sxswi: closing thoughts

the sxsw interactive conference could not have ended with as much motivation, inspiration and emotion as it had accomplished with bruce sterling’s remarks on “the state of the world.” during the first fifteen minutes he discussed the evolution of the web and how it is gradually transforming intelligently into an “internet of things” rather than the current condition where it’s simply an “internet of data.” if anyone were to get a single idea from the entire conference it would have been that… the transformation of the web (web2.0 has been coined the ‘proper’ term) to the state where it is today and especially where it is headed is remarkable. no longer are we faced with the once unfortunate reality that microsoft was running the show, who couldn’t develop a decent app if they tried. instead we have leaders like google, yahoo, and apple as well as the thousands of smaller teams developing apps like flickr, wikipedia and craigslist who, combined, are pushing web2.0 into an “internet of things” as sterling discussed.

a new technosocial substrate is emerging and according to sterling is doing so “with interactive chips (unique identities, taggings, electronic barcoding); with local and precise positioning systems (geolocative systems, sorting); with powerful search engines (auto-googling objects, complex sorting and shuffling); with cradle-to-cradle recycling (sustainability, transparent production); with 3d virtual models of objects (virtual design, cad-cam, virtual objects exist in network before appearing as physical objects); and, rapid prototyping of objects (fabjects, blobjects, ability to manfacture real-world objects directly from digital plans). sterling further explains that if objects had all of these qualities, then people would interact with them in an unprecedented way… coining the term “spime” as an object that is trackable in both space and time.

“Spimes are manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system. Spimes begin and end as data. They’re virtual objects first and actual objects second.”

the problem is that for most of us, most of you reading this who are not techies like myself or others at sxswi, feel that what constitutes reality is what we read in the newspaper, watch on television. most of you don’t realize what is really happening in the world around you, and words like “ubiquitous, pervasive, invisible, embedded, continuous”, and “ambient” when related to technology do not appear to have a connection. meanwhile those of us (the techies) who are deeply rooted in such technologies and theories observe what is happening, witness the virtual world changing before us, and are highly excited about what is to come. print media is dying. television is suffering. truth is, with the highly democratic, citizen journalism that is taking place through blogs and information sharing communities, the real truth is emerging transparently. no longer are we restricted to the false ‘realities’ that are provided to us through print media and television. blogs across the network usually post the truth quicker than major media sources catch wind of it. furthermore, software is dying with the influx of web apps and open source APIs that are now appearing. microsoft will no longer be the technological ‘powerhouse’ many people referred to it as during the last tech bubble.

the web is evolving in a much more intelligent way as the last bubble. so, as i departed the conference this evening, observing everyone there in a much different light than i had coming in on saturday, i could not help but feel a heightened sense of inspiration… inspiration arising from the knowledge that we are pushing the future, we are developing the future, and most importantly we are the future.