What we learned this week

• You should not wait until social media happens to you. 

• "39% of people surveyed said they would feel no impact if their local newspapers shut down. 30% said it would have a minor impact, but only 28% said the impact would be major, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. About three-quarters of respondents to the survey of 2,251 U.S. adults said they wouldn’t be willing to pay anything for online news if their newspapers failed to survive."

• It seems that beyond all the discussions of buzzy “branded journalism,” adding “game layers” to everything and replacing ironic air quotes with ironic air hashtags, the main reason to attend this year's SXSWi was to be able to get a brand new iPad 2 on the day of release at Apple’s SXSW pop-up store with a minimal amount of waiting in line. SXSWi is growing too big, too fast, for its own good.

Creative Master Class by Julie Burstein: Turn Obstacles Into Inspiration

via bigthink.com

Julie Burstein is fascinated by the roots of creativity, and she has pursued that passion through her work as a reporter, producer, and host at WNYC and PRI. In 2000, Julie created Studio 360, public radio’s premiere guide to pop culture and the arts, for Public Radio International. Julie led the Peabody Award-winning creative team at WNYC for the show’s first eight years, leaving her post as Executive Producer to write "Spark: How Creativity Works," her first book.

Inception remade as a 60-second Victorian woodcut animation

This Gilliamesque 60-second adaptation of Inception uses delightful Victorian woodcuts to tell the story. It was an entry in a Jameson's whisky competition by Wolfgang Matzl.

via boingboing.net

This is delightful.

Ben Malbon's Advice for SXSW and life

Seek not what you know, but what you don't know.

Provoke serendipity through running into your discomfort zone.

Remember innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines, not within them.

Chance encounters with random new people can lead to the unimaginable (including, but not only, wonderful late-night burrito trucks).

via malbonnington.com

Applies to any conference, job or life experience.

Real World Moderation: Lessons from 11 Years of MetaFilter Community by Matt Haughey

Matt Haughey's SXSW talk, Real World Moderation: Lessons from 11 Years of Community, was quite well received so he posted a version he recorded at home to Vimeo.

via kottke.org

Matt Haughey says, "After 11 years of running MetaFilter.com, I (and the other moderators) have been through just about everything, and we've built dozens of custom tools to weed out garbage, spammers, and scammers from the site.

I'll cover how to identify and solve problems including identity, trolling, sockpuppets, and other nefarious community issues, show off custom tools we've developed for MetaFilter, and show you how to incorporate them into your own community sites."