href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/firefox-account-manager/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/firefox-account-manager/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/firefox-account-manager/&title=Firefox Account Manager Aims to Make Your Social Life Easier&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

href="http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/acc_manager.jpg">src="http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/acc_manager.jpg" alt="" title="acc_manager" width="238" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-225953" />What do you do when you first fire up your browser? Most probably, you log into various sites that require a username and password – Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the like. For me, personally, it’s quite a chore, as I need to log into over 10 different services before I start doing anything.

Now, Mozilla sets out to alleviate this issue with a new Firefox plugin called Account Manager. It currently doesn’t do much; it recognized that you’ve signed in into a website and displays an icon that says that yes, you’re indeed signed up under that username. However, Mozilla has ambitious plans for online identity management from within a browser. From their href="https://mozillalabs.com/blog/2010/03/online-identity-concept-series/" target="_blank">blog post:

“Your Web browser, as your most trusted relationship in your life online, has nearly perfect knowledge of everything you do on the Web. We envision a world where your browser will play an even more active and critical role in helping you control and shape your online experience. To realize this vision, we need to increase the browser’s understanding of your online identity and provide a platform for building new capabilities that securely take advantage of this rich, dynamic set of data that represents the digital “you.â€�”

The account manager is href="https://people.mozilla.com/~dmills/account-manager/latest.xpi" target="_blank">available as an early, experimental alpha version, and it works only with Yahoo!, Facebook and Google, as well as some of Mozilla’s sites that require login, such as Bugzilla. Hopefully, in the future we’ll see features that really make switching between different user accounts and sharing content on various social networks easier and more streamlined.

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/account-manager/">account manager, href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/">facebook, href="http://mashable.com/tag/firefox/">Firefox, href="http://mashable.com/tag/google/">Google, href="http://mashable.com/tag/mozilla/">mozilla

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/iphone-apps-conference-season/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/iphone-apps-conference-season/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/iphone-apps-conference-season/&title=12 iPhone Apps for Surviving Conference Season&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/iphone-sxsw.jpg" class="alignright" alt="iphone sxsw image">href="http://www.researchgoddess.com/" target="_blank">Amybeth Hale is a Talent Attraction Manager with AT&T’s Interactive Staffing team. She uses social technology to help drive awareness of job opportunities as well as interact with candidates. Connect with her on Twitter at href="http://www.twitter.com/researchgoddess" target="_blank">@researchgoddess.

As conference season is upon us (including href="http://mashable.com/sxswi/">SXSW, of course), I began thinking about all the things one might need to survive and stay connected with a busy schedule of travel and networking. Personally, I’m headed to San Diego to attend both href="http://www.sourcecon.com/2010" target="_blank">SourceCon and the href="http://www.ereexpo.com/2010spring/" target="_blank">ERE Spring Expo.

Then I remembered that I’m the proud owner of an href="http://mashable.com/tag/iPhone">iPhone, and that almost everything I’ll need to make it through is easily accessible and at the tip of my fingers. Here are some of the apps which I believe will help you navigate, stay connected, and meet new friends when you attend a conference.

Accommodations/>

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1. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/priceline-hotel-negotiator/id336381998?mt=8" target="_blank">Priceline Hotel Negotiator/>

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If you’re the ultimate procrastinator and you haven’t yet booked a hotel, even on arrival at the conference, the Priceline Hotel Negotiator app is for you. It pairs a great deal-finder with some comic relief in the form of William Shatner, the Priceline Negotiator. Just load up this app and shake — you’ll get a chuckle and some sweet hotel deals within a radius of your current location.

Cost: Free

Connectivity/>

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2. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-wi-fi-finder/id307217005?mt=8" target="_blank">Free Wifi Finder/>

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So you’ve booked a hotel, but the room doesn’t offer complimentary WiFi (grr!). This app will use your location to find some local spots that offer free WiFi access. You can tailor your results from as near as 0.1 mile away, to as far as 40 miles. You can also filter results by categories such as libraries, cafes, airports, and hotels. You could probably couple this app with the Priceline app to make sure you don’t book a hotel room without WiFi in the first place.

Cost: Free

Local Stuff/>

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3. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/robotvision/id329678544?mt=8" target="_blank">RobotVision/>

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Let’s say you’re in a city you’ve never visited before, and you want to find some cool stuff to check out. Sure, you could use href="http://mashable.com/tag/yelp">Yelp, but where’s the augmented reality fun in that? My former co-worker href="http://robotvision.elan3.com/" target="_blank">Tim Sears created this app, and it’s a neat way to find anything from ATMs, to gas stations, to hospitals, to movie theaters. Better yet, you can also check out who else is tweeting around you locally, who is sharing href="http://mashable.com/tag/flickr">Flickr images, and learn about local attractions via href="http://mashable.com/tag/wikipedia">Wikipedia and href="http://mashable.com/tag/bing">Bing search functionality. Note, this app works best with the iPhone 3GS.

Cost: $0.99

4. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foursquare/id306934924?mt=8" target="_blank">Foursquare/>

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href="http://mashable.com/tag/foursquare">Foursquare is a great way to see who else is hanging out at the same locations as you, and the gaming element of earning badges for check-ins is just plain fun. You earn points for checking in to multiple places in one day and for being adventurous and going to new places. You can see what your friends have been up to, leave tips and to-do items for other travelers, and tweet out your locations so that others know what’s going on. At any social media-minded conference, there’s sure to be a lot of location-based networking to be done through Foursquare.

Cost: Free

5. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gowalla/id304510106?mt=8" target="_blank">Gowalla/>

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href="http://mashable.com/tag/gowalla">Gowalla is very similar to Foursquare in terms of location-based social networking, though I personally like Gowalla’s graphic layout better. Gowalla also allows the creation of user-generated “trips” that you can take, like the href="http://gowalla.com/trips/1643" target="_blank">SEC Football Stadium Trip, or the href="http://gowalla.com/trips/28" target="_blank">Austin BBQ Bonanza (for those headed to href="http://mashable.com/sxswi/">SXSW). Again, you can see where your friends have been and also see who else is hanging out at your current check-in location. It’s a great way to meet and make new friends at a conference.

Cost: Free

Pics and Vids/>

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6. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twitpic-uploader/id341402122?mt=8" target="_blank">TwitPic Uploader/>

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I fully intend to take a ton of pictures at both conferences I’m attending. Though I do intend to bring a fairly nice (and very large) digital camera, there’s no greater instant gratification than snapping a photo on your iPhone and sharing it with the world. The href="http://mashable.com/tag/twitpic">TwitPic app lets you do this in four simple steps: Choose a picture from either your camera or a photo album; Write a comment; Log into your href="http://mashable.com/social-media/Twitter">Twitter account, and; Send away!

Cost: Free

7. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ustream-live-broadcaster/id319362690?mt=8" target="_blank">Ustream Live Broadcaster/>

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You want to share a really fun moment from the conference, but a still photo simply won’t do it justice. Or perhaps you want to share a little taste of a presentation, or do a live interview with another attendee. This app lets you stream live video from your iPhone directly through your href="http://mashable.com/tag/ustream">Ustream channel. You can set it up to automatically tweet when you are live, as well as take instant polls from viewers. It’s an easy way to share some live moments with those who could not be there.

Cost: Free

Social/>

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8. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/facebook/id284882215?mt=8" target="_blank">Facebook/>

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This one’s a no-brainer. Who doesn’t have the href="http://mashable.com/social-media/facebook">Facebook app on their iPhone? Use it to keep up with your friends back home and share updates about your trip. Made a new contact at the conference? Just search for them in the app and add them as a Facebook friend.

Cost: Free

9. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brizzly-for-twitter/id360018819?mt=8" target="_blank">Brizzly/>

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I’ve only recently been introduced to Brizzly, but I really love it. For those of us who manage multiple href="http://mashable.com/social-media/twitter">Twitter accounts, this is a great alternative to trying to navigate the mobile version of href="http://mashable.com/tag/cotweet">CoTweet (which currently does not have an iPhone app). With Brizzly, you can connect to up to five Twitter accounts, as well as Facebook, and keep on top of everything. You can also save searches and upload photos. The only functionality I miss is the column layout from href="http://mashable.com/tag/tweetdeck">TweetDeck, but Brizzly certainly gets the job done.

Tip: href="https://brizzly.com/signup" target="_blank">Create your Brizzly account on a computer before you download the app, as it makes for quicker set-up on the iPhone.

Cost: Free

10. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/glympse-location-sharing-made/id330316698?mt=8" target="_blank">Glympse/>

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Glympse is a really cool app that lets you share your location with others. But it’s more than just a geo-tagger — it shares your ongoing location. Basically, you can create and share your own “breadcrumb trail.” You can set it so that people will be able to access your location and follow your movements from within five minutes, and up to four hours. This is a great way to share which sessions you’re in with fellow conference-goers so they can easily find you.

Cost: Free

11. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wordpress/id335703880?mt=8" target="_blank">WordPress/>

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Like a good blogger, I plan to push some content to my readers while I’m at the conferences. Now I can do that right on my iPhone. This app works with both .com and self-hosted WordPress blogs. You can moderate comments as well as add and edit your posts from this app. It’s a nice little travel tool for bloggers who may not always have access to laptops or WiFi.

Cost: Free

12. href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beamme-pro-vcard-exchange/id304918816?mt=8" target="_blank">beamME pro/>

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You want to stay connected with your fellow conference-goers, but you a) Forgot to bring enough business cards, or b) Decided to “go green” and skip the paper cards all together. BeamME lets you e-mail, text, or tweet all of your contact information to someone instantly. BeamME users can easily reciprocate and shoot their information right back. Plus, your contact info arrives in a manner which can be downloaded in a nice, tidy vCard format.

Cost: Free

Do you have any other favorite apps that would be great for conferences? Add them in the comments below!

More iPhone resources from Mashable:/>

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- href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/23/iphone-apps-runners/">10 Essential iPhone Apps for Runners/> - href="http://mashable.com/2009/12/27/10-iphone-apps-dog-lovers/">10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers/> - href="http://mashable.com/2009/10/15/top-10-iphone-apps/">Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers/> - href="http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/iphone-beer-apps/">10 Fun iPhone Apps for Beer Lovers/> - href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/19/mashable-iphone-app-2/">Mashable’s New iPhone App: Download Today!

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/brizzly/">brizzly, href="http://mashable.com/tag/conferences/">conferences, href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/">facebook, href="http://mashable.com/tag/foursquare/">foursquare, href="http://mashable.com/tag/gowalla/">gowalla, href="http://mashable.com/tag/iphone/">iphone, href="http://mashable.com/tag/iphone-apps/">iphone apps, href="http://mashable.com/tag/list/">List, href="http://mashable.com/tag/lists/">Lists, href="http://mashable.com/tag/mobile/">Mobile 2.0, href="http://mashable.com/tag/sxsw2010/">sxsw2010, href="http://mashable.com/tag/twitpic/">twitpic, href="http://mashable.com/tag/twitter/">twitter, href="http://mashable.com/tag/ustream/">ustream, href="http://mashable.com/tag/wifi/">wifi, href="http://mashable.com/tag/wordpress/">Wordpress

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-ipad-fans-profiled/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-ipad-fans-profiled/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-ipad-fans-profiled/&title=What Type of People Want iPads? [STATS]&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ipad2.jpg" alt="" title="ipad facebook fan page profile" width="260" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-225543" />If you’re a Facebooker who’s lusting after the href="http://mashable.com/tag/ipad/">Apple iPad (so much so that you’ve joined a Fan Page), then chances are you’re aged between 18 and 25 and have an interest in popular culture — or so says href="http://blog.rapleaf.com/facebook-fan-page-analysis-the-ipad-x3/" TARGET="_blank">RapLeaf, a company that analyzes social media stats to draw meaningful conclusions from the likes of Facebook Fan Pages.

RapLeaf looked at the top three Facebook Fan Pages (all of which are imaginatively named “The iPad”) to see if iPad fans could be easily grouped into a particular demographic.

The numbers are certainly there for such a study — the three pages together boast almost 98,000 members. While gender pretty much averaged out across all the pages, the age range came in at under Facebook’s average with 85% of overall fans 35 or under, and nearly 50% 25 and under.

iPad-owner-wannabes are also fairly social, with a third boasting more than 300 friends. Other Fan Pages they have joined include, in many cases (and perhaps unsurprisingly), iTunes, as well as other Pages related to caffeine, sleep, pop culture and humor.

What will be truly interesting to see as we edge closer to the href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/05/ipad-coming-april-3/">April 3 iPad launch is how many of those 98,000 put their money where their href="http://mashable.com/social-media/facebook">Facebook fandom is and go out and buy the device.

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/apple/">apple, href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/">facebook, href="http://mashable.com/tag/ipad/">ipad, href="http://mashable.com/tag/statistics/">statistics

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-might-sue-daily-mail/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-might-sue-daily-mail/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/facebook-might-sue-daily-mail/&title=Facebook Threatens to Sue Daily Mail Over Sex Predator Claims&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/facebook.jpg" align="right" style="margin:10px;">According to the href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/11/facebook-daily-mail" target="_blank">Guardian and href="http://www.globaldashboard.org/2010/03/10/daily-mail-facebook/" target="_blank">Global Dashboard, Facebook has threatened to sue Daily Mail over an article which wrongfully claimed Facebook makes it easy for older sex predators to approach and seduce minors.

Daily Mail’s article, which can (in edited form) href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1256793/I-posed-girl-14-online-What-followed-sicken-you.html" target="_blank">be found here, was written by a former police detective Mark Williams-Thomas, and had originally been titled “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you.” It contained the account of the author posing as a minor on Facebook, which, according to him, attracted sexual predators right away.

The problem? He wasn’t really using Facebook to conduct the experiment, he used a “different social networking site”, as explained in today’s update to the article, added at the bottom by Daily Mail staff. The full text of the update is as follows:

“In an earlier version of this article, we wrongly stated that the criminologist had conducted an experiment into social networking sites by posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook with the result that he quickly attracted sexually motivated messages. In fact he had used a different social networking site for this exercise. We are happy to set the record straight.”

Needless to say, this caused a strong response from Facebook, which is still referenced throughout the article. According to the Guardian, a UK spokeswoman for Facebook said that the company was considering legal action due to the “brand damage that has been done”. “If you were a Middle England reader and your child was on Facebook, this sort of thing would have a very serious effect on what you thought of us,” she said.

Facebook has a point here; besides the obvious erroneous reporting, the article details how someone posing as a 14 year old girl would get messages from older men (more accurately, users whose Facebook profile indicates they’re over 18 years old), which cannot be done on Facebook. Therefore, Facebook can argue it has measures in place to prevent exactly the kind of behaviour the article describes, unlike the unnamed social network the experiment was conducted on.

We’ve contacted Facebook’s UK PR representative on this matter but have yet to hear back.

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/tech-billionaires-2010/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/tech-billionaires-2010/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/tech-billionaires-2010/&title=15 Famous Tech Titans Hit Forbes’ Billionaire List&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

alt="" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/money.png" class="alignright" width="226" height="160" />Forbes has released its annual list of the href="http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html" target="_blank">world’s billionaires and when it comes to technology, the list includes many of the same faces we see href="http://mashable.com/2007/07/04/10-richest-people-in-tech/">year after year.

After regaining the throne last year, Bill Gates has once again been displaced as the world’s richest man — this time by Carlos Slim (who held that post back in 2007), but he remains the richest man in tech by a wide margin with an estimated net worth of $53 billion./> id="more-225123">/> Facebook founder href="http://mashable.com/tag/mark-zuckerberg">Mark Zuckerberg, who fell off the list last year, has rejoined, tied with 20 others at #212 with an estimated net worth of href="http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/2010/03/10/mark-zuckerberg-richer-than-ever-with-an-estimated-4-billion/?boxes=techchanneltopstories" target="_blank">$4 billion.

Check out how some other tech heavyweights weighed in:

Larry Ellison: $28 Billion

The Oracle founder and CEO is the sixth richest person in the world this year, sitting pretty with $28 billion as his estimated net worth.

Sergey Brin & Larry Page: $17.5 Billion Each

The two Google co-founders both place 24th on the list with $17.5 billion in estimated net worth.

Steve Ballmer: $14.5 Billion

Thanks to a rise in Microsoft’s stock price, Ballmer saw his net worth rise and he sits at #33 on the overall list.

Paul Allen and Michael Dell: $13.5 Billion

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen might appear to spend money like its water, but he’s still ranked at #37 on the list, tied with Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell.

Jeff Bezos: $12.3 Billion

The Amazon founder and CEO is ranked #43 with $12.3 billion in estimated net worth. That’s a lot of eBooks!

Eric Schmidt: $6.3 Billion

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is ranked #117 this year, tied with News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Steve Jobs: $5.5 Billion

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has watch his company’s stock price soar over the last twelve months. He’s ranked #136 with an estimated $5.5 Billion.

Pierre Omidyar: $5.2 Billion

The eBay founder is ranked #148 on the list.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg: $3 Billion each

While most filmmakers don’t necessarily fall into the category of technology players, I think we can make an exception for the guy who gave us Jaws, E.T. and Minority Report and the guy that gave us Star Wars and Howard The Duck. Both directors are tied at #316.

Jerry Yang: $1.3 Billion

Hey, being ousted wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Yang — Yahoo’s stock was up 26% in the last year, buoying the co-founders net worth along with it.

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/google-fiber-pitches/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/google-fiber-pitches/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/google-fiber-pitches/&title=Google Fiber Sparks Online Competition Between Cities Nationwide&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/google-fiber.jpg" class="alignright" alt="Google Fiber Image">It seems like every city in America wants Google Fiber. And who can blame them? Ever since Google announced its plan last month to bring href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/10/google-isp/">ultra-high speed Internet connections (as in, up to 100x faster than what most of the country has today) to between 50,000 and 500,000 people, cities across the U.S. have been clamoring to curry the favor of the search giant.

First there was Topeka, KS, which href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/03/google-kansas/">renamed itself by proclamation to Google, KS. Then Duluth, MN upped the ante by promising (comedically, we hope) to href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/03/duluth-google-topeka/">name all the town’s first-born children after Google. Then Greenville, SC entered the fray with their all-out “href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/09/google-fiber-greenville-sc/">We Are Feeling Lucky” social media campaign that included a landing page, YouTube channel, Facebook events, and Twitter hashtag.

But will any of these efforts be enough?

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-media-guide-sxsw-2010/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-media-guide-sxsw-2010/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-media-guide-sxsw-2010/&title=SXSW 2010: The Complete Social Media Guide&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SXSW-header.jpg" class="alignright" alt="sxsw logo">This year’s href="http://mashable.com/sxswi/">South By Southwest (SXSW) festival is rapidly approaching. Beginning with the Interactive Media events on March 12th, Austin, Texas will be the place to connect with the brightest in tech and media and get the scoop on some exciting new ventures.

Whether you plan to physically attend or not, social media will be critical to how people connect and share ideas at this world-class event. If you want to keep in touch with all the goings-on, look no further than these tools that you can use on the web, your mobile device, and your favorite social networks.

For Those Headed to Austin/>

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While in-person networking is the goal of many, social media will be key in bringing interested parties together across this vast festival that this year is spread across four separate campuses. If you’ll be in attendance, check out these resources for staying connected.

href="http://sxsw.com/first_time" target="_blank">The Official SXSW First-Timers Guide/>

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If you’re brand new to SXSW and feeling a bit overwhelmed at the scope, the first-timers guide has a wealth of resources to assist the uninitiated. These include links to online registration (if you still need to sign up), hotel booking, scheduling tools, maps, and this informative video.

href="http://my.sxsw.com" target="_blank">my.SXSW and href="http://sxsw.com/qrcodes" target="_blank">QR Coded Badges/>

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The official social network of the festival is my.SXSW, and you are automatically invited to join upon registering. This closed network, just for attendees, allows users to build personalized conference schedules, join exclusive groups, and connect with others at the festival.

The addition of QR codes on registered badges gives attendees with smartphones an added way to solidify in-person connections. Simply scan a new friend’s personalized QR code and you’ll automatically be following him or her within the my.SXSW network.

For additional ways to utilize the my.SXSW network, check out the info on their href="http://my.sxsw.com/tools" target="_blank">tools page.

href="http://sxsw2010.sched.org/" target="_blank">SXSW2010 Event Calendar on sched.org/>

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Sched.org is an interactive calendar with social media integration that makes it ideal for festivals like SXSW. An “unofficial” but highly useful calendar has been created for SXSW that will give you an overview of each day’s events, talks and panels.

Sign in with href="http://mashable.com/social-media/facebook">Facebook Connect or href="http://mashable.com/social-media/twitter">Twitter and start compiling a list of the events you’ll be attending. By clicking on a particular event, you can also see who else is attending, and view real-time updates about the event from other attendees on social networks. With a bit of effort, this tool could become your go-to social dashboard and connection builder for the entire festival.

href="http://www.sitby.us" target="_blank">SitBy.Us/>

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Social media aficionados will be converging on Austin from all over the U.S. and the world. It’s likely that some of your Twitter friends will be in attendance while you’re there.

Don’t let an opportunity for an in-person meeting slip by. SitBy.Us is a useful tool that lets you see which panels your Twitter friends will be attending, and even where in each room they will sit.

By logging in with your Twitter account (via OAuth), SitBy.Us provides a mobile-optimized web interface that allows you to plan and coordinate panel attendance with people you’re looking to connect with in person (and perhaps even avoid those you don’t!).

href="http://foursquare.com/sxsw/" target="_blank">SXSW Badges for Foursquare/>

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Foursquare has created 16 new SXSW-specific badges for those location-based networkers who are Austin bound. What’s more, if you do unlock a badge, you can track down a Foursquare team member at the festival and claim a temporary tattoo with the mark of honor.

Cliqset’s href="http://sxsw.cliqset.com/" target="_blank">SXSW Map/>

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Cliqset.com has created a real-time map that aggregates all of the geo-tagged activity in the festival area of Austin. Pulling in data from the major location-based social networks (href="http://mashable.com/tag/brightkite">Brightkite, href="http://mashable.com/tag/flickr">Flickr, Foursquare, href="http://mashable.com/tag/gowalla">Gowalla, href="http://mashable.com/tag/qik">Qik, and Twitter), the map will give you a bird’s eye view of who is at SXSW, where they are, and what they’re doing.

Click a pinpoint on the map to expand the user’s status update. It should be interesting to see the map fill up with notes come festival time this Friday.

Disclosure: Cliqset is a Mashable sponsor

href="http://austin.mashable.com/">Mashable’s Austin Real-Time/>

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Looking to connect with like-minded festival goers or other attendees from your hometown? Check out Mashable’s own href="http://austin.mashable.com/">Austin Real-Time Network. Sign in with your Twitter, Facebook, or Cliqset ID and browse or search for other festival patrons by common interest or location. By adding yourself to the network, you can also share what you’re doing and where you are via your favorite social networks.

For Those Who Will Watch from Afar/>

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If you’re not able to make it to Austin this year, don’t fret. The magic of social media and the web can bring the festival within reach. While you may not be able to hob-knob with your favorite tech and music geeks in the warm Austin sun, you can still get your SXSW fix with these resources.

The Official SXSW href="http://twitter.com/sxsw" target="_blank">Twitter and href="http://www.facebook.com/SXSWFestival" target="_blank">Facebook Accounts/>

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Being the socially-savvy team that they are, the crew behind the festival does a good job keeping their fans and followers in the know. If you want to keep an eye on developments in Austin, be sure to add these official channels to your social feeds.

href="http://sxswvideos.com/" target="_blank">SXSW Videos/>

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Though not officially connected to the festival, SXSW Videos is a user-generated destination for footage from the event.

Powered by href="http://mashable.com/tag/viddler" target="_blank">Viddler, the site lets you browse videos that come out of SXSW (in various categories, including Interviews, Shows, Bands, etc.) as well as upload your own if you’re in attendance.

The content can be a bit of a grab-bag, but if you’re looking for some first-hand video accounts of what’s happening on the ground, check in there every once in a while.

SXSW Blogs/>

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Searching for other ways to live vicariously through the SXSW attendees? Dedicated blogs are a good way to stay in the loop.

href="http://www.ningrvip.com/" target="_blank">The Unofficial SXSW Insider’s Guide is a blog/community built with href="http://mashable.com/tag/ning">Ning where festival attendees (and interested parties who couldn’t make it) can blog, upload photos, and discuss events.

You can browse the site blog-style to see what people are up to, or connect with individual members to get a more social scoop.

href="http://www.sxswbaby.com" target="_blank">SXSW Baby is another unofficial blog that will be covering the events throughout the festival.

Currently, they have quite a few tips for those who are enroute to Austin. But if you’ll be checking in from home, stay tuned for further updates as the festival kicks off this Friday.

Mashable’s href="http://mashable.com/sxswi/" >SXSWi Channel/>

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Of course you can always stay up to date on the latest news coming from Austin with Mashable’s own href="http://mashable.com/sxswi/">channel, dedicated to the Interactive Media portion of the festival. Members of our team will be on the ground in Austin to get you the social media and tech scoops that are sure to break in the days ahead.

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/farmville-facebook-credits/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/farmville-facebook-credits/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/farmville-facebook-credits/&title=FarmVille Adds Facebook Credits Payment Option&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/farmville260.jpg" alt="" title="farmville260" width="260" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-224751" />The Facebook platform game href="http://mashable.com/tag/farmville/">FarmVille now href="http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/03/10/facebook-credits-now-the-first-payment-option-in-farmville-facebooks-biggest-app/" target="_blank">supports the Facebook Credits virtual currency.

The popular online game uses two units of in-game currency: Farm Cash and Farm Coins. Previously, you could buy them with a credit card or PayPal. Now the game offers Facebook Credits as an option.

Facebook Credits are the number-one option, actually. They’re the default payment choice, featured at the top of the list pictured here.

We recently learned that Facebook takes 30% of developers’ href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/25/facebook-credits-share/">Facebook Credits revenue — the same percentage that href="http://mashable.com/category/apple">Apple takes from its href="http://mashable.com/mobile/iphone">iPhone and iPod touch App Store sales. Analysts have href="http://mashable.com/2010/03/02/facebook-could-surpass-1-billion-in-revenue-this-year/">speculated that Facebook might surpass $1 billion in revenue this year, and the social network’s virtual currency could be a vital part of growth beyond that.

This new option in FarmVille is arguably bigger for Facebook Credits than it is for the game. FarmVille has more than href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/20/farmville-80-million-users/">80 million users, making it href="http://mashable.com/2009/12/02/farmville-bigger-than-twitter/">bigger than Twitter. Exposure to an audience that large is an important milestone for the Facebook Credits project, which has been a slowly expanding experiment up until now.

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook/">facebook, href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook-credits/">facebook credits, href="http://mashable.com/tag/facebook-platform/">facebook platform, href="http://mashable.com/tag/farmville/">farmville, href="http://mashable.com/tag/microtransactions/">microtransactions, href="http://mashable.com/tag/online-games/">online games, href="http://mashable.com/tag/virtual-currency/">virtual currency, href="http://mashable.com/tag/zynga/">Zynga

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/cnn-facebook/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/cnn-facebook/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/cnn-facebook/&title=CNN Sees Facebook As Major Competitor&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

class="alignright size-full wp-image-224587" style="margin: 10px;" title="read news" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/read-news.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="190" />When it comes to competition, CNN president Jon Klein fears Facebook. The man at the top of the news network believes that the social network is more of a threat to his business than other broadcast media organizations.

In a recent question-and-answer session with BusinessWeek, Klein specifically href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/mar/10/digital-media-television" target="_blank">states, “We want to be the most trusted source,” and, “I’m more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox.”

The intriguing statements come just weeks after Hitwise released data showing that href="http://paidcontent.org/article/419-facebooks-new-role-news-site/" target="_blank">Facebook’s new role is becoming that of a news site. As a news portal and discovery engine, href="http://mashable.com/social-media/facebook/">Facebook has the power to make or break a story, a power that clearly threatens the rank and file of the old media elite.

Where we discover news is no doubt changing, but that’s not all bad news for CNN. We tend to think that the power wielded by newsies on Facebook could prove to be an advantage for CNN should the network really cater to the social networking crowd.

For example, in recent months we’ve seen the ratings of award shows href="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/heading-into-the-oscars-award-show-viewing-is-up/" target="_blank">skyrocket; part of the ratings bump href="http://mashable.com/2010/02/01/grammy-awards-ratings/">correlates with web denizens experiencing the televised broadcast with their friends, family and followers online. It would seem logical then that TV and online can coexist in a mutually beneficial relationship.

As for CNN’s immediate future, Klein’s comments also indicate distinct strategies for web and broadcast. Moving forward the company plans to continue with video content on CNN.com and ramp up affiliate deals with the likes of HBO and Time Inc.

So where do you get your news: CNN or Facebook?

Disclosure: Mashable has a content syndication partnership with CNN.

[img credt: href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sveinhal/" target="_blank">Pragmagrapher]

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-engagement-hub/&service=bit.ly">width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-engagement-hub/" align="right"/> class='feedflare' href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://mashable.com/2010/03/10/social-engagement-hub/&title=Get Satisfaction Brings Customer Support to Facebook Pages&srcTitle=Mashable&srcUrl=http://mashable.com">src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-digg-this/i/gbuzz-feed.png" align="right" />

class="alignright size-full wp-image-224189" style="margin: 10px;" title="Get Satisfaction" src="http://cdn.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Get-Satisfaction.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="190" />Today href="http://getsatisfaction.com/" target="_blank">Get Satisfaction is bringing their popular social CRM tool inside Facebook Pages with Social Engagement Hub. The new app, created by href="http://www.involver.com/" target="_blank">Invovler using the Get Satisfaction API, gives brands and businesses the ability to integrate the entire support experience into Facebook.

That means the Ask A Question, Share an Idea, Report a Problem, and Give Praise functionalities are all present and commingling with the service’s intelligent question database so both customers and brand representatives have the ability to collectively tackle queries.

The Social Engagement Hub lives in its own tab inside the Facebook Page and can be fully customized, branded, and tweaked for a specific purpose or campaign. The most impressive part, though, is that all activity inside the hub is centralized on the Get Satisfaction platform, so no conversation is lost inside the Facebook experience and each one can be distributed across multiple environments (which allows for repurposing).

The application is currently being tested by a handful of brands (check out href="http://www.facebook.com/pomwonderful#!/pomwonderful?v=app_227698805184" target="_blank">POM’s support tab), but the company is rolling it out to all interested businesses. The Social Engagement Hub is targeted to bigger brands, but coming this spring Get Satisfaction will roll a slightly scaled down version — minus customization — for small and medium business that will cost $99 per month in addition to their current paid plan.