sixtwothree.org

With the rise of online retailers and big box stores (Best Buy, etc.) and the general decline in hard copy sales of music, independent record stores have been shutting down at an alarming rate. Indie record stores, in addition to providing local and off-the-beaten-path music, are typically vibrant mini-communities within their larger, physical community.

So get out there and support your local indie record store today, Saturday, April 19, 2008! For more information, visit the Record Store Day site.

• Dang there were a lot of people.
• Wait in lines? No thanks, start your own party at Buffalo Billiards.
• The panel went really well. We had a great time and I think the audience enjoyed it as well. Keep an eye on the podcasts page. We’ll be up there eventually.
• SXSW will never get my badge photo correct. Ever.
• I’ve never drank so much in all my life. Well, if you know me, you know that’s really not saying a whole lot.
• Twitter is the way to get things done.
• Ficlets won a major award! Check out Kevin’s photo of the trophy.
• Team Refresh crushed all comers (again) in the 3rd Annual Bowling Tournament. One word: dynasty. See Dan’s photo of us all.
• The Zuckerberg/Lacey incident was the best and worst panel/keynote I attended.
• While a lot of presentations were lacking on the nitty gritty, most everything I sat in on sparked at least one idea, related or otherwise.

There you have it, SXSW 2008 by the bullet points. You can check out all my photos from this year over on Flickr.

In his post, Jackson alludes to his negligence in posting about DC Design Talks and how the event was nearly sold out. I’m willing to up the ante and make this post. As of this writing, DC Design Talks is completely sold out. I win at gross negligence.

DC Design Talks is the first of what we hope are many one-day, low-cost conferences for DC/Mid-Atlantic web folks by DC/Mid-Atlantic web folks. Should Design Talks go well (and we have no reason to believe it won’t), our goal is to put on three or four a year, each revolving around a theme (design, development, strategy, etc.). For each, we’ll gather some of the best local and regional talents in their discipline and arrange presentations on timely and relevant topics. Top it off with some great sponsorships from local businesses and you’ve got the makings of something special.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m learning a lot about putting together a paid conference (first one I’ve ever done!), so please do bear with Jackson and I as we figure this whole thing out. We’ve been quite fortunate to have such an enthusiastic response from the community and our sponsors.

Expect plenty more to come. While you’re hanging out on the ol’ Internet, why not check out the DC Design Talks.

Seems like everyone’s on the move these days when it comes to jobs. Two of my close friends recently picked up stakes and joined up with some great local companies.

Samantha Warren has joined up with the fine folks at Viget Labs. Samantha’s a bad ass designer (just look at her site!) and an all around rock star.

Also switching it up is Justin Thorp, one of my co-conspirators (*ahem*, co-organizers) on BarCamp DC last year. Justin’s smart as all get out and he’s hooking up with Clearspring as a Community Manager. As I understand it, he’ll be an advocate for Clearspring’s widget platform and is charged with going out to the community and spreading the good word. That strikes me as right up his alley.

There’s a few other folks moving around, but I’m probably not allowed to speak about that. Congratulations to everyone! The DC area is really lighting up with opportunity.

Twitter, the micro-blogging/status web app, has been the subject of a lot of chatter lately on the ol’ Internets (and, by no coincidence, a top time-suck for me). Equally loved and reviled, Twitter lets you post a short, 140-character-or-less message informing the world of what you’re up to at that moment. Like most, I balked at the idea when Mr. Keith first introduced it to me back in November of Aught-Six.

I’ve long since warmed up to the concept and have posted nearly 3,000 largely nonsensical “tweets” in my time. It’s only been recently though that I’ve started to see the real power of the mass of information cycling through the service on a given day.

What if one could harness Twitter messages from the general populous based around a single topic or event? Enter Politweets, slapped together over a weekend or so by Doug, Gabe, Min, Dan, and myself. What Politweets is doing is observing Twitter for messages mentioning any of the Democrats or Republicans currently vying for their respective party’s nomination in the Presidential primaries.

We launched Politweets yesterday, focusing the launch date around the New Hampshire primaries. Clever, right? Anyway, the site gives you an absolute, up-to-the-second view of the political musings of the Twitterverse. I’ve frankly been astounded at some of the observations one can cram into 140 characters available. In addition to displaying lists of messages, we also keep track of the frequency candidates are mentioned (displayed in the center column of the main page).

Speaking for the rest of the crew, we’re all exceptionally proud of how this turned out. We’re far from done, though. We’re cooking up additional features that’ll help visitors drill down through the data and make some real sense out of the mash. It’s going to be good, rest assured.

Thus far we’ve gotten great reviews. A sampling of sites talking about Politweets:

• Politweets: Twittering Politics on ReadWriteWeb
• Politweets Tracks the Primaries. Why Didn’t Twitter Build This? on Mashable
• Politweets, a political buzz tracker based on Twitter on ZDNet

Heck, we even got a mention on Wired. Cool stuff.

The primaries are just heating up, so keep your eye on Politweets!