Hammock @ SXSW 2008

Wrap-up: Our Experiment With Covering-an-Event 2.0

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:53:42 -0500

The four of us from Hammock who attended the 2008 South by Southwest Interactive during the past weekend used the event to experiment here on Hammock.com. In the past, our company has published event "dailies" for clients and on numerous occasions, we've provided editorial support for client websites during events. However, as we've spent the past few years embracing a wide-array of networked conversational, social and sharing tools, we've felt that online "coverage" of an event should tap into new media tools and platforms -- rather than merely "report" on what's taking place. What you'll see below are some of the rough notes, photos, "tweets" and random "stuff" we recorded during the event. What you won't see anymore are our constant "tweets" during the event as we've determined they make little sense outside the context of the real-time flow in which they occurred. Another thing: We purposefully did not plan our coverage -- no one was "assigned" panels to attend so that we'd have it "covered" here. This was viewed as a place to aggregated and share the flow of what we were experiencing -- not "report" on what was taking place. If we were doing this for a client, it would have been scripted and produced more tightly. That's one of the lessons we learned. Such experiments are where we discover what works and what doesn't. For example, we fell down on our "bookmarking" -- we thought we'd be adding lots of links to websites as we heard about them in sessions. But we found when one is taking notes, twittering and shooting photos, it's hard to also bookmark. We could have done better, in hindsight. Next time, also, there will be lots of video. Lots and lots of video. SXSW Interactive has been described as "The Internet's Spring Break." And certainly, there's a lot of fun and since most of it is over a weekend, the "out of the office" pressure is lessened. But, bottomline, South by Southwest is a great place to experience the future of conversational media when those who use these tools each day get together face-to-face.

A Picture of a Thousand Words

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:32:32 -0500

Some of the coolest things at this year's SXSW were the "graphic interpretations" of the keynote addresses by Sunni Brown and Marilyn Martin. They were stationed at both sides of the front of the hall and did something akin to giant whiteboard versions of what was taking place on stage. Great theater and very helpful in visualizing (and remembering) the presentations.

The Web that Wasn't (rough notes)

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:27:29 -0500

After the jump, you'll find my rough notes from a fascinating presentation, The Web That Wasn't, given by Alex Wright, an information architect at the New York Times and author of the book, Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages (Amz link).

The Sarah Lacy thing

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:31:52 -0500

As I blogged my notes from yesterday's Mark Zuckerberg's "keynote," the four of us from Hammock were all sitting together (along with my 17-year-old son) and we each grew more and more uncomfortable as the interviewer headed off a cliff by breaking "every rule in the book" on how to conduct a good interview. I didn't want to go "too negative" on this topic here on this blog, so I posted my rant version of the event over on rexblog. Also, after the event, Jeff Jarvis prepared a future lecture for his students on how not to conduct and interview.

The Power of Twitter

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:08:45 -0500

Sad story, but true: Last night at dinner, as I went to take a picture of my fabulous Shrimp Alambres at Guero's Taco Bar in South Austin, I realized my camera was gone. I panicked. I ran through the events of the day in my mind. I had it for lunch at Las Manitas. I had it for the panel on lessons learned through e-commerce. I had it for my water and M&Ms break. I narrowed it down to losing it sometime during a panel in 18a at 5 p.m. As soon as I settled to a computer after dinner, I used Twitter in a plea to find my lost camera. I explained where I was, what the case looked like and even offered money. Luckily, there was a group of about four us of who exchanged pleasantries and first names in that 5 p.m. panel, and when I woke up this morning, my "tweet" had been read by one of the friendly folks in this group of four. In an email, she explained that she had found my camera and turned it in to SXSW lost and found. So, in a giant building full of thousands of people, a simple line under 140 characters led to the return of my camera. Thank you, Twitter!!! And thank you, Anne!!! [Technorati Tag: sxsw2008]

Kathy Sierra presentation (rough notes)

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:34:33 -0500

I had intended on doing this live, but all forms of connectivity failed me. After the jump, you'll find my very, very rough notes.

SEO 3.0 - How to get your site ranked on Google in 2008

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:07:59 -0500

These are my rough notes from Bill Leake from Apogee Search's presentation on SEO. (More after the jump.)

Mark Zuckerberg keynote (live blogging notes)

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:55:29 -0500

I'll be updating this post through the keynote -- the old school way. The wifi in the room is being slammed and I'm online via 3-G. Should start in a few moments.

2:00: The music is very loud so something must be about to happen. Are they trying for a Stevenotes thing? If so, poor Mark. After the jump, read my "raw" notes:

SXSW Panel - 2008 Presidential Campaign (Live-blogging experiment)

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:09:43 -0500

Okay. We're going to try an experiment using a service called Coveritlive.com. You can join in (sorry Safari users) via the box at the bottom that says Your Name, however, this is the first time we're using this, so I apologize in advance for having no idea of how this works if it's not working for you.

Social Design Strategies

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:04:51 -0500

How to get people to do what you want on your site. Great panel on how to design for particular interactions, and the consequences to consider. Todd Sieling, Corvus Consulting, Ma.gnolia Daniel Burka, Delta Tango Bravo, Creative Director at Digg, founder of Pownce Joshua Porter, Bokardo.com Chris Messina, Citizen Agency See my notes....

Photos from Saturday

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 23:38:21 -0500

We've been posting photos from today's activities in this Flickr set.

Measuring Social Marketing Metrics

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:36:12 -0500

This panel on social media/marketing metrics could have easily been called "What Are People So Afraid of" as the panelists talked about the different things that those in different levels of management within a company are worried about when it comes to social media: losing people, protecting the brand, affecting sales and what happens if we do nothing. One quick take-away: If you're wanting to talk your company into getting involved in some sort of social media, you might want to take a three-pronged approach. Start listening. Start participating. Start leading. [Technorati Tag: sxsw2008]

Worst. Website. Ever

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:03:33 -0500

I ended the day with a light, but instructive session: Worst Website Ever: That's So Crazy, It Just Might Work, moderated by the incredible Andy Baio of Waxy.org. Read about it after the jump:

Quit your day job and Vlog

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:32:52 -0500

Okay. I'm feeling really guilty. I'm Twittering instead of taking notes at this panel. First I ran into someone I know and we stepped out in the hall to catch up. Now, I'm discovering there are people I know via Twitter all around the room. I'm doing back-channel messages to them saying stuff like, "I'm down in the front on the right." This is really a good panel about some great folks who are doing some incredibly cool things with video online. I sure hope someone who's listening actually posts something about what they're saying. I'm going to have to regroup on this live-blogging thing before I attend another panel. Hey, wait. There's Becky McCray.

Kill Your Mouse

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:54:24 -0500

Brewster Kahle who's a huge proponent of open source devices is apparently a huge proponent of all things digital.. refrigerators, cars, doorknobs. Pretty out there. Basically the panel was really talking about the increase in digital accessibility as we move from traditional desktop computers to touch sensitive mobile devices. There was some discussion about Microsoft's multipoint advancements (Minority Report). And the guy who invented Guitar Hero was also there pushing the need for hacking for hacking's sake. Reminded me of the argument of art for art's sake. I've got to wonder sometimes why we're willing to go through so much trouble to replace a simple notebook.