SXSW Opens Up, World Says 'Eh'

Transparency, openness and community emerged as governing themes at this year’s SXSW Interactive conference — and no, not just in the softballs thrown by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh in his opening remarks on Saturday. At the same time, the conference created no small amount of cognitive dissonance for those with a mind toward the largely-unmentioned ‘e’-word here in Austin — the economy.

From the open APIs that dominated last year’s sessions, the conversation has turned to openness in data, identity, and information sharing, as panel talks and smaller-scale ‘Core Conversations’ centered around freely exchanged information transferable across sites, properties, and platforms, regardless of their owners and operators.

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