Joseph Lopez of Austin 3.0 Talks about His Blog and ACTlab

Joseph Lopez of Austin 3.0 Talks about His Blog and ACTlab

Where are you from originally?

I am originally from San Antonio, TX. I grew up on the northwest side where I went to Holmes High school.

What university did you go to?

I moved to Austin in 1999 to attend UT and haven't looked back. I have a B.S., M.A. and am a PhD. Candidate in Radio, Television and Film at the University of Texas at Austin where I work in the ACTLab.


What brought you to Austin?

School brought me to Austin; the great geek community is what has kept
me here!

What is your blog about?

Austin 3.0 is a website based around the idea that Austin houses one of the most geeky communities on earth, so we decided to create a younger crowd fetching website that feels inviting for new comers and veterans alike to find their way around the Austin tech/geek scene, much like the awesome geekaustin.org, but with our own flavor. Our goal is to provide first person coverage and commentary on the Austin tech and Geek scene. We fill in the age gap of reporting, we try to cater to people who are in college and/or just graduated who are still in the "new" phase of their life where they are exploring and looking for connections beyond traditional business networking. Some of our main influences are Sandy Stone (from the ACTLab), Whurly, Lynn Bender, Bryan Menell and all the other patrons of the geek/tech movement here in Austin.


What was the most challenging aspect of starting up the blog?

What was amazing about starting this group was the ease of startup, we picked a domain name, setup a wordpress and off we went. I had just met Kristine within the month we started the blog, we were both at Jelly Austin, at Cafe Caffeine and just hit it off.

What is the next step for you and your group?

Our next step is keep providing great coverage of all types of events and to hopefully bring new ways of thinking about business, geekness and the spaces in between. We recently added two additional writers who we hope to offer even more perspective for our new generation of geeks.

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

The best advice I can give is to be sincere about what you want and how you want to do it. Keep at it and always remember to have fun, having fun is worth just as much as the millions you hope to make one day. And of course be Awesome!


Best regards,
Hall T.