Cool people I met at SXSW: Network Solutions listens to the customers, one man at a time.

I first met Shashi Bellamkonda on the second floor of Six last Friday. I'm pretty outgoing when surrounded by like-minded people, but I was absolutely blown away by the sheer friendliness and warmth of this person, who turned out to work for what is to some people a great boogeyman of the 'net: Network Solutions.

I wasn't quite sure how to handle this, nor did I understand how his title, "Social Networking Swami" fit into the culture there, which is sometimes derided as cutthroat and anti-consumer.

On the other hand, Shel Israel, best known for his collaboration with Robert Scoble wrote a fantastic blog post/interview that sheds a ton of light onto why this guy is so cool and how one employee can change a company at the right place and time. Money quote:

The day when a company could communicate hiding behind walls and lobbing stuff over the wall to customers is over. My new position at Network Solutions will work toward empowering our customers to carry on conversations using social media. Companies always want to listen to their customers and are accountable to their customers.