South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of film, interactive, and music festivals and conferences that take place early each year in mid-March in Austin, Texas. For many years now, it has been the stage where new technologies (and their use of) have been demonstrated and it’s widely considered as the breeding ground for such endeavours. And this year, it’s just got a bit more social.
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SXSW has just launched its app ‘SXSW GO’ that will allow visitors to check in to venues, see which are the upcoming acts, see who’s nearby and attending. This means that it gives a great opportunity for social discovery and connection. How is this ever possible? It’s called iBeacons and it’s not a secret, but it’s hot.
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iBeacons are low power, indoor positioning systems that are perfect for offering ultra-localised apps. And this could only mean one thing; More personalised content to the people.
So, it was only natural for SXSW to adopt this feature and engage all attendees into social festivities. Users will have to opt-in for the service to use their location, but it will be really interesting to see how this experiment works out during the annual gathering. SXSW begins on March 13 and will last approximately 10 days.
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Image courtesy of Re/Code
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