This page features panels at SXSW Interactive 2013 that will be presented within the BiT House at the Hilton-Garden Inn.
Additionally - this page includes panels that will take place outside of the BiT House that self-selected BiT as a tag, or have panelists or subject matter that we think is of particular interest to blacks in tech. If you would like to have a panel included on this page, please email the SXSW schedule page url to us at info@wearebit.com.
In the late 1980s, Public Enemy rapper and Internet aficionado Chuck D famously remarked that hip hop was like the “black CNN,” speaking on the “lower frequencies” cited in Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” about issues in African-American communities like the War on Drugs, sex and relationships, poverty and police brutality. As social media has become the default medium for gathering and disseminating information, Twitter posts provide the steady bass beat that continues to inform on similar topics, but with more portability and immediacy than ever before. This panel will examine how so-called “Black Twitter” exchanges news (like the Trayvon Martin case as a recent example) and uses it to mobilize political dialogue and direct action, and how information professionals–like librarians, journalists, and educators–can guide users toward responsible practices that respect the unique coding and cultural perspectives of black and other minority communities.
