I’m back in Brighton. At least, my body is back in Brighton. I would appear to have left a good proportion of my heart in Austin, Texas.
I didn’t have much time to blog anything directly from the event. There was simply to much to do. There were the panels of course. More importantly, there were some seriously amazing people to meet.
I’ve never met so many wonderful people gathered together in one place. It was tribal in the true sense of the word (that would be the cool, fun-loving sense as opposed to the hippy-dippy sense). I think I’ll be putting together the mother of all metrolls.
Three technologies ruled over suckswuh.
The first was, naturally, WiFi. I attempted to find the right word to describe the coverage in Austin: "drenched", "bathed", "swimming", "dripping". Bruce Sterling used "marinated" in his closing remarks.
Following on from that was Rendezvous. My second iChat window went from being a lonely, provincial outpost to being Grand Central Station at rush hour. It was oodles of fun but also remarkably useful.
The third technology that achieved a tipping point in my brain was Flickr. I have become addicted to it. During the conference, I used it to keep track of what everyone had been getting up to. It was always with a sense of trepidation that I scanned the pictures in the morning, fearful of finding some evidence of the previous night’s more embarrassing moments.
I am now officially drinking the Flickr kool-aid. And I don’t mean one of those wimpy free accounts either. It’s "pro" all the way for me.
I’ve put up some of my photos here in the walled garden that is adactio. I’ve put more of my photos up in the open, sharing, downright utopian environment of Flickr. My next step will be investigating the API and subjugating it to my will.
These technologies were cool but it was the people that made the time so special. The combined might of WiFi, Rendezvous and Flickr were as nought when compared to the awesome power of so much wetware gathered together in meatspace at one time.
I stupidly didn’t bring any business cards with me which was rather unfortunate as I definitely don’t want to lose touch with people. Please, please, please download my vcard and keep in touch.
Now, with all the sleep deprivation and jet lag catching up with me, I simply must crash. To sleep, perchance to dream sweet dreams of Texas.