That depends: It will only be a SXSW panel if enough people vote for it, so head over to our SXSW panel picker page and vote! (You'll need to register there to vote, but I promise you it isn't a terrible process, and it's not like you'll have to remember the password for long!)

SXSW (which stands for South By Southwest) is a week-long annual music, film and "emerging technologies" festival that takes place in Austin, TX. The SXSW Interactive festival focuses on the emerging technologies part.

So what's this Pink Ghetto Blaster stuff all about? You can get a great description of the Pink Ghetto problem in the writing of Lux Nightmare and Susie Bright. Our panel, if chosen, will explore ways to "blast" the ghetto using the networking, organizing and publishing power that the Internet and Web 2.0 technologies make broadly accessible.

Our panel, as officially described in 50 words or less:

The Internet has increased access to sexually explicit material and also created a new category, "NSFW" (not safe for work) with which to stigmatize sexual material and the discussions around it. We discuss specific strategies used to resist and challenge the stigmatization of sex.

Some key points:

• Stigma around sexuality is still a social problem, and the very blurry category "Not Safe For Work" reinforces that stigma.
• The networking and organizing power of Web 2.0 technologies provide a tremendous source of power and cultural leverage for marginalized groups.
• Everybody can learn to use these tools!

And most importantly, the panelists:

• Lux Nightmare (sex educator, activist, and editor of Boinkology.com)
• Rachel Kramer Bussel (blogger, editor of many erotic anthologies, and Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations)
• Chris Hall (co-founder of this site and author of Literate Perversions among other things)
• Violet Blue (sex columnist, author of many books on sex, blogger and vlogger and podcaster extraordinaire)

So, unless you want us to don pink catsuits with shiny black boots and long black latex gloves, and start flying from sea to shining sea using our sex-destigmatization ray guns, go over and vote for our panel at SXSW Interactive.

On second thought, why don't you vote for our panel anyway. We can discuss the superhero costumes later!

(And RC, I hope you're ready for company in Austin!)

Some other panels I've picked:

Violet Blue's Sexual Privacy Online

Lisa Vandever's The Porn Police: Know the rules  

Cory Silverberg's The Future of Sex in Interactive Narrative and also When No means 01001: Sexual Ethics and Interactivity

George DeMet's Content Management System Roundup

Erin Denny's Sex, Trees and Gun Control: Cause-related movement building  

Technorati Tags: Violet Blue, pink ghetto, Chris Hall, culture, Elizabeth Wood, SXSW, technology, Rachel Kramer Bussel, sex, Lux Nightmare

...because public space really matters!

Elizabeth