SXSW: Is the Internet killing everything?
Visitors to Austin's South by Southwest conference arrived Friday to a sky like a wet blanket. A cold, wet blanket. We traipsed our way from panel to panel, grumbling from beneath convenience-store umbrellas, wondering about the possibilities for eating barbecue in a rainstorm.
In the same kind of way, discussion at the new media portion of this year's conference was shot through with a chilly strain of winter. At least five panel titles mused grimly about which parts of the old culture are headed for the graveyard. "Is Privacy Dead?" one asked. "Are PR agencies a dying breed?" worried another, and while we're at it, "Is Web 2.0 Killing the Sports Business?" Others didn't even bother with question marks, declaring the death of friendship, personal blogging and print media.
It's true that giving your proposed panel an extreme name is a surefire way to grab attention and thereby boost your chances of winning a spot on the crowded schedule. Except I took a look back at last year's listings, and there wasn't a deathwatch in sight.
No, this year a woeful economic climate has compounded the problems of a slow-footed industry that's watching the Internet turn its revenue streams into...
-- David Sarno
