After the Zukerberg keynote debacle, this panel seems to rank #2 in terms of virtual rancor.
Looking back, it’s an interesting comparison between the real-life panel contents and the virtual vitriolic world that (d)evolved in the parallel Meebo chatroom.
Personally, I was completely aloof to the entire Meebo stream trying to keep my typing up to speed with the panelist’s comments. One thing I’ve found from blogging SXSW live was that it allowed me to focus completely on the content instead of the conversation.
In these panels, it’s really easy to walk away feeling like no one said anything of value just because it gets so conversational. A lot of Meebo-ers got sucked into this feeling, and fueled by the adolescent fun of chatting away in an anonymous context where everyone is king…. Well, their transcript sits side-by-side with mine here on the monitor. When you compare the two panels, the real panel sitting on the dais is the clear winner.
That’s not to say that there weren’t ironies worth mentioning, both in the experience of the panel, and reviewing the post-panel virtual takeaways.
