Hogtown Consulting

10 days since I got home from South by Southwest Interactive 2007, but real life stuff like buying a home and doing work kept the wrap-up unwrapped until now.

I won’t do detailed notes, you can listen to an expanding number of the panels as podcasts if you’re interested. Here are some impressions:

Will Wright – gave an I’ve-got-a-lot-of-stuff-here-and-you-better keep up keynote on story and gaming, which (so far as I could keep up) was pretty intriguing. The demo of Will’s much anticipated evolution game Spore was really cool. I’m a very occasional gamer, but seriously worry about my productivoty once Spore finally arrives.

Bruce Sterling – a somewhat toned down closing rant from Bruce this year, compared to last, I thought. Still well worth a listen though, and a great way to recalibrate from the all too easy ‘web 2.0 will save the world’ with a generous serving of ‘we’re all doomed, and here’s my eloquent and well researched opinion on why’.

Alex Steffen – I’m a big fan of the Worldchanging ‘bright green’ philosophy for how we deal with the global challenges we seem to face in abundance right now. I had seen this same presentation when Alex was in town for the Worldchanging book launch, but the message and messenger are engaging enough to stand repeat viewing. I liked ‘green you geek’ as a suggested approach to the ‘ok I need to change, but where do I begin?’ question. That is, you change in the thing you really care about in life, you stand a better chance of influencing others by example if you try to green the thing you are really passionate about.

Henry Jenkins & Danah Boyd – This was another one I could only barely keep up with, but what I followed was pretty consistently interesting. Henry and Danah ranged over the culture of fandom, mashups and the horribly damaging culture of fear in US politics.

I had a great time in Austin, and expect to be back next year. Sunshine, tech, grackles, beer and cool folks (nod to Michele and David) are a great way to get the year rolling.