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SXSW: Circling Back to the Twitter Discussion


by Stephen Becker 16 Mar 2010 1:49 PM

AUSTIN – On Tuesday, I briefly touched on Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams’ keynote address at the Interactive conference. But I didn’t really write much about it because, well, it was boring. And I like you all too much to bore you. As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one non-plussed by the […]

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AUSTIN – On Tuesday, I briefly touched on Twitter founder and CEO Evan Williams’ keynote address at the Interactive conference. But I didn’t really write much about it because, well, it was boring. And I like you all too much to bore you.

As it turns out, I wasn’t the only one non-plussed by the talk. The New York Times Bits blog posted about the discontentment of those in the room, quoting a tweeter who wrote: “There’s a line to get OUT of the @ev keynote.”

The Austin American Statesman also took note of the grumbling and compared the discussion with a 2008 panel featuring Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg fielding inane questions from Business Week columnist Sarah Lacy. (I was at that one, too, and it was truly awful. As in there was almost a riot awful.)

At least Twitter users balanced their rage with wit as they took to the site to ravage the talk. Favorite quote in the NYT post from someone tweeting in the room: “There are hundreds of people in the room. Someone. Anyone. Kanye this keynote and ask Evan a good question.”

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  • I heard this on 90.1 KERA on the drive home last night and it led to a snicker…your post here offered up a full guffaw…

    “Kai Ryssdal’s final note …

    The South by Southwest Interactive Festival is happening down in Austin, Texas, this week. It’s always a hotbed of tweeting, which made today’s keynote address by Twitter CEO Evan Williams a huge draw. CNET News reported fans were lined up to get in, only to go flooding out. Mr. Williams, it seems, is not the most inspiring speaker.

    On a related note, my Twitter followers have been telling me I ought to tweet more. So, I’ll give it a whack.”

  • Jennifer

    Funny! Perhaps proof that Twitter users are dull and just too enamored with their own thoughts to realize that nobody cares what they think?

  • apaulable

    eek, I was at that facebook lovefest also and if this was even close to that I’m glad I saved my change this year and skipped it.
    Two questions,
    What WAS good?
    And Cindy, what’s your handle so we can stalk you?