SXSW Interactive: TechTank’s Top Five Issues for Tech Policy

South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) has officially kicked off in Texas. At TechTank we’re sharing some top issues related to tech policy as they unfold at the conference.

1. Pompeo Wanted to Uninvite Snowden to the Party. Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS) published an open letter to the SXSW organizers on March 7. In the letter, Pompeo criticized Snowden (and by extension, SXSW). He called for the conference to withdraw Snowden’s invitation to the panel “A Virtual Conference with Edward Snowden”. Despite the request, Snowden joined the virtual conference March 10.
2. Doctor’s Offices on their Death Beds. An SXSWi panel on the demise of the traditional doctor's office explains how “technology and policy are colliding to transform the patient experience. New devices are delivering continuous streams of health data to patients, who in turn are expecting physicians to engage with them via modern communication channels.”
3. Wearables and the Governance Issues They Raise. Wearable technology is becoming increasingly relevant to all areas of our lives, whether it is the Samsung smartwatch, Google glass or the connected car that Scott Lange of Team Detroit described as “the biggest wearable device you could possibly have.”
4. From Our Nation’s Capital to Texas’. SXSW will host no less than six members of Congress, a record number. Roll Call compiled their guide to SXSW Interactive in which they write: “Reps Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA), are all speaking on panels at the Interactive festival. Sens Mark Warner (D-VA), and Jerry Moran (R-KS), are taking part in an Economist-led panel on local tech economies.”
5. Advancing the Drone Debate. Chaotic Moon Studios are the inventors of the CUPID (Chaotic Unmanned Personal Intercept Drone) that includes an 80,000 volt stun gun and acts as a non-lethal defense mechanism. They decided to address some of the real world issues surrounding weaponized, patrolling drones at the 2014 SXSW

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[March 11]