While the Kodak Theater in Hollywood typically plays host to actual celebrities at the annual Academy Awards, last week's 140 Characters Conference in Hollywood brought together a different set of notable names: the Twitterati. Jeff Pulver's first event in a series taking place around the world drew together entertainment folks, journalists, poker players and even police chiefs, all talking about how they use Twitter to spread information, market themselves and connect with a new audience.
In some ways, it's a miracle that anyone had a face-to-face conversation at the event, which was organized as a quick-fix series of 15-minute panels, what with everyone firmly looking down, typing and texting away to record the two-day event in real time.
On the third and final day of the ninth annual Gnomedex conference in Seattle, Washington, the tired but ever-ready members of the ReadWriteWeb gang convened to dish some dirt about the apps, hardware, speakers, and fellow attendees they'd seen over the weekend.
From a 3D printer churning out plastic copies of Darth Vader's head to the show's most geektastic game (hint: not Rock Band this time), Gnomedex left very little to be desired from our intrepid staff. Gather around and hear the tale of another great conference from Marshall Kirkpatrick, Steven Walling, Frederic Lardinois, and Jolie O'Dell.
When the open source convention OSCON decided to move from Portland, Oregon to San Jose last year, the open source citizens of Portland set about developing their very own "conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way". And since Portland is a hub of the open source community, an army of volunteers and organizers were able to put together a three day conference called Open Source Bridge. With its focus on open source citizenship, its innovative track structure for sessions, an all-night hacker lounge and peer-produced conference software, Open Source Bridge was not only a success, but plans are already underway for next year's conference.
Tom Tague from Thomson Reuters' OpenCalais team did a keynote speech today at SemTech in San Jose. His presentation was a wonderful wrapup of current semantic technology trends, and what we can expect over the next few years.
To open, he said that where we are now in the evolution of the Web is content rich, but information poor - plus "experientially deficient". He suggested that 'web 3.0' is about cleaning up the mess of web 2.0 and improving interfaces. In terms of semantic technology, he explained that over the past 5 years it has evolved from invention of standards to a period of commercial innovation on top of those inventions. While standards are still being worked on, now "we are at an inflection point where innovation is exploding."
At Social Media Camp last week in New York City, the real-world value of social media was a hot topic for attendees. Questions about ROI (that's return on investment for all you vehemently anti-corporate and possibly broke folks) abounded, and true experts were on hand to answer.
One such expert, Howard Greenstein, has a mile-long rap sheet in social media and web work that reaches back into the mid-nineties. He is known for his unique blend of experience and enthusiam, both of which he brings to this video conversation about how businesses and brands can use social media.
At Social Media Camp 2009, Dan Zarrella of HubSpot gave a well-attended presentation about the etiquette and very real-world value of retweets. Although every power user's ego heart swells with pride with each of these 140-character validations he receives, the small- and medium-sized business owners using Twitter for marketing have a much more tangible interest at stake.
There are Twitter Terms of Service that help dictate how content is shared, and there are generally accepted community guidelines for attribution. Zarrella shared his researched insights on how to get more retweets and leverage Twitter to increase mindshare and drive traffic. He also talked about the value of Twitter as compared to other social networks in terms of conversion.
At the May 8 BIGOmaha conference in Nebraska, web celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk took a few moments to talk to us about his experience at the small-town show, his new consultancy with his brother, and the expected arrival of a new Vaynerchuk.
"People on the coasts get spoiled," Vaynerchuk said. "There's always things going on in LA, San Fran, New York. Not to say 'Omaha's lucky to have us.' Please. I'm not going in that direction. But there was definitely a great spirit in the room. People drove from two or three hours to be here. It was a very uplifting aspect."
Yesterday in the gorgeous Nebraska sunshine, about 300 techies, entrepreneurs, and creatives from all over the country gathered in a large but simple room to learn, listen, and make connections.
The one-day, one-track show was just a hashtag to some and entirely unknown to others; still, the pre-show buzz on Twitter and in various blogs had resonated with freshness, immediacy, and inspiration. A week before it opened, the first-ever BIGOmaha conference was sold out.
There are dozens of tech conferences to attend in any given year. So why in the world would you choose BIGOmaha, an obscure little show in Nebraska?
Next weekend marks the offbeat "tech et al." conference's first year, and it already stands in stark contrast to more established shows in the same sphere. Co-organizer Jeff Slobotski says that while the events are not solely about tech, they are definitely about passion and innovation. "We're not trying to be another South by Southwest or Web 2.0," he said. "Our goal is to have a tight-knit, solid event and to build a vibrant community."
Digg, which has spent four years trying to level the playing field and democratize media, will soon receive a facelift. According to Kevin Rose, Digg's founder and chief architect, the site, which hasn't changed much since its inception, will be putting a "stake in the ground this year and making some big changes."
Speaking to the Ad:Tech audience in San Francisco today, Rose talked about Digg's future saying ads need to be more interactive, print can't be saved, online publishers are in an incredible position and the importance of power users may be underestimated.
Update: Digg starts rolliing out its own ads
