By Nancy Dahlberg / ndahlberg@miamiherald.com
“The reason I’m here is to recruit all of you,” President Barack Obama told thousands of techies at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, on Friday afternoon. He was the first sitting president to address SXSW, now in its 30th year. And in another first, the first lady will address SXSW Music next week.
The president said he hoped to recruit help from the country's innovation community to solve some of the government’s biggest challenges, including battling extremists who find many recruits through social media to conquering the digital divide throughout the U.S. to finding easy, safe and secure ways to make online voting a reality. “We are the only advanced democracy that makes it harder to vote,” he said.
He was asked about the current legal battle between Apple and the FBI over whether Apple should be forced to unlock the iPhone of once of the San Bernardino terrorists, but said he couldn’t talk specifically about the case. Yet speaking more broadly -- and in a break with the views of many in the tech community -- he said while he believed in protecting civil liberties, making concessions in privacy for the sake of security may be necessary. Law enforcement can conduct physical searches to keep people safe, so with the proper precautions digital information shouldn't necessarily be treated differently, he said. “You cannot take an absolutist view on this,” he told the crowd.
In the 50-minute talk (he stopped for Torchy's tacos on the way in), Obama also talked about some of his admiration’s tech initiatives. One of them, the U.S. Digital Service, grew out the failed launch of healthcare.gov. "This was a little embarrassing because I was the cool tech president.”
But he called in a “Tech SWAT team” of elite developers from Silicon Valley and elsewhere and the successful relaunch of healthcare.gov led to the ongoing U.S. Digital Service, where developers from industry spend six months to two years helping to solve government's biggest challenges. "We want to create a pipeline where there is a continuous flow of talent that is helping to shape the government.”
In a call to action, he asked others in the audience to make an impact. "It's not enough to focus on the cool next thing."
More than 80,000 people are expected at the 10-day convergence of tech, music and film. Dozens of people from the South Florida tech community are sponsoring events and/or attending the SXSW Interactive Festival, which started Friday, and some are being honored.
HYP3R, founded by Carlos Garcia and Juan Carlos of Miami, makes it easy for businesses to engage influential customers at specific locations on a personal level in real-time. It’s a finalist at the prestigious SXSW 2016 Accelerator Competition, and will be competing at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Austin Hilton. HYP3R is no stranger to winning – it took home a big win in the recent 1st and Future competition by TechCrunch, the NFL and Stanford, and the startup recently graduated from the Disney Accelerator.
Brian Brackeen, CEO of Miami-based Kairos, is one of 10 entrepreneurs of color who are being recognized for their achievements during the MVMT50 Experience at a SXSW Welcome Reception. MVMT50 is a coalition committed to improving employment diversity, cultural representation and leadership development in the innovation, technology and digital sectors.
Watch Starting Gate for more SXSW coverage.