Mark's interview at SXSW today turned into a fiasco as the interviewer, Sarah Lacy, lost control and was literally boo'ed on several occasions.
Here's my take on what happened...
Personally I thought she asked some really interesting questions. Interesting, but not relevant. Even though she asked a lot of different questions, (as per her twitter afterwards: "seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things.") most of them were irrelevant to the audience.
I've rarely seen people so excited to see someone speak at a conference. Mark is, to a lot of people, the ultimate, humble creator of one of the most useful tools of our generation.
The audience turned because they had so many questions they wanted to ask and never got a chance because the interviewer was too busy telling stories.
This was their time to listen to advice, guidance and to ask some critical questions as developers. As time slipped by- correction- was wasted by stupid questions and comments from the interviewer, they grew more and more restless.
Until someone rebelled..."Talk about something interesting!". She then continued to get into a debate with the audience, at which point more boo's followed.
I'll upload some of the classic video moments later this week, when I have time, but here are some pics which pretty much tells the story of the interviewer trying to promote her new book.
Dude, please load those videos. Dying to see.
Posted by: Leon Jacobs | March 10, 2008 at 08:13 PM