It’s that exciting time of year when you get the chance to vote on all the great ideas that will be part of the SXSW conference in March. Visit the Panel Picker site, sign in (very simple, just need email and password) and vote via the thumbs (up or down).  You can leave comments, ask questions, contribute to the conversation. SXSW does a fantastic job of engaging the community!

I have two panel proposals, and I’d love for you to check them out and provide feedback:

Interactive: Influence and Innovate: Transforming Media Education – The future of media relies heavily on the mindset of those willing to study and enter the field. Professionals, professors and students will discuss transforming the goals of communication education to develop graduates, not only comfortable and fluent with online media, but who can also innovate and influence the profession. Panelists who have tentatively agreed to participate:  Aron Pilhofer, Editor of Interactive News Technology at NY Times. Winner of Knight News Challenge for DocumentCloud and Knight Batten Award for several projects. Read about his team in NY Magazine and the view some of their best work; Jeremy Rue, multimedia instructor for the Knight Digital Media Center at Berkeley; and Matt Waite, chief developer at the Pulitzer Prize-winning Politifact. Additionally students and recent grads will be invited to be part of the conversation.

Music: Twittering Your Way to 1000 True Fans – Kevin Kelly wrote about the concept of “1000 true fans” on his Technium blog. It is possible to have a thriving career without labels, radio or expensive management deals. All you need is 1000 fans. Local artists will discuss ways they use Twitter and other tools to engage their audience. I’ve had a few people tentatively accept to be panelists: Rhett Miller (lead singer of Old 97’s), Dan Choo (Swiss band Choo Choo) and Jonathan Coulton (Brooklyn singer/songwriter and Internet star).  Several local musicians will also be added to the panel. I’d like the panel to be focused on musicians using online and social media in innovative ways.

Here are some other panels proposed by great people that I’m supporting. Will update with more as I go through:

• Jordan Viator (@jordanv) – The Real Housewives of Social Media
• Daniel Honigman (@dan360man) – Lifestreaming: The Next Great Social Media Frontier
• Rob Quigley (@robquig) – Old Media Surfs the Google Wave
• Dave Stanton (@gotoplanb)- My Three-Year-Old Is My Usability Expert
• Jacob Harris (@harrisj) – Shut Up and Code (Hacking the Future of News)
• Andrei Sheinkman (@ascheink) – Web Development at Newsroom Speed
• Jan Schaffer (@jlab) – Equipping David: Funding for Investigative & Community Journalism