I feel that I need that technological “reboot” more than ever but the big question is should I make the investment? Thinking out loud, it is an investment in myself…

Now you got me thinking…  What to do…  Decisions, decisions…

I don’t really have much to say about this year’s festivities other than what has already been said all over the Internet. I hate to say it, but for me, the highlight of this year’s conference was getting to hang out my regular group of friends in Seattle (and not the actual conference itself). Was I completely disappointed? Absolutely not. There were a handful of speakers who were good (Guy Kawasaki and Ignite Seattle were my favorites) and I got to see more of Seattle than I was able to over the past several of years.

Maybe things need to be mixed up?

I think part of the general apathetic feeling that is going on around this year’s Gnomedex is that things need to be changed up a bit.

The event has been at the same location for the past three years (for as long as it has been hosted in Seattle). The kick-off party has always been at the Odyssey Maritime Center. Bell Harbor Conference Center is a great facility and the perfect size for the event, but for those of who attend every year (and I would guess that is the majority of attendees) maybe it needs to be somewhere else? We all end up sitting in the same seats as we do year after year (no one’s fault but our own, I know!). Even the pastries at the continental breakfast each morning are the same year after year (though, those almond-y ones are very good!). :)

I know it’s Chris‘ current hometown, but in my opinion, a change of venue and maybe even moving the event away from Seattle would really re-boot things. I was at the last Gnomedex in Iowa (back in 2003!) and loved the fact that the majority of the people in attendance had to make a conscious effort to get there. The room was full of people from all over which brought a lot of dynamics and energy that really worked well with the speaker line-up. Although I wasn’t there, I heard the same things about Gnomedex 4 that took place in Lake Tahoe.

So what about next year?

I think that I’m going to wait and see what the speaking line-up/plans for next year are. While a lot of what Gnomedex is about are the conversations (hallway, back-channel, at the parties, etc), the speakers who are on stage set the tone/theme. This year’s set of speakers did not set that tone. The hallway conversations weren’t the excited-what’s-next type of conversations. The clique’s retreated to themselves since there wasn’t much to talk about other than “how crazy” the keynote, etc were.

Now that I’m typing all of this out I’m realizing that maybe because so much is the same year after year, I’m/we are expecting the same type of conference year after year?

Anyways, I just wanted to write some of these thoughts down since I was thinking about them a lot. You may agree with me or you may not. I know Chris and Ponzi put a ton of effort and energy into the event each year and really respect their dedication. There was just something about the vibe this year that didn’t make it a stand out year for me.

I think the feelings I have about Gnomedex 2007 come from my attendance of several over the last couple of years and people who attended for their first time may have a completely different set of thoughts/feelings. Regardless, I’m still anxiously looking forward to what Mr. Pirillo has up his sleeve for 2008.

If you want to follow things (LIVE!), I highly suggest checking out http://live.pirillo.com (everything is being streamed live) or keep your eye’s on Robert Scoble’s Twitter w/Friends page… He is following over 5,000 people on Twitter (and I’m guessing the majority of these users are either here or watching live).

More info on the new house/neighborhood, all of the personal projects I’ve got going on, music I’m listening to, “stuff” I’m watching, games I’m playing and lots more will be coming real soon around here.

and just an FYI to my non-nerd friends: Gnomedex is next week (already!?!), so prepare to be up to year ears in “geek” towards the end of next week. Just a warning. :)

My picture is in a post on Steve Rubel’s Micro Persusasion site today (along with Matt and JR… oh, yeah, there’s Matt Mullenweg and the one of the “crazy uncles” in front of us ~ wait, aren’t “links dead”?) :)

The post is about Nielsen banning blogging at a conference of their’s this past week. Steve has a good point about conferences like Gnomedex that have started becoming very popular due to their exposure from everyone blogging.

Hell, that’s one of the best parts about going to events like Gnomedex: being able to join in the conversation (well, that and the possibility that a crowd shot that includes you nerding out in the second row shows up on a farily popular website)… :)

- The local crew has a couple of tricks up their sleeves which will be announced soon
- TechCocktail happened last week and was a huge success
- I’ve been working on a new site personally that hopefully will launch soon
- The first official BarCamp in Chicago is this coming weekend

I was on the fence regarding BarCamp due to some personal obligations, etc. but I think I have clearance from the tower to be there on Saturday, 07.15.2006. Are you planning on being there? If so, let me know…

Dave Winer (scripting.com):
- Frightened by John Edwards on the front of the Seattle PI
- Desktop Publishing -> Web
- “Quitting blogging to do something new”

Philip “Pud” Kaplan (pud.com):
- FuckedCompany
- Building buzz on the internet
- More sites are popping up everyday, just for places to place ads
- Don’t you have any journalistic integrity? “I’m a programmer, so no.”
- Took VC money and didn’t spend it. Put it in the bank. “We’re getting 4% interest!” :)
- Building buzz: online community
- The 2 Live Crew phenomena ~ set up email address and emailed to the discussion list “It’s so fucked up, you should see this site!”
- Write about some group. Everyone from that group is going to go to that site.
- Blogs have dead-ends. Make users feel like they need to come back.
- FC had game to bet on what companies were going to go out of business.
- Mobog ~ pull pictures onto your site
- If you’re gonna plaster ads on your site and make $2.00 a day, you’re alienating yourself

Chris Messina (factoryjoe.com) and Tara Hunt (horsepigcow.com):
- “Think Small”
- “you can fail more cheaply than ever”
- nichification
- build something you need
- build it with a community
- barcamp
- winecampcalaveras.com
- Small Success
- “Succeed without a giant liquidity event”
- “the long tail is chunky”
- www.dogster.com
- www.30boxes.com
- “serve niches really well”
- The definition of success is being able to work from home, stay with my family and still make the mortgage payment (I’ll need to come back to this sometime) :)
- superhappydevhouse.org
- Gnomedex is an independent success
- Seth Godin’s “The Bootstrappers Bible” – http://www.changethis.com

Ethan Kaplan (blackrimglasses.com):
- http://murmurs.com – REM fan site
- The culture where the fan and the band are no different
- http://headautomatica.com (Official band site on left/Fan site on the right-hand side)
- site has a “what is this tagging things” help page
- “Explain Technorati to a 16 year old”
- Discussion boards and email lists don’t matter to 16 year olds anymore

Kaliya ~ Gnomedex MVP (kaliyasblogs.net):
- Communities

Who has Gnomedex rumors to keep me occupied while I wait for my flight?  :)