IanSchafer.com

Last year at SXSW, Twitter burst onto the scene in a big way, eventually paving its way to becoming a major force in the messaging/microblogging space. Twitter's ability to allow attendees to keep tabs on each other was a welcome addition to the festival, as there are so many parties, so close to each other, that it became easy to know where all your friends (or stalkees) were at. It was also helpful in telling you which parties to avoid because of long lines or closed bar tabs.

Lots of folks came down to this year's SXSW Interactive conference to anoint this year's breakthrough property or technology.

I'm casting my vote for Kyte. But while it's sponsorship of the flat-panel displays here at SXSW (as Twitter did last year) is helping it gain visibility during the interactive conference, it may actually be during the music festival later in the week where it truly shines.

You see, Kyte makes it as easy as possible to capture video with a mobile phone (any mobile phone with the capability) and post it to your own channel on the site. It's got one of the easiest interfaces and processes I've seen. One of the latest innovations by the company though (launching today, according to VentureBeat), may eventually be what makes it a key player in the space — the broadcasting of live video from a phone. Qik does this, but you're limited presently to Nokia phones. The samples of Kyte's usage playing on the flat-panel displays here show people streaming footage of bands performing live at parties, interviews with attendees, and green room antics. If Kyte, in fact, works with multiple handsets, we've got a winner on our hands here, folks.

Add to all this their apparently rosy relationship with some big media companies and a new round of funding (over $23 million to date), and we've got one to watch.

Keep an eye on Kyte. Here's my first video, created, uploaded, and produced in 5 minutes:

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