the ryan king

I just got into work today, and what do I see? Bill Gates just mentioned microformats on stage.

I’m constantly amazed at the amount of attention the microformats project gets. I guess this raises things up another notch, though.

Wow, I’ve had a great time at SxSW so far.

I got here last friday and went straight into party mode and haven’t stopped yet.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday I went to a bunch of panels, most of which were very interesting. I also met a bunch of people (who’s cards I’ve collected and need to email sometime) and made new friends (and dodgeball connections) from all over the place. And that was just the first part of the week.

As Interactive wound down, all the web geeks started rolling out and a new crowd began to arrive, now the town is overrun with music industry people and music fans and, most importantly, musicians.

Starting yesterday its been all rock, all the time. Just yesterday I saw The Slip and Denague Fever at Emo’s Annex, Calla at Red Eye Fly, Aberdeen City at Dirty Dog Bar, Brightblack Morning Light and The New Pornographers at Stubb’s and then…

The Flaming Lips!!!!

The Flaming Lips played a secret show at Fox and Hound at 11PM last night and I got to see it! Kris and Buzz have photos (they got up on stage to take them!).

After that, I planned on walking over to Emo’s main room to see Trail of the Dead, but I totally crashed, so I headed back to the hotel for some rest.

I’ve also seen a couple films– yesterday I watched LOL, a film about what happens when people are addicted to the interweb and it causes drama in their face-to-face lives. Not to name names, but the guy sitting next to me totally missed half the movie while playing with his crackberry.

This morning, I saw The Refugee All-star Band a film about Liberian refugees in Guinea who formed a band while living in refugee camps. The best parts? The band was sitting in the row right in front of me, took questions during the Q&A and will be performing tonight! They’re worth seeing live.

Anyway, off to more music, later.

I’ts 4am, why am I up already? (or am I still up?)

I’m headed to SFO, catch a flight to Austin, joining in the general migration of web geeks that happens this time each year.

That’s right, I’m going to South by Southwest, where I look forward to 4 days of web-geekery, followed by 4 days of rock-’n-roll geekery.

If you want to get in touch with me during this time, call or text me at +1-415-260-1398.

I’m just gonna come out at say it: MashupCamp took what was a great thing, co-opted it and sold it out. I know, I was there.

On news.com.com.com.com today, there’s a pretty silly puff piece about the camp, focusing mainly on David Berlind, one of the organizers (who happens to work for the same company as the publication who published the article).

The article talks about the unique nature of MashupCamp, how it was somewhat free-form, where the attendees created the experience as the event unfolded, rather than having it all planned up front. And the article makes it sound as if David Berlind invented the concepts.

That’s bullshit.

Last August, me and some friends instigated an event called BarCamp, in which we took the same approach– no pre planning of discussions/panels/sessions and lose organization. But, we didn’t invent the concept, we borrowed it, without apology, from FooCamp, “Friends of O’Reilly” Camp, which was running at the same time (I’ll tell more of that story later.).

They had great idea, which was inspired, I’m sure, by Open/Free software communities. FooCamp’s great, we took their ideas, but we also did it in 6 days, for a couple thousand dollars!

Less than 10 people, six days, a few thousand dollars!

Let me repeat: few, fast, cheap!

Oh yeah, and about 300 people showed up.

Let me repeat, three-hundred.

The formula’s been repeated, too, with subsequent BarCamps in other locations - few, fast and cheap works.

So, then comes MashupCamp, which is planned in ‘a couple of months,’ has corporate sponsors but still asks attendees for donations, has a closed attendee list (not all of which actually show up) and it gets billed as ‘the new thing’. Please. This is ridiculous.

Update: I forgot, ‘MashupCamp’ has actually been trademarked, too. Lame. (thanks for the reminder Chris).

Update: Eugene Kim says it better than I can:

But what most people fail to get is that you can’t just steal the name and the format, slap together a Wiki, and expect to replicate the spirit of the original event, just as you can’t just slap an OpenSource license on a piece of software and expect the hacker community to shower you with love. You need to be authentic.