This was my first SXSW. I have always wanted to check it out, and it has certainly been a very different conference. The best part about it is the fact that everyone in the valley seems to meet down in Austin, and they are ready for a good time. The content itself is also very different. Having a conference which is all panels is a strange choice, as it is bloody hard to do a good panel. The first thing that you have to do is have confrontation. The panelists should realise that this is entertainment and almost make it a game. Be contrary. Argue. Just don’t take it personal. Sitting and listening to “I agree with you Bob. I also think you should….” is a touch painful.
The “browser wars” panel had some spirit. Brendan and Chris weren’t going at it like, but they were having some fun up there.
Something Chris said (on the Web Standards panel) resonated:
“Make this a good decision for Microsoft”
I want to support Chris, and the other proponents in the IE team that I do believe are trying to do the right thing. I think that it is our responsibility to pump them up when they do good things just as much as we have to hold their feet to the fire when they do the opposite.
We need to do our work so any skeptics internal at Microsoft see that this has been the right move, and that they should open up more. We need to help IE 8 team beat the Silverlight team. The Web needs to win.
We also need to continue to push for even more transparency. I want Microsoft to take the good will that they have gotten and build on it. Don’t go dark on us until another beta. Open up a digg style database that lets people vote on features that they want to see. There are missing features that, without conversation, don’t make sense. Why didn’t they rev the DOM events? Have some town hall meetings. Invite the community up to Redmond, but if you do this, you have to actually listen and work with us. If done right, IE 8 will become a fantastic browser with the support of the development world.
How about that for a quick turn around?
