The city of Austin is some 1,500 miles away from Washington, D.C., but during my time at the South by Southwest tech conference over the weekend, I couldn’t help but see a strong connection between what was happening at the conference and what is currently being debated inside the Beltway.
SXSW is all about startups, gadgets, and apps, and this year’s conference was especially heavy on the hardware. From wearable computers and smart thermostats, to new game consoles and miniscule cameras, cool devices were everywhere. Exploring the conference, you can’t help but think over and over again that we live in truly amazing times. But as a tech policy wonk, I was constantly reminded there are crucial issues on the table in Washington that could have a dramatic effect on the gadgets of tomorrow.
One is the critical need for more spectrum for mobile broadband providers, a problem the FCC’s upcoming incentive auctions could go a long way toward solving — as long as they are open to all bidders.
The other is the coming transition to all-IP networks, and the regulatory hurdles that could slow the process down. Last week, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said he strongly supported pilot programs to explore sun-setting legacy copper network in favor of IP. Hopefully, his fellow Commissioners agree.
If SXSW attendees this past weekend thought about the networks that power all the cool devices on display, they were probably focused on signal strength or how fast a tweet made it off their smartphone. Mobile broadband has come so far so fast that it’s already close to an afterthought. But without ongoing investment and smart policies, all the innovation on display in Austin could be hampered by congested networks and red tape applied 1,500 miles away. SXSW is an event where cool ideas take off. Washington is a place where regulatory hurdles can easily ground ideas before they have a chance to leave the runway.
Reporting from this year’s SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas, the New York Times’ Jenna Wortham writes about the heavy presence of hardware at this year’s festival:
The new emphasis on devices over software reflects a much larger shift in the start-up and tech world, driven by tools like crowdfunding and 3-D printing that make it cheaper, faster and easier to create prototypes. The trend is accelerating partly because of the popularity of and excitement around small companies making items like wearable fitness devices as well as smartwatches developed by Pebble and smart thermostats created by Nest.
And now the devices are taking over the halls and convention center of South by Southwest, which has historically been known as a launchpad for new software services; Twitter, Foursquare, GroupMe and Highlight all got their inaugural push on those convention center grounds.
Many of these devices on display are being powered by mobile broadband networks, which goes to show just how robust the current technological ecosystem is becoming. In other words, investment in more powerful networks is leading to more innovative and powerful hardware. Which is exactly how it’s supposed to work.
This past weekend, thousands of techies invaded Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Interactive conference. If you were unable to make the trip, here are some highlights currently making the rounds online.
At GigaOm, Stacey Higginbotham covers a presentation on technology and health care:
To improve medicine and health IT, we need a big heaping dose of data. That’s the takeaway from a conversation with Aneesh Chopra, the former U.S. CTO and assistant to President Obama, at South by Southwest in Austin on Friday.
“Today’s healthcare information is locked away in a document — a person’s medical records — but how do you parse those documents?” Chopra asked. “The data architecture is wrong. The architecture should be built on data.”
Also at GigaOm, Ryan Kim writes about a new mobile broadband-powered payment service from wireless carriers:
Isis, the mobile payment joint venture of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, is finally getting a public viewing at South by Southwest, with consumers able to see the near-field communication wallet in action. The demonstration at Isis’ lounge and booth sets the stage for Isis’ rollout this summer in Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City.
Here’s video of Isis in action:
Meanwhile, the big talk of the conference appears to be a bizarre — and controversial — marketing ploy that ruffled some feathers. As The Huffington Post’s Courteney Palis reports:
At this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas, WiFi-deprived attendees were confronted with an interesting fix to their problem: 4G hotspots in the form of homeless people.
Advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty’s BBH Labs were the brains behind the in-your-face idea to offer 4G network access through the homeless, who sported “I’m [insert name here], a 4G hotspot” t-shirts as they wandered around SXSW with MiFi devices. Those wanting to connect to the 4G network could pay what they desired to the homeless person offering it, in cash or through a PayPal link on the Homeless Hotspots website.
At TechCrunch, Eric Eldon digs into the hot location-based social networking app Highlight:
The overall sense you get is of an app that’s incrementally moving toward a big strategic goal. A lot of the other background location apps feel like they’re still trying to find a market fit, and adding and subtracting features in the hope that they’ll somehow get it right. Instead, Highlight is on the second iteration of becoming the way you discover friends and new people around you, layered on top of the real world connections you already have.
And finally, no tech conference would be complete without wild rumors. Case in point, this report from Brian Selter of the New York Times that CNN is making a play for social networking news site Mashable:
CNN, a unit of Time Warner, and Mashable are in advanced talks that may lead to an acquisition of the social news Web site, three people with knowledge of the talks said.
Mashable, which specializes in stories about technology and social media, could bolster CNN.com, which is one of the most popular news Web sites in the United States. An acquisition of Mashable would make a statement about CNN’s interest in start-ups and social media.
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