One View of SXSW
South by Southwest, or SXSW as it's affectionately known, is a meeting of the minds in all things tech/mobile/design and a bunch of other stuff, too. If you're cool, you're there.
Well, I wasn't there, but I did learn what the famed "take-aways" were from this gathering of the great, and I'll share them here with you.
Because I believe in attribution, I'll also share with you that I found this on Marketing Daily, a website devoted to vainly attempting to keep up with what's changing in electronic media. Aside from Samsung and its revolutionary (and holy cow expensive) Galaxy Pro, the blogger (in this case, Jonathan Hall) attempted to boil the conference down to the top ten items, in order of importance.
Here we go:
1. Privacy
Yep, privacy is a major, and increasingly nervous-making concern for anyone who uses the Internet. Let's face it, those packets we're tossing out there, our cell phone conversations, our wireless networks - they're all hackable. And for certain our patterns of behavior when online are fair game. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to "log on using" followed by a list of Facebook, Twitter, and Google for the most part, but other services as well. Then I see the "fair" warning that the service I'm logging on to will scrape whatever information about me, my contacts, my interests, my posts, etc. that it wants. Data. They all want data, whether personal or aggregate. While most "scrapers" claim that it's aggregate data they're looking for (just your info as it relates to groups to which you belong, like 18-24 year olds, people who watch Netflix, users of Amazon Prime, etc.), it's pretty clear from the ads that we're served that you qua YOU are a target, and your personal information is being stored. Just recently, a horrible headline declared that the NSA has the ability to store one billion individual cell phone conversations a day. A day. One lesson learned here, if you have doubts about whether you want something you say or do tracked, don't do it or say it.
2. "We Are All Makers"
I wasn't sure what this meant as a headline, but essentially what they're saying here is: get out of my way, I'll do it myself. This trend isn't exactly new. Think back to the brew your own beer craze of a few years back. What's different is the technology that enables it. Where once upon a time you had to research and learn, often painstakingly, the art or science of whatever it was you wanted to do - now, there's an app for that. Or a community. Think Kickstarter. Fund-raising? No need to go out and hire a pricey fund-raiser, just create a quirky, interesting video, make your project sound worthy, and let the funds roll in. No, it's not quite that easy, but a surprising number of projects are funded that way. But there are TV series (via YouTube), man-rating apps (revenge!), even product evaluations via Amazon and other retailers. You can publish your own book, sell your music online. If you've got the energy and the talent, there's no gatekeeper to get in your way. The only possible downside here is we'll become so overwhelmed with choices we'll end up running to the gatekeepers to let them do the work for us!
3. Dawn of the Brands
Sounds suspiciously like a horror movie to me! Is brand important, or isn't it? See item #2. If the exponential growth in choices has diminished the power of brand, that same growth will perhaps have the opposite effect in making it simply easier to go with what we know.
4. Mobile is Dead, Long Live Mobile
Do mobile ads work? No, claims Mashable, a major influencer in the digital world. Who cares? Mobile is the way we consume the majority of our information, and that's not going to change any time soon. Everything you do in the online space has got to account for mobile consumption.
5. The Rise of the Robots
It seems impossible, but if you'd suggested that we'd be using our cell phones to conduct most of our lives even 10 years ago, most people would have laughed. AI is increasingly significant; the Amazon delivery drone is a technological possibility, if not a logistical one; and self-driving cars actually exist. The question is how to mesh these robots with human behavior and natural events without disasters, big and small. You can't help but think of Philip K. Dick and his wonderful "Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?" in which the question of "when does artificial intelligence become human?"
6. Create Experience Ecosystems
In case you missed it, "ecosystems" was a big buzzword this last couple of years, and it refers to any environment in which you take part in that environment's activities. How does it work, what are its rules, how can you game it. The "experience ecosystem" as it refers to products and services is to immerse a consumer in the world of your product or service. A very fine book, "The Thank-You Economy," came at this same idea from another angle: don't just ask for a sale. Make your customer your friend, and think of ways to enhance their lives without asking for a credit card in return. Just give it away. Once you've got a friend, the rest is easy. Hubspot does this quite effectively, offering online intelligence in return for, yes, your name and email, but without pestering you for a sale. If you buy, you buy. If not, feel free to browse for as long as you want.
7. Ever-increasing Personalization
This one is easy to understand. It's all about me. And of course, as long as I'm treated that way by a product or service, I'll be quite happy. I think of the amazingly fine app, Waze, for travel navigation. It not only provides you with a map and approximate arrival time, but keeps you updated with real-time information and route alterations based on weather, traffic, speed traps, road hazards, and so on. And you're free to report in when you spot something other drivers need to know. It has a hands-free option for safety, as well. How's that for personalized service?
8. Everything is Connected
This one creeps me out a bit, at the same time I can see its advantage. Recently introduced are smart tags that will be added to perishable foods that will announce, likely via color coding, when your milk is sour or your produce is beyond ripe. Refrigerators can keep track of supplies, and your car can wake you up if your behavior, heart rate or other signals indicate that you might be dozing off or having a problem at the wheel. The "Internet of Things" refers to the fact that many of the devices we use every day have onboard computers that make a host of decisions for us. The question is, when do suggestions turn into commands (like, my printer warns me that I'm running low on ink, and even though I still have ink, it won't print until I replace my not-quite-empty cartridge), and since we know that many of these devices are talking to one another (and we can't listen in) - when does this private conversation become a matter of concern? Yes, the book has already been written, and the movie made, but now it's not just sci-fi any more.
9. Gaming Comes of Age
If you can imagine it, it can be created in the digital world - at least, for the purposes of movies and games. Games are ever more immersive, and ever easier to deliver. Just recently, I added an app to my phone that drags me into the world of Sherlock Holmes. I can listen to the book, read the words, explore the room, ask questions, and basically, take part in the story as a character (Watson). It's pretty addictive.
10. Get Ready for the Collaborative Economy
As the writer explains it, here are the ways in which we will, as a wired society, collaborate: share rather than buy; consume rather than produce; freelance rather than work; take risk rather than regulate. An example of this is Uber. Uber is a rent-a-car-and-driver experience. It's not quite a cab company, and not quite a rental-car company. You log in to Uber using your smartphone, then find a driver and car nearby willing to take you where you want to go, for a few minutes, for a few hours. Drivers sign up, but aren't on "shifts" the way a cab driver would be. You use your own car. Riders are vetted in the sense that they have to have an account and a credit card on file, which somewhat reduces the chance of getting a bad customer. Or think about Kindle's "borrow a book." Users can find someone's "copy" of a virtual book that they're willing to lend to you. There are limits to what you can borrow, but I've actually used this service, and it works!
So that's it, fellow stay-at-homers. One participant's review of what went down at SXSW. I can't say that I disagree with many of his calls in terms of what I see on the horizon.
I know we'll all be watching and trying these things out as they roll out.
Well, I wasn't there, but I did learn what the famed "take-aways" were from this gathering of the great, and I'll share them here with you.
Because I believe in attribution, I'll also share with you that I found this on Marketing Daily, a website devoted to vainly attempting to keep up with what's changing in electronic media. Aside from Samsung and its revolutionary (and holy cow expensive) Galaxy Pro, the blogger (in this case, Jonathan Hall) attempted to boil the conference down to the top ten items, in order of importance.
Here we go:
1. Privacy
Yep, privacy is a major, and increasingly nervous-making concern for anyone who uses the Internet. Let's face it, those packets we're tossing out there, our cell phone conversations, our wireless networks - they're all hackable. And for certain our patterns of behavior when online are fair game. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked to "log on using" followed by a list of Facebook, Twitter, and Google for the most part, but other services as well. Then I see the "fair" warning that the service I'm logging on to will scrape whatever information about me, my contacts, my interests, my posts, etc. that it wants. Data. They all want data, whether personal or aggregate. While most "scrapers" claim that it's aggregate data they're looking for (just your info as it relates to groups to which you belong, like 18-24 year olds, people who watch Netflix, users of Amazon Prime, etc.), it's pretty clear from the ads that we're served that you qua YOU are a target, and your personal information is being stored. Just recently, a horrible headline declared that the NSA has the ability to store one billion individual cell phone conversations a day. A day. One lesson learned here, if you have doubts about whether you want something you say or do tracked, don't do it or say it.
2. "We Are All Makers"
I wasn't sure what this meant as a headline, but essentially what they're saying here is: get out of my way, I'll do it myself. This trend isn't exactly new. Think back to the brew your own beer craze of a few years back. What's different is the technology that enables it. Where once upon a time you had to research and learn, often painstakingly, the art or science of whatever it was you wanted to do - now, there's an app for that. Or a community. Think Kickstarter. Fund-raising? No need to go out and hire a pricey fund-raiser, just create a quirky, interesting video, make your project sound worthy, and let the funds roll in. No, it's not quite that easy, but a surprising number of projects are funded that way. But there are TV series (via YouTube), man-rating apps (revenge!), even product evaluations via Amazon and other retailers. You can publish your own book, sell your music online. If you've got the energy and the talent, there's no gatekeeper to get in your way. The only possible downside here is we'll become so overwhelmed with choices we'll end up running to the gatekeepers to let them do the work for us!
3. Dawn of the Brands
Sounds suspiciously like a horror movie to me! Is brand important, or isn't it? See item #2. If the exponential growth in choices has diminished the power of brand, that same growth will perhaps have the opposite effect in making it simply easier to go with what we know.
4. Mobile is Dead, Long Live Mobile
Do mobile ads work? No, claims Mashable, a major influencer in the digital world. Who cares? Mobile is the way we consume the majority of our information, and that's not going to change any time soon. Everything you do in the online space has got to account for mobile consumption.
5. The Rise of the Robots
It seems impossible, but if you'd suggested that we'd be using our cell phones to conduct most of our lives even 10 years ago, most people would have laughed. AI is increasingly significant; the Amazon delivery drone is a technological possibility, if not a logistical one; and self-driving cars actually exist. The question is how to mesh these robots with human behavior and natural events without disasters, big and small. You can't help but think of Philip K. Dick and his wonderful "Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?" in which the question of "when does artificial intelligence become human?"
6. Create Experience Ecosystems
In case you missed it, "ecosystems" was a big buzzword this last couple of years, and it refers to any environment in which you take part in that environment's activities. How does it work, what are its rules, how can you game it. The "experience ecosystem" as it refers to products and services is to immerse a consumer in the world of your product or service. A very fine book, "The Thank-You Economy," came at this same idea from another angle: don't just ask for a sale. Make your customer your friend, and think of ways to enhance their lives without asking for a credit card in return. Just give it away. Once you've got a friend, the rest is easy. Hubspot does this quite effectively, offering online intelligence in return for, yes, your name and email, but without pestering you for a sale. If you buy, you buy. If not, feel free to browse for as long as you want.
7. Ever-increasing Personalization
This one is easy to understand. It's all about me. And of course, as long as I'm treated that way by a product or service, I'll be quite happy. I think of the amazingly fine app, Waze, for travel navigation. It not only provides you with a map and approximate arrival time, but keeps you updated with real-time information and route alterations based on weather, traffic, speed traps, road hazards, and so on. And you're free to report in when you spot something other drivers need to know. It has a hands-free option for safety, as well. How's that for personalized service?
8. Everything is Connected
This one creeps me out a bit, at the same time I can see its advantage. Recently introduced are smart tags that will be added to perishable foods that will announce, likely via color coding, when your milk is sour or your produce is beyond ripe. Refrigerators can keep track of supplies, and your car can wake you up if your behavior, heart rate or other signals indicate that you might be dozing off or having a problem at the wheel. The "Internet of Things" refers to the fact that many of the devices we use every day have onboard computers that make a host of decisions for us. The question is, when do suggestions turn into commands (like, my printer warns me that I'm running low on ink, and even though I still have ink, it won't print until I replace my not-quite-empty cartridge), and since we know that many of these devices are talking to one another (and we can't listen in) - when does this private conversation become a matter of concern? Yes, the book has already been written, and the movie made, but now it's not just sci-fi any more.
9. Gaming Comes of Age
If you can imagine it, it can be created in the digital world - at least, for the purposes of movies and games. Games are ever more immersive, and ever easier to deliver. Just recently, I added an app to my phone that drags me into the world of Sherlock Holmes. I can listen to the book, read the words, explore the room, ask questions, and basically, take part in the story as a character (Watson). It's pretty addictive.
10. Get Ready for the Collaborative Economy
As the writer explains it, here are the ways in which we will, as a wired society, collaborate: share rather than buy; consume rather than produce; freelance rather than work; take risk rather than regulate. An example of this is Uber. Uber is a rent-a-car-and-driver experience. It's not quite a cab company, and not quite a rental-car company. You log in to Uber using your smartphone, then find a driver and car nearby willing to take you where you want to go, for a few minutes, for a few hours. Drivers sign up, but aren't on "shifts" the way a cab driver would be. You use your own car. Riders are vetted in the sense that they have to have an account and a credit card on file, which somewhat reduces the chance of getting a bad customer. Or think about Kindle's "borrow a book." Users can find someone's "copy" of a virtual book that they're willing to lend to you. There are limits to what you can borrow, but I've actually used this service, and it works!
So that's it, fellow stay-at-homers. One participant's review of what went down at SXSW. I can't say that I disagree with many of his calls in terms of what I see on the horizon.
I know we'll all be watching and trying these things out as they roll out.
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