Does SXSW Still Matter?

There’sa famous photo from SxSW taken 10 years ago , with just about every significant blogger at the time all meet around one table . Many of them go on to shape incredibly influential company , like Flickr , Twitter , and yes , Gawker . Today , a fate of those same people are skipping the group discussion . And if you trust the backlash , South by Southwest has drop off its cool . It ’s just a merchandising hypefest , where the most common achievement is barbecue bloat .

Bullshit . It ’s nerveless and more crucial than ever . Just not in the same path .

Twitter . Foursquare . GroupMe . You use them everyday , but if it had n’t been for this uncool , overcrowded , lost - all - meaning reading of South by Southwest you may never have even heard of them . What ’s come out of South by Southwest in late years are n’t apps for the hipster technical school elite . It ’s the routine technologies that unconstipated people take to . Buzzwords that graduate to everyday common .

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You would n’t cognise it , though , if you come the SXSW backlash . To paraphrase notable late - phase VC Yogi Berra : No one goes there any longer , it ’s too pop .

Scott Lambprofiles this nicely over at Buzzfeed ’s tech channel , tying it to the end of Kick , an independent kickball tourney lam by Anil Dash . ( That , sadly , was rained out in this its final yr . ) Meanwhile Austin ’s own Ben Brownalso wrote something describing why he ’s not cash in one’s chips , and what he sees being wrong with the finish of South by Southwest . Michael Pusateri describes it in a teetotal - eyed berth simply entitle “ why I ’m not going to SxSW this yr . ” I ’ve seen and pick up quite a few other longtime attendees express similar sentiment , and of course thebacklash on Twitteris six form of fierce .

But why ? What ’s so different ? What ’s deepen ? Well , a lot . But nearly all of it ’s for the better .

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South by Southwest Interactive used to be an sexual little conference where independent developers come together and merchandise ideas . It was a tagalong to the larger medicine fete , and geared very much towards maker . And those blogger and developers sat down and ate barbecue together , and got to know each other , and come up with some skillful stuff . Then they go home and pen about it on their blogs . They publishedpictures of themselvesallhanging out togetherinBruce Sterling ’s bathroom , of all places . It looked fun and cool and had a high signal to stochasticity proportion of Very crucial Web People . Which made more people come , who desired to be very important . As more people descend , apps and services come out to break out there , and become the next hot thing . Which have in mind money . And money meant way more people . Which created a cycle of hype .

And pretty presently , the original blogsters felt embrace out .

So certain . If you think of cool as being something small and independent , Southby may no longer be the fete for you . But I think there ’s something even cooler going on .

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What you are learn is the death of elitism . Southby is no longer the elite event it once was . But neither is the Internet itself . And as both have blend mainstream together , both count more than ever . Because both touch multitude lives , in the form of apps and information , than ever before .

South by Southwest is a hot zone . An infectious transmitter where quite a little of people , from all over the world , come together and often end up all using the same apps — especially social ones . It ’s a trial by flaming for ambitious societal start ups . If an app suck , or its server ca n’t handle the load , or it just is n’t useful , peradventure nothing befall . But when it get on , bang !

And it does n’t lay off at the league itself . Influential attendee make for the plunder apps back to their influential tribe . And on the spur of the moment you ca n’t make a left-hand turn on the cyberspace without bumping into Twitter , to Foursquare , to GroupMe . And you use it , and your acquaintance do , and it becomes as ingrain into your everyday life as three square meals . In a few months , it ’ll materialize again with Highlight and Glancee and perhaps even Pinwheel .

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And yes , there are some decidedly uncool things happening there . It’sawash in brandingand the spirit level of smug coming out of Austin right now is at east coast boarding school levels .

But even so , it ’s a proving ground for the rest of the country and globe . It ’s got an enormous encroachment , not just on technical school snobs , but upon all of us . It ’s a place where thing are happening , ware are being introduced , that will impact real people ’s lives . Sure , getting together with your friends is fun , especially when those friend are the kind of wise , forward - thinking people who made South by Southwest the property to be in those former daylight . And everyone loves a nice secret plan of kickball .

But change the world ? That ’s pretty bloody coolheaded . Plus , hey , you have sex , Jay - Z play .

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