LIFT was today and yesterday here in Geneva. Happens to be where I live, and happens to be where Hugh Macleod of Gapingvoid was giving a speech about blogging, etc. So, at the end of the afternoon, after some shenanigans with the SAP world, I went down to the conference centre, and met with Hugh, whom I have not been in the same room with for six years, but with old friends, that`s not a big deal. Had a coffee, chatted about where everyone that we knew is now, what`s happening, etc. Hugh looked very happy, and it was good to see him again.
Then, because LIFT is a first time venue, the crowd was a manageable size. (They were oversubscribed, but kept to their numbers.) I suspect it will be a bigger crowd next year.
First person that we bumped into was Cory Doctorow. He needs no introduction from me, but we chatted the three of us for a few minutes, and I was struck by his intelligence. Seems like an odd thing to say, as in the course of the working lives that many of us lead, we meet many smart people, but he is very incisive.
Talking about the venue, in Geneva, which is the CICG, he looked around him and said:
"If I had a cobalt bomb I would let it off here, it would advance the freedom of the Internet by ten years." (For the hard of thinking, this is an ironic comment.)
Of course, he meant the ITU, and the WIPO, which are within a few hundred metres of the conference venue, in fact in the case of the ITU, right next to it.
I also mention that like many people I have a novel gathering pixie dust on my hard disc, and he has found a good way to be a self-publisher with credibility. He mentioned that the "slush pile" in the average publisher is good for about one publishable book, per year. On Live Journal, they might find two. That`s scary.
Not much wonder that Sci-Fi is a money loosing proposition. In fact, that kind of puts the whole content meme right into context. Sci-Fi novels are like anything else. Finding the novel, the music, and the movies that are free that are worth reading/watching/playing needs the whole peer review thing to kick in. Otherwise it`s a fanfic hell-hole of unreadable unlistenable derivative crap.
Also, I mentioned that living in Geneva could cut you off from the cultural mainstream. Yay! Internet! He told a joke that made me laugh.
"How many people from Toronto does it take to change a light bulb?"
*shrug*
"Two, one to change the bulb, and the other to go to New York and check if light bulbs are still cool or not."
Uh-Huh.
Also met with Sig Rinde of Thingamy. He has some interesting stuff on the go, with the tagging stuff, and so on, but more on that when I have had time to work out what the software really does. We (Hugh, Sig and I) will meet for lunch tomorrow, and then I can have a look at it. Sig himself, is a man that I was pleased to meet, as he reminds me very much of some of my Norwegian outlaws. I like the Scandinavian world-view, and the emphasis on what the Finns would call Sisu, or Quiet Focus.
More on Sig anon, as I get closer to the core of what he is doing, as I suspect that he and I will have a lot to talk about.
And finally, listened to a presentation and speech by Robert Scoble. He is making a few very good points that I agree with. His main point is that information in the current age is best delivered with the adage "warts and all" In other words show the world what you are good at, and what you are bad at, and they will forgive you much. His presentation also mentioned aspects of the internal corporate paranoia that attends the explicit disclosure of information. (On an unrelated point, one of the problems I have with my own blogging are the rules about corporate disclosures about sales, and the rules about the recognition of revenues on products under development. In other words the legislation designed to bring transparency, has a chilling effect.)
All in all, I was very much reminded of the theory of the Erdos Number. In other words I watched the number one on Technorati, the major Microsoft blogger, and the UK`s biggest marketing blogger having a chat. Communities do not depend on six degrees of separation, but a few (socially) promiscuous individuals.
And the people at the back blogging real-time? "Give your brains a chance..."
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