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This week a few years ago, I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon so that I could compete against my coworkers in the NCAA tournament. The bracket captures the essence of healthy competition that largely fuels the social networking site. Therefore it’s not surprising that this year CBS partnered with Facebook to develop a multifunction application. What is surprising is how good it is.

Here’s why I think the CBS March Madness Facebook application is a model use of Facebook.

1. It’s a one stop shop across platforms: Unlike a lot of Facebook applications that are installed and forgotten about, CBS has built it to allow Facebookers to get all the information they need from the application. For example, each team, even those that aren’t in the tournament, has its own page that lists the scores of the games, schedule, player stats and links to team news off the site. You can also watch videos and monitor the live scoreboard.
2. It’s scored the way we like it: You can earn more points for upsets and you can even win money if you do well. There is a $10,000 prize that will be given to a randomly selected person in the top 10% (who is also at least eighteen years old.)
3. There are lots of ways to interact: CBS realizes that March Madness isn’t just about filling out a bracket and watching the games but rather a ritualistic event that spans many weeks. The application allows for creation of groups so you can compare standings amongst particular sets of friends and post on the “Trash Talk Wall.” As Greg Shaheen, senior vice-president for basketball and business strategies for the NCAA says, “more fans now have more ways to view, follow, debate and enjoy March Madness than ever before.”
4. It is consistent with Facebook’s audience: The application plays into school spirit prevalent amongst the heaviest users of Facebook and encourages the taunting that is common sporting behavior through “TourneyPoke.” This application within an application allows you to send messages to friends like “ran Ali out of the gym” and “Ali called Paul a waterboy.”

I logged into Facebook this morning to see an update that they’d revised their privacy policies. The revisions allow people to set different levels of privacy for different friend groups, as well as set what friends of friends can see. I see this as a direct challenge to LinkedIn for dominance in the business networking sphere.

This is a change that’s been brewing for a while. Late last year, they added friend lists, which let you categorize your friends in whatever taxonomies you wanted (how you know them, where they live, frequently referenced friends, etc). This was helpful when you needed to find a particular friend, but not for much else.

Now, by linking privacy controls to these friend lists, it allows people to friend folks on Facebook that you normally wouldn’t, knowing that you can use privacy controls to connect them to your contact information, but not your photos from New Year’s. It also allows you to be less restrained in your posting of content, as long as you’re careful to sort your friends correctly (and I predict that in about a week we’ll start to see stories about people who accidentally dropped their boss into the "college friends" category and the ensuing results).

The big implication that I see here is that Facebook wants to be the site for business networking. Already, many younger and more web-savvy people I meet offer to connect with Facebook, though LinkedIn remains the tool of choice for business, in part because of its blandness.

I’m betting that Facebook will see success in this endeavor - they already have 68 million users, and if just one percent add one new user per month using Facebook as their business network tool, they’ll grow the network by more than eight million users in a year (not taking into account the new users bringing in people, or other growth). This doesn’t even take into account the value of the data and connections from additional networking; Facebook’s real business has always been data, and the more people link to each other, the more Facebook is able to put together a complete personal profile for advertisers.

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. With NTC next week, many of our readers will be browsing from mobile devices like phones and blackberries. So this week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: What website do you most wish had a mobile version?

Jeff, Principal Consultant: Most of the staff already know and ridicule my ability to check the metro “next train” information from my phone. This simple WAP enabled application on the WMATA metro site is by far the most useful mobile site I use.

Other must haves include fantasy football sites where you can check the score of your matchup while at the game or at your favorite watering hole without dragging around your computer.

Lastly, there is a mobile site for zipcar, my other must have transportation option. However this app is less necessary since the easiest way to access when not in front of a computer is through the automated phone system. Sweet.

Milo, Marketing Consultant: Central Desktop.  Bringing their online project management software to the next level of seamlessness will require making their tools more accessible on mobile browsers.  As of now, it’s not even possible for users to login from Blazer (the mobile browser I currently use).  

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: LogMeIn, or other remote desktop apps. I sometimes need more power than I could get from my iPod or phone, and would like to be able to enlist my desktop to help out.

I’d also like to see blogging software use a mobile version; updating Wordpress from an iPod was painful.

Taylor, Software Engineer: Google, particularly the maps and yellow pages. If I can look up locations, I can generally get the other information I need.

Kristin, Project Manager: I’d say sites that I need to access when I’m out and about. Like mapquest or google maps when I’m driving around and lost. Or like Jeff said, the metro arrival/departure info.

David, Software Engineer: Restaurant finders and gas station finders.

Eric, Senior Consultant: I’d like to see a good mobile feedreader. Email as well, of course; I find that Yahoo mail is barely passable. If I was going to tinker with my phone, though I think of it not as much as a substitute for the internet, instead I wish that there was better hardware. A better camera and a camcorder, as well as the applications to blog mobile. I’d like to see a way to upload video to Wordpress.

With the mobile revolution, web design firms like Beaconfire are paying more and more attention to making sites look good on mobile devices. Make sure you check back for more on this, and keep reading the Beaconfire Wire on your mobile device next week as we blog from NTC.

This was Beaconfire’s first year sending people to South by Southwest. Eve and I went to get connected to the buzz on the latest web 2.0 apps, meet with non-profits interested in incorporating more rich media into their online outreach and to recruit contractors to help us with design, development and production.

After being here all week, I think it’s worth sending a much bigger delegation next - there’s just too much for two people to cover. For example, while I was attending Findable Rich Media and Eve was attending Design is in the Details, we missed AJAX and Flash mistakes, Accessibility: Basics Quickly, and What Teens Want, all of which would have been valuable panels.

The tendency to stack useful panels on top of each other was something that I heard a lot of folks bemoaning, and hopefully it won’t be as bad next year, but it would still have been good to have had an information architect, functional consultant, and software engineer with us to attend some of the sessions outside our areas of expertise.

Just as there were too many concurrent events during the day, there was also too much going on at night for us to cover everything. The evening festivities were great chances for us to network with others working in the nonprofit space, and hopefully we’ll be bringing some of the folks we met onto projects as clients, contractors and partners.

There were also a few events that we really didn’t get the chance to participate in. The core conversations were a new feature this year that I missed out on, due to session conflicts (not sure about Eve), but hope to try next year. Similarly, there were a variety of design and dev competitions that we talked about participating in in future years. And I wasn’t able to make time to attend book readings or demos at the Adobe Day Stage, except when they coincided with a lunch break.

In the end, I think SxSW is a valuable conference for non-profits and the consultants who work with them to attend. The applications and ideas presented were for the most part universal, and it’s a great look at where the web is going in the next year. While, as I’ve noted, it is to some extent a gathering of early adopters (note that percentage of Twitter users and iPhoners), it’s also a chance to get to meet the super-activists, those top-shelf constituents who will make use of the advanced features of your site that make them evangelists for your cause.

And let’s not kid ourselves - the people attending the conference were activists in addition to being technologists. Jokes about voting in Texas got a good reaction, many a MacBook sported an Obama, Clinton or "Stop Global Warming" sticker, and every time I told someone about Beaconfire’s nonprofit portfolio, there was at least one organization that caused them to say "I know them - they do great work." Many of the startups that are just pioneering an idea were excited by the possibility of partnering with leading nonprofits.

I’ll continue to followup with takeaways on the individual sessions - for Beaconfire, next week we’ll have a significant presence at NTC, so look forward to seeing posts from there.

I’ve added a few more pictures below the fold.

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It’s only a week away and I’m sure you are already setting aside clothes to dress to impress, or at the very least thinking about what sessions you’ll be attending. This year, there are 5 reasons to come see us at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference, where more than 1,000 people come together to “talk about what works, what doesn’t work, and what is in the works for those using nonprofit technology to further a cause.”

1. We’ll be at the Science Fair from 3-8pm on the first day of the conference, Wednesday March 19th. As organizers point out, the NTC Science Fair isn’t a typical conference exhibit hall as it’s only on the first day to avoid competing with everything else on the agenda. Come visit us at booth #60 to get a special gift and hear about all what we do, and more importantly, what we can do for you. Also, since we’re a Silver Sponsor of the conference, we’ll have a table set up throughout the conference where you can catch us during the breaks.
2. Our CEO and the Board Chair of NTEN, Lynn Labieniec will be speaking on Thursday, March 20th from 1:30-3 on “Getting the Big Picture: Using Dashboards to Track Your Data.” A great way to start the afternoon.
3. On the same day at 3:30, Alan Gallauresi, a Beaconfire tech lead will talk at the session “Will Your Data Be Yours? Evaluating Data Exchange in Software.” Don’t miss it.
4. Eric Eckl from our marketing team will follow that by “swallowing a flaming a sword while riding a unicycle, blindfolded!” and also speaking on “Now You Have a Lot of User Generated Content: Tracking and Using It?” from 3:30-5pm. Sure to be entertaining.
5. And finally, last but not least, Vice President Jeff Herron will talk at the session “The Joy of CMS: Implementing Sustainable Content Management Systems (The Painless Way to Keep Your Web Site Current)” on Friday, March 21st at 3:30pm. Any session with the word “painless” in it is worth going to!

See you on Wednesday!

Editor’s  note: Each week, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. This post was supposed to be for last week, but was delayed due to SxSW - please accept our apologies. This Last week, we asked the Beaconfire staff: How do you tech green?

Michael, Principal Consultant: I tech green by unplugging unused devices, buying highest efficiency models I can, and never computing on the weekends.

Kristin, Project Manager: Little things include:

• Manually start my backup right when I leave for the night, and have my computer shut down once the backup is done (rather than leave my computer on all night).
• Try and turn off as many of the blinky lights as possible when I’m not using them (monitor, etc)
• And, of course, try to turn off lights in unused offices and conference rooms

Mark, Functional Consultant: My biggest move towards going green (in general) is I moved into the city into an old house and take mass transportation to and from work everyday. By doing so, I’ve offset parts of my tech carbon footprint, including leaving my home computer on most of the time in case I need to remote in to it. Though I do set the home machines to sleep after inactivity and have moved to an LCD monitor.

David, Software Engineer: I have a ‘Watt’s Up power meter device. I have audited every appliance and electronic decide in my house for idle and peak power usage, shop at My Organic Market which purchases 100% wind power energy for it’s store, wait to order from Amazon and other retailers until I have 4+ items to ship, In addition:

• All my light bulbs are compact florescent and light to energy usage appropriate.
• Motion sensor front walkway light
• Water heater turned down
• Energy efficient windows,doors, washer dryer, fridge, Hot water heater
• Luckily had radiant hot water heating, which is superior energy usage to forced air.
• Luckily an east facing home with large windows
• Checked insulation in roofing and walls for air exchange.
• 7-day programmable thermostat for energy use only with people in the home.
• Cleaned furnace and A/C unit yearly for optimum efficiency
• Insulated A/C ducts to prevent cooling loss.

The net result is very small water and power usage. I’ve been researching solar panels for a while now and have a price point I’m waiting for.

Kate, Administrative Assistant: Well, frankly, I don’t do as much as I should. I do tend to think in terms of what’s going to keep the electric bill down, though, which helps a bit. This mostly includes keeping monitors off and making sure that the computer’s in ‘sleep’ mode when not in use.

John Brian, Marketing Consultant: This question actually came up as a result of an article about how a Second Life person uses as much energy as a resident of Brazil. For me, it’s mostly turning my computer when I can, though that can be tricky when you schedule defrags, downloads and updates to run while you’re sleeping or out. I also try to avoid leaving my peripherals plugged in except when needed - it’s not only good for the environment to not leave your cell phone charging all day, but it’s also often good for your battery’s lifespan.

At the office, we recycle paper, glass, and plastic, keep the thermostat turned down (or up) during non-work hours, encourage working from home, and use motion-sensor lights in conference rooms that people otherwise forget about. Most of us also have our monitors go to sleep when not in use, and when construction forced us to use the restrooms on the floor below, we lobbied to have the stairway unlocked so we didn’t need to take the elevator.

What about you, readers: how do you tech green at home or at work? Is there something Beaconfire should think about doing to be greener?

Howdy from Austin. Today’s the last day of the conference, and I’ll be taking my camera in again to get some pictures of what’s going on at the convention center. Once again, for more up to the minute updates, check my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/johnbrian. Previous updates on days 0, 1, 2, and 3 here. -John Brian

• 11:52: As I pack up to leave, I’ve got a bunch of pics I haven’t posted yet. I’ll upload a few now, and save the rest for the wrapup post:

Even for a tech conference, in a paperless society, there were tables set up to capture the massive amount of junk lit. It reminds me of what a friend once said to me at a rally, "When someone hands me a flyer, I feel like they’re asking, ‘Could you throw this away for me?’"

One thing I was surprised not to hear such a libertarian group discuss was the massive number of cameras in the convention center. I mean, it makes sense, but they were really obvious and omnipresent - you’d think that there’s at least be something on Digg asking Ron Paul to do something about it.

Yes, even Judge Dredd uses Twitter. Okay, not really - the guy in the costume is Adam Lavis, who made a film about John Hicklenton, pictured on left. Here’s a blog post with more if you’re interested.

There was serious work going on with regard to the Legos. I considered building a Beaconfire logo, but saw very few standard 4×2 and 2×2 red and white blocks. Oh, and there were panels to attend. Feel free to discuss in the comments how Legos have morphed from when you were young.

That’s all for tonight - I’ll write a wrapup on the way home. Earlier posts from today are below the fold…

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Howdy from Austin. I’m going to be using today’s space for larger thoughts than can fit in Twitter (140 characters cramps my style. Though some would argue it could use some cramping), along with links. But for more up to the minute updates, check my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/johnbrian. Previous updates on days 0, 1, and 2 here. -John Brian

11:41: First, I just got back from the Facebook party, where I was interviewed by ABC News as part of their partnership with Facebook. Let’s hope I talked too fast for the 5 minute segment to be used; after being at the conference for almost four days, I may be looking pretty grizzly. I’m not seeing it anywhere on Facebook or ABC yet, but will post a link if it appears.

Second, the party itself was also pretty excellent - for anyone staying for the music festival, they have another party later this week for you, but pre-register to avoid the line.

Third, tomorrow’s the last day of panels, and I’m not as impressed by the lineup; there’s general consensus that they frontloaded the good panels, and I’ve heard grumbling that they scheduled panels for similar interests at the same time (to be fair, some of that grumbling was coming from me). Any insights on panels that I shouldn’t miss? Check the list and leave a comment.

Lastly, one BF Wire reader today suggested I post these updates in chronological order rather than reverse cron, since I refer to things from earlier. I pointed out that I run them this way so you don’t have to go below the fold to see if there’s new content. What do you prefer? Leave a comment with your opinion, which we’ll use to format our blog coverage of NTC next week.

Post-lastly, if you’re going to be at NTC, sign up to our Facebook event invite so we know to find you - there’s a good portion of the Beaconfire team going, and we don’t want to miss seeing you!

2:23: Here are some more photos from this morning (I’ve moved the others below the fold to allow for easier scrolling to earlier posts; check flickr for full size):

The corridors were filled with masses of hallway bloggers - maybe there were power outlets on this wall?

The Dell lounge - like many Dell products, it has proprietary hardware that keeps you from adding your own peripherals, like a roof. But there were regular live acoustic performances, which was cool.

The Opera booth was the place to be, and I don’t think they were even giving out swag. Buzz there was mostly around Opera mini and the Opera install as the browers for Wii. Firefox didn’t have a presence.

I shot this walking into True Stories from Social Media Sites. It was a pretty popular panel, with some pretty well-known names. When asked who here used Twitter, about 75% raised their hands - I’d be interested to see what that percentage is at NTC.

The Zappos guys were handing out rain ponchos at all the exits at noon. Smart way to get their brand out there - my #1 rule of swag is "Make it something useful to me, not just branded placement for you." As a result, ponchos and shot glasses get kept, stickers and T-shirts get tossed. I’d like to think that BF’s booklights and Magic 8 Balls are in the "keep" category.

More pics from the conference tomorrow.

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Howdy from Austin. I’m going to be using today’s space for larger thoughts than can fit in Twitter (140 characters cramps my style. Though some would argue it could use some cramping), along with links. But for more up to the minute updates, check my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/johnbrian. Previous updates on days 0 and 1 here. -John Brian

• 12:14: I haven’t had a chance yet to catalogue some of the cool stuff we saw on the trade show floor. Here’s a sampling, based on what I’m taking out of my bag:

1. Utterz.com, in addition to being proof that yes, every web 2.0 domain name has been taken, allows you to blog remotely using a combination of voice, video, pictures and text. I actually saw the demo at the Google party on Saturday first, but wanted to get more info before posting. It’s free and ad-free at the moment, and they indicated that when they do go ad-supported, they’ll have an enterprise version for NPOs that don’t want to share branding. Could be cool at conferences or for companies that spend a lot of time on the road where it’s tough to blog.
2. Izea.com has a pay per post blogging program. While I’m still not convinced that it’s not conceptually a bad PR move, it does provide some opportunities for quick SEO. They also indicated that they now require disclosure, to the level specified by the client, which reassured me a little.
3. Mapquest was located right across from arch-rival Google, and had some interesting things to say. Their API is free and unlimited, and allows programmers to work in a variety of languages. Mapquest really pioneered online maps, and while most of their work seems to be in static maps, they’ve since expanded as a serious competitor to Google and Yahoo.
4. Zappos also had a pretty significant presence - I was a little confused, since they don’t really do any B2B, but I guess they’ve been having a big presence for years. They were also there to recruit talent.

• 11:33: Almost everyone here at the interactive festival seems to be with a company of some sort - very few independent contractors here. Is that because of the cost or some other factor? I’d also be interested to hear how big a delegation came from some of the giants in the field - I’ve met folks from Apple (one of whom stood in line next to me earlier tonight, defending flaws in the iPod/iPhone before finally revealing that he was an Apple developer) and Google (who indicated that their grants/.org folks weren’t here - maybe they’ll be at NTC?) - wonder how big a delegation these folks sent.

This post is getting long so I’m updating it to add a fold - check below for more from Day 2.

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Hello from Austin! Eve and I are here at South by Southwest Interactive to scope out the latest innovations, meet with potential partners and non-profits, and check out all the conference has to offer. I’ll be updating semi-live blogging from the conference from today through Tuesday - be sure to check back regularly for updates (assuming the wireless holds out). Day 0 here. -John Brian

• 11:52: Lots of good sessions tomorrow morning - I’m weighing A/B Testing: Design Friend or Foe?, Scope Creep and Other Villains, Social Design Strategies, Wireframing in a Web 2.0 World, and Increase Revenue by Mobile-Enabling Your Services. If you have any insight here, leave a comment.
• 11:31: Back at the hotel now - couple of thoughts from the interim:

• The session of social media metrics was fascinating - it’s going to take some time to digest, but of particular interest was what one speaker had to say about the frequent desire to measure success in impressions, which paraphrases to "If all you care about is impressions per dollar, just buy some really bad Google Ads, which will get you a million impressions for no money." They then went to talk about ways to quantify social media success, which I’ll go into in a separate post.
• Google throws quite a party. The line was out for about a block even an hr after it started, and it was not clearing out even after the official ending.
• I’m impressed by the number of nonprofits here - there’s quite a few with a commitment to new media, particularly with NTC coming up later in the month. That said, most folks I’ve talked to have said that the line production and pm folks are here while the execs are going to NTC.
• Tomorrow is daylight savings, which means I’m basically back on Eastern time. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Also, according to the front desk, if I want to move my clock back, I need to disassemble it. Boo.
• Going through my collected stuff for the day, I found the lit piece from Angelsoft, which says "$1 buys access to 1.2 angel groups for entrepreneur funding." Attached is a $1 bill, which seems legit. I’m not sure if this is a good tactic, since it guerentees that everyone will pick up your lit, or a bad one, because your gimmick is gone as soon as I get thirsty.
• Also notable swag: Adobe had a fortune cookie in a Chinese food box. Cool enough, but the fortunes are only half written, and if you match your’s to the person who has the other half, you win a complete Adobe suite. Makes people not just keep your chum but also discuss with others.
• What both these have in common is that they’re something of value to the attendees. On the contrary, most of the bag with filled with generic lit and stickers - why should I advertise your product with something that has no other value to me? I’ll hit the show floor tomorrow to see what other swag I can accumulate.

This post is getting long so I moved everything else below the fold.

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