Author: Jolie O’Dell

Last night, we asked folks if they’d rather have cash or services (like marketing, development and HR services) to help their early stage startup grow.

While our readers’ responses were pretty evenly split, the split between startups that seek capital first far outweigh those that seek to make equity-for-services deals. Also, the number of VC firms (well in excess of 700 in the U.S. alone) is far greater than firms offering services or a mix of cash and services.

Are we just too used to capital? Are “venture services” firms still too new? Why don’t we have more services-for-equity programs?

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The readers we polled last night were about evenly divided when asked if they’d take services (54%) over cash (46%). However, our commenters last night were overwhelmingly in support of taking services over cash alone.

“You need money to buy services, and most of the time, since you do not know where exactly to shop, you overpay or pay for something you do not need,” wrote commenter Marfi.

Commener Jorge made a good case for mentor-driven accelerators when he said, “Just getting the cash won’t get me some good mentors[…] The main reason why startups need cash is because the model is either not clear or not set to work in the short term[…] Just cash ins’t enough unless you’re an experienced entrepreneur.”

Power commenter Warren Bendetto spoke to the sometimes arbitrary nature of valuation, saying, “When you’re starting out, you really have no idea what you’ll need. You base your anticipated amount of capital you need to raise based on assumptions and guesstimates that are 99% bullshit.

If you’re lucky, you’ll raise too much money[…] So you buy servers you don’t need, you hire too many people, everyone gets 36″ double LCD monitors, and your kitchen has a vending machine that spits out free MacBooks.

That’s all fun, until you realize that you gave away 80% of your company in exchange for the funding. By the time you realize that you could have raised less and kept more equity, it’s too late.”

Salient points, all.

So, what is it about the magic and allure of VC that keeps startups pitching for more funding when they might be better served to take services instead?

Chris Wanstrath, founder of the bootstrapped and profitable GitHub, was in the to-VC-or-not-to-VC panel I moderated at SXSW yesterday. When I asked him if he’d ever considered taking capital to get his business up and running, he said that he absolutely hadn’t. He had instead chosed to make business deals, strategic partnerships that would allow him to get the goods and services he needed without being financially dependent on others or having to give up equity.

In that panel, I asked audience members in the packed room how many were currently considering seeking or were actively trying to secure capital for their startups. Between 80 and 90 percent of folks indicated that they’d be making the rounds on Sand Hill Road.

I wish I’d had the chance to ask them if VC was still their preferred option after the panel was over. It seems now that there are more options and alternatives for smart, lean startups to get further with less reliance on the complicated and sometimes predatory business of venture capital.

As for why there aren’t more venture services firms in existence, some have said it’s because getting the capital to run a VC firm is a heck of a lot easier than building the infrastructure to offer startups mentorship, office space, and other business-building services.

Do you think there’s enough justification – both in terms of demand from startups and in terms of return on investment for firms – to warrant more of this new breed of startup support? We’d appreciate your thoughts in the comments, particularly if you’re involved in the VC/startup ecosystem.

Discuss

After wrapping up a panel with a gamut of pro- and anti-VC types at SXSW, I’m left wondering why there aren’t more services-oriented startup firms.

Let me explain: Most of the time, when a startup goes after venture capital, they’re still in the process of building a product and bringing it to market. They need things like servers, developers, marketing tools and sometimes office space. Do they need money per se? Or is capital an increasingly arbitrary and unnecessary step in building a tech startup?

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The fact is, almost every startup needs a little help. Maybe you get that help from the bank of Mom and Dad; maybe you get that help from your good friends at Mastercard. Often, you get that help from folks who want equity; you end up trading part of your assumed long-term success for resources you need in the short term.

We are all familiar with the idea of trading equity for funds through angel financing and venture capital; we’re also familiar with the TechStars and Y Combinator programs that help to incubate and accelerate startups through minuscule amounts of capital and significant amounts of mentorship.

But most of us are less familiar with models such as Mike Trotzke’s SproutBox or Marcus Whitney’s Remarkable Wit. These firms provide services (and sometimes keeping-Ramen-on-the-table amounts of cash) to early-stage startups in exchange for equity. They provide development, marketing and other services that most tech startups need without delving into the complicated issues of valuation and funding rounds. These guys are focused on the absolute bottom line of technology, which has nothing to do with money: Making a great product and finding people to use it.

So, we’re interested to know from our friends in startups who aren’t taking the bootstrapping route, given the choice between pure capital or business-building services, which would you choose? Take the poll, and let us know the reason behind your decision in the comments. We’ll be following up soon based on the results.

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First, we’d like to thank all 596 survey respondents and the many Open Thread commenters who gave such interesting and valuable feedback in our recent post “Should Social Media Experts Be Required to Know Their Tech?“

Over the past couple days, we’ve been able to put together a decent picture and identify some knowledge gaps and points of confusion for many would-be social media experts. But first, let’s address why some of the RWW staff – and many of our readers, some of whom must hire social media experts – feel it’s important for even the most marketing-oriented of consultants to have a rudimentary understanding of the workings of the Web, including its ecosystem of companies and applications.

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You will always need to know more about the Web.

Konqueror is a popular browser among Linux users. The browser Mozilla hasn’t been supported since 2006, having been replaced by Firefox and, to a lesser extent SeaMonkey, both products of the Mozilla Foundation.

The Web does a lot more and a lot less than the average bear would think.

For the most part, we humans have a hard time admitting that we’re “average bears,” though. Before you earn the moniker of “guru” or “expert” or even “professional/consultant,” you need to be far above average in your knowledge of the Web, not just how to get a few thousand Twitter followers or how to increase sales by X percent through Facebook promotions. Those things can come down to common sense or secondhand advice from true pioneers in social media.

Generally speaking, a social media expert will have been around the block long enough to know a CMS from a CPU, to know a bit about servers and DDoS attacks, to know what kinds of operating systems and browsers and even hardware the tech elite prefer to use (or debate over). And the good ones will remain humble enough to keep learning and will always admit there’s more to know. Some of the wisest social media advisors I’ve know will ask to not be called experts, in fact, for how can any one person truly be an expert on something as vast as the Internet?

Flip Side of the Coin: Imagine someone telling you he was a broadcast media expert. That includes television – national, local, cable, satellite, you name it – and all kinds of AM/FM and satellite radio. It might also include pre-show advertisements in movie theaters. That also includes media spend, account management and metrics for all kinds of ads, from branding to direct response. Essentially, the person is claiming to be a one-man ad agency – an impossible claim at best and a fraudulent one at worst.

How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Start listening to people who disagree with you. Search the farthest corners of the Web for new people and new ideas. Stop hanging out in echo chambers and start telling yourself every day, “I know that I know nothing.” That phrase seems to have done Socrates some good; chances are it could help you, too.

You need to communicate with developers.

Haskell is a rare and complicated programming language. .NET sounds more familiar, but it’s a framework, not a language.

In almost every social media project that doesn’t involve something as simple as setting up a Twitter account, you’ll have to work with and rely on the expertise of developers.

You might not want to learn a programming language yourself – it can take a lot of time, which is a precious commodity. But if you don’t know the basics of what programming languages can and cannot do, as well as what languages your developer colleagues use, you’ll end up frustrated and inefficient. And the aforementioned developer colleagues might feel disrespected as well; being asked to deliver fantastical products or results from someone with no understanding of your work isn’t a fun experience.

Flip Side of the Coin: Imagine a CTO telling you, an interactive marketer, to run a direct mail campaign and get 500,000 new registrations. It could be done, perhaps, but it’s not efficient or a good way to use your skills. Even if he told you he wanted 500,000 new signups, is that a realistic goal? Is it based on current adoption trends? Does this guy have any idea what he’s asking for?

How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Read up on the basics of programming languages; spend a few hours here and there on Wikipedia and O’Reilly books. Then, ask questions of developers you trust. Don’t be afraid to “sounds dumb” or be inquisitive.

You need to rely on hard data and facts, not gut feelings.

It may seem to be the ad-free fluffy bunny of the social networking world, but Twitter turned a profit through search deals in 2009.

On occasion, we social media folks make intuitive choices that turn out to be dead wrong. While there’s a lot to be said for making bold choices for your users and clients, there’s much more value in making solid choices based on observed trends, analyzed data and tested outcomes. In fact, it’s plain irresponsible to make recommendations to clients based on feelings rather than facts.

Always challenge yourself to make sure your opinions and advice line up with facts, not the other way around. As a wise man once wrote, “You don’t use science to prove that you’re right, you use science to become right.”

Flip Side of the Coin: Rather than looking at marketing budgets or user traffic, your CEO tells you to spend $1 million on an AdWords campaign because “Google and advertising are where’s the money’s at online, right?” It seems like a ridiculous gamble with no logical reason or rhyme.

How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Test everything you might suggest. Test it over a reasonable period of time, making sure to take peak times into account, and get a reasonable data sample. Learn about A/B and multivariate testing, website analytics, SEO and all the dirty details of traffic and user responses. Most of all, never, ever assume.

You need to know about the finance and investment market to identify competitors, potential partners and pitching opportunities.

Friends and family (and fools) will always be the first to invest in any startup.

Especially if you’re communicating with or about startups, you need to understand a little bit about venture capital, if for no other reason than to understand an app or company’s place in the market. VCs can sometimes be good barometers of a startup’s health or the likelyhood of future success.

Likewise, with regard to our survey question about profitable social media apps and companies, knowing about various stages of development can help you know when to suggest key partnerships. Collaboration between two entities can give a boost to both.

As a strategist, a consultant or any kind of expert, you need to be able to spot a sure bet just as quickly as a sinking ship. And in the startup-filled world of social media, few are better at this all-important task than those with an understanding of tech investment.

Flip Side of the Coin: Your CEO informs you that the company is about to start a marketing campaign on a website that, through your social and industry connections, you know is about to go out of business. In fact, every website of its kind if flailing; you’re surprised he wasn’t aware of the situation.

How to Fill the Knowledge Gap: Read ReadWriteStart, of course! We recommend (and frequently interview and comment on) various brilliant VCs, angels and experienced entrepreneurs on this channel.

We hope you’ve found this information entertaining and informative. The remaining questions on the poll were, by and large, answered correctly. There still seems to be some confusion on the definition of the word “hacker,” but I’m convinced that one will simply take more soapboxing on my part.

What words of advice do you have to share with your less technical colleagues in social media? How can we all improve our game online while making the Internet a better, smarter place? Let us know in the comments.

Discuss

For obvious reasons, we care about what goes on in various parts of the world, particularly New Zealand and other areas that are underserved in terms of Internet access.

So, we were quite excited to learn this evening of a new proposal that would give New Zealanders – including a couple RWW staff members – a better broadband experience. According to NZ website Stuff, a haldful of well-known innovators and entrepreneurs are teaming up on a $900 million dollar project that would give Kiwis (and their Ozzie neighbors) “virtually unlimited” broadband access via an international cable that would run across the Pacific Ocean. Just how much of a difference would this cable make compared to current Internet access?

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The difference would be significant, as Stuff’s graphic shows:

The plan is to construct a 5.12 Terabits per second-capacity fiber cable to connect Australia and New Zealandto the U.S. – a cable that would deliver data at five times the speed of the current network.

This proposal puts Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall, TradeMe creator Sam Morgan, entrepreneur Rod Drury, and techies Mark Rushworth, John Humphrey and Lance Wiggs in competition head-to-head with Southern Cross Cable, a large network partially owned by Telecom New Zealand. The team, called Pacific Fibre, hopes to complete the project by 2013.

Of course, the next step is figuring out the exact cost of the proposed cable – the group thinks $900M might be a highball figure – and find investors. However, as Tindall eloquently noted, you have to spend money to make money – something anyone with an interest in NZ’s economic future and global competitiveness must consider.

“The New Zealand Institute identified billions of dollars in economic potential by unleashing the Internet,” he said, “and it is beyond time to address the issue. This is necessary and basic infrastructure – we must decrease the distance between New Zealand and the international markets.

“Doing so will be incredibly valuable for New Zealand and Australian businesses and consumers. If we are able to deliver on this cable this it could be as valuable to our NZ economy as the quantum leap refrigerated ships were to our export trade many years ago.”

How feasible do you think this project will be? Is 2013 a realistic time table? And where do you think Pacific Fibre’s investors will be found? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

Discuss

When it comes to tech conferences, the first thing most people think about is the parties.

They might think about networking opportunities or learning experiences, but all too often, these are brushed off as mutual admiration societies and redundant, unoriginal chatter. I’ve heard every critique imaginable about some of the best-known tech conferences

– but are there still valid reasons for shelling out a thousand dollars or more to spend a few days “partying” with your peers?

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The greatest thing I’ve ever gotten out of conferences is friendship – mutually beneficial, educational friendship. And the greatest task a conference organizer can hope to accomplish – swag, parties and panels be damned – is getting the right people into the same set of rooms so those friendships can be formed.

Aside from the pure serendipity of meeting new people (or meeting online friends in real life), I have found that the main benefits of conferences are those I create for myself.

In other words, when I have complained that the content was boring, I am to be blamed for not seeking out content that was interesting or, in a single-track show, for not participating in the conversation and helping to make it more interesting for me and my fellow attendees. When we say that a given show is good for nothing but parties, well, that’s a pretty good sign that partying is more of a priority for us than gaining real value. If we say a conference is populated by “the same old douchebags,” as one person recently said to me, then perhaps we’re not taking the time to socialize and network outside our zone of comfort and familiarity.

To be blunt, bad attendees make bad conferences. An engaged, interesting and curious person can go to the exact same show and, in most cases, can derive huge benefits from it though a little effort and a lot of great attitude. There’s no show too big, too small, too boring for that person to not be able to learn something from it.

What do you think? Have you ever been to a truly, in-and-of-itself bad conference? Would a shift in your own focus have helped? How would you characterize the best conferences of your career to date? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

Discuss

Bookmarking service Delicious has just rolled out a Google Chrome browser extension.

Like other Chrome extensions we love to play with, this one is lightweight, fast and useful. There’s no bulky sidebar here. Bookmarks can be created and saved with a miniscule “TAG” button and they can be searched from Chrome’s excellent omnibar. So, do you think this will prompt loyal Delicious users – many of whom had been holding out on Chrome in favor of Firefox – to switch to Google Chrome entirely?

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This is what the button and simple form for bookmarking a page look like:

While this extension doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of some of Delicious’ other browser add-ons, the team noted that the public demand for a Chrome extension prompted them to release a beta earlier than they would have liked.

“It doesn’t have all the API’s needed and it’s missing a good chunk of the functionality we believe it needs, but we’re getting so many requests for the Chrome extension that we’re going to make this available sooner than we originally planned…

“As soon as Chrome is able to support the functionality needed we’ll ensure the features of this extension matches that of our other browser add-ons. There are still some interactions we’re not quite happy with that we’ll address shortly, but we wanted to give you an official Google Chrome extension as soon as possible.”

What do you think? Does the new Delicious extension make you want to use Chrome more? Or if you’re a Chrome fan, does this move give you a renewed interest in Delicious? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Discuss

Social media gurus: We all know one. If you’re lucky, you know only one.

They are the attendees of tech parties, the “Twitter consultants,” the armchair generals of the Internet, and their numbers grow by the day. Yet most of them couldn’t distinguish a line of code from a badly punctuated haiku.

What’s to be done with the social media experts? Accept that their blathering may contain some wisdom? Or require technical exams for all Twitter users with more than 1,000 followers? You decide! And make the NMDs among us take our “technical” quiz.

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There is always grave danger when amateurs turn overnight into experts. This sub-professional clown town is where B movies and Soulja Boy come from. It’s also the birthplace of every blowhard who tells you you’re “doing it wrong” without any technical knowledge or original thought to back it up.

Sometimes, it’s not such a bad thing – in fact, there are a great many non-technical social media folks who are doing a great job of creating quality content and helping brands get themselved situated on the Web. But most of the people I can think of who fit this description have been doing their thing for so long that they’ve had to pick up a few technical tidbits along the way to ensure their continued success and to ensure they weren’t sounding like idiots.

However, I hold the strong opinion that if you’re working in technology – even as a PR flak or social media consultant – you should be able to understand some of the terms, concepts and people that make your business possible. Otherwise, you risk your own reputation by taking the chance that you’re scarily wrong or laughably vague, and you risk gumming up the works for your clients by not knowing how to communicate with their audience, many of whom are very technical folk.

Ultimately, taking the time and effort to understand the technology you use is simply a matter of taking pride in your work, just like the barista who knows all the ins and outs of the perfectly pulled free-trade organic espresso or the skilled sommelier who, though he may not make the wine himself, knows everything about who did and where and how.

Take this quick survey, my social media gurus. (Techies, don’t take the survey; you’ll skew the results.) If you can’t work out the answers, you might be sounding like an idiot – I tell you this because I’m your friend and I care about you. And remember, when you cheat, you’re only cheating yourself, so no Wikipedia for you.

Let me know in the comments what you think about the issue. Am I being an elitist prig? Did I not take my rant far enough? How much do you think a social media expert should know about tech? Would you work with someone who couldn’t sail through this “technical” survey?

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

OMG! Kevin Rose just touched my shirt!

Don’t lie – we know you get butterflies at the thought of bumping into iJustine or Robert Scoble at a tech conference. We’ve pulled together a nice little cheat sheet just for you, friends.

Whether you want a simple handshake, and autograph on your iPhone or a chance to pitch your idea for the Next Big Web App, here’s ten places, panels and parties where you can track down the Internet famous at SXSW 2010. Don’t forget to leave your tips in the comments!

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Justine Ezarik, a.k.a. iJustine

Longtime lifestreaming queen iJustine is famously an Apple fangirl, but it’s Intel that’s giving you the key to tracking her down at SXSW. She’s and Intel Insider, and she might be stopping by some of the Intel Insider events, like Frank Gruber’s Johnny Cash party or Chris Heuer’s Social Media Clubhouse. We don’t have hard and fast details on Ezarik’s whereabouts, but wherever she is, she’ll probably be tweeting, so keep an eye on her Twitter accounts.

Christopher Poole

Pool may not be a household name in and of himself, but there’s nary an Internet user who hasn’t been in some way effected by the fun and foul play on 4chan. “4chan – often referred to as a ‘meme factory’ – has been responsible for the creation of countless Internet memes but is perhaps best known for its exploits. In this conversation, we’ll explore the game mechanics of online communities. What fosters creativity in an online community? What design elements can we incorporate to increase interaction? How is the game played?”

Baratunde Thurston

In “How to Be Black,” The Onion web editor and star of Popular Science’s Future Of series Baratunde Thurston will “touch on the black online experience (if there is such a thing) included memes, statistics on usage patterns, popular destinations and issues of representation. For example, are black people as represented among the creators, developers and builders of our future or are we more consumer oriented than average?”

Violet Blue

Our favorite sex blogger will be kicking off SXSW with a presentation on “How to Not Be a Douchebag at SXSW[…] Aimed at both first-time and long-time attendees to SXSW Interactive, this biting and humorous, yet useful panel takes a look at the common actions and behaviors to avoid if you don’t want to be described as ‘doing it wrong.’”

Kevin Rose

This year, the Digg founder returns to host Diggnation Live at Stubb’s. The Bigg Digg Shindigg was certainly one of the largest events at SXSW 2009, with fans crowding around the large outdoor stage to take pictures and watch Rose shoot the Diggnation episode. But don’t expect to meet the man himself unless you’ve got VIP status for the party.

Chris Messina

In his talk, “ActivityStrea.ms: Is It Getting Streamy In Here?,” Messina will explore the nuances of the real-time web. “From Facebook’s newsfeed to Twitter’s relentless real-time updates, the metaphor of the ‘stream’ has taken social networking beyond blog posts and on to rich social activities. Learn about ActivityStrea.ms – the open format adopted by Facebook, MySpace, and Windows Live – and how it’s fundamentally changing the social web.”

Leah Culver

This young developer and successful entrepreneur will be hosting the Web Framework Battle Royale. “Which web framework will rule them all? As an audience member you pick the winner! We will present an introduction to a variety of web frameworks including Rails, Django, Catalyst and Sinatra. You can vote for the best web framework in categories such as URL handling, database integration, forms, HTML templating, documentation, testing and deployment.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

The WineLibraryTV founder is a true Web guru and an inspiration to entrepreneurs and content creators around the globe. He’ll be giving one of his signature, unforgettable presentations again this year as part of the Interactive Speakers Series.

Evan Williams

Three years after his web app hit it big at SXSW 2007, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams takes the main stage to be interviewed by Havas Media Lab director Umair Haque in front of a live audience . All we have to say is that you’d better get there early if you don’t want to get stuck watching a simulcast in an adjacent room!

Molly Wood

A last-minute stand-in for Natali Del Conte at this event, BOL founder Wood has a fanbase of her own. “CNET’s Buzz Out Loud will broadcast live from SXSW. While discussing the day’s tech news, hosts Tom Merritt, Jason Howell, Molly Wood and others will chat with the audience and invite special guests to talk about what’s happening at the show and beyond.”

Bonus Round! If you stalk him on Twitter, Foursquare, Plancast and Gowalla, you might get to bump into Robert Scoble, as well. Or, you can catch him at the Rackspace party Monday evening. And of course, while we don’t consider ourselves celebrities, the RWW crew will be present and accounted for at the PBS/NPR/RWW party Sunday night!

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for web celeb stalkers of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss

One of our favorite geeks has just released an e-book on best practices for Twitter use.

Chris Pirillo‘s 140 Twitter Tips, a 14-page PDF, is a concise compendium of useful guidelines and helpful hints for every kind of Twitter user, from doing-it-wrong noobs to social media addicts. From the best time of day to get retweets to how to process public criticism, the e-book also covers a broad range of common issues users experience.

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Some of the tips might seem like common sense – until you realize you might not be adhering very well to them, yourself. Most of us are occasionally guilty of using too much jargon and oversharing (or undersharing, in the case of some more professionally oriented accounts).

The e-book costs only $1.40, or you can hold out for the $14 deluxe version, which will contain more than 140 adorable illustrations from Kristin Marshall.

Click here to purchase 140 Twitter Tips from GnomeTomes, the new publishing arm of Pirillo’s social media empire/blog network Lockergnome. Other GnomeTomes include guides for YouTube and Windows 7.

Discuss

It seems the 17-year-old truant who created Chatroulette has applied for a visa.

The youngster, be he lucky or brilliant, has indicated he might want to transition to the American scene at some time in the near future.

With all the media attention he and his service have received and the explosion of traffic – and monetization potential – on his site, his application further opens the can of worms we’ve been discussing tonight: Where’s the best place to raise your startup?

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In December 2009, Chatroulette had 500 users. Today, just four months later, the site sees 1.5 million daily visitors. That statistic alone is enough to inspire investors to beat down the door of its creator, Russian high school student Andrey Ternovskiy.

But what’s much more interesting to many is the mechanics of the site itself. “It’s video 4chan. Unbeatable formula,” said Muhammad Saleem, considered by many to be an excellent authority on engineering virality. Others have called it “brilliant,” “the purest form” of the Internet and its userbase, and “a great way to kill time,” one of the most common uses of the social web.

I’ve frequently described it as a box of game pieces with no rules. Users are invited to create any kind of experience they choose given a simple set of constraints. It’s inherently viral, addictive, imaginative and essentially human.

Here’s the rub: The site is currently unfinanced and non-commercial. The site’s creator, a teenaged school kid, has been placed at the crux of nationalistic, capitalistic and technological debates by being asked to choose between Russian financing and a yellow brick road to Silicon Valley. According to one site, the Russian investors involved are seeking to “break the American hegemony in cyberspace – an ambitious plan, particularly as the United States is home to many of the market leaders in the Internet economy.

“The combined value of Google, Microsoft and Facebook amounts to roughly $500 billion, or about a third of the Russian economy’s annual output. So if Russia – which has more than 50 million Internet users and boasts one of the fastest-growing markets – hopes to catch up, then it will need to keep talents like Ternovskiy at home.”

The Russian investors who have contacted Ternovskiy also invest in Facebook and Zynga; clearly, they have an eye for social virality and profit and see a great deal of potential in Chatroulette. But Ternovskiy, a longtime hacker, dreams of founding a Silicon Valley startup of his own.

Will this young man reinforce the American idiom of Silicon Valley by relocating his seemingly overnight success to the Bay Area? Or will he prove that the startup economy is truly becoming global by accepting Russian financing and remaining in north Moscow?

A more interesting question: Can Ternovskiy sustain this wild success? Or has he simply become lucky with Chatroulette? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

Discuss

For many years, I have been famously (or notoriously) anti-Silicon Valley. There’s nothing wrong with the place in iteself; what I detested was the snobbish notion that the Valley is the de facto or “best” place to run a startup or be involved with the tech world.

I’m now forced to eat my words as my hetero life mate and I prepare to move into a Burlingame apartment conveniently located a few blocks away from the startup he’s now working at;

I have to admit, living in the Bay Area has been amazing so far, in professional and personal terms.

Still, if I were starting a company, would I move from Omaha or Nashville or Boulder to come to the Valley? Would you?

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UPDATE: It seems the Chatroulette creator is having the same dilemma. How’s that for unwitting timeliness?

Back when I started the Never Mind the Valley series, I was fascinated by communities such as Boulder and Los Angeles. The tech scenes are smaller and more easily navigable, and most people are willing and excited to collaborate. When contrasting these areas with the SF Bay Area, NorCal seemed vast, cold, inflated and self-important by comparison.

For months, I railed, “You don’t have to be in the Valley to have a successful startup!” Examples of this abound, from Austin’s Gowalla to L.A.’s Mahalo to the dozens of incubated and accelerated teams in cities all over the country.

However, on moving to San Francisco, I quickly learned a few of the benefits of being a startup in the Valley. Everything moves much faster. You have more access to more capital. The depth, breadth and strength of the developer pool is unparalleled. Everyone has a fairly public track record. Yes, it can be an insular and self-aggrandizing little echo chamber of Mutual Admiration Society nitwits at times, but I’m no longer saying that the benefits don’t outweigh the cost.

Ah, yes – the cost. Living in the Bay Area is, to employ a common NorCalism, hella expensive. Salaries are higher, real estate is more scarce and more spendy, the overall cost of living borders on obscene unless you’re used to, say, Tokyo. But again, perhaps for many startups situated here, the benefits outweigh the financial costs, as well.

So, I’m left wondering exactly what alchemy makes the benefits worth all the costs for a startup. I’ve been asked by a few companies about transitioning from other states and even other countries to the Valley, and my advice has tended to be a mixed bag lately.

I’m interested to hear from startups living in and outside of Silicon Valley: When do you think being in SF is worth it, and when is it wiser to stay put? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Discuss

In times of Internet censorship and governmental interference with citizen Web use, the need for private browsing has never been more apparent or more crucial to political processes.

Perhaps in response to its woes in China, Google has reaffirmed its support of online anonymity for political purposes in a recent blog post on Tor, a project it’s been supporting extensively lately. Tor allows for safe, anonymous Internet use – it’s a project that protects privacy and circumvents censorship in countries around the world.

And as companies gather user data – data that can at any time and for any reason be surrendered to law enforcement or government agencies – safeguarding online anonymity becomes an ever more vital concern.

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Last fall, we covered Tor’s successful porting to the Android platform. At that time and to this day, continuing to protect users’ privacy occupies a lot of time for Tor’s volunteers and developers. From the Google blog post:

“Why is anonymity online so important? Companies like Google have privacy and opt-out policies, but not everyone has this stance. Corporations, nations, criminal organizations and individuals want your information. Companies collect information on your web browsing habits and sell it or are sloppy when it comes to protecting it from identity thieves. Others can threaten lives, from repressive nations tracking down outspoken journalists, to abusive spouses or stalkers who want to find out where their victims are hiding; from enemy military forces trying to find a communications link, to criminals who know when law enforcement is watching online[…]

Even people living in countries where free speech is protected by law need anonymity for political activities. People blogging about political views that differ from the prevailing attitudes in a small community may lose a job or face boycotts if they run a business. In a company town, writing about the misdeeds of the company that employs your neighbors may be dangerous. Telling people about corruption could lead to harassment from guilty officials.”

This graph shows how, in 2009, use of Tor grew as users scrambled to circumvent firewalls during the elections and subsequent protests and violence in Iran, and in China, as well:

Is this blog post a clear and direct “Screw you” to Chinese authorities who would censor Internet access and search results? Or is it a continuation of Google’s commitment to protecting the users they profit from? Or a bit of both? Let us know what you think in the comments – and stay tuned for our upcoming chat with Chinese political activist Ai Weiwei and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Discuss

In just a couple more days, a healthy section of the RWW team – and a good number of our friends and fans – will be convening in Austin for South by Southwest Interactive. A couple of us have been asked to speak on panels; we wanted to share that information with you and ask you to share your panels and talks with us (and the rest of our readers, too).

Leave a comment telling us – and the rest of the world – about your SXSW Interactive panel. Let us know who’s going to be talking and what you’re talking about, plus where and when to show up.

We’re sure you’ll find a few kindred spirits who’d love to attend and ask questions – and maybe offer some pre-show feedback for tweaking your notes!

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Our own Marshall Kirkpatrick will be moderating a panel with Scott Raymond of Gowalla, Brett Slatkin of Google, Dare Obasanjo of Microsoft and Jack Moffitt of Collecta – talk about an all-star cast! – on real-time technology. Marshall’s especially suited to this task since he’s the man behind RWW’s mammoth state-of-the-industry report, The Real-Time Web and Its Future. Here are the gory details:

Can the Real-Time Web Be Realized?

“The emergence of the real-time web enables an unprecedented level of user engagement and dynamic content online. However, the rapidly growing audience puts new, complex demands on the architecture of the web as we know it. This panel will discuss what is needed to make the real-time web achievable.”

When: Saturday, March 13, 11:00 am
Where: Hilton H

And I, Jolie O’Dell, will be moderating a panel of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and startup incubator-types on whether or not startups need traditional, Sand Hill Road VC in the first place. Sure to be contentious, this panel is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while, and I hope you’ll make it out! I’ll be talking with Mike Trotzke of SproutBox, Mitch Lasky of Benchmark Capital and Dave McClure of the Founders’ Fund.

Who Needs Venture Capital?

“Only a fraction of business financing comes from Sand Hill Road. Yet entrepreneurs still obsess over traditional big meeting/big money Silicon Valley venture capital. This heated panel debates what types of companies actually benefit from VC and reviews concrete examples of alternatives to traditional venture capital.”

When: Monday, March 15, 12:30 pm
Where: Hilton D

Also, for those of you who read along last year during my cross-country travels through the tech scenes in Nashville, Omaha, Chicago, New York and beyond, there’s the RoadTwip core conversation with our brothers-in-tech Dave Delaney and Kurt Daradics (also a co-founder of CitySourced).

RoadTwip

“Last Spring, three kids set out in one car for two weeks. Their mission was to discover the emerging future for a new America, one town at a time. While they captured and produced plenty of content along their roadtwip.’ The most valuable thing was the relationships they established. This panel is about getting out of dodge, it’s about going offline – where true friendships are solidified. In the flesh.”

When: Friday, March 12, 5:00 pm
Where: Austin Convention Center 8A

Those are our panels! What do you think so far? And please do share the details about your – or your friends’ – panels in the comments.

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

For all of our startup friends from coast to coast and around the world, we look forward to seeing you at SXSW Interactive!

More and more, we’re seeing good folks creating great products outside the SF Bay Area, and we love highlighting and showcasing vibrant startup communities in unexpected areas. As it turns out, we’re not the only ones who have a penchant for non-Valley startups! While you’re in Austin, check out these ten panels, parties and events focusing on entrepreneurialism outside Silicon Valley.

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

“It is difficult to establish a startup no matter where you are in the world, but there are great companies and events that began life outside of Silicon Valley. Threadless, 37Signals, FeedBurner, BIG Omaha conference, and SXSW itself are proof that technology life exists away from the coasts. These less-than-obvious locales are becoming hotbeds of innovation and attracting talent and capital.” With Michael Samson and Ross Kimbarovsky of CrowdSPRING.

How Geeks Grabbed Philadelphia by the Balls

“Ready to skip town because you think it’s played out? Techies aren’t techie enough? Creatives aren’t creative enough? We’ll talk about how Philadelphia turned around in just 2 years by embracing its strengths and local flavor, helping to build new leaders, and inspiring an intense city pride. It’s not as tough as you think: blending socialization with education, this new generation of Philadelphians share their recipes for you to take back and make your city the next big thing.” With Alex Hillman of IndyHall and Geoff DiMasi of P’unk Avenue.

The Silicon Prairie Party

“Join the speakers, organizers and attendees of Big Omaha to party with the up-and-coming entrepreneurs and innovators based on the Silicon Prairie. There are big things happening on the Prairie and here’s the opportunity to connect with those making an impact!” Hosted by Big Omaha.

Crowdfunding: How The SAfrican Community Financed Online Businesses

“The story of how otherwise unconncted South African citizens pooled together their money and resources, and thus helped seed over a dozen online businesses in South Africa – when no other realistic options of finance existed. The presentation will cover lessons learned, and tips for replicating the model in other regions.” With Eve Dmochowska of Idea Bank, Brett Haggard of Hypertext Media, Gareth Knight of Technovated, Heather Ford of GeekRetreat and Justin Spratt of Internet Solutions.

Don’t Move! Build a Startup Community Where You Live

“As eyes are focused on places well-known for startups and innovation, hear three up-and-coming cities discuss how they’re building and fostering their entrepreneurial communities. From Portland, Boulder, Omaha, and beyond, exciting things are happening in places you don’t expect.” With Erin Kotecki Vest of the Queen of Spain blog and BlogHer, Jeremy Tanner, Rick Turoczy of Silicon Florist and Jeff Slobotski of Silicon Prairie News.

Time Travelers: Why Australians are Virtual World Innovators

“Australia has suffered the ‘tyranny of distance’ since colonization. Now, for the first time, those barriers are dissolving as the land downunder shifts timezones to be in a virtual playing field. When you login as a virtual avatar there are no international calling codes, no day or night and only the funny accent remains distinctive. Hear how panelists Keren Flavell, Bruce Joy and Santosh Kulkarni spend their time meeting with colleagues and prospective clients in the USA and Europe by teleporting to meetings in seconds, right from their desks in Melbourne, Australia. This discussion will demonstrate how the world is becoming flatter by the day through technology creating a single place for interaction and enterprise.” With Santosh Kulkarni of NICTA, Phil Tripp of IMMEDIA, Keren Flavell of Treet TV and Bruce Joy of VastPark.

Tech Scene Smackdown: LA vs. SF vs. NYC vs. Boston vs. Austin

“Presently the online social media space consists of hyper-localized
bifurcated tech communities: what is problematic is that many of the more successful cool kids are guilty of being at every single party and using the scene as a way to fameball, i.e. gaming it to advance their own popularity instead using it as a platform to advance ideas and exert influence. With great power comes great responsibility – and in line with your vision this panel would bring together figureheads/influencers from each of the 5 nationally prominent tech communities as well as bring up possible conflicts and misconceptions relating to each; that L.A. is full of “un-employeds, that New Yorkers are shills for traditional media, that people from S.F. are just Spocks with no social skills or perspective. Rather than just pit influencers against each other, our moderation would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each and hopefully faciliate a forum for dialogue and cooperation between all members of what is positioned to be global phenomenon in the way people mobilize online and off.” With Erin Broadley and Alexia Tsotsis of Village Voice Media.

How Austin Got Socially Experienced

“While known as the live music capital of the world, Austin is making serious inroads as the most social media savvy city. With major tech companies as city residents, Austin tech leaders will provide attendees social media best practices and insights during this interactive panel.” With Nigel Dessau of AMD.

Innovation Overseas – The European Startup Environment

“U.S. companies often know little about the European startup environment and the opportunities to be found there. Panelists will share both the highs and lows of their startup lives and will answer questions regarding funding opportunities, cultural idiosyncrasies, legislation and differences between Europe and America.” With Marten Mickos of Benchmark Capital, Peter Robinett of Bubble Foundry, Felix Petersen of Plazes and Reshma Sohoni of Seedcamp.

Coconut Valley – Building a Tech Community on the Beach

“Starting from a mere handful of people and growing into the thousands, come learn how we grew our tech community out of the sand in South Florida. Learn tips and tricks for growing your own tech community even in the most unfriendly/untechy areas of the world.” With Brian Breslin of infinimedia and Davide Di Cillo of Thirtynine.

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for non-Valley startups of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

South by Southwest Interactive is a favorite conference for many a geeky programmer, and its no wonder why. The talent, learning opportunities and free booze run deep and wide at this show.

We’ve compiled a list of ten must-see, must-do panels, parties and events – and don’t worry, we won’t be sending you to three identical core conversations on JavaScript.

From Google’s Hackathon to Facebook’s Developer Garage and beyond, you’ll get to learn from (and drink with) some of the greatest minds behind the greatest companies of the Web.

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Revenge Of Kick-Ass Mash-Ups with Punk Rock APIs

“Last time we wrote an API layer for a dozen different sites and services, using nothing but free online tools and client-side JavaScript. This time we’ll crack into client-side OAuth. This time actual working code WILL BE WRITTEN BY YOU. This time … it’s personal.” With Kent Brewster of Netflix.

Coding for Pleasure: Developing Killer Spare-Time Apps

“Every startup origin story is about a couple of developers who abscond to a garage and end up building the Next Big Thing. But money and fame don’t need to be your end goal. You can significantly improve your life–and impact others’ lives–by coding for pleasure in your spare time.” With Gina Trapani, Adam Pash of Lifehacker and Matt Haughey of MetaFilter.

Mozilla SXSW Happy Hour

“Join us for happy hour drinks and appetizers at Cedar Door and learn what we are working on at Mozilla. Party is limited to the first 250 guests who arrive – please RSVP on Facebook: http://bit.ly/mozsxswparty!”

Web Framework Battle Royale

“Which web framework will rule them all? As an audience member you pick the winner! We will present an introduction to a variety of web frameworks including Rails, Django, Catalyst, and Sinatra. You can vote for the best web framework in categories such as URL handling, database integration, forms, HTML templating, documentation, testing and deployment.” With Yehuda Katz of Engine Yard, Leah Culver of Six Apart, Elizabeth Leddy of Janus Health, Blake Mizerany of Heroku, Avi Bryant of Dabble DB and Dustin Whittle of Yahoo.

The Hive Awards

“The Hive Awards honor the Unsung Heroes of the Internet. The people who do the heavy lifting but rarely get any credit. Drinks, hors d’oeuvres, free admission.” Sponsored by KickApps.

Facebook Developer Garage Austin – SXSW Edition

“Join the Facebook team and local developers for a deep dive into the latest and most exciting ways developers are building with Facebook technologies. Come to learn, stay to make friends! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=331218348435“

Beyond LAMP: Scaling Websites Past MySQL

“Most startups begin with a basic LAMP stack (on PHP or Python) and then add database replication and memcache as they grow. But then what? There’s a big gap between these out-of-the-box solutions and what it takes to run something bigger.” With Serkan Piantino of Facebook, Alan Schaaf of Imgur, Kevin Weil of Twitter, Christopher Slowe of Reddit and Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch.

Objective C Crash Course for Web Developers

“Build your first iPhone app in 60 minutes flat. Along the way, you’ll tour Apple’s developer tools and learn the basics of the Cocoa Touch framework. Discover how to use your PHP and JavaScript experience for an informed approach to coding iPhone apps. Apply familiar JavaScript design patterns, for example, to handle interface programming in Objective-C.” With Joris Verbogt of Mangrove.

If Objective-C isn’t your bag, why not try Hold the Cocoa: Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and learn how to build iPhone apps “without ever touching Objective-C.”

Wow, That’s Cool… Fun With HTML5 Video

“Using the video tag in HTML5, developers can do all sorts of things that are hard or impossible with plugins. In this presentation, Mozilla will show the best and most interesting hacks entered into OVA’s Open Video Contest – because when the webmonkeys unleash their creativity, things get interesting.” With Michael Dale of Kaltura Wikimedia and Christopher Blizzard of Mozilla.

Google Hackathon

“The Google Hackathon hosted by Google will provide a hands-on workshop throughout the day where attendees will be able to build apps using a variety of Google technologies including App Engine, HTML5, Android, Chrome, and Maps/Geo technologies. Although the hackathon will run all day long (from 9:30-7:00pm), we’ll be providing short 20 minute “deep dive” presentations on specific topics covered in the hands-on exercises. This panel is sponsored by Google.”

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for hackers of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

As a tech conference strongly linked to an epic music festival, SXSW Interactive is the perfect place for music and tech geeks to converge.

Musicians, get ready to nerd out and learn how to sell your wares and increase your fanbase online. And geeks, get ready to let your love for music show. Perhaps with a little cooperation and cross-discipline interaction, this whole “music on the Internet” thing will work out, after all. Check out these ten parties, panels and events sure to delight the most musical of geeks – and the most geeky of musicians.

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Online Tastemakers: Death or Rebirth of Music Curation?

“Free infinite music has fragmented across every digital nook and cranny, making it hard for consumers to keep up with new quality artists online. A new breed of tastemakers are cropping up with innovative twists. Are they helping or hurting? Is online music curation dying or evolving?” With Anya Grundmann of NPR Music, Chris MacDonald of IndieFeed Networks/LibsynPRO, John Hammond of The MuseBox and Christopher Weingarten of Rolling Stone.

TechKaraoke

If music is your bag, head to this second-generation event at Six Lounge for more than five hours of punk, rock and metal karaoke with a live band. There will also be dancing with DJ Johnny Bravvo in the Tap Room next door and the mellow tunes of The James Moran Band on the upstairs patio.

Music 2010: Playlists, Networks, Radio & Numbers You Need

“Technology has opened floodgates to a sea of music marketing resources and overabundance of data generated by behaviors and transactions. What are the most important numbers & what do they mean? What numbers are missing? Examine complex human interactions with music online: learn to define & synthesize data generated by music consumption.” With publicist Ariel Hyatt and Corey Denis of Not Shocking.

Emo’s

This legendary rock club in Austin is home to many a SXSW event – not least of which is the Pastries & Pasties burlesque/cupcake extravaganza on Friday night of SXSWi. But this venue will also be hosting dozens of bands and DJs in its dual-stage, open air-cum-indoor setup throughout the rest of the conference. In a town known for its music clubs, it says a lot that locals consider Emo’s one of the best.

Artists, Labels Embrace Virtual Worlds

“Music labels (Atlantic Records, EMI, Sony BMG) and musicians (Rob Thomas, Ice-T, New Found Glory) are embracing virtual worlds by creating branded stores and virtual merchandise that engage their fans and promote and sell music and memorabilia. Learn
how virtual worlds are changing the music industry and creating new
revenue streams and promotion opportunities.” With Lee Clancy of Imvu.

Music Licensing for Emerging Media: Apps, Widgets, Viral Videos

“In the era of apps, widgets, streaming sites, viral videos and mashups, developers are constantly pushing the boundaries of music licensing. This panel opens a lively debate between the major labels and publishers who control the songs, the music supervisors who negotiate the rights and fees, and the music and media startups that are navigating uncharted territory.” With Adam Blumenthal of Curious Sense, Joel Johnson of Gizmodo, Randy Shefer of Sony, Robin Raj of Citizen Group and Annie Lin of The Rights Workshop.

Xephyra: An alternative world music and video mythos

Strap on your Suspension of Criticism helmets; it’s alternative performance art time!

“Award-winning artists Chad Salvata and Jo Beth Henderson have created the newest ethos adventure, Xephyra, an alternative world music and video mythos. This non-traditional performance is presented with video images and live music. The extraordinary vocals are performed in an imaginary language of a mythic tribal island world. Xephyra, a warrior of the Blue Orchid tribe, journeys on her quest to find her husband, Warrior, who has not returned from the Island Wars. Along the way, she is joined by Terra, a sea siren. They are hunted by monster birds, battle shark mermaids, and slay the kaleidoscope octopus. Will they find Warrior and return safely home?”

Hoek’s Pizza

If you’re a metalhead in search of a snack and a beer or a music fan in search of some once-in-a-lifetime novelty… and a beer, be sure to hit up Hoek’s Heavy Metal Pizza. The music – generally, death/black/very heavy metal of a Gojira/Arch Enemy caliber – is loud, but this joint is the kind of place that definitely keeps Austin weird. We also hear there’s a stage on the back patio, and good movies are generally playing inside, as well. As one reviewer said, “I get scared sometimes when I walk into this place, but I like that.”

Video Games, the New, New Media For Music

“Video Games have become the New, New Media. Music, and products are featured as prominently in the virtual world of games as they are in films and commercials. Artists are seizing this opportunity to expose their music to an attentive new audience through means that were unthinkable only a few years ago. The user experience creates a unique bond between gamer and artist which is changing the way fans relate to music. The games themselves are being marketed in new and exciting ways too, utilizing, creatively, every possible new media resource.” With Mark Roemer of The Ant Farm, Doug McCracken of Activision Blizzard and Matt Drenik of Lions.

Ukulele for Geeks: Secrets of the Pentatonic Scales

“At first glance the fretboard of a ukulele (or guitar) looks incomprehensible, but with the magic of pentatonic scales – ancient, nearly universal 5-note patterns, you can “crack the code” and hack the fretboard and start jamming along with your favorite tunes or musician friends in no time. You don’t need to know the names of the notes or what key a song is. Just find the little dippers and start messing around with patterns. I’ll explain the concepts and demonstrate the techniques, which are completely self taught.” With Christian Crumlish of Yahoo.

Bonus Round! SXSW Music

Yes, you read that right: We’re calling the Music portion of SXSW a must-do for any music-loving attendee of SXSW Interactive. Here’s why.

Each year, a few Music folks come to Austin early, and a few Interactive folks stay late – but those folks are few, indeed. There’s a wonderful opportunity here for our very different crowds to mingle, to make the Web better for musicians and make the experience of music better for online and mobile platforms, and it all begins with conversations.

Also, even two days of SXSW Music will provide you with enough shows, parties and coincidental meetups to leave you seeing the world through rose-colored glasses for months afterward. So book another day at your hotel and scalp a wristband – you’ll never regret it.

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for music fans and musicians of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

Whether you make your living as a professional pixel pusher or you simply hold yourself to a higher aesthetic standard, South by Southwest has a rich and varied stream of opportunities for designers.

We’ve put together a list of ten essential places, parties, panels and other events to help you tailor your SXSW 2010 experience to your own individual interests.

From Web typography to “WTF WordPress?”, SXSW rocks for web designers in particular. And the many social events also include a few rich, interactive visual experiences, as well. Read on, and let us know you favorite Austin spots in the comments.

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Is WordPress Killing Web Design?

Strong words, valid question, and sure to be a contentious panel this year.

“Is WordPress killing web design? Leading creatives from the world of web design debate whether CMS tools have made designers lazy, and created a new set of design conventions that designers feel obliged to follow.” With Brendan Dawes of magneticNorth, Dan Mall of Big Spaceship, Dan Oliver of Future Publishing/.net magazine, Jina Bolton of Crush + Lovely and Shane Mielke of 2Advanced Studios.

Visions

“Conceptart.org Events, Massive Black and The Art Department open ScreenBurn at SXSW Interactive with Visions,’ a one-of-a-kind multimedia event combining cutting-edge, live, digital and traditional art performances from the top film, video game and classically trained artists in the art world. Experience pulsing music from local and international DJs, special performance by International Burlesque performer, Eva Strangelove, and provocative runway fashion by Loves, Mariessa – all surrounded by gorgeous muses for every imagination and inspiration. Join us for a night of traditional and digital performances like you have never seen before. With software combining with leading talent, the show is not to be missed.”

24 Diner

After a late party, how about some delicious nosh in a beautifully designed environment?

Chef-inspired comfort food is served up around the clock at this relatively new spot. The foodies among you might appreciate the bacon gorgonzola burger or the famed roasted banana and brown sugar milkshake. Aesthetically, 24 Diner is a throwback to clean, mid-century modernism. While you’re there, be sure to take in the many charming details of 24 Diner’s interior design.

Valerie Casey Keynote

“Casey, founder and Executive Director of the Designers Accord, works with organizations all over the world to create positive social and environmental impact. She has been named a ‘Guru you should know’ by Fortune magazine, a ‘Hero of the Environment’ by Time magazine, and a ‘Master of Design’ by Fast Company.”

Museum of Digital Art Showcase

“The Austin Museum of Digital Art presents a party featuring live electronic music and visual art. Expect video projections, interactive installations, and a Laptop Battle with musicians competing to outperform one another in a series of elimination rounds. Free for SXSW Interactive badgeholders.”

Web Fonts: The Time Has Come

“After 15 years of contenting ourselves with system fonts, or image type, the planets are now in line for getting real fonts on the web. Some solutions are already working, and a cross-platform standard is emerging. Here web designer and type designers mix it up on how the font hurdles is finally being lept.” With Stephen Coles of FontShop/Typographica, Roger Black and David Berlow of The Font Bureau, Jeffrey Veen of Google and Bert Bos of W3C.

Of course, there are several other type-related panels throughout the conference, including Get Stoked on Web Typography, CSS and Fonts: Fluid Web Typography,

Adobe Sunday Brunch

“There will be bacon, coffee and geekery at the Adobe Sunday Brunch. Join us at 10am on Sunday for FREE brunch at the Adobe Day Stage. Adobe product managers and evangelists will be sharing the latest on mobile development with Flash and more from Adobe Labs. RSVP at http://facebook.com/AdobeSXSW. There might even be a few surprises. Join us to find out.”

Helpful hint: That Facebook link will also show you how to RSVP for Adobe’s Happy Hour the following day.

Pain-Free Design Sign-Off

“Getting design approval can be like pulling teeth. Clients seem to make irrational decisions based on personal opinion. They ignore our expertise, reducing us to pixel pushers. However, it does not need to be this way. With good communication and a sound methodology, design sign off can be pain free.” With Paul Boag of Headscape.

More sessions on external and internal process: Your Design Process Is Killing You with Sara Summers of Microsoft and Interactive Agency Workflow: Design and Development Process with Danny Riddell of Archetype.

Visual Note-Taking 101

“Ever since Leonardo put pen to paper, visual note-taking has been a route to improve the quality of your thinking, make information more memorable, and make your ideas easier to share with others. Learn practical techniques and ”tricks of the trade” from modern visual note-taking masters: how to write, sketch, and diagram ideas live, in real time, as you hear them.” With Sunni Brown of BrightSpot Info Design, Mike Rohde, Dave Gray of XPLANE and Austin Kleon.

Society of Digital Agencies Mixer

“It was only 3 short years ago that Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) officially announced their launch at SXSW. In celebration of our growth and accomplishments SoDA is holding their signature Digerati Mixer just steps away from the Austin Convention Center. As always we invite all our industry friends to join our SoDA members in a fun and casual atmosphere for appetizers, drinks and conversation.”

Other Events

Of course, this selection represents a mere smattering of all the things to do, see, hear and learn (and eat and drink) while you’re in Austin. If you’re inclined to spend a little more time inside the convention center, we also stumbled across these panels for designers:

Revealing Design Treasures from the Amazon
Design Fiction: Props, Prototypes, Predicaments Communicating New Ideas
Designing the First Fifteen Minutes
Persuasive Design: Encouraging Your Users To Do What You Want Them To!
Understanding Content: The Stuff We Design For

Those are a few of our SXSW Interaction recommendations for designers of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

Discuss

According to figures released today by the singularly focused blog Inside Facebook, the ubiquitous social network made upwards of $700 million in 2009 and is expected to reach a phenomenal $1 billion in revenues in 2010.

Year over year, Facebook’s revenues have typically doubled, from $150 million in 2007 to around $300 million in 2008 and so on.

The breakdown of revenue streams is fascinating, showing the extent to which well-targeted ads based on massive amounts of user data still drives how we monetize the Web.

These data also show how much some have underestimated the market for virtual goods and the real-world value of virtual currency – as much as $10 million in 2009 alone, still in beta and just for one social network.

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Last year, brand advertising and performance advertising are estimated to have netted $225 million and $350 million for the company, respectively. Microsoft ads alone brought in $50 million.

All this cash flow makes the $10 million Facebook earned from its still-in-beta Facebook Credits system seem puny. We wonder how much this figure will increase when Credits are rolled out for all users and all applications.

A common rumor about Credits is that this virtual currency will become the mandatory, de facto method of purchasing virtual goods – from Gifts to in-game accessories – on Facebook. If that were to happen, Facebook (which takes a 30 percent cut of all Credits revenue) stands to make a great deal more than $10 million as it takes on the role of virtual currency exchange.

Facebook has stated it will not comment on these figures or speculation about future revenues. However, it is completely clear that this company has found a way to make the Web dramatically profitable. They’ve done so by honing their revenue streams, getting creative with brands, tweaking their UX to maximize time and money spend on the site and targeting ads based on user data. And these revenues will only continue to grow as Facebook edges out competing networks for users’ attention and brands’ ad spend.

Discuss

A ReadWriteWeb Guide

Social media? Oh, please. Some of these sessions are so 2009. How can you have any fun at SXSW this year if you can’t see any real innovation.

If space shuttles, cyborgs and technological singularity are what make you bleep and bloop, you’re going to love these ten events at SXSW Interactive 2010. At the very least you’ll get to share beer with a few cool hardware hackers, learn more about lunar exploration or get involved with a crowdsourced science project.

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This is part of a series of ReadWriteWeb guides to SXSW Interactive 2010. If this guide isn’t your cup of tea, be sure to check back for more information soon!

Dorkbot

“Think of it as a science fair with free beer. Ample doses of electricity, tomfoolery, mayhem, makers and music combine to form one exquisite geek talent show. Sponsored by SXSW Interactive, the International Game Developer’s Association of Austin, Mr. Data, Ricochet Labs and the Digital Media Council. “

A Touchy History of the Future

“We pinch it, tap it, shake it and poke it. We’re so enthralled with finally getting to touch our products. But there’s so much more to direct manipulation than just tapping it with our fingers! Let’s explore some progressive interaction models that go beyond touch and into movement, infrared, wearable computing, sound and ambient data to really give us an idea of what our immersive interactive future may hold and how we might curate that future now.”

And this wasn’t the only session we found exploring futuristic interfaces! Check out Beyond Scifi: Design For Surfaces and Big Screens, No Touching! Truly Invisible Interfaces and That Game Feels Nice: Tomorrow’s Touch Interfaces, too.

How SciFi Shapes the Internet

First things first, we look back in the past to see how our forward-thinking forbears imagined the future.

“What if Rod Serling had a blog? Would Alfred Hitchcock Tweet? These great producers and directors brought suspense and irony to the popular medium of the time; television. How did their work shape the minds of the young people of the time who would grow up to create ‘our’ Internet?”

Is the Brain the Ultimate Computer Interface?

“Will we be able to jack into the brain and upload helicopter instructions, like in The Matrix? We already have the technology to control a prosthetic arm or Twitter with thoughts alone. Dishes of neurons can control a robot. And scientists have created a working artificial memory chip in rats.”

Moon 2.0: The Outer Limits of Lunar Exploration

“Space sector representatives will discuss how the use of web and mobile technologies create opportunities for participation in future exploration of the Moon. The panel focuses on how X PRIZE, NASA, commercial space companies, and others generate greater interaction and interest in Moon missions using collaborative platforms and social media.”

Doing it Wrong: Recently Possible Technology

“Like ninjas battling on stage, Bre Pettis and Tal Chalzin will volley projects demonstrations back and forth. From guitar player robots to machines that vomit plastic skulls, the presentation will include a mix of projects they’ve worked on and that have been worked on at the GarageGeeks, NYCResistor and beyond. This presentation will both thrill and repulse you with the possibilities that have recently emerged in the DIY hacker technology space.”

Museum of Digital Art Showcase

“The Austin Museum of Digital Art presents a party featuring live electronic music and visual art. Expect video projections, interactive installations, and a Laptop Battle with musicians competing to outperform one another in a series of elimination rounds. Free for SXSW Interactive badgeholders.”

Here Are Lions: The Cartography of the Future

“A new breed of maps is revealing breakthroughs in our understanding of biology, neuroscience, ecology and the physical world. We can now map not just physical geographies, but also genomes, neural pathways, emotions, social networks and ideas. These new maps reveal how society will change over the next twenty years.”

Open Science: Create, Collaborate, Communicate

“From discovering galaxies to folding proteins: how to actively contribute to science. Science projects are harnessing open collaboration to further discovery and exploration. As a result, citizen science is witnessing a renaissance. The panel will discuss how you can get involved and challenges faced in making science open.” With Spacehack‘s Ariel Waldman.

Zero Waste: The Future of Green

“Innovation, global warming, and green technology are all pushing in the same direction: zero waste. This concept is in practice in several cities (including Austin) and will soon be in yours. Learn about the current, future, and upcoming needs of this movement and how technology is playing a vital role.”

Those are our SXSW Interaction recommendations for futurists of all stripes. If you’ve got suggestions or feedback, let us know in the comments! See you in Austin, folks!

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