Hey
it's 6 a.m. - I'm awake, how about you? Didn't get much sleep last
night after getting togeter for a drink with a group that
included Om Malik, Paul Kedrosky, Todd "Turbo"Carter, Tris Hussey,
Jeremy Wright, Stowe Boyd, Tom Williams, David Davies and Gregory
Narain. It's going to be a great couple of days, and I can't wait to
get started.
9:00 a.m.: Om Malik kicked off mesh in fine
fashion with his take on the future of the media. A big challenge and
issue facing new and old world media is what kind of advertising models
will emerge. Like many people, Om firmly believes a new advertising
paradigm needs to emerge to supplement AdSense,
which doesn't work for many people (Who are those people who click on
AdSense ads anyway?). It was quasi-funny to hear Om lament the growing
reality of RSS, which means people consume content - be it blogs,
vblogs and podcats - without seeing any of the advertising that
surrounds it. Bottom line from Om's keynote: lots of question, lots of challenges, lots
of opportunity.
10:00 a.m.: So, if you want to be engaged and educated at a conference, go to any keynote featuring Michael Geist. I spent most of my time writing down the names of the Web sites that Geist mentioned, including Cineclix, kyouradio, Opensource.org, Postsecret.com, Fanfiction.net and Soundclick.com. Geist's focus had much to do with content sharing and how copyright has a role to play on the Web and how it can be managed. Rob Hyndman did a great job having a conversation with Geist, although the idea of having two lawyers talking to each other should always be handled with care....:)
12:00: 15MOF was...well, interesting. Colin Howe of Pixpo.com announced his media-sharing services company has raised $6.5-million - an amazing feat for a Canadian tech company focused on the consumer. Fantastic stuff, Colin. Ellisa Gjertson of areyoufrank.com had an interesting presentation that was exactly five minutes but left some people what areyoufrank actually does. (I still don't know so I'll have to check it out later today). Craig Fitzpatrick of Devshop.com (a software project management tool) provided a nice overview and gently invited VCs to seek him out. Oh, before I forget, mesh's own Michael Mcderment unveiled the new name for his online invoicing company - FreshBooks. So far, I've been blow away by everyone's enthusiasm and energy. It's so rewarding to hear feedback about how well they liked each sessions - something that's impossible to guage when you are trying to put together a conference panel.
There's lot of mesh blogging going on: here and Steve Rubel, who described me as "grilling" Om....::
More later.....probably a new post.