I was thumbing through my notebook looking over what I had written about South by Southwest Interactive and came across this:

"What the hell just happened?"

Good question.

AUSTIN - If there is something South by Southwest has in common with run-of-the-mill conferences and trade shows it's the mounting piles of free stuff you get. Schwag, tchotchkes, trinkets...and outright crap.
It's free. So what is it's value?

The answer is...it depends.

I'm working on wrapping up a few thoughts on SXSW, including the Chris Anderson/Guy Kawasaki discussion on free (which went FUBAR thanks to some technical issues on my part yesterday).

In the meantime, here's a short collection of photos from around South by Southwest Interactive and Austin.

There was plenty more to see than what I captured here, but here's a taste. Watch out for the BBQ.

AUSTIN - If there seems to be one overriding theme I'm picking up on at South by Southwest Interactive, it's the idea that technology and the sheer untapped potential of the new frontier that is the Internet can solve some of society's biggest problems.

So what about racism?

AUSTIN - If someone proposed putting Halo 3 besides civics and gym class in elementary school, it would produce epic meltdowns at school boards across the country.

AUSTIN - Oddly enough, I'm not the only person blogging, taking photos and reporting from SXSW Interactive.

I know. I'm shocked too.

AUSTIN - When people talk about building communities online, it's not as simple as cut and dry as building condos. Largely because the fate of online communities is shaped by the people in it. And that's a good news/bad news proposition.

AUSTIN - I am not much of a shoes guy. I have shoes. I like certain pairs more than others, but they're more of a utility than a fashion accessory.

AUSTIN - You need the internet, you love the internet, you hate the internet.

It's a complicated relationship.

AUSTIN - I woke up at 3:45 a.m. Saturday morning. That is not a time of day I have been familiar with since college (or maybe that last time I had to make a pre-dawn flight out of the Portland International Jetport.*)

My weekend plans got thrown out the window the other day. Why?

I found out I would be going to South By Southwest Interactive.

So much for college basketball...time to pack the multimedia jump kit again.