South by Southwest Interactive officially kicks off tomorrow and that means technology enthusiast and social media experts from all around will be descending on Austin, Texas tonight and tomorrow.

SXSWi is notorious for being the place to launch a new product. Two years ago Twitter had its big break there and repeated its success in 2008. This year a number of companies are heading south hoping to do the same or at the very least network with potential users at one of the many late night parties.

So with all of the buzz we decided to put together the following list of microblogs hosting a party or open for a meet up.

Tumblr Party

When: Sunday, March 15, 8:00pm-12:00am
Where: Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W 4th St, Austin, TX 7870

Tumblr is hosting their biggest party to date and will feature special guests and open bar for tumblrers. For only slightly more information see their announcement on the Staff tumblelog

Control Yourself

Zach Copley, one of the guys behind Control Yourself will be at SXSW and is looking to meet up with others wanting to discuss Identi.ca, Laconica, OpenMicroBlogging or anything else. If you are interested in meeting up with Zach shoot him a note and don’t forget to ask about getting a t-shirt or sticker. For more information see his blog post here.

Mashable Party

When: Monday, March 16, 9:30pm-12:30am
Where: Six Lounge, 117 W 4th St, Austin, TX 7870

This party gets listed as one of the sponsors of the party is the new microblog Blellow. For more information see their announcement post on Mashable

Others?

SXSW parties and meet ups can pop up out of thin air. To track the latest happenings in real time you can follow the #SXSW and #SXSWi on What the Hashtag or check out the amazing SXSW Twitter Visualizer developed by some of the same people behind Twistori.

If you know of other microblog parties and meet ups that should be included in our list shoot us a note to tips@microblink.com with the who, when and where.

Tumblr has an extremely talented and creative community posting amazing content everyday. Over the last year the community has really blossomed, and amazing bits of mixed media (images, video and audio) has been collected on the site.

To close out 2008 Matt McInerney of Pixelspread launched the Tumblr Awards. The awards is a community event and will recognize the best tumblelogs of 2008 across a variety of categories.

Nominations were submitted by the Tumblr community and a number of Judges are assisting in creating the final list of nominations. This will not be a small task as over 700 nominations were submitted across 13 categories. Once the final list has been created voting for winners will be open to the community.

If you are a Tumblr user or interested in getting started check out the Tumblr Awards for information. Voting will be opening soon and the organizers can use some additional help in finding sponsors for prizes in a number of categories.

Tumblr Awards 2008 Categories:

• Overall Best Tumblelog
• Best use of reblogging
• Most Creative Use of Tumblr
• Best Group/Community
• Best Audio posts
• Best Video posts
• Best Image posts
• Best Quotes or Conversations
• Best Original Content/Editorials
• Best Tumblelog Design
• Best use of Typography
• Best Tumblr Theme Designer
• Best Free Tumblr Theme

Thanksgiving is just around the bend and many Twitterers are sharing their thanks by participating in TweetsGiving. TweetsGiving is a holiday themed event created by the non-profit organization Epic Change. The event is running for 48 hours with a goal of spreading gratitude across the Twitter community and raising $10,000 to build a new classroom in Tanzania.

As of 11/26/08 at 11:47am EST, they have reached the halfway point to their goal. The event is scheduled to run through 11/27/08 and ending at 12pm EST. If you haven’t participated, tweet your thanks using the hashtag #TweetsGiving and link to http://tinyurl.com/4thanks.

If you would like to donate to the classroom you can do so from their site. Every $10 dollars that is donated will buy a brick for the new classroom and there is a growing list of Top Turkeys who have contributed $100 or more.

For more information check out http://tweetsgiving.org/ or tweet your questions to @TweetsGiving.

Today Mike Templeton and myself are packing our bags and heading south to Kansas City for Highlight Midwest on Wednesday, October 29.

The event is a collaborative effort from BarCampers and Twitterers from the Omaha, Kansas City and Des Moines areas. The day will consist of a variety of presentations, demos and talks from some of the region’s finest entrepreneurs, technologists, social media experts and new media success stories to highlight some of the innovation coming out of the Midwest.

As part of the Focused Highlights session during the day (see tentative schedule), Mike will be giving a talk titled Microblogging, Macro Impact. The talk will cover a little bit of history and direction for Microblink and some of Mike’s observations from tracking all of the activity and buzz around microblogging.

A full list of presenters is available if you’re interested in seeing who will be presenting on what.

For those who are not able to make it to Highlight Midwest, the organizers have announced plans to stream parts of the day. You can find the stream here and track other activity on Twitter by tracking the hashtag #hm1.

We are honored to be part of this event and you can expect a recap post as soon as we return. We will be sure to post a copy of Mike’s slide deck and speaking points to view and share!

One of the things I love most about Twitter is that it gives every person a sounding board and every idea a way to gain traction. Sarah Evans recently took a chance and threw out an idea to the Twittersphere. On September 26 she announced the launch of the Unofficial Top 50 Tweeples to FOLLOW Guide or the “Who’s Who of Twitter 2008″.

On Sarah’s blog she provides a little more explanation and background. What we know is voting will be open until October 24 October 7 at 5:00 pm CT and the results will be compiled and shared via Twitter on October 8. What we don’t know is how many Twitter-ers will participate (the project is being promoted through blog posts and retweets so I am personally interested in the participation rate).

The survey is open now and features a number of categories ranging from Art/Music to Up and Coming. Check out the survey and cast your vote before the survey closes!

Wayne Sutton, a social media strategist, has declared this week Microblog Week as part of a personal project to try one microblogging platform each day. On Monday, August 11th, he kicked off the week on twitter and fed the twitter community a number of questions throughout the day. Questions varied from how many accounts do you have to what do you like about twitter.

As the week progresses it will be interesting to follow the participation Wayne receives on each platform, how his use will vary from platform to platform, and the features he finds lacking or critical to the success of the platform.

Wayne has confirmed that he will write up a week-end recap and I look forward to reading his observations then and throughout the week.

To celebrate the start of the Olympics, three Chinese Twitter users (Flypig, Webleon and Babechloe) are promoting an event to share what people all over the world are doing on 08/08/08. This event originally started on Twitter, but similar events are taking place on sites such as Flickr and on the official #080808 blog, where you can find a number of buddy icons and graphics to help promote the event.

Share how you are participating in the Olympics today by ending your tweet with the hashtag #080808 and read other tweets from around the globe here.