March 17, 2011
SXSW Interactive – An Internet Celebrity Wedding
I just came back from Austin, TX after spending five days at the SXSWi conference. I expected to experience a good party with a little bit of learning mixed in, and the whole place was nothing short of chaos.
To quote a friend of mine, “It’s like the internet exploded into the real world.”
It felt like a celebrity wedding, where all of the people you know from a distance (read: follow on Twitter) show up to say hi. Even all those distant “relatives” you thought you’d never see again are there. And they’re all having a drink with you.
In his article from a couple years ago, which was rightly mentioned in Chris Fahey’s Donahue App session, Robin Sloane posits that the future of media is events. Events enable collaboration and co-creation across diverse groups that come together because of a third object. It’s like the bridesmaid hooking up with one of the groom’s drunk college pals. Sometimes magic happens, or sometimes it’s best to leave it alone.