[dkarl]

I think it has more to do with SXSW Interactive, which is what inspired his post. 80% of SXSW is a bunch of people who want to get rich or famous on the web paying hundreds of dollars for the chance to sit googly-eyed in the same room as a few people who have become rich or famous on the web, or who at least worked at a company that made somebody else rich or famous. It's inherently boring. The fact that it's nominally about technology can't rescue it.

I managed to see a couple of interesting panel meetings -- yes, exactly two -- when I attended in 2008. They were quite good, and since I got a combined Interactive/Film pass I didn't feel like I got ripped off. (I did feel like I was living beyond my means -- hence my non-return this year.) But I spent most of the panel meetings googling the panelists trying to find something interesting to read about their work, while they answered questions from adoring fans (and from each other) by saying, "Well, what you really have to do, which I really learned the hard way at MyFamousWebSite.com, is give the customers what they want." "Yes, that's right Jim, especially when they don't know what they want." "<appreciative chuckle>." This drivel at panel meetings with awfully interesting and high-concept titles. I'm not surprised SXSW Interactive inspired some reflection about the trivialization of human knowledge.

Half the panelists were just promoters or PR hacks representing a company. They may have been the original founding CEOs yadda yadda yadda but they were acting as PR hacks, present solely to project the right image for their company and convert their minor fame into web traffic. Some panelists who were there flogging their companies recognized that they had an obligation to the people who paid to see them, and actually said interesting things and tried to answer interesting questions. That's actually an effective way of promoting a company, if anybody's wondering. I don't care what a guy talks about -- his new product or alpaca cheese -- I'm going to check out his company and their products if and only if he gives me something worth thinking about. Partly that's because I want to reward him for being a good speaker, but partly it's a natural mechanism: anything substantial enough that it can't be completely digested on the spot will pop up later for further mulling over, which is a logical occasion for finding out more about the speaker and his company.