( CNN ) -- It 's the festival that launched Foursquare and popularized Twitter . So even if you 've never heard of the SXSW Interactive festival ( it 's short for `` South by Southwest , '' but if you want to be completely beyond hip , you can call it `` South by '' ) , your geek-tuned ears should perk up for some big tech news this week as this conference gets under way in Austin , Texas . The Web , apps , social media and tech start-ups have traditionally been the themes of this conference , which kicks off Friday . In addition to being a launchpad for new sites and apps , however , SXSW Interactive is all about big ideas in technology : Where are we going , why , and how will we get there ? Here 's our best stab at the ideas and trends that will pick up steam this year at SXSWi . Of course , all predictions are subject to change . And before we get there , a shameless plug : Check our SXSWi blog for continuous coverage from Austin . Also follow @ cnntech , @ markmilian , @ jdsutter and @ griggsbrandon on Twitter for nano-sized updates . 'Second-screen ' apps . Smartphones and the internet have rewired our brains to the point that paying attention to one thing at a time seems way too boring . Cue the rise of smartphone and tablet apps designed to provide a `` second-screen '' experience while you 're watching television . It 's common knowledge that people tweet their way through the Oscars and use Facebook to discuss their favorite sitcoms in real time . But a host of apps are emerging to take these second-screen experiences to a new level . The `` Backstage Pass '' app for the Academy Awards , for example , let iPad users choose which video feeds they wanted to watch . Instead of focusing on the red carpet , for example , viewers could choose to hang with the paparazzi or in the celebrity champagne room . Others are trying to sync their apps to live TV programming , using the microphones on tablets and smartphones . If your gadget listens to the TV while you watch , it can offer up quizzes , trivia and ads that are tied to what 's going on in the show at that very moment . Localized group texting . Texting ? Yes , texting -- but with a 2011 twist . If Facebook and Twitter were all about expanding a person 's online social network , think of group texting as an effort to rein things back in . An app called GroupMe -- already a pre-SXSWi darling with tech bloggers -- integrates with Foursquare to let you have private text message chats with all of your friends who are close by . Another , Beluga , which was recently acquired by Facebook , lets users start private text message conversations with small groups of friends . Extreme use case : You 're throwing a last-minute party , but your apartment is n't large enough to host all 2,000 of your Twitter-follower friends . Beyond Facebook . Continuing with this trend of Facebook not being the end-all-be-all of social networking , expect non-Facebook social networks and apps to get plenty of buzz at SXSWi . None of these are likely to try to unseat Facebook as the world 's dominant online social network , but some are worthy supplements . Instagram , a photo-sharing app , is one hot example . It lets users apply all kinds of retro-looking , hipster filters to their smartphone photos and then share them instantly on Twitter , Flickr , Tumblr , Facebook and Foursquare . Other social networky apps and sites focus on other features Facebook either lacks or has n't mastered just yet : Quora focuses on answering questions ; Path is designed for groups of 50 friends or fewer ; and Foodspotting is a social network that 's fixated completely on the idea of foodie restaurant pics . Taming the internet . The internet is a crazy-overwhelming place . As Farhad Manjoo writes in The New York Times , the personal computer `` has become one of the most distracting machines ever invented . '' Expect at least a few Web gurus at SXSWi to push the idea of `` content curation , '' meaning they 're out to answer this question : How can we make interesting and relevant information rise to the top of the internet , where users can access it quickly and without stress , rather than forcing them to swim through an ocean of Charlie Sheen tweets just to find what they are looking for ? Google , Bing , Facebook and the like obviously have a hand in this . But some up-and-comers -- a la Instapaper -- may dominate this space at SXSWi . Is technology making us happier ? Traditionally , SXSWi has been a clubhouse for the digital utopian crowd -- the bike-riding , glasses-wearing , cardigan-snuggling folk who think technology is saving the world , or is going to really soon . But , based on a the SXSWi panel list , expect this year 's festival to also give rise to a healthy bit of skepticism about what tech is doing to us . Are smartphones making us scattered ? Is Facebook actually improving friendship ? Does any useful info come across Twitter ? As these technologies go from the stuff of early adopters to mass-market phenomena , look for the tech elite to start asking these kinds of questions and providing some solutions -- probably by using more technology .
The South by Southwest Interactive festival starts Friday . The Texas , Texas , event focuses on big ideas in technology . Twitter and CNN essentially launched at past festivals . Foursquare offers predictions for big tech trends at SXSWi Friday .