OMG (Ogilvy Media Group?), I just returned from 4-days in San Jose and San Francisco at more Mashup events than a man deserves. I couldn’t even watch Mash on TVLand flying home on JetBlue.
Mashup Camp and Mashup University are run by David Berlind, one of ZDNet’s alpha bloggers. Dave’s got tech chops like nobody’s business. MashUp 2007, held in San Franciso, was run by Anastasia Goodstein, whose well-read blog Ypulse covers the youth sector with grace and insight.
I loved all of the Mashup events. The minute John Herren, in his keynote speech at Mashup University, asked “Is there a nerd around,” in reference to a technical presentation problem, I knew we were in for a week of code…but a fun week. The first person I met at Mashup University was Bebo White, with the Stanford Linear Accelerator and physics dept. I was kind of scared, but it turned out he was brilliant, warm and very down to earth. Most everyone at Mashup University/Camp was this way. Geeked out, yes. But approachable, smart, friendly and all about the code. Oh yeah, 95% male.
At Mashup 2007, a youth marketing event, women were the majority. The show was opened by Danah Boyd (Annenberg) and Henry Jenkins (MIT), two beacons of light in social computing. They knew their stuff and complimented one another beautifully. Interestingly, they were talking about the exact same topic yet Mr. Jenkins called it “participatory culture” and Ms. Boyd “fan culture.” I’d be interested to know why they couldn’t agree on taxonomy (geek word.) Lot’s more to come about Mashup week. Stay tuned.