Ten of Thousands of Technology Lovers Head South to Austin

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
Tens of thousands of people travel to Austin, Texas each year to attend the South by Southwest festival. The festival is most famous for its music and film presentations. In recent years it has also become one of the biggest new media events of the year.
Last year more than fourteen thousand people from fifty-four countries attended the event. It is the place to learn about promising¹ new technologies.
Margie Newman describes the event as “a sea of Mac-toting, smartphone-obsessed, new media snobs² on a mission to know what is next.” Ms. Newman is a public relations professional in Washington D.C. She made her third trip to the South by Southwest festival this year. We spoke³ with her by phone at the festival.
MARGIE NEWMAN: “When you can go to a place and not only see what’s next and see how to better use what’s already here, but also connect with people who love it as much as you do, it’s just kind of a special thing. A lot of people call South by Southwest Interactive⁴ the geek spring break. And that’s pretty accurate.”
South by Southwest Interactive has seen the successful launch of several products. It helped push Twitter into mainstream⁵ popularity in two thousand seven. In two thousand nine, a company called Foursquare launched its mobile networking service at the festival. The service lets friends tell other friends where they are by “checking in” using a mobile application or a text message. Foursquare’s owners say they now have more than six and a half million users around the world.
Packed Interactive Keynote room at the 2010 South by Southwest
Margie Newman says quick response codes are big news at this year’s festival. The codes turn URLs and text into barcode-like images that can be scanned using a mobile phone or a QR code reader.
MARGIE NEWMAN: “It looks like a scanning device like when you’re at the grocery store but it’s a square. A lot of people aren’t quite using QR codes for marketing⁶ just yet in mainstream. But you’re seeing a lot of it here. It’s very hot this year.” Cloud computing⁷ is also expected to be a hot topic this year, as is group messaging. The five-day festival runs through March fifteenth. Hundreds of events are planned each day. They include speeches by some of the world’s leading technology industry experts, hands-on training workshops and many group discussions.
MARGIE NEWMAN: “Without a doubt I would say South by Southwest Interactive is the place to be if you are into digital new media. You don’t want to miss it. And in fact, part of it is just being able to say you were here makes you one of the cool kids, even if you didn’t go to one panel. Just having the badge that says you were here kind of makes you worth your salt if you’re part of the new media landscape.”
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts⁸, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

1 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

2 snobs   

（谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者

参考例句：

• She dislikes snobs intensely. 她极其厌恶势利小人。
• Most of the people who worshipped her, who read every tidbit about her in the gossip press and hung up pictures of her in their rooms, were not social snobs. 崇敬她大多数的人不会放过每一篇报导她的八卦新闻，甚至在他们的房间中悬挂黛妃的画像，这些人并非都是傲慢成性。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

5 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

6 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

7 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

8 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句