So I missed ISWC because I was just too busy to spend a week drinking beer and talking my mind off.
But there is this mind trick to avoid feeling left out: look back and say. "Nah, nevermind. There is no way this conference matches the last one I went to".
Now, unfortunately, this is usually NOT true in the tech world because things move so fast that in six months time you see a lot of advances and there's always something new. So every conference is effectively better than the last one in at least one level. And that makes every conference worth attending.
And that's why working in technology makes you feel younger each day. It never ceases to impress you ;)
However, in this case, I DO look back and say: "There is no way this conference matches the last one I went to". And I feel great.
Why? because the last one was Semtech2009 at San Jose and it was loaded with surprises. Not tech surprises, but something much deeper.
The biggest surprise to me was this: No longer was I on the lunatics side talking about a "possibility". But I was on the doers side and all my baggage instantly turned into experience. There was a new sense of mission, no longer fed by informed anticipation but by real facts.
Although it was no surprise, because I have a pretty clear idea of where this is going. But god I was glad it finally arrived.
Where are we going? Well, we're going to a very wild place where a lot of rules will change. Well, not too many of them, in fact just one of them. But it will have a huge impact. A HTTP URI can be a simple thing, but when used right, it can very literally changed the whole world.
I don't like to take pics but this one is special:
Semtech2009 after a super luxury mexican burrito dinner and quite a debate on the whys behind the what by some of the whos behind the what. ...What?
LTR
- Aldo Bucchi
- Peter Mika ( Yahoo! Research )
- Sean Golliher ( Semj, SEO Guru )
- Kingsley Idehen ( P/CEO OpenLink Software )
- Mark Birbeck ( RDFa Guru )
- Juan Sequeda ( PhD UT Austin )
- Ben Godbout ( VP/CTO Copernic )
