This past Friday, people from all over the country and the world converged on Austin for South By South West. Most people quickly associate SXSW only with partying and wild fun, and while there is a lot of that, it’s not all that South By is about.
Austin gets a unique opportunity to be on a world stage with over 18,000 people attend the interactive portion alone, the film portion features almost 500 films, and there are over 2,000 music shows, all of which happen in one week. It really is incredible. Now, what does this have to do with ACNM?
With so many amazing minds and big names from technology and internet, SXSW Interactive really is the place to be. Unfortunately, we simply have not had the time to make any adequate plans for this years event while we have been busy getting up and improving our site. We believe in taking action, but making sure that what we do is done well.
Our area gets to annually host a huge amount of guests for an event that is infamous for partying hard. Celebrations is what this city does best, but I don’t believe that it has to be bad. Austin’s great culture is is deeply rooted in the art, food, music, and the people that make it. With exceptions, there is a lot of good, and it is definitely worth promoting and experiencing.
Now that we have the platform, I believe that it is our responsibility to host information and resources for the many visitors. Out of all the techies, we should be reaching out to those that are looking for or could use more information about mass times and other Catholic information.
More importantly, I think that it is necessary to do a Catholic meet up. First of all, it is important to have a presence at such events. There are other religious groups that do, including a Jewish group. Secondly, we should reach out to these techies and let the Catholic ones know that they can use their skills to further the cause of Truth. There are many that have never really considered it before, but it’s time that Catholic media become more widely recognized as a platform for new technologies and opportunities.
A very big topic at this year’s SXSWi has been a call to humanize the internet. Too often we automate and simply generate messages. Social technology through the internet requires a full consciousness that we are dealing with real people, people with souls. We cannot simply push our “media” the way old media only knew how todo with their messages. Now, it is expected of us to engage in conversation, to talk , but more importantly to listen. By listening to the people’s needs and interests, we can more effectively bring others to join our conversation.
I pray that ACNM does not loose sight of this important and powerful element of the contemporary world of technology. Sure we know we have Truth on our side, but in a sea of messages and noise, no one will notice or listen if it is not communicated effectively.
Taking my own advice, I would love to hear what ideas you have to create a presence at next year’s SXSW. We’ve got time to plan, and we’re open to try what we can. Feel free to comment on this post to share your ideas.
I like what you have to say here. Last week I was at DrupalCon Chicago, where we had over 3,000 designers, developers and webmasters in attendance, and the partying was big time. On Ash Wednesday, I had an opportunity to be a witness to something more important. Though it appeared that I was the only one, out of 3,000 +, who had ashes on my forehead, I did bring a lot of people’s attention to the fact that it was Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent. I even had a few people come up and ask me where they could find a Church nearby :-).
We have to be willing to bear witness to our faith, even in crowds that are overwhelmingly against what we stand for. Ash Wednesday was timed right, so that I had such an opportunity. That may not be the case for SXSW next year. But perhaps there is something you all could wear that would clearly identify you as Catholic. I certainly had no problem identifying the Muslim and Jewish witnesses to their faiths who attended DrupalCon Chicago. Anyway, something to think about.
Ken Heim
http://upperroommedia.com
I think it’s important to join together during secular technology events like this, just as it is important for us to gather in community during specialized events like SQPN’s Catholic New Media Celebration (CNMC). Let’s work on getting something together the the various downtown-ish churches. I know we had SXSW participants at St. Ignatius, and I’m sure St. Mary’s Cathedral and St. Austin’s did too. I’d also imagine the UCC would be willing to host groups for meet-ups too.
As to what to discuss, I think a primary focus should be how we can use our gifts and talents in new media to 1- help others continue to grow in their faith and 2-evangelize and how we can help each other to to this and 3-host workshops to teach those that work in the parish (particularly priest, parish administrators and those who work on the parish websites) to move their parish to web 2.0 and beyond, helping them learn to engage the parishioner (or potential parishioner) beyond the pew and into the world online.
I agree 100%. Defiantly something to put in our goals for next year.