05.11.2005

Events

Contagious Media Showdown

I attended the Contagious Media Workshops at Eyebeam in Chelsea this past weekend. The event was hosted by none other than Eyebeam R&D director, Joshua Peretti. The workshops were conducted by web digerati including Joshua Schacter of del.icio.us fame; Michael Frumin, creator of fundrace.org and ReBlog; Cameron Marlow, known for the popular Blogdex; fellow ITP alum, Paul Berry, known for the viral satirical site, Dog Island.

Yes, it was a geekfest. And, watching team Frumin and Schacter punch through server logs to harvest and interpret data was like watching a guy trying to impress a girl by revealing the mechanics under the hood of his car. Yes, their technical know-how is impressive, but, I also found myself more drawn to the stuff under the hood. I left the workshops feeling rather emasculated.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate their work -- quite the opposite, in fact. I have tremendous respect for the way they apply their time, energy and intelligence to develop applications that improve, enrich or enlighten society.

Additional resources on contagious media:

• contagiousmedia.org
• Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell
• Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means, by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

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