Experiences from SXSW Interactive

New Technologies

Samsung's new Smart TV platform is really solid. Voice commands and gesture controls are in a primitive but still impressive stage.  A curious new feature is the face recognition ability.  If it doesn't creep you out too much, the ability for the TV to recognize its watcher could allow for very customizable experiences by automatically logging into favorite services like Hulu, Netflix, Twitter, etc. and even start by jumping to your favorite channel.

Pepsi is promoting adaptive advertising, which feels a little creepy at first but makes targeting demographics in real-time possible. A computer judges your age and sex with a constantly scanning camera and then will display the advertisement it thinks is most relevant for you.

Creeped out yet?

Isis will be prominently in the news soon as it competes against Google Wallet (and others) to handle your virtual wallets (which you will all have by next year). Near-field communications (NFC) will be standard in the upcoming generation of smart phones and will provide a new form of quick payments that are supposedly more secure than using a credit card. Too much to discuss in a synopsis, but check out PayWithIsis.com for a taste. If you want to go nuts in the world of future currency, check out Bitcoin.org.

Trends

While not the newest news, pretty much every media producer is adding layers of social media integration into their shows.  In a panel, Bravo brought up their "social addition" layer for repeat shows -- a process that shows the social media engagement (tweets and Facebook comments) burnt in to show when it re-airs and their numbers for re-airing shows have gone up substantially.  I'm not sure if that's proof of the social media engagement working or if it's providing viewers with a new content experience.

A "Future of Media" talk largely discussed the conversations that were happening on GetGlue and GroupMe.  People are probably familiar with the GetGlue check-in system, but GroupMe has a more personal platform where the conversations typically involve fewer people but much more active dialogue.  The main idea of this trend is to figure out how to convert a passive consumer of media to an active user - someone who is discussing and thus promoting the show.

Gamification is a buzzword that is going to be as big as the very idea of social media.  Gamification is a powerful concept of motivation through rewards, even if those rewards are completely intangible.  FourSquare started its platform with the idea of rewarding checkins with badges and developed a monetizable system from that effort.  Now GetGlue and a thousand other start-ups are leveraging the same psychological triggers that reinforce behavior with a set system to gain regular users.  Everyone should truly be on the lookout for more efforts from large companies to begin to control your behavior with the ideas of gamification.  Imagine if Wells Fargo started awarding  badges if you open a new account with them to get an idea of where this could take a dark turn.  Take a look at Badgeville.com for an example of how a startup is leveraging their gamification expertise.

Independent support for artists is becoming more and more popular.  Music, film, cartoonists, etc. all have new opportunities to manage themselves in more inventive ways.  ArtistGrowth had a fairly robust system for managing the entire life of a musician from managing merchandise and sales to travel plans and social media connections from a single app interface.  IndieFilmz.com seems to be one of the first places where you can actually sell short films - a fantastic solution for filmmakers who haven't yet been able to raise funds for a full-length feature.

Other Discoveries


WeVideo - collaborative, cloud-based video editing
Geospike - geoblogging network intended for world travelers
SonicBids - social music marketing to help bands, venues, promoters, and brands connect
JuntoBox Films - network for finding and funding independent films
Hashtag Art - creates mosaics from Twitter followers
SavvyCard - online business cards