Obama Brought Silicon Valley to Washington

This October, the White House opened its doors to a few thousand people for South by South Lawn, a daylong event described as a “festival of ideas, art and action.” Both the event and its name were a nod to South by Southwest, the annual technology-and-music festival held in Austin, Tex., where Barack and Michelle Obama showed up as surprise keynote speakers earlier this year. The story goes that they were so impressed by their experiences, they decided to host their own microrendition before leaving office. Attendees at the White House version — the types of people who describe themselves in Twitter bios as “creator” or “innovator” — were told to dress casually, in clothes suitable for a picnic. The D.J. Beverly Bond, of Black Girls Rock, blasted Public Enemy’s anthem “Fight the Power” and Parliament’s “Flash Light” across the lawn, which was studded with coffee carts, Lego sculptures and virtual-reality stations. Enormous stages erected for the occasion housed a rotating cast of musical guests and speakers throughout the afternoon. As the sun began to set, volunteers handed out plaid...