JeffreyBarke.net

There were two New York Times articles posted today that I found interesting in themselves, but more interesting when considered together.

In the first one, Al Gore states, forget about "gee-whiz stuff," "Web 2.0 has to have a purpose."

"The purpose, I would urge all of you—as many of you as are willing to take it up—is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth," Mr. Gore said Friday evening at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

While I have no desire to discuss a "higher level of consciousness about our planet," I do find it interesting that Al Gore wants to circumscribe the "purpose" of "Web 2.0" and that he dismisses so much of what actually accomplishes. This sentiment really hit me when I read the NYT article on how Obama "wondered if social networking, with its tremendous communication capabilities and aggressive database development, might help him beat the overwhelming odds facing him."

Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans.

Web 2.0 clearly has a purpose—communication. The question is not what the purpose is, but how to effectively use it. Something that Barack Obama clearly seems to grasp, but Al Gore?

Look at their websites (Barack Obama, Al Gore) and check out their Twitter accounts (Barack Obama, Al Gore). Who really gets the purpose of Web 2.0?

Rocketboom on the implications of ICANN's decision to approve almost unrestricted TLD creation earlier this year.

• OpenNIC Project—an alternate Network Information Center/Alternative DNS root to the legacy ICANN.
• Open Root Server Confederation (ORSC)—publishes an alternative to the US government DNS root zone.

Source: http://www.rocketboom.com/rb_08_oct_01/

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