This is my first time at the geek Mecca that is South by Southwest (SXSW), held annually in Austin, Texas. Anxious to jump into the experience, I obediently waited outside my hotel at 8:30 AM for the shuttle service to pick me up. The driver was there by 8:45 AM; eight stops and thirty minutes later, we actually arrived at the Austin Convention Center. (Keep in mind that the events of this first day did not actually begin until 2 PM that afternoon.) After securing my badge, bag and swag, I had nothing to do but park myself on the floor near an electrical outlet (convergence and socializing seem to occur around electrical outlets here) and geek-out with the rest of the geeks.

Guys definitely out-number the girls around here and the ages skew under 40 years old, but over 25 (although there are many that fall on either side of that range). If you are using anything but a Mac computer, you stand out as odd. Everyone walks around with his or head down, focusing on the mobile device of choice.

Themes heard on day one were (1) social media is diminishing human interaction and (2) location, location, location. There were over 60 sessions today, occurring in three scheduled time periods, so being one person, I could only attend three of those 60. My panel/event attendance for the day included:

• “Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age”
• “Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?”
• “Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?”

“Program or Be Programmed,” presented by Douglas Rushkoff, was an argument against the passive approach to the digital space that we are taking. He cautioned against the use of long-distance technologies in short-distance situations, the oversimplification of choices we are given on the Internet and translating those into life, and anonymity that the online space allows. Rushkoff highlighted the fact that until five years ago, 80% of communication was non-verbal and now most of our communication is done online, thereby negating non-verbal cues. Perhaps a bit overly intellectual, but nevertheless fear-inducing, this presentation was not what I expected to hear at festival celebrating technology.

“Do Cool Kids Leave When the Suits Arrive?” was conversation about whether the early adopters of social media applications are right to feel ownership of the spaces, and insult when there is an attempt to incorporate aspects more amenable to the general public in an effort monetize the application or service. Basically, it was the “what do I do when my mom/my boss/my kid friends me on Facebook” discussion; “cool kids” and “suits” were simply metaphors for whatever a participant’s particular situation might have been. Because this session was structured as a conversation open to all attendees in the room, the discussion branched several different directions. Most interestingly, however, was that most people walked into the room assuming they were a “cool kid,” but soon realized they were a “suit.” At one point, even Google was likened to a suit, and it used to be the coolest kid around. The simple fact is that we are all in business to make money and to make money, we have to take on a “suit-like” attitude.

Another interesting turn in the conversation was use of the social media space and user maturity in understanding what can be said and what should be shared. There was a sentiment in the room that frequent users are being conditioned to share inappropriately; that his or her privacy filter has disintegrated. The moderator noted that the next iteration of social media will be more about improving human-to-human interfaces rather than human-to-computer interfaces.

“Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?” was, by far, the most engaging session of my day. It was at last year’s SXSW that FourSquare took off, so it is fitting this year that there is a lot of discussion about location-based applications. In fact, there are eight sessions over the five-day festival where location-based applications will be discussed. It was standing room only in this panel-led session and a poll of the attendees revealed that almost everyone in the room had “checked in” with at least one service, and many people had checked in with two or more. Services, or applications, used included FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Twitter (which just launched its location-based feature in the last couple of days), among a smattering of others. Location-based applications are services that allow the user to update his or her status (much like Twitter or Facebook), but attach a very specific location to that update, either with a dot on a map, a longitude and latitude reading, or a location defined and named by the users (a restaurant, retail location, ballroom at a convention center, etc.).

The big question about location-based updates: is it creepy and dangerous to announce your exact location to the world? The simple answer: no. The panelists quickly dismissed sites like Please Rob Me as irrelevant to the discussion because, in truth, we have been announcing our locations for years using Twitter and Facebook. By defining the location, we are creating a database for future reference of that location. We are giving those locations more meaning by being able to walk into that location at a later date and know not only who has been there before, but what they did there and what they thought about that location. The social power of location-based applications is in knowing where friends have been, not in where they are right now.

An additional twist to the location-based applications is that they award participants points for their check-ins. Frequent updating of status becomes a game, with users attempting to out-score people they have never met and reap the reward of badges and mayorship of locations where they check-in.

Day one of five is complete. I am excited to see what I learn during day two. Stay tuned.

For now, I am still in the Little Rock airport, where my flight is delayed.  I am hoping to make it to Austin in time to pick up my badge and registration materials tonight, and get a fresh start in the morning.  It will be a busy five days if I am going to try to stick to a semblance of this schedule.

According to the site, Foursquare “is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.”  Well, that explains it.  To put it more plainly: Foursquare is a social media application that allows for users to share their current location (businesses, restaurants, services) and offer tips about that location for other users.  For each check-in, a user is given points.  If you are the user that checks in the most at a particular location, you are deemed the “mayor” of that location (a title that can be stolen by the next person who checks in more frequently than you).  Some businesses are even giving “mayor discounts.”  Users can also be granted “badges” for doing interesting things at interesting places.  Yes, this is very vague.  I don’t exactly understand the badges yet, but per the Foursquare site:

“Badges are little rewards you earn for doing checking-into interesting places.  For example, staying out late on a school night or frequenting too many karaoke bars.  We’re constantly adding new badges and would love to hear your suggestions.

“A lot of our badges are tied to venue “tags”.  People use tags to describe the places on foursquare (e.g. jukebox, pool table, fireplace, pizza, etc)  Without giving away too much, here’s a few suggested tags you can add to your favorite places to help unlock badges :  airport, college, douchebag, food truck, frat, gallery, gym, karaoke, movie theater, photobooth, pizza, playground, socialite, sorority, tourist, etc.”

The honor of badges has even spawned an offline business called Nerd Merit Badges (brilliant!) that recently received approval from Foursquare to sell these badges for people to wear on their clothes, backpacks, etc. (there is even a velcro sash for attaching badges your laptop).  I am starting to see how this could be fun.  But, I am a bit of a nerd, too.

Admittedly, I haven’t used Foursquare much.  Yet.  I signed up when I first read about it;, but in the beginning, the cities were limited to only larger markets.  And although I could have still used it in Little Rock, it just felt pointless since no one else was really using it around me yet.  Recently, the service opened up to every city and we started to see some Little Rock users popping up.  So I spent some time checking it out.

The more I poked and prodded Foursquare, it first seemed that in order for Foursquare to be relevant, the user must route their updates through their Twitter feeds - a place where everyone is already hanging out.  But then I realized that the benefit of Foursquare over Twitter is that you can do a location search to find information about the place that you are or want to go.  Wait, isn’t that how we use Yelp, too?  Oh, but Yelp doesn’t have that game aspect and the nerdy-cool badges.  Ok.  So, I need Twitter, Foursquare and Yelp?!

Then, on top of it all, thieves are tapping into Foursquare to learn when we are home and when we are not?  Do we really need all of this?

For those of us who like to share our experiences and let others learn from our experiences: yes, we will use each and every one of these services.  For now.  Until the next iteration comes along and ties it all together and adds a new aspect.  We do this because it fun.  Because we like to help others out.  And because we are nerds.  But that is cool, right?

And that is the point of Foursquare: sharing, having fun, and giving the nerds something else to do.

Foursquare, here I come.

“As part of White House’s commitment to make government more accessible, the Economic Report of the President is now available as an eBook for your Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, Sony Reader and a number of other devices. We are always looking for ways to bring people closer to their government through new technology.”

The @whitehouse tweet:

“A first: Curl up by fire w/ the Economic Report of President on Kindle, nook, Sony Reader.”

This White House has done more to engage the public in its processes than any other before it: Twitter, blogging, Facebook, an iPhone app, and now books for ereaders.  They have embraced this era of transparency and opened the doors for everyone to enter.  Regardless of political affiliations or presidential popularity, the effort must be applauded.

Today, when the ratings for the Super Bowl were released we find that with 106 million viewers, it was the most watch telecast EVER.  So, was Pepsi smart to sit this one out?

Watching the Super Bowl has always been a social event: friends gather, eat, drink, boo and cheer. The advent of social media made our parties grow exponentially over the last couple of years as we interacted with those we knew online in addition to those watching the game with us in person. Last year, 12% of Super Bowl viewers were online during the game, according to Mashable. But this year, rather than having to search out the pertinent discussions on Twitter and Facebook separately, communities have developed around areas of interest, be it sports, food or advertising.  Hashtags are now used more consistently, making search for relevant commentary outside those communities easier, too.  With these community hubs and hashtag prevalence, our online interactions have gone from just the people we know (and the people they know) to introductions to people, content and views we might never have stumbled upon before.  And just when we thought we couldn’t be more connected to the world.

I didn’t want the Super Bowl fun to end last night. In years past, I have only watched the Super Bowl for the commercials, and even then become bored by the second half. Last night was different, it was bigger and it felt like my world expanded just a little bit more.  And that is always a good thing for the curious being that is me.

For fun, here is my favorite commercial of the night.  Although, as it turns out, it has been around for a few months, last night was my first viewing.

“The mail-order service, which finishes the testing phase on Monday, allows women to rent dresses from notable fashion designers like Diane Von Furstenberg, Hervé Léger and Proenza Schouler for roughly one-tenth of what they would cost to buy in a retail store.

“The rentals run $50 to $200 for a four-night loan and are shipped directly to the customer’s doorstep. After wearing the dress, she puts it into a prepaid envelope and drops it in the mail. Dry cleaning is included in the price, but damage insurance costs $5, and in the case of outright destruction of the dress, the renter is responsible for the full retail price.”

This is pretty exciting.  Granted, rental of dresses has been available for sometime.  But local rental selections aren’t always the best and there is that whole physical shopping thing to deal with (I am almost exclusively an online shopper).  An online rental that allows for easy returns is definitely a turn on.

The ladies who started this business are smart: they are only allowing for limited “membership” at this point.  When you make something exclusive, not only do even more people want to participate, but it also assures that you can walk into a party and know that not everyone there will have seen and shopped the same dresses you did.  As the business starts to take off and membership grows, I would like to see an ability to “register” your dress for the event to which you are wearing it, effectively blocking anyone else from renting that same style for the same event.  I also hope that they will incorporate customer reviews of the dresses to help those on the fence as to a particular style decide (I love this feature on Zappos.com).

I signed up to be put on the waiting list for membership at Rent the Runway.  Sigh.

“Approximately 25 million Tweets are posted every day; more than 5 billion have been created since Twitter’s launch.

“Facebook users are even more prolific in aggregate: Forty-five million updates are posted there daily. In May, the last date for which we have data, YouTube announced that 20 hours of video is uploaded to its servers every minute. That’s more than three years of content being uploaded to YouTube daily.

“As the barriers to media production fall — cameras in virtually every cell phone, video cameras in iPods, text messaging as a publishing platform — this content tsunami is growing ever taller”

Lists allow for those you trust to create a filter of all this data, by category, for you.

And, for those that follow Twitter through desktop apps like Seesmic and Tweetdeck, they are working to integrate list following into their applications (Seesmic actually already has; Tweetdeck is still working on it).

Check out the Stone Ward Staff Twitter list.