By Brad King, Assistant Professor, Ball State University

The South by Southwest Interactive Conference & Festival is more than just a social and media technologies conference. It’s an experience. More than 15,000 people descended upon Austin this year (its eighteenth) to attend more than 250 panels and keynotes, browse the Screenburn Arcade, visit the Trade Show and attend the countless parties and networking events.

As a member of the Advisory Board and an 18-year attendee, I’ve watched the conference morph and change over the years, reflecting the evolution of the technology world. SXSW Interactive has moved from the developer and programming centric businesses and towards the social and media created businesses (that rely, of course, on the developers and programmers). However, the Geek Spirit still rules the roost in Austin. (For instance, more than 800 people lined up for a panel on analytics.)

To help capture the spirit of innovation and thinking for Tech Meme, I decided to forgo the normal panel and keynote recaps. Instead, I spent five minutes with some of the smartest people I know and asked them one question: In the media sphere they operate, what’s the most interesting thing they see.

What follows are their unedited responses. I hope you enjoy. [Read more...]