Journalism as a Creative form of Art

March 13, 2005 - 6:06pm

According to a friendly film reviewer who I spoke with in the SXSW press suite,  I am the only blogger at SXSW with press credentials. Now, on the one hand, that  means absolutely nothing other than I got a free badge, and have access to the press room. However, on the other hand, I know that nothing is truly free in this world. If I am in fact the only credentialed blogger at the conference, then I feel it’s my responsibility (for better, or for worse) to leave the SXSW people with the impression that bloggers are a legitimate and valuable part of the press.

 

Thus, the mission I seem to have accepted is to ensure that more bloggers get press credentials next year. Now, this means I will have to ::shudder:: produce something that will be considered legit journalism. And by Journalism, I don’t mean reporting what happened; rather, I see journalism as an institution dedicated to enriching the public’s understanding of events which they are unable to see with their own eyes. If I was only interested in reporting who/what/when/where/why, I’d simply cut and paste some press releases. That said, there are a few big problems…

 

What valuable, and unique function can I serve when nearly 60 percent of conference goers are going to blog it anyway? Taking detailed notes of the sessions at the conference simply doesn’t seem to cut it. The conference sessions already produce more than one set of detailed notes. Pretending to be a reporter for wired might get me a good grade in a journalism class, however the reporters for wired, and the multitude of other tech publications present already fill that niche… and clearly they will do it better than I.

@The Blogging Showdown

March 13, 2005 - 8:01am

9:58 | The showdown is set to begin in about a minute. A coupe of initial observations: I'm estimating that the press makes up nearly 10 percent of the audience (that is highly unusual). The room is not nearly as packed as I expected it to be; its maybe only half full. Me thinks a large section of the conference goers must be experiencing the painful wrath of sixth street right now.

10:05 | Panel has begun....

Beethoven's Appassionata...

March 12, 2005 - 9:53pm

I had a strange experience tonight. I rediscovered a piece that I learned sometimes during 10th grade (I think while I was grounded for being a pothead). Its sounds terrible, on the one hand, yet I feel like their is something very firey and beautiful that needs to be released -- like a half done sculpture that is destined to become a master piece. Take a listen[mp3] to a 1:30 seconds, if you're feeling like forgiving me for couple of mushed keys, and mistakes. Its really strange... basically, my hands seem attached to my 10th grade self-taught (read:wrong) fingerings with my wrists rock solid wrists (which is dangerous for me, I got carpal tunnel a few years ago). Its as though, when my brain sends the message to my hands that "Its time to play appassionata", my muscles think I'm still in high school. Nevertheless, I think there is some real potential in this piece. I think I ought to learn it all, and learn it right this time.

Dear Stalker:

March 12, 2005 - 7:18pm

Starting bright and early morning(I have to get up at 8:30.... eh...) I'll be "covering"(1) several events worth mentioning. Here are portions from the SXSW website's panel and speaker blurbs. I can already tell that tomorrow will be a bit more interesting than today:

10am: Blogging Showdown -- Representatives of top personal publishing companies talk about the strengths and weakeness of their applications, as well as discuss where this medium is evolving to in future years.

Anil Dash  VP of Professional Network  Six ApartJason Goldman  Prod Mgr  GoogleMatt Mullenweg    WordPressMike B Slone  Founder/ Creative Dir  InkNoise IncHalley Suitt  Blogger

UK Register Gives a Snoot to SXSW Interactive

March 12, 2005 - 5:49pm

God, sometimes I read things that make me want to set buildings on fire... Take this, for example: a "journalist" for the UK Register, who apparently writes under the name "Ashlee Vance in Chicago.", seems to have something against both SXSW Interactive and bloggers. Now, beyond the fact that Vance's article was published 2 days before SXSW even began; beyond her misunderstanding of SXSW that was revealed in her headline, "Bloggers invade Austin music fest" (SXSW consists of music, film, and tech... she makes it sound like we're insisting that concerts stop so we can talk about blogging!); beyond all of that... I found her standpoint naive, snotty, and totally unwarrented... Take her childish attack on Scoble:

Scoble seems to scoot around the country - by Segway most likely - annoying all kinds of audiences with his "revelations" about blogging. Shouldn't someone be required to write something interesting before being asked to talk about writing interesting things?

You see, her snipe at Scoble only works if you accept the premise that Scoble and other bloggers were talking about "writing interesting things". And "annoying all kinds of audiences"? If I didn't know better, I'd say Ms. Vance is jealous. Oh, props on the "revelations" in quotation marks. You see kids, the quotes suggest sarcasm, and we all know that  sarcasm is as good as evidence or examples when making claims... But wait, Vance snoots even furthure in the next paragraph:

MP3 of Jeff Zeldman's Keynote at SXSW

March 12, 2005 - 3:27pm
If you missed today's keynote with Jeff Zeldman, never fear... The great PhotoMatt posted an mp3 of the entire speech.

Notes from Panel on Blogging and Censorship

March 12, 2005 - 3:17pm
Blogumentary posted some fantastic notes from the last session. Take a read if your interested in bloggging, censorship, and cultural barriers.

The SXSW Micro-Blogosphere

March 12, 2005 - 2:22pm

Update: Technorati now has an official SXSW Tag. To use it, simply paste the code shown below into your blog entry:

<a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sxsw" rel="tag">sxsw</a>

I need a better name than "micro-blogosphere", btw... Anyhow, I'm going to do an experiement here. My plan is to search technorati for any blogposts that have come from this conference, and to start to collect the addresses It would appear that almost no one has any idea exactly which faces also have a blog attached to them... My hope is that SXSW bloggers that I track will take some time to explore their fellow conference goer's thoughts, and maybe even leave a comment.

Maybe I'm wrong, but there apppears to be no actual discussion going on between the various SXSW bloggers. There are two possible reasons: 1) no bloggers have said anything interesting 2) no one knows where to find the blogs. So, I present to you just a few of the SXSW bloggers that I have been able to find so far: (more soon)

Mr. Anderson Confronts the Left-wing Blogosphere Aristocracy

March 12, 2005 - 1:22pm

And I say, "god damn straight", Mr. Anderson. Thank you for reminding we Progressives of our collective responsibility to support each other.... As for the rest of you, get you're butts over to ISOU and read his reminder. If you follow the link, all of your wishes -- and I mean all of them -- will come true. But if you don't follow the link, an angel will get set on fire. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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