Vultures circle South by Southwest

The internet, like, rocks

SXSW For the first time in its esteemed history, The Register has deigned it appropriate to despatch journalists to cover the South By Southwest interactive, film and music conference in Austin, Texas.

Over the next week, a SWAT team comprising this reporter and Austin native Ashlee Vance will be sniffing out all that's current, creative, and convergent at the annual shindig.

An oven-load of hot potatoes is up for discussion by the great and good of the colliding worlds: the barriers to music distribution, digital democracy, the new tools changing music and film making, and Snakes on a Plane, to name a few.

Oh, and internet thinker and author Douglas Coupland has submitted himself for a Reg grilling. Over the week we're hoping to learn how user-generated content is reimagining our own paradigm, too.

On that note, news tips aimed at this new venture are welcome as ever, as is comment on the subjects of our coverage. Player-haters who wish to call self-indulgent fluff on us will of course be warmly received too, as well as hyperbolic praise. ®