SXSW and Preaching the Cloud Gospel

It's not exactly Krishnan's nor John's fault that the Cloudy Awards didn't turn out as much fun as expected. At least for them, and for those who do care about the impact of cloud computing, not for the SXSW audience.

You go to SXSW for the sheer awesomeness of the event that spells fun in all caps. What's not to like? There's music, a chance to get up close with web creatives and possibly be among the exclusive few to "sneek a peek" before the idea goes web big and of course, the schwags that scream "I'm genuine web because I'm attending SXSW! " Hey, it could be Spring Break 2.0 for all I know based on the comments, except with more brains.

Fortunately or not, cloud and internet are closely intertwined. As hyped as it is, the cloud gospel still needs a lot of preaching to dispel myths, encourage experimentation and discuss the impact especially on privacy concerns. And what better way than to dive in with influencers who make up Austin at this time.

But alas, oftentimes as is this case, the message seems to get lost, crushed under the weight of popularity. Looking at the result of the awards poll, one could not help but question if this was a good idea in the first place. Based on what he wrote, Krishnan doesn't seem too thrilled, least about winning but with the disparity of votes he felt should have elevated other respected luminaries in the cloud sphere.

He's got quite a point but one that we hope is not to appease the bottom drawers of whatever the folly of the results tally. I'm sure James, Simon and Lori understand the limitations of it all and wouldn't mind, really.

U2 and REM never did sell-out, did they? Flickr

In their right mind, they, like all the others who get far less votes, understand that this is all transitory and part of the growing pains which eventually would lead to better understanding of the values of the cloud as it goes mainstream. They, as would Krishnan, would still continue to do what they do best - write and share their thoughts unencumbered by the influence game and the analyst tag that most bloggers put a high premium on nowadays.

While others just see the cloud as vapor, true cloudies believe that underneath, there's something else - both dark and silver linings and they're committed to ensure that the latter will time and again come through.

Related:

Cloudy Awards

Thunder in the Clouds

Posted via email from friarminor's posterous