I’ve worked in tech for many years, and one of the events that has been a constant part of the calendar is SXSW. I remember signing up for Twitter back in 2007 just after I heard about it while chatting in Roo Reynolds’ office at IBM, from a visitor who had been at SXSW where it first took off (referenced in a post back over here).
That was nearly 20 years ago now – and in all of that time, I never had the opportunity to go to SXSW for the tech part1 of the festival…
This year, our friends at Flipboard created a side event they called Fediverse House, as a eye-catching label for a series of talks and sessions around the open social web
[yes, it was broader than the Fediverse; some other platforms and topics were represented, too. It was great to be able to talk about the Fediverse]
Image credit: Brooks Lawson @brooksI was excited to be able to join the event2, and even more so, I was honoured to be asked to join a panel moderated by the wonderful Mia Quagliarello all about building communities on the new social web. I briefly mentioned this trip on the most recent Mastodon blog post update for our updates during March, but I’m now able to include more about the content here.
Here’s the video of our panel discussion, available on Flipboard’s PeerTube – or, on YouTube for those of you that are not yet Fediverse-enabled, or who want to watch on your TV or something 
I hope I did an OK job, representing the good people of the different communities on the Fediverse. I know that my own experience and perspective is not a universal one and I do my best to reflect that when I talk about our spaces.
As well as this panel, the event included some fantastic talks from folks such as Molly White and Cory Doctorow (clips are on PeerTube); it gave me an opportunity to learn more about the ATProto ecosystem from chatting with the nice folks from Bluesky; I was able to meet writers from one of the best publications on the web today, 404 Media; and, it also provided a chance to spend time IRL with friends from the Fediverse – including the excellent Jeff Sikes, and also people I greatly respect and appreciate from WeDistribute, Sean and Damon.
Guitar sculpture titled ‘Vibrancy’ by Craig Hein, located in downtown AustinAnyway… I still haven’t actually been to SXSW 
This year, I did something better than that. Thank you to the Flipboard team for all your work in putting Fediverse House together!
- I was in Austin one year during the music festival, and managed to get to a couple of sessions, but I wasn’t in town specifically for the event, that was a surprise bonus. ↩︎
- Thank you to the Social Web Foundation for making my trip to Austin possible. ↩︎
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https://andypiper.co.uk/2025/05/01/fediverse-house-at-sxsw-2025/
but many of these snippets deserve to be heard. Thanks for bearing with us.
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