Blogs

After a longer than expected drive with Dave Olson of Elastic Path and Will Pate of Flock from Vancouver we got to Seattle and checked in to Edgewater Hotel. Then headed over to the opening reception. It was great to see so many Canadians down here, the crew from Bryght and RainCity were in full force after wrapping up DrupalCamp.

Friday morning I slept in a bit but got here in time for Michael Arrington’s talk. Seems the hype and/or buzz is alive and well, Seattle must have Kool-Aid factory near by. Amont other things Michael defined his rules for success:

1. Makes Money (giant liquidity event – thanks Boris)
2. Makes the internet a better place to hang out.

I suppose the second is subjective (I never use Digg or find it that useful but it’s a traffic juggernaut and Michael loves it) , but the first is not;-) It was interesting to see the different opinions even amongst folks building consumer services online. Michael is certainly sure of his model and views…he even told an audience member their opinion was a bad one;-) Ouch.

Dave Dederer (founding member of the President of the United States of America) gave and interesting talk comparing the blog-o-sphere to bands and comparing and contrasting the two spaces. Basically how to share and Marc Canter on Apple “their slimeballs!” Ethan from WB on musicians “Musicians get a lot of sex, which is an interesting predicament.”

Senator John Edwards talked to the group, nad he was relieved the plan had changed and he was not giving a keynote. He was very big on net neutrality and using the new internet for political goals and issues. “If the democratic party wants this country (USA) we’re going to have show a little back bone and courage…” I’m not sure but I think people say that kinda stuff all the time;-)

I’m won’t be blogging detailed notes from every talk but, I’ll keep puling out a few little bits of interest from each talk and provide links.

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