and the way she makes them happen. She's someone doing it how I wanna be.

10 Things I Learned at SXSW 2008...

I have attended South by Southwest Interactive since 2000, have been a featured speaker since 2003 and on the advisory board since 2004. This year marked my 9th at the festival which was held March 7-16 in Austin, Texas.

Each year as soon as I get home, I put together a short essay on my impressions of the event in the form of a list of ten things I learned. (previous years: 2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002).

Ten Things I Learned about SXSW 2008...

1. Exhaustion: The overwhelming feeling I've got after SXSW 2008 is exhaustion. The conference is several hundred percent larger then when I first attended 8 years ago and just getting your mind around its offerings can leave you winded. Throw in the logistical gymastics of arriving at what you'd like to see (events and sessions are now spread over an area roughly the size of Northampton, Massachusetts), wanting to spend time with friends you only see once a year, pesky intrusions like eating, sleeping, shitting and showering and by the end, I wasn't invigorated, inspired or even conscious of where I was. I just wanted to be left alone.

A good part of that has nothing to do with the event itself. I'll be 35 this summer and can't go 10 days on 20 hours of sleep. I can't skip meals and expect to be wide eyed and perky. Since 2006, I've also attended SXSW Music which means after one conference (which used to be plenty) I spend 5 days in the company of 1700 bands, several hundred films and the competing agendas of the dozen comrades who join me. Throw in the allergies I didn't used to have, quality time with my girlfriend who came along this year and something called SxSARS waiting for me about about 17 minutes after I stepped off the plane in San Francisco and the conference feels like a fugue state I slipped into sometime earlier this month. I'm just beginning to remember it but the process is like picking through a room full of silly string.

2. Preparation: It's not as though I didn't get the hurricane warnings. I had my SXSW calendar laid out using Sched.org  and have attended long enough to block out certain can't miss events. My geektastic friends even have a wiki so no one need ever feel lost amid the throb and clatter. We do this so that once you get to Austin, you spend your time doing instead of wasting it deciding what to do next.

3. Dislocation: Planning only helps so much. Look at the grid. At any one time, whatever you elect to do, you're missing 10 other things you could be doing, meals and deep breaths not included. An laying out your agenda like this blunts the spontaneity that makes SXSW so wonderful. Whom will you meet? What conversation will you have and what will it ignite inside you? Where will you end up at what ungodly hour (some of my past answers have been "upside down in a cargo bed", "channeling my dead grandmother" "talking with Joseph Gordon-Levitt" and "Dripping Springs, Texas) and what story will you have to tell?

The day before the conference began, I ran into my old friend Ryan Gantz. I see Ryan once a year in Austin yet in recent years, have managed to have The Conversation That Sums Up The Entire Week with him several times. This year's conclusion went something like this:

"Wherever you are, if you are enjoying yourself, that's where you are supposed to be. Don't fight it. Relish it."

That's what I did and it worked. Whatever I missed and didn't know about, well, I didn't know about it. And whatever I did...

4. Co-Location: Thanks to tools like Twitter, it's possible to know where all of your friends are at anytime. If you really feel like you're missing the fun, follow their bat signals and join them. Also SXSW now podcasts just about every session at the conference so you can always catch up later on whatever you didn't get to see because, in my case, you were dismembering crustaceans with the gang from Smith Magazine.

Sweating about missing something is a waste of time and energy. Even to a FOMO lunatic like me, saying "relax" in the face of a whirlwind seems counterintuitive. I know now its the only way to enjoy it.

5. Participation: I was fortunate this year to moderate a panel on the last day of the Interactive Festival called "How to RAWK After SXSW" about how the inspiration of the conference can fuel your creativity throughout the year. The final question (from Church of the Consumer's Jackie Huba) was this

"I'm planning a business conference for the fall. How do I make it like this conference? How do I make it not suck?"

Us panelists didn't say a word. The audience answered for us. 

• Talk to us and not at us.

• Demonstrate you passion for your subject

• Present a diversity of opinions.

• Talk about ideas, not products.

• Make us feel like participants not just attendees.

Despite its size, I still believe that at South by Southwest, no idea is too crazy and every voice matters. My fellow panelists wanted to burst through paper like a high football team at the beginning of our session. So we did. My buddy Ryan Gantz wanted a giant lego playpen on the convention center floor and nobody stood in his way. Blocks, kickball games, a keynote speaker leading the crowd in the soulja boy dance, how many other conferences have these without premeditation or a big promotion dollars behind them? No permission ordeals or paperwork roadblocks. No "what will the sponsors think?" SXSW sees the creativity of its attendees as an asset to be nourished instead of a risk to be managed.

6. Retribution. This climate of creative liberty comes with its own risks. Or rewards depending on whom you ask.

By now you've probably heard plenty about the Mark Zuckerberg/Sarah Lacey keynote (a fair assessment of the mess. A meaner one in cartoon form). I wasn't there and don't have much to add accept the feeling I left with as an attendee who heard about it secondhand. And that's that Ms. Lacy, perhaps accidentally, certainly tragically, misread the audience's desires and its power. Folk do not come to SXSW to be talked at but to be conversed with. And while an onstage interview might not seem like a logical forum for the audience to have their say, they're there, in living color, in vastly larger numbers than you and twittering like mad to one another. Assuming you know better than them, in action, demeanor or speech is a death sentence. Blaming everyone but yourself afterward is just plain dumb.

What did I learn from this? People are rude when you barge in on their party and tell them how to dance. No one should be insulted when they make this mistake in earnest. But if that person isn't on their best behavior when making new friends, something our mothers taught us long ago, they deserve whatever is coming to them.

7. Obligation: I have spend much of the last six months eating healthy, exercising regularly, losing weight, getting plenty of sleep and feeling great about it. SXSW does not provide the ideal circumstances for any of these pursuits. Nonetheless, I felt an obligation this year unlike others, to be the healthiest me I could those 12 days in Austin. And not just to my vanity but to the friends I have at this conference whom I love dearly but only get to see once a year.

I know I am the kindest towards myself and the most generous towards others when I feel like a healthy, energetic human being and a soul in fit spiritual condition. Since I have but a short time with these people, I owed it to both them and myself to be in that place during our time together.

I didn't succeed entirely (as my long-suffering cabinmate will attest) but I did try. And I will try harder again next year.

8. Recitation: One foggy, aimless night this year, I was tired, ready to turn in early when a friend informed me that a gathering had broken out at the Omni Hotel, a regular watering hole of conference's past. I took my sagging self over there and ended up in brilliant conversation with three strangers, all of were relatively new to South by Southwest. Somehow I ended up playing elder, telling stories of how it used to be and laughing along with them at the changes.

At some point, one posed the question "What is SXSW for?".

"I always thought it was about letting designers and developers meet up and share ideas" said one of my new friends, brave enough to go first. I replied that I've always felt that this gathering was about technology being more than just design and programming but about how it shapes our collective culture. That SXSW Interactive meant more than just those who worked in and made money off technology but for those who used it in humanistic pursuits as well.

My new friends and I continued on for another hour, grateful for this awakened camaraderie. I left that with a new sense of purpose: To share what I've experienced these last nine years as part of cumulative history, one that belongs to all us each spring in Austin. And respecting that each year is someone else's first year.

9. Inspiration (a different kind):  In one of many great conversations with my friend Jessica, I found myself asking "Where is this year's great moment of inspiration? The utterance that changes your entire world view and makes you thank God Almighty you came to Austin?" At past conferences, it's come from Bruce Sterling, Alex Steffen and a breakaway lunch with two new friends. This year, it arrived with a whisper instead of a yell.

I no longer come to South by Southwest to be hit by a lightning bolt but to fuel the fires I've already lit. I first came to Austin in the spring when I was 25, unemployed, angry and looking to give purpose to my newly-minted adulthood. It's almost ten years later. I'm now an experienced professional with a little community respect and confident in my own next moves--projects borne of creativity, passion and good will. These are values SXSW taught me many years ago. I now arrive each spring not only to be reminded of and reinvigorated by them, but to say thank you for setting my life on this path.

10. Gratitude: Nearly two weeks after South by Southwest 2008, I can best sum up its lessons as appreciation and gratefulness. It is not the same friendly intimate gathering I arrived at those many springs ago. But neither are we the same people nor is this the same world. And since I don't sanctify the past nor wish away the present, I believe this conference's growth and success are as much a reflection of what we've learned and how we've grown over the last eight years than the economy, culture, or technology itself.

If we think we've created a monster, then why come to Austin each spring to feed it?

I can't expect SXSW to be what it once was anymore than I can expect myself to be. Nor can I deny that hurts some even to read that out loud. But if we stay fixed on what has been lost rather than what can now be found then we might as well stay home because that kind of forced sorrow is a pit with no bottom. And I don't see the point of spending a week down there.

Instead I'm going to can look at what marches on: excitement and itch I feel when March approaches, the joy at arriving amidst all the wonderful friends I've made, the passion we have for this time together and the role it plays in the rest of our lives. Most of all, I think of the profound gratitude I have towards South by Southwest for giving me the life I celebrate today.

Yes, I am tired, the kind that comes from shouting at the sky, the kind that needs a full year of thought and recovery just to be able to dream it all up again next March. But not the kind that is too sick of it all to say thank you.

Thank you.

(2007, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002)

The Madness of SXSW 2008.

As if I'm not getting gray hair already keeping track of my conference friends comings and goings on SXSW Baby! and the rumors about which bands are playing at Done Waiting, I just got tipped off about the fresh-out-of-the-oven Ning SXSW social network which had feeds for party announcements, a blog and a forum with about 8 kajillion topics. Plus my friends put together a PB Wiki every year to see who wants to go to what both to trade information and so you can always have a wingman when attending something new.

SIgh. I know it would make me miserable but I have half a mind to show up in Austin in March having planned nothing but massages and lots of long dinners with friends.

Slave to the Tools:

For some reason, I've determined I can't spiritually begin 2008 without deciding whether to adapt Todoist or Remember the Milk as my productivity tool of choice and perhaps, necessity.

This is somewhere South of Pathetic and West of Despicable. Meet you there when I wake up.

MacWorld. Meh.

So at Macworld today, the big announcements were..

• A very thin laptop

• Improvements (including movie rentals) to Apple TV, which still requires you to own a high definition television. Was I asleep when it became standard to to own a high definition tv? Because it seems like an absurd luxury to require of a consumer product.

• Updates to the iPhone and iTouch.

I sorta don't care. There's nothing here I feel like I'm missing out on or must have. I now Apple has set a ridiculously high standard for itself of wowing the world every January. But I also think its supporters are pretty forgiving. Solid tuneups to existing products are just fine. But none of these plays into the second half of what Apple does well: seeming at least to serve its customer's best interests in addition to making pretty things.

I'm with Forbes here. Steve Jobs has failed to wow me.

Blogs that know me...

Once in a great while, the internets smile and offer up a resource that seems designed just for you. I'm sure it happened all the time when the web was new and largely undiscovered but now that it's been up and running nearly 15 years, I figure I've found everything I'm gonna need.

Until this week. This week, not one but two blogs swam into my field of view that have a fresh take on a subject I love but had never quite identified as such.

• The Magazineer is a blog project by my friend Derek Powazek "for people who make and love magazines." That would be me with my crazy-ass subscriptions to 8 different periodicals that I never have time to read. I may be contributing to this one too.

• Kinetic World, a blog about kinetic (i.e. parts that move) sculpture and art which I found via a link at Laughing Squid. I've loved this stuff ever since I read an article about Arthur Ganson maybe 10 years ago and if I owned 25 acres of land, I would purchase the Life-Sized Mouse Trap, hold monthly "Run-Through-It" parties then commission that group of artist to build me a Life Sized Candyland and Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots.

I'm subscribed to both.

Sore on Crowdsourcing:

An interesting take on "Crowdsourcing", a word I've probably used too many times, from my friend Tara Hunt.

'Crowdsourcing’ is usually about benefiting one source…the company or individual asking for the advice/ideas. Unless the ’sourcer’ can build something into the process that makes certain it rewards individuals contributing in those ‘crowds’. Open Source communities are actually awesome examples of valuable contributors finding rewards organically - access to better jobs, ability to turn their expertise into consulting gigs, wide influence in the community itself, which will lead to speaking gigs, teaching gigs, writing books, etc.

I’ve been a long opponent to the term ‘Crowdsourcing’ as it invokes the image of an unpaid group of volunteers giving ideas for free while a corporation rakes in endless profits from them. It speaks to the further exploitation and general suckage of customer goodwill. I don’t think it is related to it’s positive cousin, Open Source. Open source is the term used to describe the state of the source code: can you see it? Is it hidden? Outsourcing is a closer relation, describing the act of saving money by hiring employees from low cost labor markets…only ‘Crowdsourcing’ goes one step further and doesn’t pay the labor at all. Sounds like a sweet deal, right?

Crowdsourcing is another short-term way of thinking about how one can benefit from the relationships one has in communities. Over the longterm, any Social Capital one had will be whittled away from exhausting this free-labor force. Beware of catchy buzzwords, because they are usually all razzle dazzle and no substance.