SXSW Panel Picker has ended and I am really hoping my panel idea is selected. Thanks all who voted! There’s no shortage of fodder for the panel, that’s for sure.
By now, the entire world knows how Kanye West made a jackass out of himself at the 2009 VMA Awards (hey, if the President can call him a jackass, who am I to argue). Predictably, Kanye’s rant set off a swarm of anti-Kanye responses — including, a slew of racially charged tweets such as this one from amber_berry:
I wonder if Amber Adamson (who knows if this is really her name) really wants this to be her first impression on a job interview? At church? At PTA? Hell, at the pumpkin pie shop?
As the real-time web gets faster, I hope we are realizing that anything can be cached on the web — forever. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be ourselves online. But we certainly need to be aware that anything we say or do (even offline) can be “picked up”, rebroadcast and remixed. So if you’re not prepared to defend it, you should think twice about what you’re doing.
This is not news, per se. But Twitter has been particularly susceptible. The ability to instantly fire off anything on your mind has generated some interesting content, to say the least. I suggest you think before you tweet. Even “protected” accounts are only as private as those you follow.
But wait. There’s more at Harry Allen’s Media Assassin.
Yeah, I’m sort of begging.
I’ve been attending SXSW since 2005. This year (2009) brought a noticeable, welcome influx of panels focusing on non-technical aspects of interactive life and social media. In addition to learning the latest advances in mobile, power coding, browser improvements and startup secrets; there was an increase in panels about managing content, online identity and feminism.
It would be valuable to discuss how all of this convergence is playing out in social media in regards to how we interact with one another. So I proposed the following panel, along with Liz Burr and Brandon Sheats for SXSW 2010:
Online Gatekeeping: Who Died and Made You King?
Description
As the web becomes more open via social networks, we’re adopting new rules of communication. But who creates these rules? How much does class, race and gender figure into social media policing? We’ll discuss how identity affects social networks, as well as look at how online communities police themselves as participation expands.
Questions Answered:
- Which groups are in control of what is worth sharing via social media?
- Are the under-25 community using social media differently?
- How do we recognize and confront social media ‘gatekeepers’?
- Is our behavior in online communities merely a reflection of offline stereotypes and experiences?
- What is the impact of the amplification of social stereotypes online on under-represented groups?
- How do we integrate previously, under-represented groups into this more social world?
- Is there really such a thing as a “digital ghetto”? If so, is it our responsibility to combat it?
There are over 2200 proposals and this is my first time giving it a go. Your help in getting the panel chosen (assuming you support the idea) would be greatly appreciated. Not planning to attend SXSW? No problem. The sessions are recorded. So you’ll still get the benefit of the discussion.
Please give us a big thumbs up and don’t forget to leave a comment about what you would like us to discuss in this panel. We can’t see vote counts. So comments really help. Also, voting closes at 11:59PM on Friday, September 4.
Hat tip: Karsh, who came up with the snappy panel sub-title.
