I think this is the beginning of the end of my love affair with SXSW. Despite the fact that I am getting some value out of the few panels I've attended and I have met (or at least started following on twitter) interesting people with similar interests, that spark that ignites into an inferno of inspiration just hasn't happened yet this year. I have yet to be delighted by a conversation or wow-ed by someone's insight into the future of the web or technology or society. Maybe it's because many of my favorite conversationalists aren't here this year and maybe it's because new thought leaders are harder to find in what has become a massive experience.
Maybe it's me.
Whatever the reason, while I love Austin, I'm kinda glad I'm having to cut my trip short this year and return to LA Monday evening instead of Wednesday as originally planned.
But, anyway, enough of my maudlin "remember-whens". Here's the stuff I've really dug in the last 36 hours.
Marissa Mayer Presents...Location, Location, Location
I'm a big Marissa Mayer fan. Much of the product and team management practices I engage in at work have been sparked by her approaches at Google. I was really looking forward to getting a chance to see how she talks about those products and presents them. Her 30 minute presentation (which started exactly on time and had a very nice rhythm complete with a couple "ooh ahhh" moments) was interesting. She focused a lot on what issues her products were attempting to solve for Google's users and what ways they were still seeking to delight and push their user base forward.Most interesting nuggets:
- 40% of google maps usage is mobile. There have actually been two days in the last 6 months where mobile usage was higher than the web.
- Google Places with hotpot is like gowalla/Foursquare but with a much lower threshold for user acquisition since it is already integrated into Maps and Search. 3 million reviews already in what is, essentially, a soft-launched product.
- Google art project uses google street view tech in bold new ways. 7 billion pixels allows you to see the intricate details of a painting. It presents Art in an entirely new way to view and appreciate.
- Did you know you can view walt disney world in 3D in Google Earth? I didn't.
- Context based results in the mobile space is the future of many of their products like Places and Google Goggles as well as deeper general contextual integration across android.
Apps for Healthy Kids: Government Challenges FTW!
This panel was interesting but it wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought the focus was going to be on the apps developed in the Healthy Kids Challenge and how they were being used/distributed today. Instead, the focus was on how the US government is using challenges and competitions to essentially crowd source solutions to problems and how other groups or entities might do the same. A few useful nuggets for me, including the realization that I really should be following the whitehouse.gov blog but not as inspiring as I wanted it to be.Designing stuff kids will love and use
Best panel, by far, for me so far. I loved hearing the folks from PBS Kids talk passionately about developing for children and the unique challenges and opportunities it brings. Most discussions of design and user experience focus on adults and fail to consider the interesting idiosyncrasies of the kidspace. I haven't spent much time at PBSKids.org or PBSKidsGo.org before now but I will in the future. They are doing some really smart work that can inspire some of what we're doing in my office. I really need to spend more time talking with folks working in the same space as me and I struggle to find that at LA (and at SXSW and other tech-centric conferences before this weekend). Even Ypulse is more teen focused than tween and younger. Great stuff. Check out #designingforkids on twitter.Blacks in Tech
There are more black folks at this conference this year than I have ever seen, most of whom I've never met before which is amazing. I will say, though, that I feel like "Blacks in Tech" is a bit of a misnomer now. Like the rest of the conference, there are an increasing number of people who use technology rather than create it and that leads to very different conversations. There's a lot more self-marketing and business networking going on than in earlier years. That said, I love seeing people of color who are power brokers at places like NPR and Discovery Channel and even here at SXSW and I love the problem that there are so many panels featuring people of color and talking about diversity that we can't attend them all. That's a great problem to have and an impressive change from my first appearance here in 2005.Good on ya South By.
I just wish I wasn't feeling so curmudgeonly about it.