sxsw

AUSTIN, Texas--Is there a little bit of madness to the sky-high tech company valuations that are all over the place right now? Yes, says IAC founder and former entertainment mogul Barry Diller, who gave a talk at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) this morning to provide a bit of blunt, curmudgeonly insight for a conference best-known as a hub of the young, wide-eyed, and exuberant.

It was one of Diller's first high-profile appearances since he stepped down as the CEO of IAC in December; he remains chairman.

So is there a tech bubble, as evidenced by the … Read more

For some at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW), the goal is funding. For others, it is networking. But some seek some other lasting and uplifting joys.

While there will, no doubt, be many fine presentations that will stimulate tech minds to reach for higher goals, one of the first wanted to stimulate tech minds about something important for many attendees--stimulating tech bodies.

Violet Blue, who seems to be something of an expert on all things sexual, yesterday offered a practical guide to geek sex.

I wasn't aware there was anything different about technologically obsessed carnality. However, Blue … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Mike Tyson has been a lot of things--heavyweight boxing champion, "The Hangover" character, reality show star, controversial ex-con, possessor of one of the world's most recognizable tattoos, and now the start of an iPhone game called "Mike Tyson's Main Event."

At the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) this week, game developer RockLive set up a massive boxing ring at the Austin Convention Center for a meet-and-greet with the notoriously eccentric Tyson, and CNET managed to pull him aside (along with RockLive co-founders and brothers John and Sam Shahidi) for a few minutes … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--There's no denying that most of us are "Star Wars" fans, but how many of us ever thought our own work could complement George Lucas' immortal screenplay? For thousands of people, the wonderful Star Wars Uncut project has been the key to pretending, even if for just 15 seconds, that we've got a little Lucas in us.

For those unaware of it, Star Wars Uncut is an ongoing project that tasked fans with re-creating 15-second scenes from the original film in any way they can think of. Fans responded by the thousands, and thanks to … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--When I wrote a story a couple days ago about trying to game the virtual Startup Bus stock market game, I didn't realize that I was playing in the minor leagues.

The major leagues, it turns out, was an organized hack that illegitimately benefited three of the teams that were leading the stock competition among each of the several dozen teams of "buspreneurs" aboard the six coaches that made their way from cities around the U.S. to Austin for the South by Southwest conference.

As part of the Startup Bus project, each of the teams … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Let's face it folks: when it comes to marketing at SXSW 2011, Apple out and out dominated everyone. On the first day. The game is already over.

The South by Southwest Interactive conference (SXSW) has become the essential place for social-marketing experts to come to show how good they are. And for those experts to try to show their clients they know how to manage explosive launches the way Twitter did here in 2007 and Foursquare did in 2009.

But no matter how many giant stages Pepsi builds, or parties Facebook or Digg throw, no matter how many … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Hailing the 2010s as "the decade of games," Seth Priebatsch, founder of the Google-backed start-up SCVNGR, brought a bright dose of dreamy enthusiasm to the first official keynote of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival on Saturday afternoon.

Plowing through problems from education reform to global warming, and how they could be addressed by applying the principles of games, the skinny Priebatsch showed up for his talk, "The Game Layer on Top of the World," in a bright orange polo shirt with matching sunglasses perched atop his head and spoke with the jerky staccato of … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Jake Gyllenhaal is clearly a gadget junkie. A confessed Mac fan who has an iPad but regretfully doesn't yet have his hands on the iPad 2, the movie star is here in the Texas capital this week to promote his new film, "Source Code."

In the film, Gyllenhaal plays decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens, who "wakes up in the body of an unknown man [and] discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train," according to promotional materials for the film. "In an assignment unlike any … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--There may not be a more Net-connected group of people than the tens of thousands that have descended here this week for the South By Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). And in an attempt to harvest the collective power of these digital powerhouses to help out with relief for the disasters that hit Japan on Friday, conference organizers quickly took action.

Today, SXSW Interactive director Hugh Forrest announced SXSW4Japan, a Web site where conference attendees are being asked to donate a total of at least $10,000 for relief efforts in Japan.

"Can the SXSW community raise $10,000 … Read more