sxswi

AUSTIN, Texas--Lindsay Campbell rose to fame as the perky, witty hostess of finance video blog Wallstrip, made headlines when the show was purchased by CBS Interactive, and made even more headlines when she passed anchor duties on to new host Julie Alexandria so that she could take the helm of Moblogic.tv, a new video blog about news and finance.

Moblogic premiered on Friday, in conjunction with the South by Southwest Interactive Festival here. I took a few minutes to talk with Campbell about her new show, whether she gets recognized on the street, Brangelina (read on, you'll get … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--If you run a social media site, from a blog to a virtual world to a network like Facebook, you're going to have to deal with angry users, and that's a fact of life.

Such was the theme of the discussion at a South by Southwest Interactive panel on Saturday afternoon called "Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting."

The all-female panel (a rarity in the tech world!) was moderated by Annalee Newitz, editor of the Gawker Media-owned science fiction blog IO9.com, and consisted of Jessamyn West of MetaFilter, Gina Trapani of fellow Gawker … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--In a lively discussion that focused on youth and collective intelligence, noted researchers and authors Steven Johnson and Henry Jenkins officially opened South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) on Saturday in the conference's first keynote address.

Johnson, a well-known journalist and author whose books include Emergence and Everything Bad is Good for You, and Jenkins, an MIT professor who has written books like The Wow Climax: Tracing the Emotional Impact of Popular Culture and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, talked at length about their ideas related to how youth culture is changing in the face of rapidly … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Professional video gaming could be the next great sport--and the one that will be the choice of the digital generation.

That was the prediction of a panel on the future of the sport at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference here Friday.

Speaking with video game instant-messaging company Xfire's CEO, Adam Boyden, an impressive cross-section of the professional video game industry talked at length about why their chosen sport could join football, baseball, soccer, and basketball at the top of the athletics heap in the future.

Joining Boyden on-stage were Jason Lake, a former property attorney, and … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--I never thought I would have a chance to wear sweatpants to a professional networking event, but thanks to Kick, count that as one more boundary broken.

The brainchild of Six Apart Vice President and well-known blogger Anil Dash, Kick was a game of geek kickball that took place Saturday morning here in a park near the Austin Convention Center, where South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) is in full swing.

The event involves large numbers of geeks playing kickball on a weekend morning, many hung over from partying too hard the night before.

Dash started Kick in 2002 as … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Despite having plenty of blogging work still to do on Friday night, I decided to check out some of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival's notorious after-hours scene. Man, it's enough to give anyone a headache long before the aftereffects of the free drinks set in the next morning.

Friday night promised to be the least party-heavy night of the week, with only one "official" party on the books: PR firm Porter Novelli's happy hour at the massive bar called Six Lounge. Probably because of the lack of other SXSWi parties, the line outside … 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

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