It's Location, Location, Location at SXSW Interactive

The South by Southwest Interactive Festival doesn't begin for another three days, but a theme is already emerging: tools that tell your friends where you're at and help you find other interesting folks around you.

Known generally as geolocation, these programs zero in on your location, then broadcast that information to a selected group of followers. Austin's own Gowalla is one of the industry leaders, along with Foursquare. Both gained huge attention at last year's event, and have beefed up their services in anticipation of this year's festival.

Another big player just announced a move into geolocation. MG Siegler of TechCrunch, who predicted last month that location would be hot at SXSWi, reported today that Twitter turned on geolocation on its website today for the first time.

One promising newcomer is SitBy.Us, whose site allows you to share where you’re sitting at SXSW Interactive using your Twitter friends list.

If you're shy about sharing your whereabouts with the world but still want to build your network at SXSWi, festival organizers have made that easier through a special kind of bar code on every badge. When you let someone scan your badge with their smartphone, they automatically connect with you on the my.SXSW site, where they can send you messages or look up your contact information. Think of it as exchanging business cards, but without the messy paper part.