No matter how updated I think I am on technology, SXSW Interactive has a way of making me feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder at times. I was networking on a sunny Austin afternoon when I handed my card to a web developer. He graciously took the card and then snapped an iPhone pic of the QR code on my badge. I didn’t even know it was there. I walked away with his card and he walked away with my bio, contact info and photo that I had uploaded to the sxsw.com earlier that week. 

QR codes aside, I was delighted to find a familiar theme weaved throughout SXSWi — A call to action for the interactive community to use their powers for good.  All three keynotes I attended touched on this theme.

• Valerie Casey, Executive Director of Designers Accord, told an exhibit hall full of 12,000 nerds that they were in a unique position to facilitate social change through raising awareness and building sustainable models — two of the internet’s specialties.
• Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, called for privacy integrity online (she’s talking to you, Facebook and Google) and reminded us that a public by default environment is not the great democratiser.
• Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter (with the Iran story in mind) touted the micro-blog as a tool for democracy and change: “It’s about reducing the walls between people who have a lot of influence and the people they influence. That’s the most profound promise of the Internet, and we’re riding the wave.”

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