JeffreyBarke.net

There's an interesting article on the new nerd culture in today's New York Times. Night Life Reprogrammed by Allen Salkin is primarily about the recent IgniteNYC event (including an audio slide show and video), but it also touches on changes within the internet producer social scene:

Something new is happening in the Silicon Alley night. A decade ago, a typical party for New York techies would be held at a glitzy club to celebrate the start of a Web site. There might be minor celebrities, go-go dancers, an open bar and pricey giveaways all to build brand-awareness, which, it was believed, would somehow, someday, lead to profitability.

But when the Internet bubble collapsed, so did the Silicon Alley 1.0 party scene. What remained was more buttoned-down and sedate. Cybersuds, a low-key monthly networking party, started in 1994 at a TriBeCa bar, evolved into a formal technology conference and then around 2003 disappeared.

Now, young Internet entrepreneurs, some holdouts from the old days and a few members of the city's creative class (and underclass) are engaged in a new type of party, which mashes together Silicon Alley 1.0's camaraderie and optimism, meetup.com’s spontaneity and informality, Burning Man’s home-brewed creativity, and a technology conference’s devotion to unveiling ideas. These days many of the ideas are about producing and delivering video content.

Via NYC Resistor