SXGoodGuys

connecting the dots for good at SXSWi

[sxgoodguys]

“Loopd is an events tracking technology. It helps track the popularity of certain speakers. We are trying to work with museums to help them understand and how much time people spend at certain exhibits and so on to help them build better exhibits that can draw and engage more people.” Ram Annasami Director of Sales & Marketing Loopd

[sxgoodguys]

“Knowbility is a non-profit organization that works with web designers to make the internet more accessible to people with disabilities. We try to make the web more accessible. We have sponsors to fund our cause and we also give out free trainings to web designers and companies on how to make their websites more accessible.” Manish Godara Volunteer  Knowbility

[sxgoodguys]

Q: You mentioned that you see what appears to be Russian, Chinese, and Iranian espionage attacks on Cloudflare’s network. Do you see the same kind of thing from the US?

A: We haven’t seen anything. I’d be surprised if it happened. Law enforcement in this country, there’s still a reverence and respect for the rule of law and due process. There are things that when we do get requests and orders, by and large they are narrowly tailored. It doesn’t get incredibly invasive. When we see requests that are more invasive, we push back to protect our customers. It would be illegal if the US govt were hacking US based companies. 

I think that largely market forces are trending companies to increase their security and privacy to make sure things aren’t leaking out. What that is doing is that’s creating a threat to law enforcement. The risk is that the legislative reaction back is to undercut and undermine these protocols. There was a lot of sloppy stuff being done online, Snowden revealed it, that caused companies to clean things up, my fear is that the reaction back will be the government responding back to undercut those protocols. Cloudflare’s existence shouldn’t make law enforcement any easier but it also shouldn’t make it any harder. We’re not anarchists. We believe in the rule of law.  Matthew Prince CEO/Co-Founder CloudFlare 

[sxgoodguys]

The SXSW Innovation Social Good Awards

I’m starting to think that “innovation” and “social good” are actually one and the same. Case in point-- just a few of the 19 award winners:

Noninvasive Skin Cancer Detection Device, a faster, better, less expensive alternative to traditional biopsies (Winner: Sci-Fi No Longer)

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (Winner: Meme of the Year)

Guide Dots, a free audio app that helps the visually impaired connect with the world around them (Winner: Transportation Advancements)

Project Daniel, providing some of the world’s first 3D-printed prosthetic limbs to people in South Sudan (Winner: Innovative 3-DIY)

[sxgoodguys]

Energy conservation + Supporting small farmers + Delivery app + Weed The strangest application of social responsibility we saw all week.

[sxgoodguys]

Karen Kocher is a recipient of the 2015 Dewey Winburne Community Service Award for her work as the creator and producer of Living Springs, a multi-platform, immersive, interactive exploration of Austin’s beloved Barton Springs. Kocher’s goal is for Austinites to see the Springs as “beyond just a recreational resource,” and Living Springs will explore the historical, social, spiritual, and scientific value they bring to the Austin community online, in an installation at the Barton Springs Education Center, and in curriculum for local classrooms. Learn more about the project and donate here.

[sxgoodguys]

You heard it first at SXSW:

What will exist in 10 years

Journalists

Snapchat

What won't

Nightly network news

AJ+, a news start-up within the Al Jazeera Media Network, is already living in that future. They create news & other content native to big social platforms like Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & Twitter—you won't find them on TV or a website.

But as I learned yesterday, platform isn't content isn't news. Are these new formats going to empower the audience, or is a Facebook comment as far as it will go? Are strides in diversity and representation enough for now?

[sxgoodguys]

“IDEO.org focuses exclusively on developing countries. OpenIDEO is a collaborative space that brings in experts and non-profits in for an idea space that members of the public can contribute ideas to. The whole community is invited to get involved and we help connect ideas to sponsors. We’ve been lucky in that sponsors approach us rather than the other way around. We’re trying to convene conversations around the world’s most pressing problems.” Alaine Newland Communications Lead, OpenIDEO

[sxgoodguys]

Nominees for the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards step & repeat.

[sxgoodguys]

“Content is not news. News is content.”

Dan Rather made this distinction during today’s session, “Breaking the News in the Age of Snapchat,” and Dan Pfeiffer, former Communications Director and Senior Advisor to President Obama, observed that there is often confusion or conflation of new platforms with new forms of journalism. I caught up with Pfeiffer after the panel to ask him if spaces like SXSW contribute to that confusion.

“I think there’s more space here to have that conversation. One of the challenges when we have this conversation in Washington is that a lot of the people having the conversation don’t understand new platforms.” (He said that anyone over 25 is “missing a lot of what’s happening.”) “Sometimes people say, ‘Snapchat’s been created! What’s that going to change about journalism?’ The better question is, 'How is journalism going to use Snapchat?’ or ‘How is journalism going to use Meerkat?’”

[sxgoodguys]

"News is what the people need to know that somebody--especially people in power--doesn’t want them to know.” --Dan Rather, at today’s featured session, “Breaking the News in the Age of Snapchat.” (Portrait of Dan courtesy of James at ImageThink, the coolest person I’ve met at SXSW! Thanks, James!)

[sxgoodguys]

Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at Google[x], described that facility's work as the intersection between Huge Problem, Radical Solution, and Breakthrough Technology. We've all heard a lot about Google Glass and the self-driving car, but the Google[x] project that interests me most is Loon-- "balloon-powered Internet for everyone." Loon is a system of high-altitude balloons that will create an aerial wireless network to connect rural & remote communities, fill coverage gaps, and get people back online after disasters.

Learning about Google[x] has been, for me, one of SXi's biggest surprises. They are ALL about social good, although they frame it as solving Big Problems (and their reputation is just that they make scarily science fictional ideas into real products). The social good of Loon is closing the digital divide; the social good of the self-driving car is reducing traffic fatalities; the social good of Makani is significantly increasing our use of renewable energy. How could things change if we referred to Google[x] as focused on social good, not just innovation?

[sxgoodguys]

“What Libby did was she saw a gap in the charitable market. She created a space for freedom of speech and a place that builds confidence,” says Arizona Smith of Radar, a communications rights organization that provides media training for groups who are under-represented in mainstream media founded by Dewey Award Winner Libby Powell. “She realized that journalists who were visiting and writing about places like Sierra Leone weren’t asking people what they thought. They were creating a westernized, packaged version of their story but not really getting the full experience or sharing the whole story,” adds Smith.

[sxgoodguys]

Jonathan Horstmann Musician & Activist BLXPLTN, Messages

Q: SXSW is a playground of new ideas and a time for people to roll out policy ideas; in your view is SXSW a good place grassroots activism?

A: Yes and no. I’m not sure what the criteria are for presenting your ideas during a panel, but there are some exciting things taking place this year. On the grassroots side, however, the influx of people into Austin doesn’t nesecarilly mean you’ll have more exposure. There is a lot of competition for people’s attention.

Q: Issues like the #blacklivesmatter campaign have a presence this year at the festival. It's much different than the consumer based activism that seems to be prevalent at the festival. Where do you see an intersection for education, activism, and confrontation for movements like this to be heard at what is the largely happy-go-lucky tone of the festival?

A: Some folks definitely don’t want you to harsh their mellow, but there are also people who are happy to see an intelligent discourse about real issues. The intersection I can see the most is when bands decide to use their music for a message. What better way to elevate the conversation at a music festival?

Q: Music is unique in that it can educate and confront prejudices in an immediacy that no other medium can compare to. How have you seen this in the reactions to your own music?

A: Honestly the most rewarding thing for me is being able to bond with other people who are not afraid to call out their oppressors. Especially when we’re all in this very commercial space together. Festivals are about money as much as they are music, and it can be very challenging to marry the two when you are spreading an anticapitalist idea. But folks keep reaching out to share how our music has touched them or empowered them, so we’re gonna keep on at it.

Q: How long have you been doing sxsw and what do you hope sxsw can achieve outside of the standard trade show playground it's become year after year?

A: Last year both of my projects had official showcases, but this year we’re just doing the unofficial things. Its really important to support those locals and venues that do the music thing day in day out, not just during spring break. I think this will be my 8th year participating in some capacity. I don’t think SXSW itself, as a company, can really do much else besides the formula they have been implementing. Sponsors are necessary for any music festival. This year we’re seeing a scaling back even, due to last years tragic loss of life on Red River street. What I’m interested in is seeing how the locals and bands themselves decide to capitalize on the huge influx of music and culture fans. I’d like to see more focus on culture, style, and grassroots movements. There are groups organizing for social change that could use the support, and not just one week a year. I’d say more free shows with big bands and really cool, smaller brand sponsorships are probably the way to go.

[sxgoodguys]

Social Imprints is a company that employees at-risk adults. 95% of their workforce is made up of ex-offenders, recovering addicts, people with less thana high school education, and returning veterans.

They are a full service printing company that prints t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc.

Based in San Francisco, a lot of Social Imprints’s clients are in tech which is why Daniel Phifer, a salesman for Social Printing, says they continue to come to SXSW.

In a trade show filled with marketing tactics related to donating money in exchange for a tweet, Social Imprints stands out as making doing good as an essential part of their business model.

[sxgoodguys]

“We try to get the tech guys and innovators here [to the Social Good Hub]. We’d like help improving our product, and we send out hundreds of invites. Ultimately, they’re really not interested in attending unless there’s free alcohol.”— Anonymous

[sxgoodguys]

“Technology is one of the highest levels of human development. It’s a tool we can use to eliminate social, economic, and other forms of inequality.” - Tembinkosi Qondela, cofounder of Whizz ICT Centre, an organization that facilitates the use of information communication technology (ICT) tools for development efforts in Khayelitsha, one of the largest and poorest areas in Cape Town, South Africa.