Saturday, October 04, 2003

Information Wants to Be Twee

I shouldn't make fun of BloggerCon. I'll let it do all the work by itself:

To simplify the convergence I am seeing: Adam Curry comes now to the summit of blogging from The Netherlands and show business, with a head full of ideas about practical technology to liberate expressive international artists. Dave Winer is a genius programmer and blogging pioneer who wants to use the human voice to focus and spread the blog gospel. I'm a political journalist and talk-radio jockey who wants to use the free, global range of the Internet to extend the magic of good conversation. So here we are at BloggerCon, scratching each other's backs, learning fast and expecting to make something happen. Here's my first encounter with Adam.

And, courtesy of Disinfotainment, I'll let Andrew Orlowski, have a crack at the head Con man:

I found myself reading the $500-a-head man's own website yesterday. And then it all made sense.

"Whatever happened to singing around the campfire, or family singing at holidays? Just because a handful of people do it so perfectly, does it mean that the rest of us should be deprived of the pleasure of self-expression," [Dave Winer] wrote.

Surely no one is depriving Winer of the pleasure of self-expression, any more than we can resent a dog licking its own balls.

Oh, and checkout the webcast. Technology at its finest.

Update: Heh.

Update 2 (10/5): The Con seems to have gotten its tech (webcast) problems solved. The content, I'm not so sure.

And a clarification: My bashing is directed at the self-important and deluded organizers, not the participants. I have a great deal of respect for some of the speakers and participants, including Joshua Marshall and Oliver Willis. I'm listening to the panel moderated by Jarvis, and the participants seem sensible. Jarvis comes off as a bit of a pratt, but is willing to let others speak.

Update 3 (10/3): Oliver Willis got in for free (see Comments). My respect for him continues to grow.

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