SXSWI 2012: In Summary

Since SXSW Interactive 2012 ended on Tuesday, I have been preoccupied with the daunting task of trying to get a grasp of what was truly an incredible experience. My first - and hopefully not last - SXSW was so overwhelming  it is impossible to "stand back" to take it all in. Any perpective to be gained, it seems, will come from placing myself back within the nexus of presentations, panels, conversations, connections, and the din of the crowds roaming the streets of downtown Austin in order to find a few insightful and helpful points of coherence. The following are five claims that extend from what I heard during my SXSW Interactive experience. The claims did not come from any one session, but reflect a confluence of ideas I absorbed from multiple sources.

    We are cyborgs, but do not yet understand what that means.

    Because of the size and capacity of mobile, networked computers, we are actively using them to extend our capacities as humans on a mass scale. We rely on the information provided through our iPhones and the capabilities our Androids give us for navigation, connection with others and other valued functions to live in contemporary society.  Moving forward, this trend will expand from perceiving our devices as a vast information source to platforms that will actively augment reality with shared content. The basic technologies undergirding this shift are already emerging in gaming platforms and in other context aware technologies. Coping in this shift will require continued digital literacy and collective responsibility for the reclamation of some sort of privacy. 

    Google is Google and not Facebook

    One of the burning questions I brought to SXSW is one I share with many people and many organizations: What exactly is Google+? Guy Kawasaki has written a short book that primarily defends Google+ for what it is: the new core space through which users will optimally experience Google's products for search, email and other functionality. From what I heard from two Google executives, Google+ will continue to be enhanced as a platform that provides value for those who use the integrated product suite provided by Google.  While it has a social dimension, it is not Facebook and has no desire to be Faebook (or Twitter for that matter). Providing users enhanced, personally relevant search results and resources is the key that Google believes will continue to drive users to its platform, and keep their users building their presence in the interfaces, thus adding to the comprehensive data Google collects, interprets and provides to those seeking to leverage such information. 

      A Tsunami of Marketing Rationality is on the Horizon

    This third claim is difficult to grasp, but please bear with following explication.  The next target of brands and marketers is Gen Z, which appears at a glance to be like Gen Y on steroids. Born digital and never knowing anything but an information-immediate context driven by a highly experience-driven consumer ethos, this generation will demand immediate access to rich technological resources to address the need/challenges that they perceive. Like Gen Y, this emerging wave of people will feel entitled and be as demanding for a share in the decision making process, regardless of others' perception of their readiness to speak to the questions at hand.  They will assume that social identity is a shared process that develops through conversation and, again, will demand the social means for their contributions to that conversation. Because of their assumption that they participate centrally in shaping reality, they will be social activists and change agents, but the substance of these societal changes will immediately reflect the assumptions within the highly market-driven and technology-shaped world of their experience.  Therefore, they will create a culture defined by experience-driven, specifically contextualized assumptions, and the marketing  structures that nurtured the culture will shape the modes in which they operate in everything that they do at any level of society.  In other words, Gen Z will demonstrate what is becoming apparent  in the mass culture of Gen Y: marketing wins over other forms of cultural authority.

    The Next Big Idea is Brewing but not yet Evident

    There is a powerful sense at SXSW that the next "big idea" - or "paradigm shift", call it what you will - is at and may have taken shape during this event.  One of the most amazing things about this conference is the well-positioned and brilliant people who come together during these five days. The blend of creative designers, cultural leaders, technological geniuses, business leaders and others is truly without parallel. Yet, in the face of this feeling that we may be standing on the cusp of something, I sensed that right now we are at a plateau in regard to realizing the next shift. Technologies and services born or launched at prior interactive conferences have a solid hold on the marketplace. Big players are in place and have established the structure of the way going forward (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Apple). "Innovations" at the conference assumed or worked within these now established frameworks (or essentially parroted  their best ideas). So, for now, the next best ideas at SXSW 2012 seemed like natural extensions of what is already out there - and  I'm left to consider what might be truly innovative in this nexus between technology, marketing, and social.  

    Intelligent Interpretation of Massive Data Points The Way Forward

    Big data was the big deal at SXSW. A market-driven culture craves data to know the best way to appeal to those being persuaded by marketers, politicians and others. Our online engagements through social media environments, an infinite number of surveys, a society wired (or, rather, unwired) with cameras, RFID sensors, magstripes and other tools have generated terabits and terabits of data.  The spirit at SXSW exuded confidence that algorithms designed to intelligently parse this data relative to the right sets of questions will provide pathways to solutions that will allow value-laden, practical, technological solutions that will improve our lives.  And this confidence is not unfounded. Because we are contributing rich data driven by meaningful experiences on several social media platforms, the data collected truly reflects us, and when the data drives future decisions, those decisions will align with who we represent ourselves to be in these social spaces.  "The truth is out there..." for sure, and it is in the patterns with the data.

    There are other minor threads floating in the nexus of what I experienced during SXSW (for instance, the ongoing conversation about the nature of brand identity in our changing climate), but these five claims I found the most prominent, the most challenging and the most worth thinking about across a variety of social realms. I hope that these five themes engage your thinking and help you see what they helped me to see through the lens of SXSW 2012.