2017

Augmented Reality and Urban Revitalization

Who all had a very unorthodox summer spent chasing virtual monsters around town? If you are like me and did just that last summer or maybe longer, then you can blame John Hanke for that. Pokémon Go is the brainchild of Niantic Inc. This Augmented Reality and Urban Revitalization panel featured Mona Lalwani of Engadget, […]

Echo Chambers: Healing Our Social Media Algorithms

“Echo chambers” is a hot term in this post-election world we live in. There’s little debate they exist – these bubbles we live in, primarily on social media, full of groupthink – or the role social networks like Facebook play in forming them, but there’s been little discussion on solutions for this problem. Enter Claire […]

From YouTube Star to Media Company Co-Founder: Casey Neistat

Casey Neistat, YouTuber with over 1 billion views and entrepreneur, spoke about his career evolution in the film and tech industry today at SXSW Interactive. He began his panel introducing the “Tarzan Method” which in short means; there is no magical straight path that will lead us into reaching our goals and aspirations in life. In […]

Commerce gone social

Odds are that most of the people who read this will have participated in an online financial transaction that was facilitated by or otherwise involved a social media platform. Despite this, the social sphere has not yet incorporated commerce to quite the degree that many people thought that, by now, it would have. This year, […]

Mayors Hold The Line

Mayors from across the country have descended on SXSW with a simple, unifying message: The values of their cities will be upheld no matter the cost. Emily Ramshaw, editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune, sat down with three Democratic mayors in Republican held states Friday afternoon. The mayors from Austin, Louisville, and Phoenix were all united […]

(10)99 Problems and W-2s Ain't One

  According to the panelists hosting (10)99 Problems and W-2s Ain’t One, the so-called gig economy has picked up significant steam within the last few years. It’s simple really, Americans are frequently working part-time, whether it’s traditional freelancing jobs like photography, or the newly created ride sharing economy. Colleen Poynton said that Americans working part-time jobs […]

Diversity-Friendly Software

We cannot hack racism and sexism out of a product – Shireen Mitchell Panelists Jon Pincus and Shireen Mitchell were not afraid to tackle the social issues surrounding today’s software and online platforms in their SXSW panel, Diversity-Friendly Software. Unsurprisingly, today’s software works best for the people just like the programmers. This is a major limitation, since […]