Whether you are SassyChick76 or something more professional, the names we choose to represent us online say alot about us.  For isntance, if managed to score your first name as a twitter handle, it says alot about you, as a status symbol, on the social network.

I just changed my twitter handle.  I signed up for the service in early 2008…not exactly the earliest of adopters (although I recall when Leo Laporte was the twitterer), but certainly not a late-comer.  I used the same email username I have used for years – caseyp80.  BORING.  But I wasn’t very sure of Twitter as a service, or of my intention to stick with it.  I couldn’t certainly gotten a better name back in 08 than I could today.  But nevertheless, I felt like it was time to ditch the name+number signature, and go with something slightly more descriptive.

Unfortunately, I settled on @thatgeekcasey.  It was late.  And I had typed in at least 40 different usernames that I preferred…and it at least seemed easy to remember, unlike 2nd Place Contestant: @Ctl_Alt_Casey.

Like I said . . . it was late.

Now with that out of the way, I’ve begun reconsidering all of the names that I use for services.  Some are insignificant – but of particular interest is my email username.  I may have stuck with CaseyP80 for years, but I can’t help but think there’s probably a better way to represent myself online.

I can’t tell you how many resumes I’ve received in the past with contact information containing email addresses like, “seniorsassypants@hotmail.com.”  The names we use to present ourselves to people affect their perceptions of us.  More online than anywhere else.  As I’ve just discovered – this can be a serious problem if you’re attempted to create a name somewhere like Twitter or Gmail TODAY, and not years ago.  Anything resembling a professional looking name is probably taken.

With email, we can change or create our own domain.  But what of services like Twitter – once they reach critical mass, it’s nearly impossible to get any name you would hope to get.  Clearly, there needs to be a better solution – but what would that look like?  It’s an interesting question.  A question whose answer will hopefully shape the usage of social networks in the future, and play into future updates of services we already use.

Where are you?

For the last 4 years, Twitter and Facebook have been asking the question, “What are you doing?”  But in 2010, location is King, curation is Queen, and context is the bratty kid.  I’ve made my share of jokes about how often the word “location” was used at SXSW this year, but the rise of location-aware apps and services is truly remarkable, and is maturing to the point where I think we can really begin to visualize a world of persistent, relevant, and contextual information.

The real gem for me from SXSW was Whrrl.  A relatively small player, and one that gets no respect from the major sites like Mashable, it seems to be the service that “gets it.”  There’s some room for improvement, but so is there in Foursquare and Gowalla.  But the things it does right . . . it does them so, so right.  On my first day at SXSW, I was approached by a Whrrl street team member in front of Downtown Burgers, the only place I could find to eat that day.  If I checked in with Whrrl, then I would get 50 cents off my order. . . and a T-Shirt.  Which I never got.  I’m still upset about that.

Anyway, I downloaded the Whrrl app on my iPhone and checked in.  It immediately looked quite a bit different than Foursquare, but I didn’t spend much time wondering at it.  I forgot about it until day 3 . . . or 4?  Who can remember… it all just bleeds together into one giant location-techy buzzword festival of colossal proportion.  I had the pleasure of meeting some bloggers that work with Collective Bias, and were Whrrl afficionados.  When I checked in and discovered that each of us check in together could upload pictures to create a joint story … a shared photographic and commenting experience, I began to see just what Whrrl offered that was so unique.  

I kept playing with the app, and the website, and after getting a friend to try it out on a recent geocaching expedition, and embed it in his blog, I have to say – Whrrl is on to a winning formula here.  They want to help stop Facebook Rut, and I have to say, the gameplay is fun, the collaborative story-telling and sharing experience is so compelling, I’ve found myself interacting with people in new ways on a daily basis, and getting them to sign in to my Whrrl check in also.

With our society seemingly more and more pulled into accepting the relational placebo of online social sites, these kinds of apps are a breath of fresh air that actually help spark conversations and shared real world experience with other live human beings again.  The uses are impressive, and I’ve found myself, more than once, trying a new restaurant, or ordering something I wouldn’t normally get because of recommendations from other Whrrlers.  I’m excited in general, about where these kinds of services are taking us in the future, and the ability to find new things based on my location, preferences, and social graph . . . and out of all the services I’ve tried, Whrrl definitely was the one that stood out the most at SXSW.  Now if only it can get the users that Foursquare has, to build up the community to match.

The first couple of days at SXSW have been pretty crazy.  The very first panel I wanted to see was packed out, and I began to worry if this would be a theme for the rest of the conference.  Luckily, most people are not actually here to work or learn, and most panel rooms are significantly larger than the grave mistake of a room that the Social Marketing panel was in on Friday.  

I suppose it could also have something to do with the fact that no one was yet drunk.

For those of us who did attend to actually glean information from experts to take back and improve our careers with, there were some great panels to see.  I’ve been really impressed by a couple of panels I’ve been to, especially the Content Strategy FTWsession today with Kristina Halvorson, and I’ll be writing soon about how I’m implementing those ideas professionally . . . but for now, I will suffice with this list of things I’ve learned about SXSW.

Things I’ve learned about SXSW:

• If you want traffic, you need boobs, kittens, and top 10 lists (perhaps I should’ve made this a top 10 things I learned?)
• Screenburn Arcade only has 2 booths with a game to play, and lots of people learning to draw half-naked ladies – for use in high-fantasy RPG’s, one would assume
• No one actually knows anything about how to make money blogging
• The most promising panels are the most likely to get distracted and talk about memes for 45 minutes
• Google Employees are arrogant know-it-alls with a god-complex

On a tangential note, Aloft Hotels have walls made from paper.  Do Not Want.

Oh, and Capybaras are backseat drivers.