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Digital Savant

Omar L. Gallaga writes about technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman. He's worked for more than nine years at the Austin American-Statesman and edited Technopolis, the newspaper's personal tech section, and ¡ahora sí!, Austin's Spanish-language newspaper. He's been a writer and performer with Austin's award-winning Latino Comedy Project and is a contributing writer for Television Without Pity, MSNBC.com's books section and The Almost Late Show with Bobby Bones. He writes a comic strip, "Space Monkeys!" with his brother, Pablo, and lives in New Braunfels with his wife and three technologically savvy cats.

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The entry titled "SXSW Interactive daily picks: parties, panels and more."

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Blog Roll

Statesman Blogs

If you’re attending, here’s our picks for the five days of the fest, as compiled by myself and by my editor Sarah Lindner:

Friday, March 13

Thom Singer writes and speaks about networking, and today he discusses how to make connections at SXSW Interactive during “Core Conversation: The Conference Networking Catalyst” (2 p.m., Room 19B). To read some of Singer’s advice, visit statesman.com/lifeguide. You can also get ready for the rest of the conference at “How to Rock SXSW: The Basics” (3:30 p.m., Room 18BCD).
“The Ecosystem of News” is the first of several panels on the future of the news business (3:30 p.m., Room 12AB).
If you’re facing career transition (and who isn’t these days?), Jonathan Fields reads from his book “Career Renegade” (4:30 p.m., Day Stage).

More panel picks: “Everything You Know About Web Design Is Wrong” (2 p.m., Room A); “Social Engineering: Scam Your Way Into Anything or From Anybody” (5 p.m., Room 18BCD); “Try Making Yourself More Interesting” (5 p.m., Room A).
Nighttime events: “Pastries and Pasties! A Burlesque Cupcake Cookoff!” 9 p.m., Emos, 603 Red River St. Free to badge-holders.

Saturday, March 14

Last year’s panel by the staff of The Onion News Network was a hit. This year’s must-see panel for comedy fans is “Comedy on Television and the Web” (5 p.m., Room A) featuring Ricky Van Veen of CollegeHumor.com and B.J. Novak, producer and Ryan Howard on “The Office.”
Tony Hsieh, the popular CEO of online shoe seller Zappos.com, presents the opening remarks (2 p.m., Room A) on how to build a massive audience for a brand.
Where is old media going in a new-media world? Call us curious. Designers at the Gray Lady explain “Designing the Future of the New York Times” (5 p.m, Hilton C).
Last year’s sudden video-game celebrity Jonathan Blow, who made the breakout downloadable game “Braid,” speaks on “Being Indie and Successful in the Video Game Industry” (3:30 p.m., Room 6). The panel also includes Ron Carmel of 2D Boy, the company that made fan fave “World of Goo.”

More panel picks:“Curating the Crowd-Sourced World” (11:30 a.m., Room C), “What Your Startup Can Learn from Barack Obama and Howard Dean” (11:30 a.m., Room 9), “Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet” (3:30, Room B), “HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!” (3:30 p.m., Room 18BCD).
Nighttime events: Dorkbot (6 p.m., East Tent, Brush Square Park across from Convention Center) is always a mix of cool gadgets and extreme geek culture. The legendary Frog Design Opening Party (8 p.m., Mexican American Cultural Center) never disappoints. Last year, it featured fire dancers and Grupo Fantasma. Free drinks for badge-holders at both events.

Sunday, March 15

Nate Silver, the numbers wiz at fivethirtyeight.com who correctly predicted much of what went down in the 2008 presidential election, is the Sunday keynote interview. (2 p.m. Room A)
Several day events deal with tech and women’s issues including “That’s Not My Name: Beating Down Online Misogyny” (10 a.m. Room 8), “Moms Who Tech” (11:30 a.m. Room 19B) and an interview with Blogher founder Elisa Camahort (3 p.m. Studio SX) by Time Out NY columnist Julia Allison.
Joss Whedon company player Felicia Day (“Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”) is on the “No Budget to Low Budget” Web video panel. (10 a.m. Room 12AB).
Singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos and Burnie Burns of Austin’s Rooster Teeth Productions lead a star-studded panel, “Marketing Meets New Media: Building Your Audience Online” (3:30 p.m. Room 12AB).

More panel picks: “From Flickr and Beyond: Lessons in Community Management” (3:30 p.m. Room A), “Your Personal Blog is Dead” (3:30 p.m., Room 5A), “Video Blogging: Turning Wine Into Gold” (5 p.m. Room A).
Nighttime events: Adobe’s 12th-Annual SXSW Web Awards Ceremony (7:30 p.m. Hilton Austin, 500 E. Fourth St.) celebrates the best of the Web, and the Facebook Friends.Get Party hits downtown. (9:30 p.m. Pangaea, 409 Colorado St.) The American-Statesman’s Texas Social Media Awards holds its first party to celebrate social media and award an overall winner. (6 p.m., Ballet Austin, Tickets $15).

Monday, March 16

This year’s lineup boasts some interesting panels about women and the Web, including “Grokking Bloggers: It’s About Love and Underpants” (10 a.m., Room C). Elisa Camahort of BlogHer talks about women’s avid adoption of Web 2.0 tools. It’s followed by “Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web?” (11:30 a.m., Room C).
Get a double dose of perennial SXSW favorite Kathy Sierra today: She’s part of the “Presenting Straight to the Brain” panel (10 a.m., Room A), and later she presents “Change Your World in 50 Minutes: Making Breakthroughs Happen” (3:30 p.m., Room A).
The best-selling authors of “The Power of Nice” are now talking about “The Power of Small” (10 a.m., Room 10).
Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times talks with artist James Powderly in today’s keynote interview (2 p.m., Room A).
Bruce Sterling’s pronouncements are a SXSW mainstay (5 p.m., Room A).

More panel picks: “Beyond Aggregation — Finding the Web’s Best Content” (10 a.m., Hilton Room A); “Shift Happens: Moving From Words to Pictures” (10 a.m., Hilton Room C); “WhiteHouse.gov 2.0: Upgrading to Open Source Government” (3:30 p.m., Hilton Room D). Nighttime events: “Interactive at the Movies: The Two Bobs.” (7 p.m., Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress Ave.). The gaming-themed movie by Tim McCanlies (“Iron Giant” screenplay) plays for Interactive badge-holders.

Tuesday, March 17

“Ur Blog Sux and Print Is Dead” features a lineup of blogging all-stars (Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger?, Christian Lander of Stuff White People Like, Kerry Miller of Passive-Aggressive Notes, Heather “Dooce” Armstrong and ex-Wonkette Ana Marie Cox) talking about, appropriately enough, blogging success (11:30 a.m. Room 18BCD).
We were charmed when the 1960s characters from “Mad Men” showed up talking with each other on Twitter. The perpetrators of it all explain how it happened at “Behind the Scenes with Mad Men on Twitter” (2 p.m. Room 18BCD).
Leaders at popular Web destinations Fark.com, Ars Technica and BlogHer talk about “Building Strong Online Communities” (11:30 a.m. Room A).
Today’s keynote interview features former Apple Fellow and venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki interviewing Chris Anderson (“The Long Tail”) about “the power of free” (2 p.m. Room A).

More panel picks: “The State of the Internet Memescape: 2008-10” (10 a.m. Room 18BCD); “Photojournalism in 2009 and The Big Picture” (10 a.m. Room 10); “Digital Tsunami: Breaking News at Breakneck Speed” (11:30 a.m. Room B); “Designing Change in America”(3:30 p.m. Room 8).
Nighttime events: Media Temple Closing Party (7 p.m. La Zona Rosa, 612 W. Fourth St

Got more suggestions for what to check out at Interactive? Post them in the comments.

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