sxsw

AUSTIN, Texas--For some time I've been hearing about the documentary, Second Skin, which looks at players of massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft.

This evening I saw the film's world premiere in a screening at the South by Southwest film festival, and I came away from the showing feeling like I'd just seen a very bleak portrayal of a limited spectrum of the people that play such games.

I'm quite aware that my opinion was by far in the minority at the screening. The film's conclusion was greeted with raucous applause from a … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--I just rolled off a JetBlue flight where half the passengers were typing on MacBooks and talking about last night's episode of Lost and the other half were wearing worn-out band T-shirts and combat boots. Incoming text messages from Twitter are making my cell phone buzz off the hook. I have this sudden craving for baby-back ribs and a giant margarita.

I guess it must be South by Southwest.

I'll be here through Tuesday night for South by Southwest Interactive, the digital-culture arm of the festival, and I'm pumped. Unlike my seasoned colleague Daniel Terdiman, I'… Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--One of the things I left this capital city after South by Southwest (SXSW) 2007 hoping for was that the conference organizers would do something to solve the problem of the massive amount of wasted materials that end up in attendees' swag bags.

As I noted last year, someone here to attend all three of the SXSW festivals--Interactive, Film and Music--would receive three separate bags containing more than ten pounds of newspapers, magazines, fliers, and so much more.

So when arriving here this year for South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), I wanted to see how things had changed, if … Read more

It's freezing in Austin (39 degrees last night....) but nonetheless SXSW Interactive is about to kick off today. There is no doubt that the conference is hitting the mainstream this year (with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as keynote speaker and most of the big high-tech players participating). The program, which is notoriously hard to navigate, has grown even more in terms of depth and breadth.

SXSW has therefore teamed up with Microsoft and frog design to create a rich, interactive online community hub that facilitates real-time conversations around conference events while also providing an easy-to-us panel calendar. The Silverlight-based … Read more

One part college reunion, one part cultural showcase, and one part weeklong think tank, some classify the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) as "spring break for geeks."

But this year more than ever, many eager young entrepreneurs consider the festival, which takes place Friday through Tuesday, to be more than just a nerd haven where the margaritas are flowing, the barbecue is sizzling, and (almost) everyone knows that Ruby on Rails is not the name of an indie-rock band. Going to SXSWi is considered a crucial business move, particularly after the meteoric rise that the then-unknown Twitter … Read more

These days, Twitter is a worldwide phenomenon, a household name, and has even spawned a verb, "to Tweet."

But before the second week of March of last year, when thousands of geeks began arriving in Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Interactive festival (SXSWi), few people had even heard of the nascent microblogging service. Within days, however, Twitter had taken the conference by storm. The story of how Twitter took over SXSWi, and how it spread to the outside world because of the many influential early-adopters in attendance, is well known.

"People see what happened with … Read more

Whether you're going to Austin, Texas, next week or not, it's always good to update your music collection with bands appearing at the annual South by Southwest music conference and festival. There are a few big names like R.E.M., Paramore and Talib Kweli playing this year, but this isn't Lollapalooza (or Austin City Limits for that matter). SXSW is all about discovering new music, and with more than 1,600 bands booked this year, you may need a bigger iPod.

To see a list of bands that we're excited about this year, check out … Read more

Caroline McCarthy joins us to summarily rick roll the living crap out of us. We talk ghosts and social networks, SXSW, Major League Baseball 2K8. And we even get a little personal...What? Caroline McCarthy + Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales? What? We didn't say that...see the question marks?

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Cross-blogging link: Ace Reporter Caroline McCarthy's cool, hip, in-the-know, up-to-date, above-average, exceptional, adept, and witty blog, the Social.

Next weekend, just a couple of days after the dust of the primary campaigns will have settled, national media attention will return to Texas as Austin is turning into party central for the annual South by Southwest Festival (SXSW, March 7-16). SXSW Interactive, added in 1994 to the music festival, has evolved into one of the most influential tech conferences in the country and beyond. While somewhat geeky in its first years, SXSW Interactive is now considered a must-attend venue for big tech players (Google, Microsoft, Seagate, etc. all have a strong presence at the show), start-ups, creative agencies, software … Read more