SXSW Diary: So long Google, It’s timBL time

By Mark Ellis, technical director, BMF

One thing I’ve learned from SXSW is that it’s best to start the day with a clear mind. During these intensive sessions your brain is trying to absorb and process so much information that you need to spring clean your mind, otherwise it has the tendency to go in one ear then straight out the next. This is why I sit here a little worried and its only 9.20am.

The reason for my concern is that I`m currently exhausting valuable brain space on a typical SXSW conundrum – the schedule clash. At SXSW if you want to guarantee a place in a popular session then you need to arrive there 45min – 1hr before the actual start. This gives me approximately 20mins to procrastinate the pros and cons of my particular dilemma.

I am currently sitting in the convention centre waiting patiently for Ben Malban and Aman Govil from Google to begin there talk about the Art, Copy Code project.  The top line here is the link between a Creative, a Copywriter and a Coder. Not your usual pitch team.

The bridge between creativity and code is something I happen to be pretty passionate about. The idea of having developers in the same room as Creatives, whilst challenging, can surely bring with it great opportunity.

In my eyes the days of the “coding monkey”, who just churns out lines of code, are long behind us. Developers can not only bring our ideas to life they can also drive innovation forward. Creative thinking and great problem solving skills are both key tools in the developer’s handbook – essentially Creatives and Coders are cut from the same cloth. They both want to create new things that people love. If we can harness the power of these two disciplines through the common language of Data and human insight then the Future looks good.

In order for Agencies to thrive on the digital platform they must bring people together with diverse skill sets. In an agile world it`s the cross-functional team that succeeds.  The common themes here at SXSW have only compounded this idea with big corporations developing their new platforms with open standards so that developers can push the boundaries of what’s possible with their new technologies. They are looking to Developers for ideas.

So, if this is a topic so close to my heart then what on earth could be tempting me across the city to pastures new?  The giant carrot that is currently being dangled is in the guise of Sir Tim Berners-Lee or timBL as he’s affectionately known.

For those of you that don’t know he’s the guy who`s responsible for the World Wide Web and is in my eyes a God amongst men. Everyone needs heroes and for me, in no particular order its Noel Gallagher, Gary Lineker and Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Quite an eclectic mix and would make for an interesting dinner party.

Well, my 20 minutes is up, it’s time to make a decision. To be honest it’s not that difficult. Without the interwebs there is no Google, without Sir Tim Berners-Lee there is no interwebs.

It’s a time for heroes – So long Google, it’s timBL time.