Kitesurfing

Uses Ajax and some other web2.0-ish features.

Ted Shelton: "Frankly I felt that BlogOn was a waste of time and money."

I think the BlogOn conference was overproduced. In the name of professionalism the organizing firm turned off potential speakers, oversubscribed sponsors, etc.

I would have liked a debatable topic (aside from *blogging = journalism*. Two people slugging it out. Or a devil's advocate taking challenges from the floor.

I would have liked more hard numbers. Facts. Charts. Diagrams. We have the analytic tools to BS-check them; harder on vague opinions and single-points-of-observation.

I found it disturbing how much money was being commanded (from both attendees and sponsors) for a conference at a university. Maybe it was because it was at Berkeley? Maybe we should have taken over a community college or a Cal State or a DeVry. The facilities costs would have been cheaper at least. I heard an organizer apologize and say the next one would be at a hotel, like that would have been better.

Cost wasn't the whole problem. We're at a stage where early adopters are meeting folks who want to leap the chasm. Huge gaps in knowledge, experience, context, culture, vocabulary. It's the gap.

There are huge ideas to be explored, even in the world of applying blogs to media strategy and the enterprise. And most of the big ideas weren't even on the agenda at BlogOn. Probably because it was catering to those who want to commercialize, fund, and otherwise exploit (excuse me, "get in on") the emerging medium.

Let's fork these conferences so advanced topics on business and technology and culture fit the participants. 

[a klog apart]

- In Part 3 of his SOA series Eric Giguere explores how to do SOA when the target device does not support Web Services (JSR 172). Dig in to learn what your options are.

After being oh-so-predictably sued by six movie studios, RealNetworks is now just as predictably banned by a judge from selling its weirdly anachronistic DVD-ripping RealDVD program. At least until Tuesday, so the judge can review the filings to determine just how boneheaded it is.

In a small victory for Real, they got the case moved out of the studio-infested Central District to California's Northern District court. Now they just have to convince the studios and the judge that the extra DRM sprinkles it piles on top of the rips make RealDVD totally kosher. [Electronista]

I have just moved my personal site over to a new Typepad location.  You are all welcome to visit.

The site's archive will remain intact here until I can figure out how to map it to a new location.