SFist at SXSW: Part Two -- Bloggie Nights
For those of you who were wondering, yes, we are actually here for the panels. Kind of. We're also here to get drunk and make out. But only after discussing copyright reform, comment spam, the need for more diversity of voices in the blogosphere, the nature of journalism and the latest trends in technology. Because that gets us hott. Ever since the computer meltdown, though, we've been beholden to the computers in the press room here at the convention center, which are only available from ten to six, which means that when we wished we could get to another panel, we had to be in here posting, otherwise our publisher might not buy us a plane ticket next year.
So what did we miss? Well, nothing, really, because when we get home we can catch all the panels online by watching the video! Or just check the tag sxsw on Technorati (not to mention Flickr). There is absolutely no f**king way anybody could cover everything here -- next time we're at least going to drag SFist Eve out to cover SXSW Film, because we can't be chasing Ana Marie Cox and Luke Wilson around town at the same time. So get down with decentralized networks of citizen journalists -- we're the wave of the future after all!
So thanks to getting to only consuming two beers and getting to bed early, we were up at the crack of down on Monday and ready to hop on the bus. Having only attended one panel the day before, this time we were determined to attend at least two. Had we made it to the SXSW Web Awards presentation, we would have let you know that Beyond the Fire, one of ITVS's Electric Shadows projects, won in the Educational category. Also, Dogster won the "People's" Choice award, although we have a feeling Fifi was online voting while you were sleeping. Congrats to Ted and Molly, pictured here celebrating at the Blogger party!
Our first panel was "How to Create a Multimedia Moblog," which we largely went to because we were sad we missed our publisher Gothamist Jake at "How to Create a Compelling Community Website." Since we're having trouble deciding if blogs should be more like newspapers, TV or radio (why not all three!), we like the option of being able to blog from the field. In fact, we'd be doing it if the PowerBook hadn't given up the ghost on us. First the Apple v. Does case, now this. We may have to switch to an AMD-Linux system or something. We know -- blasphemy! -- but lately our loyalty has begun to wane.
Our absolute favorite panel was "Blogging While Black," hosted by Lynne Johnson and featuring George Kelly, Jason Toney, Tiffany Brown and Tony Pierce. We've been geeks for a long, long time, but we've been concerned with the marginalization of minority communities even longer -- especially in technology and media. But it was our favorite because we felt the speakers were really well-prepared, engaged the audience and used humor to effectively mitigate what could have been an overly tense and serious discussion -- like when Tony asked Jason, who works for Bunham-Murray productions, "Why are all the black people on the Real World are crazy?" After the laughter died down, Jason actually brought it all around to make a serious point about being marginalized by stereotypes even in small groups, and also pointed out that there have been plenty of crazy white people on the Real World (true, that). And no, LAist Jason could not get us in to the Real World Austin house. We tried.
After that it was off to the Bloggie Awards presentation, where we crossed our fingers and hoped all the Bay Area blogs would sweep. Unfortunately it was Dooce, BoingBoing and Gawker Media who pretty much carried the day. Still, we're just glad that folks like Susan Mernit and 1115 were nominated. MoveableType did win for Best Blog Software, hence the beaming Jay Allen above. Ernie from Little Yellow Different manage to get flamed on the live IRC chat being hosted by George Kelly for calling them out. Best question we saw on the IRC chat (which was being displayed on screen by a large projector): "Why is no one talking about what they're wearing?" So, so true.
After running off to lunch with Nikolai Nolan, Kevin Smokler and Scott Beale at Iron Cactus (which, apparently, is the place to go to schmooze for lunch), we went to "Where are the Women," where friend of SFist Min Jung Kim was presenting. Of course, they meant "in Web Design," but the question is certainly germane for the conference. Still, of all the conferences we've been to, we feel that SXSW has definitely been the most diverse, both in terms of the backgrounds of people attending as well as the projects and points of view they bring with them. Still, too many white guys -- we may be one, but it doesn't mean we want to spend all our time with them. Hell, we bore ourselves with our white-male-ness.
Finally it was back to the party circuit. First stop was to drop in on the fine folks at Porter Novelli's Texas office, who are doing the hard work publicizing SXSW. This was a bit of off-the-record mixing, so we'll leave it at that. Still, nice people, and they seem to be doing a great job, but we're biased, because their EssEff office employs one of our staff. Anyway, they were going to be at the Gawker party later just like we were, so you know they must be fun.
After that it was off to the Blogger fete, which of course meant lots of free drinks on Google's dime. And when we mean lots, we mean lots. We got a chance to talk to a whole mess of great people, both locals and others. And then we went and had even more drinks on Nick Denton's dime at the Gawker party, where it was even more debauched (some incredibly handsome jerk was wandering around smoking pot in public, and we didn't even bother trying to use the bathroom -- it was too crowded). But we're getting kicked out of the press room, so we're just going finish by posting pictures of the beautiful people that we had a chance to hang with for the evening. See y'all at Bruce Sterling's party tonight!
Word on the street is that Eddie's going to throw a new Webzine party!
Supermodel Jason Schupp of Over Queersville.
Jenifer Hanen has been all over everywhere during the conference.
We're calling Min Jung's little social engineering experiment with lipstick and a willingness to kiss strangers "MJ-rati tags."
George Kelly and our esteemed editor Gothamist Jake (who's a bit too reserved, in our opinion).
LAist Jason better be careful with that Sidekick -- it could get hacked!
Lockhart Steele, Jason Calacanis and Andrew Krucoff. Is it just us, or does Calacanis look stoned? What was in that cigar, anyway?
Who rocks? Fleshbot's John d'Addario, that's who.
Tony Pierce, a devilish-looking Austinist Ben and Ana Marie Cox shoot the shit.