SXSW - close encounters

I've been near but not in SXSW-land until yesterday, when I scored a trade-show badge from Jeff Barringer of Club Kingsnake. I met Jeff at last year's interactive fest in a conversation about civility on blogs. He's managed an online interactive pet website for years, startin' from scratch and makin' it work. I learn something every time we talk.

This year Jeff and his staff are busy meetin', greetin', and otherwise beatin' the live music experience drum(s). Definitely worth visitin' in person (if you're at the trade show today it's booth I14), and stayin' in touch online. The online site has a wealth of cool personal and inside reports, interviews, and commentary on this year's south by experience.

And just before I left the trade show I noticed that Jon Lebkowsky (of World Changing notoriety, among many other things) was doing a live interview of Bruce Sterling. (I need to find the online link for these interviews.) This was one of the more generative conversations I've listened to in a long time. It left me wondering what world we're gonna build once we're done twittering and flittering from place to place and thing to thing. What practices and patterns will we find workable ... and, maybe even more important, what will we be workin' on?