Didn’t make it to SxSW this year – never have been, in fact.  Wondered if I aimed Sysomos MAP and Social Radar at South By South West – would I get everything that’s important to know?

The  “Social Media Circle Jerk” phrase caught my eye  so I had to explore it.

Down in Austin, Texas, the  South by South West (SxSW) festival has started in earnest.

A collection of music, film and interactive mediums, it’s an event that always sees a large social media presence.

And precisely why I’m glad I’m not there this year.

Scanning through some tweets about SxSW it’s clear to see that, while not everyone has fallen for the malaise, the same social media circle jerk love-in so visible last year has already set in.

Comments about there being no-one left to do social media if a tornado hit an event there (obviously the only folks that can make social media a business are all at SxSW); the name-dropping of who people are hanging out with at barbecues and dinners; the rehashed buzzword bingo that we’ve all heard before.

And this is only the first day.

Here’s  Social Radar map -  you can get high off of….

First thing I noticed was Social Toaster – DLS @ SXSW – Social Toaster caught my and Sysomos’s eye.

SocialTalk also looks interesting and it’s got metrics – as does Social Toaster.

Sysomos also picked up SXSW Apps: Tungle.me, Huddlehub and Phonebooth as significant though neither would have caught my eye.

Google Buzz got criticized by Danah Boyd and Google Accepted Buzz Criticism, Invited Boyd to Speak on Privacy - I guess if you can’t fight the story – join it.

Google, to its credit, is rolling with the punches thrown in response to its Buzz launch from last month, making changes to the product to address user concerns, and staying committed to it despite a messy launch. Members of the Buzz product team spoke on a behind-the-scenes-of-Gmail panel at SXSW today, addressing industry-wide criticism as well as a cutting attack over privacy issues from SXSW keynoter and researcher Danah Boyd delivered on Saturday.

Microsoft researcher danah boyd (she prefers no caps) presented a pretty bleak picture of how privacy and publicity is managed online today in her SXSW Interactive keynote. Targeting Chatroulette, Facebook,Google Buzz as examples, boyd says consumers have no idea what they are sharing online–and that the businessthat build social networks don’t either.

Facebook changed it privacy policies in December, requiring each user to sign off on their new privacy settings. When offered this choice, 35% of users chose to make their profiles private. Boyd pointed out that means that 65% made their updates public. After conducting scores of interviews, Boyd doubts those users even read the privacy statement; they just clicked through as we have been conditioned to do.

“I have yet to find a single person who actually knew what they their settings were.” boyd says. “When they don’t know what the value proposition is, they just click through.”

For some reason I don’t understand – Sysomos MAP picked up  A Conversation with Michel Gondry and these notes from the conference so far.

Filmmaker, artist and musician Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) sits down with KCRW’s Elvis Mitchel to discuss his remarkable body of work and his latest, an intimate portrait of his family entitled The Thorn In The Heart, screening at SXSW.

Presenters

	Michel Gondry The Thorn in the Heart
	Elvis Mitchell KCRW FM

Tags

#SXSW

Meanwhile – SxSW 2010: The location wars are heating up but I could have told you that (and did) without going to SxSW.

I wonder who is going to get knocked out?

Well, at least by having a Universal Check-in App from Brightkite it probably won’t matter much – you can check into all the location services up the Yin Yang one of these days soon.  Meanwhile Digg – who I don’t  pay attention to anymore announces new “blazing fast” site, Mashable partnership at SXSW – Yawn….

Well, turns out a lot of people are feeling not so good about Yelp – SXSW Diary: Skepticism, Strong Feelings About Yelp in PC World tells you why.  By the way – I bet Yelp wishes they took the Blue Pill and got bought by Google two months ago – they will probably live to regret it.

At issue is consumers’ and business owners’ skepticism of the credibility of Yelp reviews. Many people in the interactive session here complained that Yelp reviews often focus on minutia, are completely false, are written by axe grinders or anonymous, angry people, etc. “When I travel, I have no way to know if a reviewer in Chicago is credible,” one audience member here complained.

Yelp believes that people have an incentive to write their reviews honestly and well, in order to increase their rep on Yelp and to get kudos from other users. Great, but the majority of the reviews on Yelp are written quickly, often in the heat of the moment after a very negative or very positive review of some product or service.

But perhaps the biggest problem with Yelp reviews is that some of them are written by “interested parties.”

I chatted with Yelp’s Michelle Broderick and Kevin Newsum about this subject after the session. “Yelp is not an exact science,” says Broderick. For example, there’s no way for Yelp to prevent a small business owner from directing her employees and contractors to spend the afternoon writing positive reviews about the business on Yelp. There’s no way for Yelp to prevent me from writing positive reviews about my brother-in-law’s bowling ally, even if I’ve never been there.

But if your at SxSW – your probably using Location Based Services to find out where all the parties are

“Location-based services are big,” said Israel Mirsky, executive vice president of emerging technology at public relations firm Porter Novelli.

“FourSquare and Gowalla use game methods to keep people engaged but they are ultimately utilities because they help friends find each other.”

Porter Novelli was holding a first-of-its-kind scavenger hunt at SXSW incorporating smartphones and augmented reality.

I am working with Israel Mirsky at Porter Novelli in New York these days and glad to hear the splash.

Meanwhile – on the Twitter side of the house. … here’s the 3 most authoritative tweeters Sysomos found tweeting about SxSW.

Well, I’m not going to any of those things – but I feel like I already spent 3 days – minus the pig roasts – in Austin.

Instead – I’ll be at the Twitter Job Search book launch party tonight in NYC – but be getting my hot sauce fix at  Liz Smith: Elvis and Las Vegas – The Real Story as I am a contributor to the book.

© AP

GOOD DEEDS and guacamole at El Rio Grande!

By now, most people know I live above a wonderful Tex-Mex restaurant, El Rio Grande on 37th and 38th Street, between Lexington and Third in NYC. Managed for many years by the blonde, effervescent Jennifer Jordan – an inexhaustible mother of five! – El Rio offers up the freshest fish, the tastiest tostadas, lethal margaritas and a salsa prepared daily that sometimes takes the top of your head off!

Scenes fro El Rio Grande

But business slows in the winter months, and the 38th Street side of the restaurant – the Texas Side – often sits chilly and dormant. Now Jennifer has decided to put that space to use. On March 15, El Rio will host a book party forThe Twitter Job Search Guide: Find a Job and Advance Your Career in Just 15 Minutes a Day.

Written by Chandlee Bryan, Susan Britton Whitcomb and Deb Dib, the book tells how the often frivolously used Twitter technology is the “new face” of business networking. The three authors – who are respected “thought leaders” in career industry – say, “Don’t waste your time with ivory-tower theories that don’t relate to the real world!”

So, come on over to El Rio Grande on Monday at six o’clock PM. There will be free appetizers, chips and salsa and drink specials – although if you are looking for work advice, I’d suggest you listen up before downing that second margarita.

Jennifer says, “I suppose I could have had a different kind of event, but this seems right for the times. Especially now, with our own business suffering a bit, and watching the waiters scrape for tips. I feel it’s an obligation to promote something that helps people get jobs.”

This party is a kickoff for El Rio periodically opening its 38th Street side as a gathering place for those seeking employment – ambitious job-hunters can have coffee, sit, read, browse their laptops, network, pore through the newspapers and, of course—Twitter! Keep up with all this via Elrio@arkrestaurants.com.