Far and away, my favorite social media application of 2009 is Twitter. Twitter’s open API means that SXSW, the annual Austin music, film, and interactive festival, is being documented like no event in the history of the world. Seriously. Via the Twitter blog,
the folks behind Twistori and Twennis have created an amazing, interactive visualization of what’s happening at SXSW
With so many hip, tech savvy people attending SXSW, you can imagine the number of tweets. This week it would be nigh impossible to keep up with everything without the SXSW 2009 Twitter Visualizer. There are 5 basic categories “Stream”, “Swarm”, “Popular”, “Overheard”, and “Party Watch”. First up is “Stream“, categorized by color coded topic, this shows all SXSW related tweets:
The SXSW Twitter Stream
My personal favorite, “Swarm“, shows where people are via the Google map of Austin:
Where People Are
“Popular” works like Wordle, showing the most popular words tweeted from SXSW :
What's Popular
“Overheard” is based on the Twitter app Overheard.it. Preface a tweet with “overheard” or “OH” and it will show up here. Good for juicy tidbits, i.e. rumors:
Overheard (Rumor Mill)
Finally, there’s “Party Watch” which displays info about SXSW parties including times, if its open to the public, and if there’s a line. Good for avoiding sold out and over capacity parties:
Party Watch (Avoid the Lines)
If SXSW Twitter Visualizer 2009 is successful commercially, developer Slash7 secured the sponsorship of Pepsico, then the potential to apply tailored versions to big time festivals, conventions, flea markets, etc the WORLD over is staggering. Welcome to instantaneous people powered media. Wow.
deathoftheparty 