March 20, 2005

Doc Searls didn't know me from Adam but that didn't stop him from inviting me along to a group dinner last week,

Roger Dingledine of the Free Haven Project gave me an understanding of the design, uses, and the need for anonymous online connectivity. His TOR project is just starting to grow. Something I would have only known a little about if I hadn't made the trip.

I'd only met Cory Doctorow once before, in passing, at last years eTech, but that didn't stop him from making room for me at the table where he and cohorts were having dinner.

I had no clue who Paul Jones was until we went to lunch between sessions last week.

I'm glad I got to meet Ben Hammersly and discover one of the nicest of the nice people last week.

Discovering the work of Neil Gershenfeld of MIT and Danny Hills of Applied Minds, listening to Larry Lessig on Free Culture, Chris Anderson on the Long Tail, and George Dyson on Von Nuemann and the invention of he computer, all "you had to be there" moments.

Not to mention meeting the likes of Sean Bonner, Brian Sawyer, Mark Interrante, Jimmy Wales, Ross Mayfield, Danny O'Brien and many others in the halls and sessions.

These people were all attendees and participants at eTECH 2005. There have been lots of discussion about eTech and SXSW and which was the better venue. I can say that eTech was really good.

What I most want to convey is that either show could have been good or bad depending on what you wanted to make of it. If there was anyone at eTech that was feeling like a second tier person they just weren't trying. The most important thing is that like blogging these are participatory sports no points are awarded to no shows.