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Mar 14 2010

Hookups, Parties, Late Nights: Attrition at #SXSW "I didn't come down here to party."

Category: about me, community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw — jmacofearth @ 10:16 am

[streaming Sunday 3-14-10 CST - my hookups for the day will be documented here.]

If you are reading this, SMILE! It's not that serious here at #SXSW. You're in Texas now.

Tonight for me, the PARTIES I am going to and have my EventBright tickets for are the:

AAS Texas Social Media Awards Party where I hope to bury the hatchet with @omarg over Mexican martinis and watch my pick, Alan Graham, pick up his award. Correction MR GOWALLA won. Oh bother! Geo-lactation rules! [Missed @omarg, dang. He did look happy and in his element. I didn't want to be a disturbance in the perfect evening.

Then I'm on to the Reverse VC Pitch Party put on by mad man of mystery Larry Chaing. That one's from 9 – midnight. And then there's a party after that. Wish me luck, perhaps I'll land an angel. (UNgrin) That sucked! And to think I PAID?

The rest of the evening will not be televised. I might put some images up on my FB page (it's the easiest way to get them off my phone) Until tomorrow AM, the hour more dependant on the popularity of the evening. Cheers, and See Ya Out There!

+++

I heard someone railing yesterday about the youngsters who are here to PARTY. "I didn't fly down here from Vancouver to party. I'm here for business."

And then today I had a new-met-in-the-parking-lot friend tell me that "hookup" meant "having sex." I had said, we'll hookup later. She also knew of the drug-fix hookup concept, but we both agreed that neither of the prior terms were in play in the way I used the term. I loaned her $2 for the parking meter, she bought me a cup of coffee. HOOKUP. See we, connected. THAT IS ALL.

So this morning, I am late for the 9:30 am panel, and since it's still only 8:30 am in my brain, it's no wonder the mid-ballroom coffee area looks like this. Who's UP EARLY at SXSW?

I'm picking up a bit of a charge for my older MBP. (current charge time with screen running at lowest visible power – approx. 1:10)

My refrain is "I'm from here." The clubs, parties, and more significantly "crowds" don't interest me that much. I'd much rather "connect" than hookup. And having a meaningful conversation in a packed club with loud music, well… that just hurts my voice. I wanted to hit the FROG party, and the Red Trailer Funnel Cakes party on Friday night. But I went home and slept. So here I am with fewer friends and a table to myself. Oh well… (grin)

So what's your strategy?

Was heading to lunch at the WordPress BBQ…

But I ended up next door.

Same wireless, no line, and TEX MEX. wOOt! And quite possibly and unofficially Los Loney Boys having Sunday brunch after a rehearsal.

Well, they are a rock band, but not Los Lonely Boys. One of the guys just said, "Having breakfast with some friends." (@1:10 pm. NICE!) Correction, they might be Los Lonely Boys, one of them just said something about, "When we were on Oprah." Or perhaps they are messing with the social media geek at the other table.

Time to walk back to the city.

Last year, I thought the 2009 SXSW MEME: TWITTER API. This year the MEME I'm getting is 2010 SXSW MEME: FKn BATTERY!(Here's my Li Battery Best Practices if you haven't seen it.) I have not seen as many people hovered around outlets, begging for a slot on the powerstrip, sitting on the concrete floor to be near the plugs. My laptop is about exactly 21 months old, my Li battery reports 720 load cycles. Well let me allow Coconut Battery to give you the story of my battery.

Looks like, if I believe Coconut Battery my battery now has a maximum of 28% of the original capacity.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/sxsw-hookup

SXSW 2010 posts from earlier:

NOTE TO TWITTER: This is not funny or cute! Attn: @ev @biz @stop

Tags: #smbc3, attrition at #sxsw, geo-location, geo-location fun, geo-location hell, geo-location now, i came to party, I didn't come to party, interactive, interactive conference, just sayin, los loney boys, missing the parties, must be more positive, no checkins, not checking in, social media, sorry facebook sucks, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 2009, sxsw 2010, sxswi, up early, who you might see, why your UX sucks

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Mar 13 2010

Go or NoGo Geo-Tagging? Why I Won't Be "Checking In" or "Mayor" at #sxsw

Category: community building, connections, how do i?, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw, tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 5:30 pm

[NOTE: Local Austin paper says SXSW Interactive is UP 40% from last year's 11,000 attendees. And guess who's winning the geo-local wars? Who do ya think? Gowalla vs 4sq? See Geolocation Wars. Cause I ain't tellin, and I ain't playin either.]

Check the Friendfeed Stream of all #sxsw and #sxswi tweets. Is that geo-enough for ya? You can watch them in realtime, you can grab the RSS, you can comment in the room directly. If you want to be an admin to add other streams into the stream, let me know.

Okay, I lied. I just checked in using Sitby.us. But I didn't GEO-Locate! It's a twitter-based site that allows me to see where my peeps are… Perhaps the differences are subtle. Crap did I just CHECK-IN again?

So I really don't have any against the geo-lactation apps like Gowalla or 4sq. Sorry, Geo-Location. And actually I was shown Sityby.us and think they've got something the others don't, *but… I probably won't be self-geo-auto-locating-checking-in with Sitby.us either.

And I AM actually quite into people, connecting with friends old and new, virtual or real-time. And I am into parties just like the next person of my age. (That was self-depreciating humor, BTW.) I even won an award for and tried to implement a Event Planning/Meeting app while I was part of Dell's Global Online team. The closest we ever got was a page I created that used RSS feeds and a fancy parsing widget that made it seem like we were delivering event-rich information.

Sooooo… what is it about the geo-frenzy that is happening right now that does not inspire me?

Well, let me ask you first. What about the geo-aware apps and geo-hyper phones that has YOU excited?

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/geo-NO

If you do see me in the real-geo world, say hi!

SXSW 2010 posts:

From SXSW 2009:

Tags: #smbc3, geo-location, geo-location fun, geo-location hell, geo-location now, interactive, interactive conference, must be more positive, social media, sorry facebook sucks, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 2009, sxsw 2010, sxswi, why your UX sucks

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Mar 13 2010

Another Winding Down at #SXSW: Social Media Club HOUSE at Dusk #smch3

Category: community building, connections, social media, sxsw — jmacofearth @ 5:25 pm

I'm tired, the coffee is not having the intended affect (or is that effect?). Dang! I'm even too lazy to look it up. But I'm also kinda blissed out at the Social Media Club HOUSE or Clubhouse! #smch3 Here's the scene.

The bus was full of ladies from Canada.

And the house was mello and chill with Hillary York singing in a sultry deep voice.

And a heavenly hook up for me.

and if I can get off Twitter…

Wish you were here…

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/smch3-day2

SXSW 2010 posts:

From SXSW 2009:

Tags: #smbc3, geo-location fun, interactive, interactive conference, must be more positive, social media, social media club, social media club house, sorry facebook sucks, south by southwest, sxsw, sxsw 2009, sxsw 2010, sxswi, why your UX sucks

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Mar 12 2010

#SXSW Rockstar SuperPowers Now Available in Austin, Texas (jetpacks optional)

Category: community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, sxsw — jmacofearth @ 10:21 am

This is geek heaven. SXSW Interactive 2010 has started, I've got my badge, my coffee, my wireless, my digital nomad sticker and loads of friends stopping by this table saying hi.

Strap on your jetpacks folks.

And then I was swept away on a bus with shag carpet to the Social Media Breakfast Club House to have some serious Salt Lick BBQ and … drum roll please … Lyle Lovett. But check this:

Some people txting more than talkin… (love ya guys… that's not a dig.)

Ms. Social – Erica O'Grady.

and…

And Lyle Lovett sat at one of those leeetle tables down there. He was lookin good. I didn't ask him for an autograph or anything, but I can tell you he did not bring his pony or his boat. I was slightly disappointed by the lack of boat. SNAP!

continues…

and…

And… sorry I didn't take any pics of Lyle. I'm sure others did if you check out the #smch3 tag on Twitter.

SuperPower thanks to Thanks to @kristiewells @chrisheuer and #smch3 sponsors for the SMC Leaders,thanks!

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/sxsw-superpowers

Jason Falls was there chatting up his Big Red Trailer Funnel Cakes.

Tags: #smbc3, jason falls, lyle lovett, social media, social media breakfast club, social media club, south by southwest, sxsw, sxswi

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Mar 08 2010

Have You BUZZed Today? Why Twitter and NOT Google Buzz is Trending Up.

Category: community building, connections, lifestreaming, social media, speed the web, tech opinion, tools — jmacofearth @ 1:32 pm

[3-9-10: It's been 25 days since I looked in my Google Buzz folder. I'm starting to get tempted, just to see... But nah... ]

So even if you have high hopes for the newest social media platform, Google's Buzz, you might make a note of the information that is still clear on new technology champion sites like Mashable and ReadWriteWeb.

If you look at the tab on the left there <<< you will see that the Tweet to Buzz ratio is over 200 – 1. And the Tweet to F-Book ratio is 100 – 1. So let's imagine how BUZZ is going to make a long term impact or not.

First Problem with Buzz: It's tied directly to your G-Mail account.

While this is often mentioned as a feature. The reality is, if you don't use G-mail as your primary email platform you are likely to not Buzz at all. Where I work, we use the MS Outlook platform for all things email and scheduling. And Buzz and Outlook aren't in sync. To that point, Twitter and Outlook aren't buddies either, but the Twitter connectors are plentiful. What's coming for Buzz is yet to be seen.

Second Problem with Buzz: Much of what is mentioned as the secret sauce that Buzz has that Twitter does not is "simplification."

The problem with that idea is, your social media accounts, all of them, are managed by you. And you either do a good job of managing them or you don't. With Twitter there are a ton of tools to help you manage all of the incoming information. There are Twitter Lists (on Twitter.com) and amazing desktop/web apps (Tweetdeck, Seesmic, Hootsuite) that help manage the volume of Twitter traffic that you might expose yourself to.

What does Buzz have at this point? I'm not sure.

Third Problem with Buzz: It's just another tool.

How many new software programs are you willing to learn this week? How much time do you have to spend "learning" new programs, in addition to doing your work? My guess is, if you are anything like me or my close associates, a new tool is only relevant if it fills a need that is not being met by your current tool kit.

Fourth Problem with Buzz: Adoption is the killer app.

Twitter is HUGE. Twitter is 100th the size of Facebook. For all the love we give Twitter, Twitter is a tiny piece of the social media pie. Google Buzz would have to have some kind of killer sauce to make a real splash. As Google WAVE shows, just because Google launches it, does not mean it will grow or be significant.

And if you look everywhere you do your social media networking, check out how invasive and persistent Google Buzz is relevant to Twitter or even Facebook. And if you are interested in being at the front of the power curve with a social media app, you might still focus your energies on Twitter. OR FACEBOOK, though I hate to say that.

But BUZZ is not going to get you a huge audience, no matter how BIG the MS-SM-M (Main Stream SocialMedia Media) would like you to believe BUZZ is going to be. And I believe in order to hedge their bets they are working it hard:

Well, you check it out and let me know. Even Mashable's enthusiasm for BUZZ seems to be waning. I mean the numbers at the top left of this post don't lie. If people aren't BUZZing, it's not gonna be a "force."

Facebook = Force. Twitter = Force. Google = Force.

WAVE is a QUESTIONABLE FORCE.

BUZZ is not a FORCE.

We're looking for the Force. And I can hear the words of the Storm Trooper, "These are not the droids you are looking for." Sorry Google. But hey, let's make the WAVE happen. We need some good applications of the WAVE. Not more pretty movies about how cool the WAVE CAN BE. But actual use of the WAVE to bring an EVENT or SUBJECT to LIFE.

I have an idea for SXSW Music, Film and Interactive. SXSWave.com. But I'm just starting to set up the framework. I've got some friends at both Google and SXSW, so, ya might keep your eye on it. Or wait and see if it TRENDS. (grin) Or perhaps we'll wait until next year to really launch it. It all depends on the weather and the price of tweets in China.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/SXSW-WAVE

Tags: buzz is not trending, Buzz This, buzz today?, catch the sxsw wave, FB Share, FB This, google buzz, is BUZZ like WAVE?, lack of buzz, no buzz, ride the wave, share this, sxsw, sxsw 2010, sxswi, sxswi 2010, trend this, Tweet This, wave at sxsw, will buzz fail?