In this week leading up to SXSWi, The Austin Chronicle features comic Eugene Miriman on the cover. I always get worried when I see comics associated with pretty much anything as an “opening act” or a keynote speaker. Honestly, most comics who believe that they appeal to “smart people” (or are marketed as such) either become so self-indulgent it hurts ( Best Week Ever ) or well, it’s a funny concept, but not really funny ( Andy Kaufman ). In either case, I generally kinda sit there awkwardly as I’m predicting punch-lines and waiting until my feeling of embarrassment passes, usually concomitant with their leaving the stage.

Yesterday was a day full of harried activity. Owing to the fact that I wouldn’t be in the office this week, I had a few things to take care at the office before I did le grande log-out before going into SXSW. I couldn’t quite figure out what to d, so my solution was to “sprint”. “Sprinting” is a term that I got from Merlin Mann over at 43Folders as being an incredibly important skill in productivity. The fact is this: some time you have to sit down, strap in, turn the fucking IM off, and work until you’re done.

Well, as you may have guessed based on Day 1, we slept in and were simply unable to make it to the early morning sessions. We were able to, as such, te head down and show Mike the Whole Foods mothership at 5th and Lamar. We grabbed lunch there ( the MoPac Sandwich with Tomatoes ) and then headed over to the Austin Convention Center. The first presentation we saw the keynote presentation with Henry Jenkins and Stephen Johnson. Their discussion was most enlightening as they discussed the communication and behavior patterns of “the kinds today”. In an interesting bit of political dialogue, Jenkins noted that the Hillary linguistic dynamic is very much rooted in the old-world style model of political power.

At the end of Day 2, we adjourned from the Convention center and then headed over to the park across from the facility where the drink company FUZE was offering FUZE-cocktails. The FUZE was moderately tasty, but the FUZE+Tito’s vodka was absolutely nasty. Accordingly we headed out to the Avenue A | Razorfish party at SIX on 4th and Colorado AKA, the bar built into the Spaghetti Warehouse ( quelle bizarre ). The music was good and Lauren discovered that she likes whiskey sours ( with a Steven-added garnishing cherry ). Our posse then travelled over to Iron Cactus on 6th where Lauren advised all present to enjoy their Acapulco plate which, true to her recommendation, is delicious.

One the evening of day 1 while Mike and I were returning from a quick run to a convenience store, we approached the doorway of the Hilton. I grabbed the door and opened it. Mike, still talking to me took an eager step forward and noticed some non-SXSW elderly attempting to come out of the door. Mike then, stopped suddenly and a gentleman coming off of the sidewalk behind him had to stop suddenly causing him to visibly grimace in exasperation. Said I: “Yeah, it’s called being mannerly.” So, let me state this. When you approach a door, open it, if someone is directly behind you, let them go through the door ( if she is a cute female, you will see the reason this attitude was generated ) When you step through a door or someone holds one open for you, pay note, is someone on the inside coming out?

One of my most bitter disappointments about SXSW2008 this year was the lack of tangible take-aways from the sessions. A quote that really inspired me before last year’s festival was this by John Gruber of Daring Fireball: SXSW is the only conference I know where designers and developers hang out. Designers have design conferences. Developers have nerd conferences. http://daringfireball.net/2007/02/sxsw_2007_rands

I just wanted to record my impressions from the last two days of SXSW before they got too dusty and to point out a few great presentations. What I attended at SXSW, the last two days Monday: 10 (missed) Web that wasn’t (!) Very good, and content online! Lunch Browser Wars Panel: Nothing to Add Client Side Code and Internationalization (!): Jon Wiley returns and is an incredibly funny presenter. Notes Portable Social Networks: Nothing to Add Tuesday: CMS roundup Run to the Apple store! My machine stopped connecting joining Wireless networks Bought Dance Shoes JS libraries Faster w/ open code Wiimotes Monday really didn’t provide me much of anything that is notable except for the “Web that wasn’t” and the “Internationalization” lectures.

Ted Nelson’s handiwork: And… _why’s

10 Things We Learned at 37 Signals ( Jason Fried ) General Theory of Creative Relativity Web that Wasn’t Data Visualization as art Internationalization JavaScript Libraries I’ve subscribed to the SXSW RSS feed for podcasts, I’m hoping these 5 re-surface.

A while back I posted my concerns about how SXSW’s programming was a bit off this last year, to my taste. I definitely felt a lack of technical content, felt a lack of intellectual take-aways, etc. I expressed my concerns in the feedback and “Katie” replied thus: i’m sorry to hear that you did not enjoy the panels overall. we feel like we spend a lot of time helping speakers to prepare for the event and certainly do not encourage the speakers to be “free form” and “spontaneous,” but rather well-prepared and focused. can you please give me more specifics on which panels that you went to and which speakers you felt were not sufficiently prepared?