Boing Boing: Updated AGAIN: Let's reform SXSW's no-photos, no-electricity policies

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Updated AGAIN: Let's reform SXSW's no-photos, no-electricity policies

Update: Dan Gillmor reports that the SXSW organizers have changed their policy regarding photos at the conference: "The only restriction on pictures/videos/recording is that they must be for personal use."

Update: jonl says, "They changed the rule - people can plug in. They just told me to announce it on my 11am panel. Yay!"

~~At SXSW, every speakers' table has this sign on it: NO UNAUTHORIZED VIDEOTAPING OR PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALLOWED IN PANEL ROOMS AS A COURTESY TO SPEAKERS.~~

This is a really silly idea, one that violates the burgeoning norm of tech conferences, which is to aggressively capture and retransmit the happenings at conferences as they are underway, and I think that we should do something about it.

~~Every speaker should open her or his panel or talk with the following:~~

[First, pick up sign and place it face down on the table]
I am hereby authorizing you to take as many pictures and video of this presentation as you care to. I have travelled a great distance, at great expense, to say something and be heard. I would be deeply grateful to you for helping me to spread what I have to say.
I would be further grateful if your photos and videos of this presentaiton were distributed as widely as possible under a Creative Commons license.
Thank you.

If speakers forget to do this, someone in the audience should stand up at the start of the proceedings and say, "That sign says we're not allowed to take photos and videos without your permission. We'd like to share what you have to say with others -- may we have your permission to do so?"
There's another problem at SXSW, which is that the conference center charges an arm and a leg to conference organizers who want to use the AC outlets in the hallways. SXSW doesn't have an arm and a leg to spare, so they haven't paid the extortionate sum.
The result of this is that red-jacketed "security guards" spend all their time going around, ordering paying attendees -- again, people who have travelled to Austin at great personal expense -- to unplug their laptops from the wall or face a $90 fine. This is the mingiest, rottenest way to make conference attendees feel welcome, and again, we should do something about it.
The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau's email address is visitorcenter@austintexas.org, and their phone number is (800)926-2282.
Is there anyone from the Austin papers reading this? It would be grand to put someone from the convention center management on the spot about this: "Did you really pay your staff to walk the corridors of the conference center and order working people who had plugged in their laptops so that they could keep up with their jobs while visiting Austin to unplug or face a fine? Do you always do this? Is this in keeping with your remit as an ambassador for Austin to our visitors?"

I have a great time at SXSW every year, and the conference organizers do a tremendous job of putting on a show. But someone needs to take the conference center management to task for this unacceptable policy. Link

posted by Cory Doctorow at 05:11:21 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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