See my entire set of funky photos from BlogOut 2007…
UPDATE: Woot! ValleyWag liked this post so much, they featured it! That’s a leg up for the Singaporean Web 2.0 scene! :)
Having lived most of my blogging life in suburban Buffalo (Western New York), I realized that one downside of being in a city such as Singapore is that I’ve got too much to blog about. If it’s not meetups, it’s conferences, interviews, and just miscellaneous nonsense I get myself into in our urban jungle. Heck, I haven’t even had time to rant about recent issues in the media (i.e. UNSW’s closure isn’t our govt’s fault). I was about to share a long drawn out post on everything that happened at BlogOut, but I think it has already been covered in depth by others. So instead, here are five things I hate about BlogOut 2007:
1. There’s no point going back to the States…
Pouring through the tons of photos and blog posts from last night’s BlogOut, it didn’t seem any different from those Web 2.0 parties in San Francisco. Just take a look at the stories on ValleyWag and compare them to the excellent panoramic photo above taken by Nic. Damn it, Singapore’s blogosphere just stole some “silicon valley” thunder. Grrrrr!
2. Everyone’s a #@&*-ing voyeur…
And I thought I was the only one! The first thing I saw when I arrived at Geek Terminal were the registration tables (on left). Equipped with enthusiastic “The Digital Movement” members and their iSight-enabled Macs, they snapped the faces of attendees and uploaded the photos together with their names here (that’s me on right). I first saw this idea from Lucian’s WebSG Meetup #1. The nice thing about this is that if you met anyone but forgot their names, you now have no excuse. I’m a big fan of online visual directories, and it looks like everyone’s stepping up to the plate. Grrrrr!
3. When Coleman’s around, forget about the chicks…
On the left, you see Aileen and Priscillia. They are just two of the geek chicks you’ll meet at events like these. Let’s not forget Veron, Divya and Vanessa too. Now if you’re thinking of approaching either of them, first look around for this mysterious man named Coleman. As depicted in the blurry photo to the right, there he is calmly surfing the web on his Mac, while the ladies gravitate around him (see three or more seated beside him?). Remember, he did not even need to lift a finger or open his mouth for this to happen. If he did so, there would be no hope for the rest of the male population in that very room. Even though BlogOut was a sausage-fest, there would simply be no possible competition. This is why instead of fighting him, I’ve decided to join him, by printing a T-shirt in future which says “I know Coleman”. Perhaps some of his karma might rub onto me and I might just get lucky. If you want one, I suggest getting in line. Grrrrr!
4. Crap, I’m beginning to like Microsoft…
Talking face-to-face with Microsoft developers / bloggers, Nic Fillingham, Leon Brown, and Christian Cadeo, suddenly makes Microsoft that much more approachable. They asked us how they could improve the way they blogged and sponsored us prizes (which is always a good thing!). Above all, they showed people like me how Microsoft is moving towards Web 2.0 with webapps such as Popfly (video of Leon’s demo coming soon). Popfly essentially lets us make mashups by simply dragging and linking objects, such as a flickr object and a map object to create a geotagged map of photos. I didn’t get to see what Silverlight was about though. Still, with apps like these, Microsoft suddenly feels like a Yahoo!… not sure if they like that analogy, but that’s my take of it. Grrrrr!
5. Everyone was smarter and/or more popular than me…
As seen in both photos by Nic, when you have Joe Augustin on your left and Jennifer Lewis on your right, you better know what you’re talking about. I tried to stick to the citizen journalism agenda, but we ended up talking about everything else. We seemed to enjoy rhetoric, since we didn’t need to draw strange symbols like the other groups did. I would have drawn flying cars anyway, since it’s way past the year 2000 and I still don’t see them around! Damn it I wanted to see what the others were talking about, but was stuck to my seat. Note to self: Plant wireless cameras above each table next time. Grrrrr!
There were actually more things I hated about BlogOut, such as how I never got a chance to try the food, or to actually mingle with the ladies (and Jennifer Lewis said I’d be a chick magnet… rubbish!). At least the WiFi worked under intense usage… I even got a call from one of my blog reader / friend saying how he was blown away by the video feed on my blog. I had to do a “peace sign” on camera just to prove it was happening in real time. Anyway, I had fun with the TDM crew and my fellow media socialist gang. I hate how I didn’t have this much fun at their age! Grrrrr!
Photo courtesy of Vantan
Before I go, here are my shoutouts to…
- The Digital Movement team for their tireless passion in bringing people together to make benefit glorious blogosphere. To fellow conspirators Estee, Ming Yeow, and Chern Jie, live long and prosper.
- Walter Lim for the steady panel moderation.
- Vanessa Tan for her photos and for being the birthday girl.
- Ming of NuffNang.com for fetching me home.
- Su Yuen for being supportive of everything I suggest (Note to self: Suggest wilder ideas)
- Peter Du for being smiley and for getting tons of videos produced (I feel your pain).
- DK for being my new BFF. We compliment each other too much :P
- Justin Lee of Entrepreneur27.org for treating me like a celebrity (Ahem: How much for that plug?)
- Bernard Leong of SGentreprenuers.com for sharing with me juicy stuff from the political blogosphere.
- Brennan for telling everyone to look at the Universal Soldier (i.e. me with my wearable cams).
- Coleman for being the first person to spam me on my back with his sticky name tag while I walked around oblivious to his doing (i.e. I became a platform). Others soon followed suit. Grrrrr with a clenched fist!
