Web 1.0!!!
tagged: web2con
Tonight, things were different. Tonight, I felt that cornflower blue would flatter me. I wanted to go to Dave and Busters after a Friday marketing meeting. I wanted to look at Powerpoint presentations about leveraging alternative vertical markets to extend our brand reach.
I wanted Web 1.0
And thanks to Merlin Mann (he with the most rawkstar name EVAR), I had it. I had it so well that by the end of the night I was curled up into a ball crying for the promises of money, the empty stock options, the clandestine meetings, the NDA’s, elevator pitches, VC meetings on Sand Hill and the non-ironic readings of Microserfs that that time was.
It was a time filled with optimism, inflated egos, launch parties with Bill Maher at LAX’s SkyBar. When a radioshow host became a dotcom. When answering questions with each other was a viable business model. When consignment of clothing rather than keeping inventory was a key step toward an exit strategy.
Tonight, in San Francisco, the dream was alive. We had our own LaunchPad (and some were better than the actual at Web 2.0, see below), where 20 or so dreamers, marketers, scam artists and thieves pitched ideas so insane, so revolutionary, so “think different” that it was all I could do to not drain my bank accounts and hand over a check with a nod and a “good luck.”
I get misty eyed thinking about it. I wonder: what happened in the years after the bust until now? Well, I do know: I got married, got a grad degree, lost a job, got a much better one, made enemies, befriended a band and boom, here I am. But still… what happened to Us? That lost generation of high school rejects made royalty. The celebration of nerd-dom. The bad movies, the awful hair, the loud cars.
I’ll tell you: it was born again. Web 2.0 is Web 1.0 with a deeper voice and some interesting things happening in the bathing suit area. It’s grown up, a bit smarter, no less hypey but in a more fun pseudo-ironic way. We actually say “its about people” without laughing hysterically five seconds later and slaughering small puppies for instance. Remember modestyle.com? Those poor puppies.
After Web 1.0 dissolved in a heap of surplus Aeron chairs, we made our way to the Google party. And it felt like 1999 all over again, with different branding, different names and different faces.
So good night Web X.X
We will meet again tomorrow to monetize my eyeballs.
web 2 looks similar to 1. Except .. if you see this one sample demo:
http://roomity.com
.V