ANDREW HILBERT THING

From the ’70s to the ’90s, a myriad of DEA and other federal units created their own patches in the world’s trippiest example of “knowing your enemy.” And yes, one of them depicts the grim reaper snorting cocaine while sitting on a bomb.

Social Imprints is a company that employees at-risk adults. 95% of their workforce is made up of ex-offenders, recovering addicts, people with less thana high school education, and returning veterans.

They are a full service printing company that prints t-shirts, hats, mugs, etc.

Based in San Francisco, a lot of Social Imprints’s clients are in tech which is why Daniel Phifer, a salesman for Social Printing, says they continue to come to SXSW.

Jonathan Horstmann Musician & Activist BLXPLTN, Messages

Q: SXSW is a playground of new ideas and a time for people to roll out policy ideas; in your view is SXSW a good place grassroots activism?

A: Yes and no. I’m not sure what the criteria are for presenting your ideas during a panel, but there are some exciting things taking place this year. On the grassroots side, however, the influx of people into Austin doesn’t nesecarilly mean you’ll have more exposure. There is a lot of competition for people’s attention.

Q: Issues like the #blacklivesmatter campaign have a presence this year at the festival. It’s much different than the consumer based activism that seems to be prevalent at the festival. Where do you see an intersection for education, activism, and confrontation for movements like this to be heard at what is the largely happy-go-lucky tone of the festival?

A: Some folks definitely don’t want you to harsh their mellow, but there are also people who are happy to see an intelligent discourse about real issues. The intersection I can see the most is when bands decide to use their music for a message. What better way to elevate the conversation at a music festival?

Q: Music is unique in that it can educate and confront prejudices in an immediacy that no other medium can compare to. How have you seen this in the reactions to your own music?

A: Honestly the most rewarding thing for me is being able to bond with other people who are not afraid to call out their oppressors. Especially when we’re all in this very commercial space together. Festivals are about money as much as they are music, and it can be very challenging to marry the two when you are spreading an anticapitalist idea. But folks keep reaching out to share how our music has touched them or empowered them, so we’re gonna keep on at it.

Q: How long have you been doing sxsw and what do you hope sxsw can achieve outside of the standard trade show playground it’s become year after year?

"I learned that buses often break down and when you get out of LA County Jail, you get a Greyhound bus ticket."

Logan Green Founder of Lyft

Logan spoke of the problems of public transportation and how to fix them at his “Fixing Transportation With Humanity & Technology” keynote. He spoke of his vision of ending the necessity of the car. What wasn’t addressed was how public transportation could be improved for the people who are not Lyft customers. Aside from acknowledging there are problems with public transportation through an off-handed joke, his vision of the future of public transportation is a future in which “every car on the road is a Lyft car.”

The audience could ask questions via twitter with #AskLogan. Of the four questions asked on stage, one was “Front seat or back seat?” and another, “What kind of car do you drive?”

"EFF is a digital civil liberties organization of lawyers and activists. We sued the NSA over mass surveillance. We are all about keeping the internet free. We’ve been at SXSW for 5 years and we believe it’s great for visibility. With all of these great innovations, we want the innovators to think seriously about the future of the internet and what a free internet means for our society."

"I used to run a nonprofit for foster kids. There’s a ton of software needed for that. You need to track the kids, track emergencies, etc. Whether you like it or not, everyone is a software company. We are the engine behind those companies. We are the company that finds software solutions to empower communities."

Harry Propper Vice President SoftServe

"Music is a way to communicate needs and amplify messages. As a musician, we create mediums of engagement and togetherness to communicate complex issues. Clean cookstoves is a real issue but it doesn’t get the attention that malaria gets."

"KinomaCreate is a software platform to build anything. It can help build robots, home security, cameras, and LEDs. We hosted a hackathon competition for students and one of the top innovations was a system for low-vision users. Things like turning on the oven can be difficult. The students built a system using Kinoma that audibly informed the users when things were on and off. The applications for Kinoma are vast, from this labyrinth puzzle game to making life a little easier for those in need."

"We’re already in beta testing in Japan for our supercomputer gaming system. We’ll be live in Kansas this summer. There’s no hardware, no moving parts; gamers can simply login to our servers and play games of the highest technical capability without ever having to upgrade to a new piece of hardware."

Alex Tait, Project Manager, Shinra Technology

What’s interesting about Shinra Technology is that it’s named after the villainous energy company in the game Final Fantasy 7. However, instead of being wasteful with technology manufactured for the consumer to inevitably throw away, this real life Shinra is cutting out the console process altogether.

Mashable for Silicon Valley.

Two guys in purple skintight bodysuits. plenty of companies are employing this method of attention getting. Originally, I just wanted to get a picture of some goofballs.

As we finished taking the photos, one of the purple people said, “hey! Tweet us with the hashtag genxyz and for every retweet, we’ll donate money to kids without internet access.”

Google Cardboard

Instead of a $400 piece of equipment, Google is offering an $8 piece of cardboard for full 360 degree 3D stereoscopic technology… otherwise known as a virtual reality headset.

When it comes to education, the doors are wide open. It’s not cost prohibitive for schools to invest in and it provides an immersive experience that puts the viewer right in the middle. We got to see Jerry Seinfeld on SNL; can you imagine seeing a presidential speech as if you were there with nothing more than a cardboard set for your smart phone?

Recently, Google teamed up with Vice media to film the Eric Garner protests with this technology.