SXSW ignites
I thought that national SXSW print coverage has been light this year, although there have been features illuminating little-noticed corners of the event (the AFE showcase at Jovita’s, e.g.). The current (April 2) Business Week, in “Twitter: All Trivia, All the Time” (byline Heather Green) reports:
Twitter really caught fire, though, at the South by Southwest music and digital conference, held Mar. 9-18 in Austin, Tex. Obvious cleverly prepared the ground, setting up two 51-inch plasma screens next to the conference registration desk and in a hallway where panels let out. As the techie crowd milled around, they began paying attention to the scrolling updates from bloggers about hot parties, panels, and restaurants. “You would go into a panel room and 20% of the people would be staring at their phones, sending out or getting updates,” says Narendra Rocherolle, an early Twitter user.
The Twitter FAQ page is a bit on the enigmatic side. I know there are at least two Austin Metbloggers on Twitter and I’m not one. Can anyone who’s a member say what prompted you to join? Do you plan to stick with it? Anybody?
Twitter definitely caught fire this year at SXSW. It’s very easy to see its usefulness at something like SXSW where there are hundreds of loosely connected (and not so loosely connected) people trying to meet up and keep in touch. It’s a hybrid of the Web, SMS, IRC and IM. This post collects some of its uses.
It’s a little more difficult to see its usefulness day to day. It’s somewhat similar to another service, Dodgeball, that’s been around for a while. Twitter usurped Dodgeball this year. I think because it’s a little easier to use and not tied to location. There’s a pretty good post and comment thread here about that.
I’m skeptical, but I’m not going to write it off yet. It’s not bad for making quick blog posts and for keeping up with a small group of people.
The local daily carries a big feature on Twitter today (3/31). I can see its utility in some circumstance but I don’t think I’d make much of a space for it in general daily life.