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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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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). -John Brian

• 6:11: I’m headed out now to get my badge, scope out the convo center and attend the opening night party. Maybe when I get back tonight, I’ll migrate this to Twitter.
• 5:02 pm: Don’t let your cabbie handle your notebook, under any circumstances. I now have a big crack in my battery that scratches my wrist when I try to type. Anyone know where I can get some tape?
• 4:55 pm: I’ve been given no less than four free cookies so far today. Midwest’s are much better than Doubletree’s. Of course, more than 56,000 people signed a petition to support them…
• 3:37 pm: About a third of my flight from Kansas City to Austin is coming here for the conference. Thank you to the flight attendant for being a good sport and asking for a show of hands!
• 1:31 pm: PackRat is some Facebook game that’s got an ad in the SxSW convo booklet (pdf). I installed it on my FB on the assumption it has something to do with SxSW, but it doesn’t seem to. What a waste - this could have been much better if it involved the conference in some way. Wonder how much that ad space cost.
• 1:12 pm: Kansas City Airport has free wireless. Not often you see that anymore, so I figured it was worth giving props for. It was so slow it was nearly useless, but better than the usually outrageously priced, but today mysteriously nonexistant wireless at National’s Terminal A.

The new year always brings another round of conferences to keep our eye on. If you’re going to one of these events, let us know. We’d love to meet up!

• NTC - Nonprofit Technology Conference - March 19-21 in New Orleans
• SXSW - Interactive - South by Southwest - March 7-11 in Austin, TX

Our Beaconfire offices in Arlington have been undergoing something of a transformation lately.  Our main conference room has been updated with fresh paint, new furniture and plush leather benches to accommodate our entire staff during large meetings.  Weâ??ve added additional seating areas to make room for new staff members.  However, the most stunning transformation has been to our two small conference rooms.

Beaconfire staff participated in an in-house design challenge to spruce up our boring, white-walled conference rooms.  The office was divided into two groups, with each group decorating the conference room on the opposite side of the office.  Secret meetings were held, budgets were planned, mysterious packages arrived in the mail, and during a 24-hour period, two dull rooms were transformed into Café Luz and The Lodge.

The Café features soft lighting, staff-donated books to exchange and a bench seating area with fun, fuzzy pillows.  The Lodge features a stunning view of the mountains and lake and�a moose.

View all of the before and after pictures!

If you work for/with a nonprofit and your success is dependent on technology, the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference should be on your calendar. And don’t think this is just for techies! The agenda is still being formed, but you can count on sessions for nonprofit leaders and folks from communications, marketing and fundraising, as well as the technology staff. We’ll come together to talk about tools and strategies that are reshaping how we go about our mission focussed work. The 2008 conference is in New Orleans March 19-21st and you can learn more at www.nten.org/ntc. See you in New Orleans!

Full disclosure: I’m the Board Chair of NTEN and think the world of the good work they do…

Each year, the Key School in Arlington has a Halloween Parade in our neighborhood. And again this year, Beaconfire staff put on our Halloween finest and handed candy out to the adorable costumed kids. See our in-house fairy, phantom, ironman, and more on our Beaconfire Flickr page. Enjoy, and keep your eyes on the Flickr feed for additional photos in the future!

The New Organizing Institute, “a unique grassroots program that trains young, technology-enabled political organizers to work for progressive campaigns and organizations” which is sponsored in part by Beaconfire and a bevy of other progressive organizations, is training organizers at this very moment in Washington. And while the students are spending their day in lecture and discussion sessions, as with most trainings, at night they put their skills to the test running the internet departments of their own Presidential campaigns.

So which campaigns are the next generation of organizers behind? Did they come up with Clinton’s Sopranos video or Obama Mobile? Maybe Dodd’s “Change the Debate” YouTube or even Gravel’s infamous “Rock” ad?

Not exactly - NOI participants are running cartoon characters for President. 60 trainees have been divided up into teams and are running online operations for six fictional candidates. Check out the websites for Homer, Maggie, Lisa, Mr. Burns, Apu, and Family Guy’s Stewie. While they’re obviously rough, given the time constraints on the candidates, there’s a lot to appreciate here: Mr. Burns has a blog featuring his YouTube hit piece, Lisa has a clean and crisp design focused on capturing signups, Homer’s use of an issue quiz to list build, Maggie’s Facebook group, and Apu includes a Spanish version of his homepage.

The campaigns are competing to see who can get the most email signups by the end of the training, and they promise to scrub their lists at the end of the event. So check out the sites and sign up for the lists of your favorite candidates. And while you’re at it, check out the campaign posts on the NOI blog - it’s pretty entertaining.

Best of luck to all the NOI participants - and no matter who wins, don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.