I’m in Austin for SxSWi (South by Southwest interactive) with several colleagues from Forum One and several thousand colleagues from around the world working in the digital and interactive fields. The “festival” is a nonstop series of keynotes and panel discussions during the day, and social events and meetups during the off hours (and in between sessions). What is the common thread tying everyone together? A strong interest in digital technology and a desire to connect with other like minded people.

As with any whirlwind experience, I will be processing the event for weeks to come, but I wanted to share some of the sessions that have been particularly thought-provoking or insightful.

Jaron Lanier’s Keynote
This has been, by far, the most thought provoking session I have attended at SxSW. Jaron Lanier started by inviting everyone to put away their laptops and smartphones, and to experience the session fully. It was a great idea, but also means there isn’t a good record of the session. Below are my notes and impressions:

• Wind instruments were the first computers, with the notes and silence being binary information. Flute-like instruments evolved into pipe organs, which evolved into self playing organs and pianos.
• Jaron referenced Project Xanadu as an idealized state for the Internet, where everyone would have 1 password (1 account) and there would only be one logical copy of a document. Infomediaries would disappear, every person would be a “first class citizen” and content creator, and content creators would be paid directly for their work.
• Real-time is the opposite of (human) dignity. Stated another way: machines are consumers and producers of real time streams, humans are not.
• People are “mean” online when they switch from an individual context to a pack context, where there is a natural pecking order, and a natural “loser” (person on the bottom of the totem pole”
• Jaron recommended reading: When the Machine Stops

See also:
The Monday Keynote SxSW Should Have Had

Danah Boyd’s on Privacy and Publicity
Danah Boyd gave an interesting talk on the current state of online privacy, and unpacked recent events concerning Facebook privacy issues as well as the privacy issues surrounding the Google Buzz launch.

See:
Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity (full text of presentation)
danah boyd’s Opening Remarks on Privacy and Publicity
Danah Boyd SXSW Keynote: Privacy is History

Chris Messina: ActivityStrea.ms: Is it Getting Streamy in Here?
Chris Messina from Google gave a solid review of the history of online streams, with his take being that we are essentially stuck in the RSS / late 90s portal mentality. He went on to articulate a vision for intelligent lifestreams, and more specifically, to give an overview of activitystrea.ms, an extension of the Atom feed format that supports social activity.

See:
ActivityStrea.ms: Is It Getting Streamy In Here?
Chris Messina on ActivityStrea.ms: Is It Getting Streamy In Here? at SXSW