Killer keynote

For the past 10 years, the web was all about social. The next 10 will be about gaming. Not exactly World Of Warcraft or whatever, but competition.

This prophecy was made in the keynote address by the wiry Seth Priebatsch, founder of check-in game SCVNGR. The exuberant Princeton dropout had instant charisma even though he wore an orange shirt and matching sunglasses. He came off as the anti-Zuckerberg.

Games are all about personal motivation, he said. So in order to motivate people – users, customers, students, anyone – you need to turn your project into a game. This can solve any problem, his example being global warming (!). If this sounds like a head-in-the-clouds idea, that’s because it is. But it all made sense. If you’d heard this engaging geek speak, chances are you’d be game, too.

Read the rest here.

Guide to Groupon

What’s the secret of Groupon, the coupon-dealing dynamo worth some $4 billion? A sense of humour, said the site’s genuinely funny editor-in-chief, Aaron With. 

Groupon may have 500-plus imitators, but who would copy some of the stunts it pulls? Like awarding a baby a $100,000 scholarship because the parents used a Groupon on their first date? His company’s goofball writing and left-field corporate culture are uncopyable and have paid off – except for those offensive Super Bowl ads, that is. Read more here.

Spinning Circles

The biggest news at SXSWi was no news at all. Google’s mysterious new social network, Circles, was rumoured to be about to pop up somewhere in Austin. Word spread at lightning speed, and I think the whole conference may have held their breath in unison. But it wasn’t meant to be. The search company denied everything, even the existence of Circles. See here for more.

Let me be Franken

Former SNLer and current U.S. senator Al Franken knows how to put on a performance. And he has the common sense to pick a worthy cause. His speech on network neutrality was electric, and left those who’d heard him charged up for the rest of the day. With hundreds of panels, millions of tweets and information flying around at a billion miles a minute, that’s very impressive. The rest is here.

Read more SXSWi coverage at nowtoronto.com/sxsw