I have to admit that the results of what apps the Early Adopters use greatly surprise me. I never would have guessed that 90% of social location app users would use Facebook Places to check-in versus 22% for Foursquare. For years now, the only form of “checking-in” I’ve heard has been through Foursquare (since 2009 actually, which was when Foursquare was founded), until recently when Facebook launched their own form of it. Here’s an interesting read about Foursquare vs. Facebook Places, if you’re interested. And this one too.

Also, with 17% of Early Adopters choosing to participate in location based apps, and 12% for Mass Consumers, it would have been interesting to see how having SCVNGR would have changed the results.

Geek Fest

I was pretty psyched when I found out I was going to SxSW this year and so I told a few of my friends about it. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Guess what? I’m going to SxSW!
Friend: Awesome! What bands are you going to see?
Me: Er…no bands. I’m going to the Interactive Festival.
Friend: Interactive? Oh, that’s cool.
Me: Yeah! I hear the founder of SCVNGR is going to speaking! COOL, RIGHT?
Friend: *crickets*

It’s instances like these that remind me that I’m a geek…and I’m ok with that. I went to SxSW Interactive in 2008 and 2009, took a break last year, so I was ready to jump back in the scene.

One of my favorite things about going to SxSW Interactive is the conversations you have there. You can throw out technical terms freely and people won’t think you’re crazy. You can talk about new internet memes and a) they totally know what you’re talking about, b) think you’re awesome and c) they won’t think you’re from a different planet. And you know what else? You can get super excited about a cool app that you just discovered for your phone you can’t live without and people will share your enthusiasm! Nothing makes me happier than going somewhere where you’re in the minority if you don’t have at least 3 electronics strapped to your body. Oh, joy!

Matthew Inman

There were several panels that I sat in on, some better than others, but my two favorite were by Seth Priebatsch, founder of SCVNGR, and Matthew Inman, the man behind The Oatmeal. They each talk about two very different things – Priebatsch’s covered social gaming and human motivation and Inman’s mostly about viral marketing, but they were fascinating nonetheless. If you’re curious at all to know what they talked about, listen to Seth Priebatsch’s and Matthew Inman’s podcasts.

Also, two cool photos from SxSW.

Random guy, me, Matt Cutts and Tara

I went to the most amazing tradeshow booth ever – Chevrolet’s 3-D Photo Station. It was set up to promote I believe their new Cobalt and it was fantastic. Definitely my favorite stop.

As always, I learned a whole lot, met great people and had my fair share of good old fashioned nerd fun.

See ya next year South By!

Yep. That is what you think it is. Justin Timberlake made a sarcastic comment about Rackspace’s servers going down on TWITTER. It’s quite possibly one of the nerdiest things he’s done. It’s almost as though he’s actually a nerd? No, no, can’t be (but a girl can wish). Maybe I don’t give mainstream celebrities enough credit, but I’m surprised and impressed that Mister JT knew what a hosting company was. It just doesn’t seem like his thing, you know? Nonetheless, this whole incidence trivial incidence has made JT several notches cooler in my book.

When Rackspace’s servers were back up and running, he followed up his last tweet with this:

I <3 JT!

Before I go too off topic, here’s a little video I made to sum up what SxSW was like for me this year. Can we say awesome?

Posted by monicayoo on Natuba

Posted by monicayoo on Natuba

Posted by monicayoo on Natuba

Exactly one week ago, I had the privilege of speaking at the 6th Annual I.T. and Web 2.0 Venture Forum at Rice University about Bubblevine. Although it was a long and busy day, I really enjoyed my time participating in the event. I met a number of great people and listened to some great company presentations and guest speakers.

my badge

Team Digital Canvas @ the AIR Banquet

Special Kids, Incorporated's New Website

The non-profit we created the site for was Special Kids Incorporated. They’re truly a great organization that gives back to children in need. Congratulations to all those who participated!

]]> http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/11/22/air-houston/feed/ 0 http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/11/08/mac-and-pc-love/ http://www.monicayoo.com/2008/11/08/mac-and-pc-love/#comments Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:16:06 +0000 Monica Yoo http://www.monicayoo.com/?p=240 As I’m sure you all have noticed, Mac and PC are openly going head to head with each other through their branding efforts. It all started with the playful Mac commercials stereotyping PC users as being old-school and boring. However, the once playful and light-hearted commercial bits have left the building and seems to have joined forces with the dark side. In this Mac versus PC feud, it is Mac that appears to be making the direct and aggressive attacks against its opponent. What happened to the easy-going persona we all fell in awe with?

Before anyone starts to judge me for my seemingly pro PC entry, I want to put it on the table that I am neither pro PC or biased for one operating system over the other. I’ve grown up using Windows and truly opened my eyes to the experience of the Mac not too long ago. As I own both a PC and Mac, I couldn’t tell you which one I would prefer to own if I were in some hypothetical situation where I had to make a daunting decision to only own one. They each have their pros and cons, which makes it difficult to choose. This is why I own both – to get the best of both worlds. (You can have your cake and eat it too!) I’d go into more detail about which aspects of the operating systems give me butterflies in my stomach, but that would deserve an entire blog entry to itself. These are just my observations and surface-level thoughts. =)

Going back to what I was previously saying, Mac looks to be on the offense. It wasn’t until recently Microsoft decided to retaliate by defending their image by revealing that real PC users are diverse and don’t fit a stereotype or mold. And from what Mac’s most recent commercial, “Bake Sale” tells me, they don’t seem to be too pleased with it. Watch a few of their latest videos and see for yourself.

On the flip side, I think Microsoft is making a healthy effort. This video sums it up nicely.

I’m glad to see that Microsoft is finally being proactive about their brand management because they needed it. With Microsoft’s “The Real PC” campaign, you get to see a real human aspect of its users which is a very refreshing. Microsoft is also encouraging people to get involved in this effort by uploading your own PC videos, which could be selected to have aired on TV.

I find the whole Mac and PC rivalry highly entertaining and interesting. It’s something I’ll be watching closely to see how it all unravels.