Howdy, y'all. Even though MediaPost has two events taking place in Austin today, don't expect any live streaming, or blog posts, tweets, etc., coming from it. That's because the organizers of the SXSW Interactive festival apparently have a policy against people like us doing that. If you ask me, it's a little ironic for an interactive media festival to prohibit live streaming of a publisher hosting an event there, and just smacks against the open spirit -- if not open sourcing -- of the interactive media industry these days. Especially when you consider that even the oldest and fogiest media festivals usually do allow it. Oh well, another reason I'm personally glad I'm not at SXSW today.

 

But my colleagues are, and based on a dispatch I received via email from MediaPost's Chuck Martin, SXSW isn't exactly hurting from keeping our live video streams in the dark.

 

"Total chaos here," wrote Martin. "Room filled beyond capacity, long line outside,  another line waiting on floor below. SXSW not letting people off shuttle here since too many people. No one leaves after any session. Some people waiting two hours and still not in room yet."