1 The debate over online privacy is just getting started
The big draws at the interactive arm of SXSW weren't actually there: National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared via videolink from Russia and the Ecuadorian embassy in London respectively. The setting for their keynote speeches, a huge room of 3,500 people paying rapt attention to a man on a giant screen, felt eerily like Nineteen Eighty Four. The key theme for both was that the discussions over online surveillance and digital privacy are just getting started. "We are all involved in what we traditionally called the state, whether we like it or not," said Assange. "So we have no choice but to try to manage the behaviour of the state that we have been forced to be part of." Snowden called for internet users to get to grips with encryption and anonymous web browsing technology and encouraged technology companies to make them more accessible. "The NSA is setting fire to the future of the internet and you guys are the firefighters," he said.
2 Two of this year's best documentaries focus on British musicians
Two film premieres focused on UK pop stars. The theme of The Possibilities are Endless is a journey back to health for the singer and guitarist Edwyn Collins, who suffered a debilitating stroke in 2005. It tracked his recovery, intercutting archive footage of his career with Orange Juice with his return to live performing and composition: it's a beautiful piece of work even when at its most deliberately unsettling. Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals showed and talked about his American Interior documentary, which starts as a whimsical journey to the heart of the US in the footsteps of a distant ancestor who went in search of a mythical Welsh-speaking Native American tribe. As the film goes on and Rhys meets the last native speaker of the Mandan tribe's language, it makes some thought-provoking points about the fragility of culture – issues that will be expanded on in a companion app and book later this year.
3 The stars of Girls are suffering from Hollywood typecasting
HBO's hit TV show Girls has been acclaimed across the world, but its star and creator Lena Dunham used her speech to point out the industry sexism that continues to stymie her female colleagues, even as male star Adam Driver prospers. "People are ready to see Adam play a million different guys in one year – from lotharios to villains to nerds. Meanwhile Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Zosia Mamet are still waiting for parts they can get interested in," said Dunham, suggesting that most of the offers they receive are for "high school ditzes". Even Dunham is struggling for decent roles. "There's no place for me in the studio system," she said, while stressing that she is happy for Driver's success.
4 Neil Young wants to shake up the digital music world
Neil Young came not just to talk music, but to talk technology too. He used his appearance to launch a campaign on crowdfunding website Kickstarter for his PonoPlayer music gadget and PonoMusic downloads store. The motivation behind both: to sell music files with a higher audio quality than is available in stores such as Apple's iTunes. "It's about the music, real music. We want to move digital music into the 21st century and PonoMusic does that," said Young. Enough people agreed with him to have pledged $2.9m on Kickstarter in the first three days after his speech. There were some sceptics, though, including those pointing out that many smartphones are already capable of playing the high-resolution files that PonoMusic will be selling.
5 Nasa is crowdsourcing the hunt for hazardous asteroids
Neil Young wasn't the only one seeking help from the crowd. Space agency Nasa used the show to launch Asteroid Data Hunter: a set of contests offering prize money to developers who help it better identify potentially hazardous asteroids using ground-based telescopes. The agency has identified 98% of the larger-than-1km asteroids that could cause a dinosaur-style mass extinction if they collided with Earth. Now it's hunting down the million-plus more smaller asteroids that could wipe out a city. Nasa's Jason Kessler said: "This is not us coming to say that we've got this problem solved. We want to join a conversation."
6 Big stars (and brands) are now flocking to SXSW
SXSW veterans will happily bang on about how much better the event was when it was younger, smaller and mainly focused on new bands hoping to make a name for themselves. They're all still playing the bars of Austin, but in 2014, the big stars and brands were out in force too. Lady Gaga played a gig for Doritos, with fans and journalists asked to complete social media tasks to qualify for entry. Apple transplanted its London iTunes festival to Texas, with Coldplay, Pitbull and other big stars in tow. Samsung hosted a gig by Kanye West and Jay-Z, while even Justin Bieber showed up to play an acoustic number at a sausage restaurant called Banger's. It reinforced SXSW as a place where headlines are made, not just careers.
7 Kevin Bacon has come to terms with the Six Degrees game
Who could rival the likes of Assange and Snowden for a hotly attended event? Kevin Bacon might have made the biggest splash, in a session celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon meme that, initially at least, he hated. "I was horrified by it. I thought it was a giant joke at my expense," Bacon said. "I appreciate it now. But I was very resistant to it." Now he's more relaxed about what the game – which assigns a "Bacon number" to any celebrity based on the number of professional steps they are away from Bacon. "I don't think it's a great testament to my ability. My movies just happen to be on a lot," he said, before posing for a Vine video in front of the audience that, by the rules of the game, gave them all a Bacon number of one.
8 Algorithms may be more powerful than editors in the news world
How do twentysomethings and teenagers get their news online? "If news is going to find you, it's going to find you because of an algorithm," said Kelly McBride of Florida journalism school The Poynter Institute, talking about how Facebook, Twitter and Google decide which news stories to show their users. Will those algorithms be biased towards populist stories and penalise serious fare? Eli Pariser, CEO of news website Upworthy, which attracts up to 60 million people a month to stories about income inequality, climate change and human rights that are designed to be shared on Facebook, claimed not. But he admitted that "these little pieces of code are more powerful now than a lot of the most powerful editors in media".
9 Wearable gadgets are the next big thing in technology
While Snowden was encouraging people to think more about digital privacy, the big hardware topic – wearable gadgets – was based on them potentially sharing even more of their personal data with the world. No wonder Google is interested, announcing plans for "Android for wearables" so that its smartphone and tablet software can be used for a new wave of smart watches, fitness-tracking gadgets and other devices. "We see a world of sensors. Sensors can be small and powerful, and gather a lot of information that can be useful for users," said Google exec Sundar Pichai. A host of sessions debating the potential for smart health and location-based services on these gadgets backed up his suggestion.
10 Cat videos aren't just popular: they're lucrative too
One key lesson: if someone brings Grumpy Cat into the room, half your audience will be lost trying to take her picture. That was the jostling scene in a session devoted to "the economics of internet cat videos" with an array of startling facts. The Internet Cat Video festival outsold Depeche Mode by 3,000 tickets at last year's Minnesota State Fair; a philosophical cat called Henri Le Chat Noir's YouTube channel earns $10 in advertising for every 1,000 views; and the Grumpy Cat book has spent 10 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list this year. All this is based on a keen online fanbase for cats. "There's an evolution of the crazy cat lady," said Animal Planet's Grace Suriel. "From all walks of life, people have cat dresses, cat tattoos … it's a whole new breed of cat person."
