Amid all the announcements, hype and “location wars”, this is my favorite observation from this year’s SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX.  From CNN:

These aren’t your father’s CEOs

If there was a pinstripe suit in Austin this week, we didn’t see it.

The movers and shakers of the online world are young, casual and come at business from a different angle than their Wall Street forbearers (a fact not lost on SXSW Web Awards host Doug Benson, who joked that acceptance speeches would all be short because the winners weren’t used to being out of their basements).

But there’s nothing like seeing tech’s youthful leaders for yourself — and all in one place.

Once you’ve watched a company founder tossing fuzzy dice into a crowd of screaming fans or doing the backstroke on the floor of the Hilton lobby at 2 a.m., you won’t think of “CEO” the same way ever again.

I intended to post this a while ago, but was reminded of it at an event this week with Mr. Brokaw. He describes the “international network of computers.” Gates tells him we’re a long way away from having a thin, portable display that acts as a book. A classic piece of history and wonderment at a technology with an impact even they couldn’t properly foresee.

I was thinking this morning about what sources I rely on for my news and which ones I read religiously.  My Google Reader feed is my pride and joy.  Categorized, filtered and always trimmed to cut the sources that are lacking, it is my go-to for a look at the world.  But, sometimes I’m just too busy to get through the hundreds of new items every day.  There is one source that always gets to the top, though.

The FP Morning Brief, from the writers at Foreign Policy, is that perfect dose of international news in the morning that reminds you there’s a world beyond the U.S. and Michael Jackson.  Well-formatted emails, properly linked and expertly summarized at 9am, the FP Morning Brief is my favorite daily aggregate of news.  While most get ignored or pushed to the side for more urgent emails, I always pause for my FP fix.

It’s like having my own intern that compiles the best news from around the world every day and sending it to me in a perfect little email.  Maybe one day they’ll let me add my own header to the email like “Ben’s super important morning briefing from his own private news readers”.  Some day…maybe.  Until then, I let the staff at foreignpolicy.com and their blog, FP Passport, do it for me.  They’re so kind.

Click here to get your own super important briefing.

All night I’ve been looking for the best place to watch results from Super Tuesday roll in. I want a map. A simple map. I want it to update the results automatically and let me roll over the states to see the little data pop up. I want to know how many delegates each state has and where they’re going. I want to see a full list of all the states, too. It’s not too much to ask.

Well, the New York Times got it right with their “Democratic Results Map” (or Republicans, if you prefer). It’s simple, it gives me all the information I want without any flashy spinny things or talking heads. Thank you, NYT. Way to keep it classy.