From my descriptions I am sure you can infer that I felt the experience was well worth the time and travel spent. The people I had the fortune to meet were funny, brilliant, intense, passionate folks who are looking at technology and trying to figure out how to use it to hack not only the online world, but the physical world, the ideaspace, popular culture, society at large, the memepool - everything around us. No one knows what will happen, but being on any part of the journey with these folks is an experience I don't want to miss.
And no matter how good or pervasive online presences become, there is just no substitution to getting together and mixing it up in physical world for a bit. New connections are made and old connections grow richer.
What next? My mind is full of ideas and potential projects. I don't know what will become of all of them, but I do know that I come out of SXSW wanting to do more, and do it better. That alone is worth the price of admission.
Until next time,
mikepop
Appendix A:
hiptop thoughts
Appendix B:
more on SXSW 2004
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