Faculty, graduate students attending SXSW conference

Elon University Interactive Media graduate students and faculty members will participate in sessions and document the events of the South By Southwest Conference, a popular interactive media and music conference celebrating its 25th year, in Austin, Texas, March 11-15.

The students and faculty in attendance will be covering the conference events via blogs and Twitter, all of which can be found HERE.

The iMedia students in attendance are:

  • Michael Sales
  • Allie Boardman
  • Mollie Lambert
  • Caitlin Smith
  • John Hartley
  • Jackie Kozma
  • Charlotte Southern
  • Mitch Donavan
  • Brad Mu

Derek Lackaff, an assistant professor of communications, will serve on a panel March 11 titled “Rebooting Iceland: Crowdsourcing Innovation in Uncertain Times.” The session will outline the ways in which open-source processes online are being incorporated in the politics of Iceland. Lackaff has conducted considerable research into emerging media processes and their influence on political processes.

Janna Anderson, associate professor of communications and director of the Imagining the Internet Center, will lead a session called “Internet Evolution: Hyperconnected, Hyperreal” March 15. The session, which will include audience participation with discussion leaders Anderson and Paul Jones of ibiblio at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will cover many of the issues addressed in this video about the potential future of the Internet, recorded by Anderson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MaPyxD0CyY

Elon staff members Maggie Mullikin, the iMedia program assistant, and Brad Berkner, the coordinator of interactive projects, will also be in attendance to participate and promote the iMedia program at Elon.

At SXSW Interactive, other key speakers include futurist Bruce Sterling, researcher danah boyd and technology policy experts Jonathan Zittrain and Susan Crawford. SXSW Film will host screenings and world premieres, and SXSW Music will feature more than 2,000 performers around Austin.

– by Caitlin O’Donnell ’13