SXSW 2010 Recap: Austintatious
Yes, I know – it’s a horrible pun. But it’s true. The South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference is over the top in every regard. The 15,000+ attendees, crowded sessions and who’s who list of presenters makes for an ostentatious spectacle. Not to mention the parties — the crown jewel of the SXSW experience.
Having attended SXSW last year, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Or perhaps more important, what NOT to expect. I think what drives the popularity of the event is the people and culture BEHIND technology and not the hardcore technologies themselves. If you’re looking for a tutorial on the latest and greatest server software, you’re in the wrong place. But if you want to hear the story (the failures, personalities, and inspirations) behind the newest Google innovation, you’re in the right spot. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about people — and so is SXSW.
That said, there were a few notable takeaways from SXSW 2010:
Geosocial Applications
Gowalla and foursquare are gaining serious traction. Both companies released upgrades days before the conference in preparation for this Spring Break for Geeks. With such a concentration of tech savvy users, SXSW is a veritable test lab for the latest and greatest ideas and gadgets. Everywhere I went, the first thing everyone did was “check in” to grab the cool little “badges.” Being somewhat skeptical about games that require me to announce my whereabouts, I must admit to being impressed. In the immediate sense, it was very handy seeing where other people were hanging out. It allowed for more chance encounters instead of firm meet-ups which is basically impossible at a chaotic event like SXSW. In the future, I can see incentives and gameplay evolving where users get actual rewards for performing normal daily tasks. Still in the “PONG-like” state of evolution, foursquare is already being used by coffeeshops who give free pastries to every person who checks in X-number of times. The biggest takeaway for me is the psychological power of gameplay. People like to be recognized as a leader (or “mayor” in foursquare) and they like mini-rewards for doing otherwise mundane tasks (picking up/dropping “badges”). The pieces-parts of these social games are just beginning surface. It’s going to be very interesting to see if these geosocial applications become the next “must have” in our daily lives like the darling of SXSW 2007 – Twitter.
Content Worth Talking About
Now that social media tools and technologies have been mainstream for over three years, attention is being focused on how to offer content that actually does something productive. The experimentation time with Facebook and Twitter is over. We’re now in the “what’s our SPECIFIC strategy and EXACTLY what content should be used” phase. There were two social psyhologists that were particularly interesting: Ben Scofield (”Mind Control: Psychology for the Web”) and Dan Ariely (”Perfectly Irrational”). Scofield offered the following rule(s) of thumb when developing Web site content:
- Likeability – Be likable (no kidding!)
- Social Proof – Show people what their peers are doing
- Authority – Demonstrate that you are trustworthy
- Reciprocity – Give people something for free
- Scarcity – Tell people when time is running out
- Commitment – Give people a low cost way to commit
- Decoy Effect – Make it easy to compare choices
The more your site can offer content that delivers on these points, the more persuasive and effective it will be.
@Anywhere
Finally, the big hullabaloo was Twitter’s announcement during the Monday keynote address by founder Ev Williams. Early speculation was that Twitter would unveil it’s new advertising model. Instead, Williams anticlimactically explained their new @anywhere service which will be rolled out to select publishers (such as the NY Times) in the near future. Basically @anywhere is a little overlay that will be on websites that allows you to follow somewhere directly from that site. Imagine reading an article, clicking on the author’s name and selecting “follow” via a popup window instead of visiting Twitter.com in another window (or a 3rd party app like Tweetdeck), searching for their name/handle and following. They’re basically trying to eliminate the disconnect between publishers and Twitter. Cool? Yes. Underwhelming. Very much so. But in true Twitter fashion, this understated release will probably be turned into something much more impressive and practical by 3rd party developers — just like the rest of Twitter’s history.
I’d highly recommend attending SXSW as it’s definitely a unique experience. Just be sure to wear comfortable shoes and stock up ahead of time on sleep. See you next year!
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