A few of us have just returned from Austin, Texas, where we attended SXSW Interactive. I’d like to share a few personal highlights.

• Saturday’s laptop battle, hosted by AMODA. Competitive live electronic musicmaking as it was meant to be: loud, manic, and super geeky.
• Manning the CC booth on the trade show floor with Mike Linksvayer. We met hundreds of interesting people and had many, many great conversations about CC, intellectual property, and media. We were lucky to be set up right by our friends from Magnatune — it was nice being able to point to our next-booth neighbors as an example of a successful commons-based business model (as well as an excellent source of CC-licensed music). Creative Commons stickers and pins were so popular that we had to request emergency backup supplies (thanks, Jen!).
• The Monday morning panel I was on, called “Remixing Business for a Convergent World.” The turnout was terrific — the room was packed with about 125 people. Several introduced themselves to me after the presentation to ask questions and give feedback about CC.
• Monday night’s Fifth Annual EFF/Creative Commons SXSW party. This is where I saw the coolest group of musicians of all time: The Robo Theremin Band, which is a project of Austin’s Robot Group. Their show is made up of guys playing electric drums, a synth, and a theremin, accompanied by remote-controlled giant robots on wheels, moving around on a dance floor. Incredible!

As always, SXSW rocked. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Posted 15 March 2006

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