The Order of the Fez was in full blossom in 2008 so my pal Jamie Nelson and I agreed to bring the sacred headgear to the Gnomedex geekfest that year. One of the attendees was a professional photographer and we have him to thank for these fine image.
In a few days I make my annual pilgrimage to Seattle for Gnomedex (“a technology conference of inspiration and influence”). This is the only conference I attend and it’s important enough that I pay my expenses when necessary. I consider it a valuable investment (and tax deduction).
It’s a very small conference. Maybe 300 people? Brief bios of this year’s speakers give you some idea of the eclectic nature of Gnomedex. Here’s how one hoary attendee described the event:
“Every year I come back from Gnomedex with a sense of perspective. A better understanding of where I am on the technology continuum (for lack of a better term)… Attending Gnomedex is like cresting a hill and –for just a few minutes– I can see some of the smart kids way off on the horizon, running toward the future. I won’t catch them, but it’s nice to get a glimpse every now and then.” [More on the Gnomedex philosophy]
This is an easy conference to keep up with. This is the conference where I first heard about blogging, Twitter, social media and so much more that has become part of our lives. These are the geeks who come up with these little time munchers. I have no idea what I’ll learn this year but I’m all tingly with anticipation.
I doubt there’s any shortage of scholarly papers on the sociological and anthropological effects of the mobile phone. I’ve never had a desire to search out and read any of them.
But my interest was piqued by Amber Case, one of the attendees at Gnomedex 8.0. A recent graduate, Amber describes her area of work and study as “Cyborg Anthropology.” Ooh. She was kind enough to send me a copy of her thesis: “The Cell Phone and Its Technosocial Sites of Engagement.” Here’s a snippet from the introduction:
“Mobile telephony has ushered in social geographies that are no longer entirely public or entirely private. The mobile phone allows place to exist in non-place, and privacy to exist in public. Never before have people been able to disembody their voices and talk across any distance, in almost any place. Cell phone technology has thus changed the dichotomies of place and non-place as well as the private and public dichotomies into a technological-human hybrid.”
I think I’ve had a whiff of this idea from all the time I spend communicating online. And when I break down and graft an iPhone to my hip, it’s only going to get better/worse.
I was immediately taken with the warm-up music at Gnomedex 8.0. I was unfamiliar with it but Jamie recognized it as Hotel Costes.
It’s sort of a funky jazz with a French feel. If I understood Jamie correctly, the music was originally mixed for the hotel on the French Riviera in Paris. This is what you’d hear in the lobby, I guess. You can sample it at last.fm.
Jamie is what my mom was talking about when she said I should start hanging out with a better class of people.
Twitter was clearly the communication tool of choice at Gnomedex. Folks were using it for just about everything. Arranging meet-ups; announcements; and snarky comments/praise for the speakers. I heard several people say they were blogging less and relying more on Twitter.
Just googled "twitter democratic national convention" and see that lots of people will be twittering the Dem’s convention this week. Find someone you trust/enjoy (Rocky Mountain News?) and follow them.
Gnomedex 8.0 has was damned good and it couldn’t have happened without the sponsors above. And these fine companies had the savvy to let Gnomedex control the speakers and the content.
Kris Krug is a fashion and editorial photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His photographs have appeared in JPG Magazine, ION Magazine, Business Week, Wired Magazine, and others. I think he’s kind of a big deal but I’m sure he’s a terrific photographer. His Gnomedex pix are some of the best I’ve seen so far.
Heading for Seattle tomorrow to attend Gnomedex. It’s a get-together for few hundred bloggers, podcasters and tech enthusiasts. I like Gnomedex because it is one of the smaller such conferences. And my pals Jamie and David will be there so it will be sort of "No Sex and the City." That doesn’t work, there’s only three of us. You get the idea.
Historically, I see or hear about things at Gnomedex that go mainstream a year or so later. But that lag seems to be shortening.
Blogging might be light for the next couple of days.
One of the best presentations at last month’s Gnomedex was Guy Kawasaki. He’s a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of eight books, has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He talks about evangelism in this video.