“Has SXSW Lost Its Edge?”

by Christopher Hlavaty, posted March 10th, 2008
categorized under events, trends

Such is the rumor circulating among veteran attendees of the infamous interactive (plus film, plus music) gathering in Austin, Texas. As a first-time conference attendee, one whose cumulative “South By” experiences total just over 48 hours, 12 of which were spent sound asleep, I don’t have a strong opinion on the matter. However, I do believe that a better question to ask might be: what exactly is meant by the phrase “to lose an edge”? Geometrically, an edge is defined as the intersection of two planes. Losing an edge could therefore entail the parallelization of two planes, or perhaps the disappearance of one of two planes. In the latter “lost edge” case we have distilled the object to the core of its essence. In the former “lost edge” case we see a logical restructuring of components. Another scenario may involve the curving of space such that the line that defines the planes’ intersection consists of a series of equal slopes with respect to both planes, i.e. the planes now curve into one another. The “edge” has been “lost.” Now with further exploration I believe a pattern will emerge: the phrase in question, “to have lost its edge” will have ironically lost its edge. Absurd? My point exactly.

And now for the choicest highlights and tidbits, and please pardon any paraphrasing:

1. The official, introductory panel for newbies, “How to Rawk SXSW”, began with six panelists and one unopened fifth of Jack Daniels. It concluded 45 minutes later with just the six panelists. While I hesitate to equate feats of alcoholism with edgieness, the panel set a bold opening tone.

2. The Internet is not making us stupider. According to Henry Jenkins, who gave an insightful opening keynote, interactive media is not dumbing us down, instead it is cultivating new types of literacy. Where past assessments evaluated the learner as an individual, we now need new standards to assess skills for processing and communicating information for group intelligence.

3. About the scene: The crowds tend to be extremely friendly, even hyper-engaged. The networking factor is intense. The social events (read “parties”) have been generally well-organized though almost every one of the open bars I’ve attempted to visit has been closed by the time of my arrival. Could this be the “lost edge” to which veterans have been referring? The one functionally open bar I found was at party hosted by frog design, though the branded green miller lite was a bit disconcerting.

4. Jason Fried of 37Signals / Ruby On Rails fame was able to condense the accumulated wisdom of his ten years in dot com land into an excellent 45 minute talk. One of the more insightful takeaways: “READ YOUR COPY; we don’t pay enough attention to the words on our sites, in our manuals, in our dialog boxes. Do a re-write before doing a re-design.” Agreed.

5. ICANHASCHEEZBURGER.COM gets 1.5 million hits per day and supports a staff of 9. See highlight number two.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more coverage.

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