Just weeks after the launch of Bostonist and Seattlest, the -ist empire moves south to the capital of Texas. Welcome Austinist, which launches its beta site today, just in time for the 2005 South by Southwest Interactive.
As Jen notes over at Gothamist, our publisher, Jake Dobkin will be speaking on two SXSW panels: How to Create a Compelling Community Website and How to Create a Multimedia Moblog. And our colleague over at LAist, Jason Toney will be speaking at Blogging While Black.
We would totally be down there for SXSW, but we’re busy hosting a pre-St. Patrick’s Day happy hour for all of you later today at Biddy Mulligans, which you’ll hear more about later on.
Austinist’s editor, Ben Brown, moved to Travis County from the nation’s capital five years ago. The only other real connection between D.C. and Austin we can immediately come up with is that Kriston Capps of Grammar.police went to the University of Texas and can make some killer barbecue brisket. And then there’s the whole less-than-amicable relationship between Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Anyhow, Austin, welcome to the family.
