I'm sorry but this short news tv piece about Leet speak is crazy funny in one sense and horribly sad in another. Once again they just don't get it and it really shows.
Code v.2.0 launched today
Lawrence Lessig just launched Code version 2.0 today and best of all he released it under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
So Code v2 is officially launched today. Some may remember Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, published in 1999. Code v2 is a revision to that book — not so much a new book, as a translation of (in Internet time) a very old book. Part of the update was done on a Wiki. The Wiki was governed by a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. So too is Code v2.
Thus, at http://codev2.cc, you can download the book. Soon, you can update it further (we're still moving it into a new wiki). You can also learn a bit more about the history of the book, and aim of the revision. And finally, there are links to buy the book — more cheaply than you likely can print it yourself.
Lessig is already asking for remixes, which is great because I'm certainly going to convert it so it works on my phone soon.
Summary of the BBC Backstage London Christmas Bash
Some of you might notice this is almost a copy of the summary on the backstage blog, but I've added bits which I felt were best left for a personal blog.
Thank you to everyone who turned up and made this our most successful event to date.
We had started very early on Saturday afternoon packing bags thanks all the people who signed up and helped out before the doors opened.
We did open the doors on time and did turn some people away because they were not on the main guest list, which was a big regret on our part but those were the rules we specified in the emails. After 8pm the venue was open for anyone who wanted to enter.
Once we said a few welcome and thanks speeches it was back on with the party and a night of endless chatting and djs playing all types of music. There was even some so called dancing…
Our goodie bags were packed with stuff and enjoyed by the people who came to the bash. Everyone also got one of our new Backstage T-shirts, which went down well.
There was some interviews at the event, which were done by Chris Vallance of BBC Radio 5 Live's Pods and Blogs. We've put them online for your listening enjoyment
Matthew Cashmore talks about BBC Backstage
Sarah Blow on London Girl Geekdinners and Geek culture
Walid Al Saqqaf talks about Trustedplaces.com
James Cridland talks about Virgin Radio
Ian Forrester talks about London Geekdinners and Geek Media
Matthew Spouce on New Scientist Magazine
Adam Fletcher on Spread Shirt
Nigel Helmeton on Trexy.com
My wife Sarah also wanted to say sorry and explain what happened upstairs which caused her to shout fucking bitch while she headed for the toilet very upset. It would turn out Dedrie from Chinwag had been joking around and took it too far with someone (sarah) who she didn't know.
We have received some fantastic feedback…
And a huge thank you to Ian, Matthew and their team at BBC Backstage for being wonderful hosts. A big thank you as well to our generous sponsors who helped the evening go with a swing by providing us with food, drink and raffle prizes – Admob, Skills Matter, ConnectMeAnywhere, O'Reilly, Trusted Places, Techcrunch UK, and Chinwag.
I just got back from the BBC Backstage Christmas Bash. I went with Adam, who was in London for the night en route to Le Web in Paris. I met some interesting people, some new, some old, drank back some of my licence fee in free beer, and had a pretty good time. We were interviewed by BBC Radio 5 at some point, but Adam thought it would be funnier to wind me up and make me laugh than it would to be on the radio, so I doubt that it'll be aired.
Actually the BBC never paid for any of the drink. We only paid for the venue and food. The Sponsors paid for the drinks and although your laughing might not have got on the radio. We may have found a uncut version for the Backstage community.
John Wilison will you admit to seeing a good side to the BBC now?
Some more comments and emails
To an interesting party tonight courtesy of the folks at BBC Backstage, who were kind enough to manage to get me into this party at moderate last-minute. Lots of fascinating people, some even saying that the party reminded them of the last web boom.
I just wanted to say thanks for organising such a delightful event on Saturday – it seemed to flow supafine from what I could see once we got off the front desk – and I had interesting conversations which is all I care about really, thanks again!
Nicole from HP
Well I can happily report that the BBC Backstage London Christmas Bash was a total success! Ian and the rest of the guys behind the event did a cracking job in organising it. One of the key highlights was the cake for the guys at trustedplaces.com kindly provide. The BBC goody bag was also very cool too
I would like to thank you and your team for organizing such a great party. We had a great time. Thank you.
Josette from O'Reilly
Lots of drinking, Cake and a little dancing from the odd one or two people… As well as speeches and prize giveaways. Oh and not to mention the sear number of people there… There were party bags, t-shirts and we even had santa's little helpers do the party bags.
Sarah Blow from London Girl Geekdinners
Thank you for letting us participate in the BBC Backstage event as sponsors. The cake has generate a good amount of buzz.
Walid from Trusted Places.com
I wanted to thank you for giving Skills Matter the opportunity to be a part of your great party on Saturday evening
Joanna from Skills Matter
Just wanted to drop you a quick note to say thanks for all your hard work organising the backstage bash/geeks christmas party. It was great fun, and nice to see everyone all in one place.
Caz from BBC/Siemens
I went along to the BBC Backstage Christmas party last night. I've posted some photos to Flickr. I'm a Graucho-Marxist curmudgeon who'd never belong to a club that would have me as a member, but I can honestly say thanks to Ian Forrester and his colleagues at Backstage, the sponsors, helpers, and the tireless staff at the Cuban it was a great night.
I did recieve one email (from a sponsor) complaining about the bash.
I write today to express my disappointment to see the information bag sitting in the corner when leaving the BBC party on Saturday…
…On top of this there was only one poster in the whole venue that mentioned us but there where a host of “supported by” posters scattered around…
…I hate to write this negative email but we did hope that as a sponsors we would receive better promotion and because of this we found the evening frustrating.
I have yet to write back because every other sponsor has said thank you very much and they would like to work with us again on the next one.
Finally a selection of our best shots from the bash
Sam Sethi just got fired for comments on Loic at Le Web 3
There's nothing faster that Twitter on these things. I'm really seeing the value in Twitter recently. But to the issue in hand. Yeah I heard all about Le web 3 conference and the crazyness which was going on there. Tom Morris has a post which summaries the feeling across the blogosphere regarding The web 3. Its all split up so I'm going to rip most of it directly
There are downloadable (WMV) videos of many of the sessions so far. Judge for yourself.
This story has hit TechMeme.
Blipverts: “A PR coup for Six Apart in the French press I'm sure, Canal+ even had an outside broadcasting unit set up by the time I entered the centre this morning, but for the international Bloggers who paid to be here it's the final straw. Le Web isn't an international or European blogging conference, it's a standard trade show event which pandered to French political interests.”
Graham Holliday: “Personally, I feel the conference has had the life sucked out of it by the egoism and ambition of certain individuals running the show and those hopping on the conference bike for a free publicity ride.”
Robin Hamman: “Unlike Le Meur, and apparently oblivious to him, those guys from Belgium and a lot of other people sitting where I am haven't managed to crack a smile all day.”
Tom Raftery: “What really annoyed everyone was the fact that the conference was completely hijacked and changed from a conference about new web technologies into a presidential campaign for the next French election. Two of the candidates, Nikolas Sarkozy and Fran�ois Bayrou were parachuted in to the conference schedule at the last minute, displacing other speakers.”
Nicole Simon: “If you have an audience like this and a standing like this in Europe for this conference you invest some time in making the the program. This obviously has not happened. Which is why i have an amount of political content i never wanted to see nor wanted to attend and everything else got pushed aside because of that – without me having really a choice through this… Loic Lemeur has sold out his european peer group for some cheap headlines in french politics – if at all. He has destroyed trust and confidence in a way I have never seen this before.”
Alex Papanastassiou: “we basically lost energy and momentum because some bunch of French politicians wanted to do themselves some public relations and build an image of modernity. If they are modern they ought to go for conversations, not top-down broadcasts of official truths and by the way accept questions for the audience, Mr Sarkozy”
Adam Fletcher: “Theres a lot of negativity around le web today, the conference room is half empty and people seem more than a little disgruntled”. Also: “So alot of time is wasted pimping the panelists companies rather than engaging in discussion”.
David Weinberger (who speaks later) on Sarkozy: “I feel like i've been lectured by a guy who has no actual understanding of the Internet.”
Shane Richmond: “On the other hand there are plenty of people here who see today's appearances as a cynical political exercise that has derailed the conference. Loic's employers, Six Apart, apparently make a lot of their money in France selling blogs to politicians so perhaps there is an explanation in there somewhere… Many delegates are angry that, having spent a lot of money to come here and talk about the web, they are watching political broadcasts instead”
Dieter Rappold: “I am disapointed. I am disappointed of you, this conference and I will never attend LesBlogs/LeWeb anymore – But as I imagine you won't give a damn, as you don't give a damn about your audience as it seems.”
James Higgs: “In theory, Le Web 3 was supposed to be a place for the people on the bleeding edge of European Web 2.0 innovation to come together and discuss the way ahead. Instead, it has turned into a parade of politicians, product anouncements and a complete lack of any type of disagreement or debate… Despite all this negativity, there has been one big positive. I must say that the food has been extremely impressive.”
Sam Sethi: “The speakers are all saying the same old thing and nothing new… Overall the event feels like it has run its course just like the Web 2.0 conference earlier this year. Le Web 4 will be a hard sell, certainly as far as I am concerned”
Peter Forret: “I did not pay over Euro 600 to come and listen to self-involved French politicians talk about why they want to run for president”
Ivan Pope: “I don't know how much rumbling of discontent there's been – but frankly I didn't pay my conference fee to be pitched by politicians. I think the organisers should put their egos away and resist the blandishments of all politicians”. And more: “Same old same old. Same old stories, same old corporate speakers. And same old friends of the organisers. It's like a love-in for a closed circle, with no fresh thinking or any challenge to the status quo.”
Adam Tinworth: “Here we go, another session about the death of Old Media, with four new media types and a single old media chap as the chair. And precious little revealing content.”
Stephanie Booth on Twitter: “I wonder what on earth is going to happen to LeWeb3's program now that politicians and the mainstream press have taken over.”
webpronews thinks Dmoz is dead (via Stephen Cohen). You guys all know what the solutions to thi sare, right? It needs to be turned over to a more competitive model.
Jim Moore has a post on Harvard, OPML and Dave's stint at Berkman.
Robert Andrews has more coverage from Le Web 3.
So once again bullshit gets called on le web/le blogs. Ben has a nice cover of the event too. So what do I think. Well no matter what you say about Sam Sethi, he's always a man in the room and in the crowd. He was perfect for TechCrunch UK. His style in writing was a little brash but it worked well when reviewing startups and services. Mike Arrington has got to be nuts letting him go for calling Loic a arsehole or was actually that Sam walked? Geez we need a Londonwag blog.
John just sent me an update on whats been going on. Mike Arrington writes in Putting TechCrunch UK On Hold, that everything was tollerable till Sam annouced something which was not discussed or approved.
Even though I think at that point Sam had reached the limits of acceptable editorial discretion, it still would not have necessarily resulted in him having to leave TechCrunch. The actions that finally resulted in his dismissal were additional comments he wrote on that second post, announcing “that TechCrunch UK will be doing a series of seminars and a conference next year as well as a series of smaller meetings in conjunction with friends & partners which have been in the planning for sometime now.”
These events were not discussed with me, and certainly were not approved. The fact that he announced and promoted them while trashing a competing event was a clear conflict of interest and was not appropriate. I do not consider this to be ethical behavior.
None of this had to be aired publicly, but Sam chose to write a final post on the blog after he was terminated stating incorrectly that he was being terminated because of the original post. He has also written publicly that he was terminated because he would not comply with my demand to delete a post. That is not accurate. This is driven entirely from Sam’s ethical lapse in trashing a competitor while simultaneously promoting his own events. That’s not acceptable – readers will not be able to determine if he actually believed what he wrote about the conference, or rather exaggerated his opinions to futher his own business interests.
Basic ethical behavior is not subjective. We will not associate with individuals who choose to cross the line.
The blog is on hold until we determine if/when we will hire another editor and continue writing.
I'm sorry but something still seems wrong. Either way, I'm sick of this, we need a techcrunch uk which is based in the uk and has the uk landscape in mind. John made a point that maybe the BBC should do this? I mean its certainly fitting with our public values. I'm not sure how blanaced we could but it certainly could put us back in the new media running. End of the day, I'm not keen on the fact that TechCrunchUK is now on hold, a major uk publication on hold because some american guy decides it. I'm not saying Mike's in over his head or anything, but you can imagine people are saying that Mike has snapped.
On the eve of the BBC Backstage London Christmas Bash
So to everyone out there whos going to the Christmas Bash tomorrow, here's a couple of thoughts on the eve of the bash and before I try and go to bed.
Please enjoy the night, I don't know any event besides conferences which bring together so many new media people. Remember the night is about communities, without the support of our London communities it wouldn't be such a big and grand affair. Likewise the support of our sponsors has been key to making the event totally free and hassle free. The biggest thought goes out to the BBC, who yes I am a member of its staff but is really starting to turn the ship around and move in the correct direction. Its not all there yet, but the fact everyone at work has said how fantastic the bash is and how great a idea it is – speaks volumes. Lets also not forget the fact that the BBC see value in engaging with new media people and had no problem with making this event happen. I'm hoping Tony Ageh will say some words on the BBC's behalf so the peopel can see the true commitment the BBC has for the future of the UK.
Talking about communities our twitter wall was created by nigel crawley whos a backstage member. We'll be doing a review of the event by pointing at other peoples views rather that shouting our own. And finally, remember this is first of its kind event. I know the signup has been a real pain for so many people and people won't stop asking me to squeeze them on to the list. But honestly we're learning and next time who knows… we may hire Abacus which holds 850 people and has multiple rooms and levels. I'm glad we didn't hire the sterling which sits at the bottom of the Gerkin. Its a very nice location but only held 300 people and security would be super tight. We would have had to given a list of names up to 2 weeks before the bash and those names would not be changable. Imagine the nightmare of the guest list tripled and your not even close.
So like I said, enjoy the night and I'll see you all tomorrow (or today).
Yum Yum – Sheer Kitchen and Gravity Chair
If I was building a new house, this would be in it.
The most gorgeous use of design and space for a kitchen I've ever seen. It seems as people get older, they want bigger rooms for everything – the kitchen is no exception. I see beautiful kitchen showrooms all the time but in reality, the space in my home and many others is limited. The Sheer Kitchen addresses those issues by becoming the centerpiece, the light source and the utilitarian work top all in one.
And the Stokke Gravity Balans Chair
The Stokke Gravity balans chair is the first chair of its kind to simulate zero gravity in multiple seating positions. Although technically, gravity is still there, the design uses your own weight as a counter balance making it feel as if your're floating in the chair – whether upright to get some work done or reclined for a quick nap.
On the eve of the BBC Backstage London Christmas Bash
So to everyone out there whos going to the Christmas Bash tomorrow, here's a couple of thoughts on the eve of the bash and before I try and go to bed.
Please enjoy the night, I don't know any event besides conferences which bring together so many new media people. Remember the night is about communities, without the support of our London communities it wouldn't be such a big and grand affair. Likewise the support of our sponsors has been key to making the event totally free and hassle free. The biggest thought goes out to the BBC, who yes I am a member of its staff but is really starting to turn the ship around and move in the correct direction. Its not all there yet, but the fact everyone at work has said how fantastic the bash is and how great a idea it is – speaks volumes. Lets also not forget the fact that the BBC see value in engaging with new media people and had no problem with making this event happen. I'm hoping Tony Ageh will say some words on the BBC's behalf so the peopel can see the true commitment the BBC has for the future of the UK.
Talking about communities our twitter wall was created by nigel crawley whos a backstage member. We'll be doing a review of the event by pointing at other peoples views rather that shouting our own. And finally, remember this is first of its kind event. I know the signup has been a real pain for so many people and people won't stop asking me to squeeze them on to the list. But honestly we're learning and next time who knows… we may hire Abacus which holds 850 people and has multiple rooms and levels. I'm glad we didn't hire the sterling which sits at the bottom of the Gerkin. Its a very nice location but only held 300 people and security would be super tight. We would have had to given a list of names up to 2 weeks before the bash and those names would not be changable. Imagine the nightmare of the guest list tripled and your not even close.
So like I said, enjoy the night and I'll see you all tomorrow (or today).
Webby night at the ICA
Its been a long while since I've been to the ICA, but I was tempted back by Webby night. Rather that do a complete write up, Tom's got an excellent overview.
ou are invited to a meeting of 'the cream' of the British web, the evening has no real agenda besides 'chatting and seeing what happens'.
So, what sort of set-up do you expect?
Well, the free vodka was a good idea, but putting everyone in a room with pounding music so you can't hear what is being said is possibly not a good idea. Add in the fact that the room is incredibly dark, so half deaf people like me can't lip-read and you have a badly thought out location.
So what do us incredibly intelligent 'cream' do? Clever buggers to a soul, we all decamp outside where it is well lit and there are tables.
…And then the DJ followed us out into the light and pounded us with stupidly loud Dance. For the second time while surrounded by tech people the suggested solution was to disconnect the speakers.
As Tom points out it was meant to promote the Webby awards by showing off some of the previous winners from the UK. So we had…Regine from We-make-money-not-art.com sharing her inspirations, Shooting people showing off short films (the last one which lands directly between porn and art) and Joel Veitch who is the man behind rathergood.com. Yep we've all seen those crazy animations at some point across the web. I find them a pain to watch but end up watching them because people send them around the office. Anyway, like Tom said it was a good night simply for the people I met. As usual you can find the videos on Blip.tv. Enjoy! specially the end of shooting people and when the heckler gets told to shut the fcuk up.
24 ways to impress your friends
So I've been pretty quiet about 24ways to impress your friends this year. The reason why is because I've been writing a tip titled Making XML beautiful again to go into the 24ways collection for 2006. The tip centres around a client side XSL transformation on a ATOM feed. I thought this would be simplier that RSS because I would have to create templates to support RSS 0.91, 0.92, 1.0 and 2.0. ATOM 1.0 feeds are also very much a like so a safe ground to start on (although a lot of ATOM 0.3 feeds use a different date element).
The actual XSL took me all of about 5mins to write but the explaining took a good few weeks. I have spell checked it, grammer checked and run it past the eyes of Sheila (my XSL friend). Sheila helped a lot on making it sound less like me talking and more like me writing, but there is still bits of my twisted humour in there. I also wanted to explain the difference between client-side and server-side transformations but decided it was out of scope. As was spending 3 paragraphs on what XSL is, which I finally cut down to 1. There is also something else which has been bugging me while writing the tip. Firefox 2.0, I can not work out if its actually broken when it comes to client side transformations or not. Some people seem to think so, but I'm getting just odd results like the output escaping not working. I've tried to install Firefox 1.5 in a Virtual Machine but I can't get it online (for many reasons). So I'm currently loading up a old Ubuntu Boot CD on a spare machine. I'm sure the comments will come flooding in soon.
Anyway big thanks to Drew McLellan for thinking about me when relaunching the 24ways project this year. Maybe Drew took it to heart when (in a good way of course) I asked why he didn't use XSL for parsing Microformats at BarCampLondon. I was still amazed he used a non rules based language to parse Microformats. It shows talent. Thanks again Drew, I just hope it comes across as well, as the other excellent authors on 24ways..
Alternative Reality Gaming Whitepaper
The ARG SIG has written a whitepaper for Alternative Reality Games – ARGs.
This is the first paper from the ARG SIG, and provides a full introduction to the genre as well as a wealth of practical and analytical information on design methodologies, business models, and current and recent games.
The ARG industry is consistently producing multi-million-dollar games for tens of thousands of players at a time, and generating interest across the entertainment, broadcast, and advertising industries. In the last few years, successful games have received widespread recognition, winning awards from the gaming, media and broadcasting industries. As well as these critical success, there are already several businesses with long-term sustainable revenue streams.
Although new to many people, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are still far short of achieving their full potential, each new wave of games bringing major new innovations and increased understanding of what works and what doesn't. We hope you find both inspiration and real practical help in this paper, and look forwards to playing the next wave of ARGs you come up with.
The word in the communities around ARGs is that it royally sucks. As Christy points out in a note BBCi did Jamie Kane not Crossmedia entertainment and there's meant to be lots more errors and mistakes. For the full low down listen to the ARGN podcast 25mins from the end.
BBC Backstage Tag Cloud T-Shirts
At long last, the new BBC Backstage Tag Cloud T-shirts are here. Don't forget to get one for yourself at the BBC Backstage London Christmas Bash on Saturday. They were created by myself using Inkscape and the concept came from Nic James Ferrier.
The end of screensavers?
Something I picked up somewhere today. The concept of a screensaver is quite simple.
A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. Today, screensavers are primarily used for entertainment or security purposes.
So with all the best screensavers now being RSS or internet connected and widget engines being common on desktops now. Doesn't it make sense to do away with screensavers and go for a special widget mode. For example it would be really cool if instead of going to a screensaver, the computer simply moved all the windows and applications back and showed the desktop and an array of widgets. Like most widget engines, it could dull the background so you avoid the burn-in effect. I'm also thinking the widgets in that mode would be either be locked or ones which are informational only. So you can't bypass security through a widget. Anyway it was just a thought….
Flicker music podcast
My friend Paul Crowley has created a flipping awesome podcast for his and Gareth Cole's exclusively online music lablel Flicker Tracks.Yes Flicker with an E not without the E. Anyway his just launched a new EP called Minimus and decided the 30secs preview you get from the Apple iTunes store wasn't enough for slow building arrangements which you find in a lot of house and trance music. And he's very right, there's tracks which sound nothing like the first 2 mins because thats your build up period (or mix period) then the track comes alive with something amazing which suprises the listener. Paul says it much better that myself
We decided that it is important that anyone interested in our material can hear significantly more than the 30 seconds currently afforded by iTunes. This is particularly important with club focussed music, where lengthy intros facilitate equally lengthy and seamless DJ mixes. Slow-build arrangements don’t necessarily reveal the true nature of the track in the opening bars, or in fact, in any given 30 second sample.
It’s always been true that the medium has dictated the format and length of mass produced music (from wax cylinders through to compact discs) but in this instance, the promotional method is creating an artificial limitation – the medium is not at fault. It is as if when writing material, you should now produce the musical equivilent of the elevator pitch to have the greatest chance of commercial success.
Were we to write and arrange our material so that the first 30 seconds gives the casual listener a more representative sample of what’s to come, we would then risk rendering the material less appropriate for the intended context – a club (which of course is creating another restriction on form, but one that we choose intentionally). Anyway, all this technology is supposed to be about creativity and freedom of expression, right?
Your damm right Paul. I've added the podcast to this entry which I hope will give it even more visability and I don't think Paul will mind. It would be easier for others to do the same if there was a creative commons licence like Attribution-NoDerivs License attached to the podcast. Then people could play it, copy it and even play it on a commercial radio station. I would also add – it would be great to have included a little tracklist (maybe linked to the direct track on itunes) in the blog post. But it was great to hear louise's voice over the music, very professional sounding.
So about the actual tracks.
1st track minimus – is damm fat and heavy, I like it and might have to get it for net Saturday's Bash.
2nd track bring you too – is a nice rich leader track. Something I would use to bring the crowd to a new place. This is certainly what I think of when thinking progressive or tech house.
3rd and 4th tracks are not quite my style but sound like something I would dance to in a house club.
5th track skidmark – is another fatty track perfect for playing in a bar, warm and smooth, perfect for a slightly upbeat lounge club. Saturday is calling its name.
So Paul it worked, your elevator pitch of a podcast has made me considered buying some of your tracks. Now if it wasn't in itunes encrypted mpeg4 audio (AAC) I could use it in a DJ set next weekend. Oh well…
Finally got my conference proposal notification for Etech 2007
So I finally recieved what I suspected already…
Dear Ian,
On behalf of the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference 2007 program committee, I want to thank you for your recent proposal:
“Web 2.0 down the spout (or how web 2.5 will be about plumbing)” and
“The community inside and outside your firewall”We were very pleased with the uniformly high quality submissions we received. Thank you for your interest in sharing your work with the technical community. While your proposal was considered closely, we are not able to include it in the program this year.
In most cases proposals are declined because the topic of the talk or tutorial was already covered in another presentation, or the subject matter was too narrow or vendor specific. This year we also had far too many great talks to fit into the number of slots available.
Ben made a good point a while ago. I should be asking why they didn't make the cut. Get some feedback so I can take all this into account when submitting to Xtech 2007.
London Girl Geekdinner number 9
Good night last night at the Girl Geekdinner. I got talking to a woman from Amnesity International and shared some stories about working at the BBC World Service and how it makes you much more aware of the freedoms and restrictions we live with everyday online. Anyway she was very interesting and Sheila had a good chat too. The speakers for the night were varied, Mary Sharpe started badly putting most of the girls to sleep or getting peoples backs up but then she started to get it together again. She was a interesting speaker which I filmed and stuck on Blip.tv. I wish I'd got a chance to ask her some more questions one on one but left soon after the speeches. Nicolas was the 2nd speaker and was very nervous, and it ended up being like a product pitch for 10mins. So I ended up deleting that video. The 3rd and last was Maryam Scoble (yes Robert Scoble's partner) who kept it nice and sweet. Good speaker and her speech was well recieved by the crowd as you can see by the video. Most of the questions were also aimed at Maryam afterwards but Mary also got a few. So all in all, good night and happy birthday Sarah Blow.
One thing is bugging me, is Mary Sharpe also the same person here and here? I don't think so, but you can never tell. I get very skeptical when people run these self improvement and mentoring type services.