I had a lovely weekend in Portland for the XOXO Festival, Andy Baio and Andy McMillan’s event for indie Internet-connected culture. It was a great event full of enthusiasm and optimism. I was particularly struck by how companies like Kickstarter, Etsy, and YouTube have enabled a whole culture of creative people making and sharing things. I left inspired to do more creative work, no matter how simple; a nice reinforcement of how I felt after the Eyeo Festival.

The event was designed as a one off for 400 people (funded via Kickstarter), but already folks are talking about the next one. Bigger, better? I hope so but only a little, it’d be a shame if a nice little indie event grew into the giant industrial chaos of SXSW Interactive.

Some more reading.. Anil Dash’s live blogging, the Twitter stream of attendees (should be interesting for years to come), Jason Kottke, Matt Haughey, Ryan Tate for Wired, Ruth Brown for the Willie Week, Wortham and Gallagher for NYTimes.

culture
  2012-09-18 23:13 Z