South By Texas State

By Bonnye Hart

Suneel Gupta is the creater of The Kahani Movement. This is a website where “members of the Kahani social network collect and share stories from the first major wave of South Asians that immigrated to the U.S. Kahani means “story” in Hindi,” says Gupta. He was inspired to find a way to share stories from his own family’s experiences he grew up hearing. Personal stories of living in exile, experiencing violence stemmed from racism, great triumph and adjusting to a new environment are recounted through videos, photos, and blog posts.

“David Isay’s Storycorps proved that ordinary people have extraordinary stories to share – you just need to ask. The Kahani Movement brings the original Storycoprs concept into the Web 2.0 space,” says Gupta.

Gupta is well versed in the world of Web 2.0 and open-source approach to projects. He was formerly the director of Mozilla Labs. “Social media allows our members to collaborate, share ideas, and promote each other’s work, which is critical to the project’s success,” says Gupta.

Gupta needed a platform that would allow people to share their stories within their small communities and beyond. “Tools in the Web 2.0 space, have allowed us to reach millions of people and let them reach other,” says Gupta. He built the Kanahi site based on Ning, a user-friendly social networking site. Gupta works closely with the Ning team to bring these untold stories to life online.

Gupta is looking forward to SXSW interactive 2010 as a panelist and participant. “There is no better platform than SXSWi to share a new idea and get feedback from interesting, innovative people,” says Gupta. He’s got the same idea all savvy SXSWi-goers have while attending the conference–contribute and grow. Gupta says, “we are hoping to share some of the things we’ve learned through Kahani — where we’ve met our goals and where we stumbled a bit. Moreover, we’re aiming to offer Kahani as a model to be replicated because we believe that every community has stories worth preserving.

Read more about Suneel Gupta’s upcoming panel here StoryCorps 2.0: Social Networking Meets Storytelling (Suneel Gupta, The Kahani Movement).

In the world of business, the tried and true ways of starting a company are changing.

In her presentation at SXSW, Donna Fenn author of the book, Upstarts! GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the Business World, will examine how GenYers are rewriting the entrepreneurial playbook one start-up business at a time.

What makes GenYers so different from their predecessors? The CEO’s of Generation Y are not only young but tech savvy, and they have a whole new way of communicating.

“They’re a very social generation and so they tend to start companies with partners, seek out advisors and mentors, tap into the resources of their colleges and universities, and generally draw in communities of vendors and customers into the larger visions of their companies, Fenn said. “I think this ultimately makes for stronger, more sustainable companies.”

Fenn, who has worked in business journalism for 20 years, says that young entrepreneurs are making an impact in just about every industry where technology can give them an advantage over the competition.

“Younger entrepreneurs tend to be collaborative, tech-savvy, and very agile. They’re also very socially conscious and focused on work/life balance and creating productive and fun workplaces,” Fenn said. “So I think those are all traits that entrepreneurs of every generation should take note of and attempt to emulate.”

GenYers also keep up with trends in social media. These tools help them communicate with customers, meaningfully and intimately. Social media helps build their business, by enabling them to create powerful brand identities.

“Look at what Tony Hsieh (Zappos)  has done with Twitter – there’s no better example of how to use social media to your competitive advantage,” she said.

However, both young and old entrepreneurs have some knowledge to offer each other, she said. Older entrepreneurs have the knowledge that comes with experience. They are better negotiators, manage people better, and are not as easily distracted.

Fenn became interested in GenYers a couple of years ago.

“I began noticing more and more companies that were started by people in their twenties – more than I had ever seen in my twenty plus years in business journalism. I wanted to know what was driving them to start businesses, what kinds of companies they were starting, and if those companies were really so different from the ones I’d covered in the past,” she said.

The negative stereotypes of GenY are that they are spoiled and entitled, something that Fenn’s personal observations continually refuted.

“I have to admit that as a mother of two GenYers, I felt a little protective and possible defensive. My gut reaction was: wait a minute, this is an amazing generation of kids and I’m tired of hearing stories about how they all rely on their parents to micromanage their careers,” she said.

“I know that happens, but many of the young CEOs I spoke to were actually employing their parents and providing a major means of support to their families. That doesn’t sound entitled to me.”

Fenn’s advice to the college student who wants to create a startup of his/her own? Use what’s available to you to get ahead.

“Never again will you have as many free and valuable resources available to you as you have in college, so take full advantage of them. I’m talking about knowledgeable professors, possibly courses in entrepreneurship and/or on-campus incubators and entrepreneurship clubs, “she said.

Fenn also believes that the spirit of true entrepreneurship is purely based on your motivations.

“Entrepreneurship doesn’t always start with an idea. You’ve got to have passion for the entrepreneurial life – for building something that’s of value and that in some way will make life easier and better for the people your company touches, “she said.

“If you just want to get rich, forget it. Entrepreneurship is like journalism – it’ll make you miserable unless you love it so much that you can’t possibly imagine doing anything else.”

Fenn describes her book as a conversation starter on the topic of GenY and entrepreneurship.

“I hope that older readers come away with a new perspective on GenY and that they realize that this generation is doing business in a way that really does define the future of entrepreneurship for all of us,” she said. “And I hope that younger readers are inspired to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams!”

By Sang Hee Park

John Halcyon Styn will lead a SXSW panel: Casting Crib Cutesploitation – Using Your Kids as Content. He owns Royal Pink Productions, a consulting company that specializes in online video ad social media. Royal Pink Productions helps craft digital landscapes of people’s websites with integrity and authenticity. In other words, they work with large corporate organizations which work with the individual consumers that have become critical in the modern digital world. So, they help large corporations use the tools, like Youtube and Facebook, effectively. Royal Pink Productions has experimental projects such as HugNation.com that work to use the web to foster connections.

Watch this interview with Styn on CNN:

Styn also hosts the blog Life Student.

Styn frequently speaks about blogging, webcam, chat and community building, and consults with large companies to help them understand the delicacies required when courting the information generation. He has been going to SXSW for about 10 years. He has received a web award and been on a number of panels.

Watch his interview about SXSW:

According to Styn, many people, who were innovators and users of the early web, have become parents. He said he is interested to know what the risks and rewards are of having children while broadcasting online. So he decided to speak about “Casting Crib Cutesploitation – Using Your Kids as Content.” He wonders whether or not people are on the edge of a huge crisis of privacy. He used the example of “David after the dentist”, saying videos are simply fun, but have can influence a person’s future or violate privacy.

By Robert Hill

Andrew Huff’s panel for SXSW 2010 is called “The Online News of Tomorrow.” Such a title can conjure up several topics and can have a discussion that would lead into various directions. Mr. Huff is the editor and publisher of Gapers Block, a city-centric web publication based in Chicago. He is also a professional blogger and social media consultant. Knowing this about Mr. Huff, the first question regarded his opinion on the future of online journalism, specifically as it pertained to the hyper-local brand of news that he is a part off. He believes both print and web news will move extremes (worldwide and hyper-local) and believes “localized editions (different content for different parts of the city) will best positioned to remain strong thanks to local businesses trying to reach their immediate neighbors through advertising.”

As to how such publishers can “sell” their type of localized coverage to consumers in mid-sized cities not named New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, Huff pointed to examples in Lawrence, Kansas (Lawrence.com), the Duke City Fix in Albuquerque and BhamTerminal.com in Birmingham, Alabama. He posits the venture “can work in smaller markets if they understand their audience well.”

It appears the transformation in this, a century old industry, will encourage innovation and consumer empowerment. Such is evident with the rise of user generated content. Huff points to CNN’s iReport as evidence of the trend taking hold. He did caution that the press may encounter a legal minefield when publishing accounts produced from non-employees or non-journalists. However, as soon as that issue is eliminated or defined, the practice may increase.

By Gio Metcalf

Chris Heathcote of meta loca design consulting, will be making his first apperance at SXSW this year. Coming all the way from London England, Chris says he is tremendously excited to be in Austin for the first time and to be presenting at the conference. His panel will be discussing the latest take on something that a few designers have been working on for a while, the interface between computers and the internet. Chris has been designing for the internet for thirteen years and seven years with mobile phones. Some of Chris’s specialties include interaction design, product creation and branding.

Some of the issues that will be addressed on the panel concern user generated content, social media, and how it is extended into the real world. Chris has recently been working at Nokia for the past five years. The motto at Nokia is “Connecting People.” Chris says it is an innate universal human desire to want to communicate. Chris also commented on how initially people are surprised with all the new forms of social media such as Twitter, Skype, Facebook and SMS, but that anything that allows new forms of communication, if easy enough to use and cheap enough, are always embraced. Chris said, ‘ Lots of people talk about the Dunbar number. You can keep in communication at a sustainable level with 150 people, but it seems pretty irrelevant these days. I follow 400 people on Twitter, I subscribe to 1100 RSS feeds. I realize I’m at an extreme of consumption, but as tools that allow ambient awareness of others improve, the amount of communication can only increase.” With all the new advances in social media, critics ask whether the use of social media is “real” communiation? Chris replied, “real-time-one-to-one communication doesn’t now seem like the most appropriate method for most, but it’s no more change than we’ve encountered in the last 150 year, with advent of a fast, cheap, ubiquitous postal service and telegraph service.”

Chris has recently been researching and working with urban screens. Urban screens have recently been replacing billboards and traditional paper advertising. Chris said that currently the entire London underground metro system is covered in digital billboards. What Chris believes is most interesting about this phenomenon is that while traditional paper advertising is disappearing, things that look like computers are rapidly appearing in urban environments. “It’s happening before there’s really been any civic discussion about what this means, and in private spaces, that don’t require planning permission,” says Chris. “I’m interested in what designers and others who have been researching technology and urban environments can do to make screens more useful and more interesting, to the public as well as advertisers or owners.”

By Caitlin Moore

When Larry Smith and Tim Barkow started SMITH Magazine in 2006, their intention was to create a place where personal narrative could flourish and be shared online. This initial idea led to several successful developments, including the Six-Word Memoir story project. Here, anyone and everyone is encouraged to express themselves in the manner that texting, Twitter and Facebook have taught us so well – with brevity and, hopefully, with honesty and humor.

The Six-Word Memoir project appealed to so many people that it has led to two bestselling books, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure and Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak. “Six-Word Memoirs are the quickest, easiest way to get a glimpse into another person’s personality, humanity and essence,” says Smith. “There’s this feeling of intimacy and connection in a world gone digital.”

Smith’s panel It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs From Writers Famous and Obscure has been chosen for SXSW 2010, and the session will consist of readings from the new Six-Word Memoir book as well as contributions from the audience. Examining this phenomenon in a room filled with tech-savvy folks should lead to a better understanding of the direction in which communication and self-expression are going.

Over 200,000 Six-Word Memoirs have been submitted to SMITHmag.net and SMITHTeens.com, and many people (including several teens) make a habit of submitting something every day. Smith and another staff member read them all. “It’s a joy to read thousands and thousands of expressions of humanity, six words at a time,” he says. The Web site also includes six-word video memoirs and links to other projects in the making, with the underlying theme being that this is a democratic, forward-thinking and participatory mode of storytelling.

By Carly Smith

Eric Kogelschatz first learned about neuromarketing while attending graduate school at Michigan State University. After reading the NYTimes article “There’s a Sucker Born in Every Medial Prefrontal Cortex” and watching the PBS program “Frontline: The Persuaders” Kogelschatz’s ideas about advertising changed.

“From my perspective, the institution of advertising is defined as the communication of product or service related information in a persuasive manner. However, after reading this article and watching the program, I began to realize that advertising, coalesced with cognitive neuroscience (neuromarketing), would allow marketers to change overt consumer behavior by influencing emotional and rational attitudes, beliefs and motivations,” said Kogelschatz.

“With the advent of neuromarketing, neuroscientists and researchers have been directing their expertise to marketing, using MRIs to analyze consumers’ brain activity when exposed to different stimuli,” said Kogelschatz. He said that companies like Google are using math to develop advertising strategies.

While working at Modernista! in Boston, Kogelschatz started a band with three neuroscientists. During practice, the band mates would often talk about neuroscience. This led Kogelschatz to start rethinking his beliefs on advertising and science. “I often thought about neuroscience in relation to my research and experience in advertising,” said Kogelschatz. This led him to write the blog post titled “The Convergence of Cognitive Neuroscience and Marketing.” After the success of the post, Kogelschatz decided to submit a panel proposition to SXSWi.

“My hope is that the panel audience will observe an in-depth analysis of the convergence of neuroscience and marketing and gain a subjective perspective on the topic based on emotional and rational information,” said Kogelschatz.

Kogelschatz has extensively researched the convergence of neuroscience and marketing, digital music innovation, digital technology and urban revitalization. He is currently putting together his panel for SXSWi 2010. The panel will include innovative speakers in the areas of neuroscience, advertising and neuromarketing. Kogelschatz’s panel will answer questions such as: what is neuromarketing? Is advertising an art or science? Is neuromarketing ethical? Will digital marketers become scientists and mathematicians or will creativity triumph?

For more information about Eric and his work, please visit www.erickogelschatz.com.

By Josh Shepherd

Public Enemy first instructed us all….”Don’t believe the hype!”  That’s a hard thing to do in these times.  When everything around us is about hype, how does one distinguish between the trends?   There are subtle signs of growth and decline in anything.  Learning how to catch all those signs may determine the future of your business be it iPhone App. designer, kindergarten teacher, entrepreneur, or lawyer.  That’s where Rolf Skyberg’s SXSW 2010 presentation, Dangerous Curves: Hockey Sticks, Swine Flu and More, comes in.

“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics,” Skyberg said. “Correlation does not imply causation. Hopefully people will walk out of my talk thinking differently about some of the patterns they see. Is it really exponential growth? Where is this trend in its hype cycle? Should I walk away, or should I run? Are we “storming”, “norming” or “performing”? I hope to give people new tools with which to interpret what they see happening around them.”

This SXSW presentation is a Skyberg’s continuing look at trends in the marketplace and learning how to correctly identify the trends.  Once those trends are figured out, it’s time to use that as an advantage.

“A few years ago at Web 2.0 EXPO in San Francisco I gave a talk that was well received, roughly equating Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to the recent burst in traffic to social networking sites, “ Skyberg recalled.  “As I continued to present this talk, certain graphs or curves kept coming up, and I felt there was a need to bring them all together as one package. This talk is part of an ongoing desire to help demystify some of the principles that seem to run the world.”

Skyberg has had a unique opportunity to study trends.  As the platform product manager for eBay, he has been able to take his observations and implement his ideas on a tremendous scale in a real life business.  It’s his own trend laboratory.  Now he is bringing his findings to SXSW to help those looking to not just believe the hype, but to understand it.

“My talk is cross-disciplinary, the wide range of attendees available from SXSW should make for a great audience of influencers and do’ers that is passionate about making things happen,” added Skyberg.  “It’s a little bit about tech, a little bit about business, and a whole lot about helping curious people say, “woah cool, I didn’t know that!””