SRC ID

Twitter, the Ruby on Rails bastard child, and focus of much debate about Ruby’s potential scale issues, is a site I’ve used in for the better part of a year that has been on my mind of late. The site is loved by many and misunderstood by the masses. For those of you who love it, you’re likely addicted, and it’s this addiction that I’m mildly interested in talking about here.

I recently took a family vacation to South Korea, where my iPhone doesn’t work (blessing in disguise). As such, I was essentially cut off from updating my Twitter profile. Sure I could have done my updates through the website, but come on, after a full day of running around bowing, eating, bowing, and faking my way through Korean with extended family, the very last thing I wanted to do was boot up the laptop and log onto twitter to summarize my day in TXT sized bites. No thank you. So I essentially went without Twitter for two weeks.

And now, as I’ve been sitting here for the better part of two weeks, I’ve totaled two or three Twitter updates, and am finding it rather hard to think of a reason to update my profile. Let alone allocate the time or attention to follow along with other peoples banter, and engage in conversation. Did I loose my interest, or perhaps I’m just not fully back into the swing of my old daily routine. In either case, it seems, at least for the immediate moment, my addiction is broken, and hopefully, for the sake of my family and my business, it’s a good thing.

Ultimately, what I’m curious about in the longer term, is how much Twitter hype & activity is sustainable. Is Twitter ultimately a fad that will eventually morph into the next coolest gadget in online web crack? I suppose only time will tell. Until then, you can follow me on Twitter and see if I eventually come out of hibernation.

So it’s Wednesday morning, the day after the closing of the Interactive portion of SXSW. As everyone likely knows by now, this years event (being my 2nd attendance) was highly energetic. Personally, both positive and negative.

Again, record crowds flooded this years event. Lots of first timers, and lots of old timers. This, I tend to think, is a good thing. More insight, perspective, and experiences to share with one another. But perhaps this massive influx is burning a hole in the side of this community focused event.

The first big issue that arose, and the one flare up that just about everyone heard about (even not geek types), was the Mark Zuckerberg Keynote interview conducted by Sarah Lacy (Businessweek). I was there, in the main room, and man, you could cut the tension with a knife. Plenty of people have posted about this, so quite honestly I don’t want to dwell on the negative. You can read about the various takes by Dave McClure, Michael Arrington (who by the way, was not in attendance), Wired, and many more (just google Zuckerberg Lacy interview). You can even follow the sporadic comments from Twitter: Robert Scoble, Jason Pontin. So I don’t really need to say too much more.

This same audience uprising theme seemed to bleed over into other sessions as well. During the “Social Marketing Strategies Metrics, Where Are They?” book reading, Jeremiah Owyang highlights that the audience revolt was far more aggressive (though passive via meebo). And there’s more. During a panel I attended which discussed the future of music distribution, again, a heck of a lot of tension.

Overall, though some think of these “outbursts” as negative, perhaps it’s actually quite healthy. Debate provides an opportunity for those empassioned around a specific topic to truly get to the heart of the issue, hopefully progressing the conversation to a perspective that leads to change and evolution. Wishful thinking? nah. Ultimately the interactive community is just that, a community. It’s a rare thing in my opinion.

As for the rest of the experience of the 2008 SXSW. It was fantastic. Met up with old friends, was introduced to a number of new faces, learned some new tactics & strategies, but ultimately was able to escape the daily grind and use my brain on an intellectual level and open my horizons based on other peoples experiences. And ultimately, this is why I love SXSW. It’s ultimately not a learning experience (although it can be), and it’s not a networking event (although it is), but it’s a chance for everyone to share what they’ve learned through their experiments, failures, and successes over the years.

I’ll follow up with a few more detailed notes on panels I attended, what I learned, and some new companies / products / websites I’m curious about.

Drama or not, I definitely plan to attend again next year.

Now, off too catch some films before I jump on a plane out of here.

I’ve been playing with Davidville’s Tumblr publishing application for a few weeks now. After discovering the site a few months ago right after it was launched, I set up and account and as usual, just let it sit.

Honestly, I’ve been hard at work. Really.

But that said, I finally started testing out the full breadth of the tools a few weeks ago and it’s so very well done. Simple, easy, egaging, and intuitive (well fairly). I suggest everyone check it out. Now I just need to find a way to publish to it from here, and vice versa. Integrate streams if you will. Which is the one thing that I love so much about it.

I tend to use Tumblr as more than just a blog publishing tool. I use it as an aggregate of my life online. A trend that’s seen popping up with Plaxo Pulse, Twitter & Facebook integration, etc. The idea that as social networks and social people we exist in many places, but our activities in those many places should be displayed and celebrated throughout. It’s useful obviously for marketing (as in “What’ this link from? Oh Del.icio.us? Cool. Sign me up) but also a great retention tool. Heck I use Twitter because it’s an easier Facebook. I don’t use Facebook anymore. Sorry guys. It’s just overwhelming.

That said, check out Tumblr.

Well I’m only two days away from leaving for Austin, Texas, home of the yearly pilgrimage that is the South by Southwest festival. A week plus of music, film, graphic art, and interaction design nerd-dom.

2007 was my first time attending the event, and I had a blast. I went fairly unprepared due to the fact that I was overworked and under deadline, but I went anyway. I learned a lot, met a number of interesting people, and even bumped into an old friend and classmate from Purdue that I hadn’t seen in over 10 years.

But this year I plan on doing things a little differently. I’m actually, well, planning. Figuring out which sessions to attend, calendaring the laundry list of interesting evening events from booze parties to heady conversations post conference.

The best part. I get to meet up with one of my partners and a potential team member while down there, and to ice the cake, I’m traveling with a fresh Alpha release for our upcoming product. If you’re lucky I’ll share, gain some feedback and hopefully some new contacts.

Looking forward to seeing everyone down there, and you’ll be sure to find some updated posts and photos here and elsewhere.

Hardcore cyclist and design aficionado Naz Hamid will be presenting at this years 2008 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. I’m certainly attending and looking forward to hearing what he has to say and seeing what he has to show. His topic this year is “Design is in the details“.