Four sessions; two roast beef sandwiches; quoted in The (Greensboro) News & Record; got to see Jimmy Wales, my vote for American of the 21st century (so far).
Plus I attended a Dave Winer thing called "Tools and the Future" where I sputtered something about "the holographic brain." Swear to Gawd.
FIRST SESSION: POLICING THE MEDIA with Duncan Black (Atrios from Eschaton)
Duncan Black got lost on campus en route to his morning session. Ed Cone came in to say that they had sent out search parties to find him. Cone: "That could be the name of a new documentary: 'Finding Atrios.'"
Meme: "The instant a piece of news hits the page is the start of the process."
Mental note: These discussions about media and ethics don't seem to account for the effects of scale in a satisfying way.
Overheard: "Friends may come and go, but enemies accummulate." -- David Allen
SECOND SESSION: COLLABORATION with Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikimedia
I thought Wikipedia et al were cool before I went to this. Now I'm ready to go out and get "Wiki" tattooed on my ass inside a heart with an arrow through it.
Meme: Wikipedia, with 2 billion hits per month, now has a broader reach than the NYT, the LA Times, the WSJ, MSNBC and the Chicago Trib COMBINED.
Mind-blower: Wikipedia has a market value of roughly $1 billion, and exactly two employees.
Mental note: Tattoo "Wikipedia" somewhere on my body; Figure out ways to employ wikis in various tasks.
Quote: "I'd like to see a lot more experimentation in this world that is kinda bloggish, kinda wikiish." -- Jimmy Wales
LUNCH BREAK
Roast beef on wheat; bag chips; cookie; apple. Eaten outside. Lunch guests included myself, Janet, Ed Cone, Dave Slusher, Ralph, Sam Wharton and Dave Winer.
Quote: "Is this where the cool kids eat?" -- Dave Winer
THIRD SESSION: TOOLS AND THE FUTURE with Dave Winer
The general discussion was heavy on people who want things to be easier for creating web logs and getting started. I'm sure that's all valid, but I also noticed that much of this came from people who hadn't invested much time in the technology yet. Sure it's frustrating, and sure Winer thinks the tools are slow to develop. But most barriers to participation are now barriers of interest and commitment... sez me, anyway...
Meme: Simple, simple, simple.
Mental note: Write a post explaining the link between quantum physics, quorum sensing, individual and group states of conscious, cooperative evolution, the holographic brain, civilization, the blogosphere and the future. Essential, the blogosphere may represent a kind of evolutionary step, that, if it becomes self-conscious in real time, could rewrite all the rules of society overnight... No, really...
Mindblower: None.
Overheard: "So, what are you going to do with your $2 million?" -- first question posed to Winer. (His reply: "It's $2.3 million.")
FOURTH SESSION: CREATIVE BRANDING AND MARKETING with Michael David Cobb Bowen
Good topic, but I was fading, thinking about holographic brains and real-time epistemology, informatics tools, dinner...
Memes: Get together; get creative; graffitti can be good marketing
Mindblower: Dude, there's an online website that will make a cartoon strip for you that you don't even have to draw.
Mindblower part deux: Dude, there are black Republicans who aren't on the payroll of the Bush administration!
Quote: "The digital divide is no longer an economic problem; it's a marketing problem." -- Michael Bowen.
Fun fact: Every time Bowen walks into a bar, he sizes up who is going to be trouble if a fight breaks out!
Quorum sensing, group selection, and blogosphere - you are onto something here. Please write that post - I promise to link to it (and add copious commentary). I was going to do something similar and collected a bunch of links and stuff when my computer died. After getting a new computer I was too lazy to collect all the material again. So, you do it!
Posted by: coturnix | Friday, October 14, 2005 at 08:35