Good morning, everyone. As I type this, I’m listening to Bram Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent, talk about how the internet is ‘broken’. That’s right, I’m reporting live from SXSW, where the motto may very well be “Geek Hard, Drink Harder”. Let me tell you, there’s something bizzare about listening to people discuss RSS feeds and CSS code while in the midst of heavy drinking. And yet, here I am.

I don’t want to stay on this post for too long, because while no one could really tell if I’m blogging or if I’m taking notes, I feel kinda bad about only half-listening to what’s going on. But here’s a quick Southby in-progress version of What I’ve Learned:

  • It’s a really good idea to get some sleep before Southby. Because once you’re here, there’s no stopping. It’s panel, to panel, to keynote, to panel, to panel, to party, to afterparty…and so forth. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
  • When people say you’re going to meet a lot of people here, they’re not kidding, Friday night was Break Bread with Brad, hosted by blogging rockstar Brad Graham, followed the next morning by Kick!, the world’s biggest and strangest kickball game. And between those two events, I think I’ve met eleventy billion people. I’m having some trouble with names, but I’m getting it.
  • I’ve said it before, but Austin is a fantastic city. Too many great restaurants and bars to even begin to describe. Princeton needs to be more like Austin – except without the crazy drivers.
  • That said, the Austin “Real World” house is literally spitting distance from my hotel. I’m really hoping they don’t find a way to ruin this city.
  • I make it sound like Southby is an entirely social event, and while the social aspect (networking, getting to know your fellow geek) is a big part of it, the panels I’ve been to have been very interesting so far. I’ll go into more detail at a later point.
  • I have never seen so many Mac users in one place in my entire life. PowerBooks and iBooks EVERYWHERE. And I won’t even mention how many iPods I’ve spotted.

Someone just asked Cohen if “he ever downloaded anything”. Funny.

Alright, I’m going to sign off right now, but I’ll be back with reports from day 2 of the conference and everything that comes after.