Today, the Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco started. Everybody is there, absolutely everybody. Well, I'm not, I'm just reading all the blogs, but apparently everybody that really matters is there.
So many things look strangely familiar, like it's 1999 all over again. I almost feel a little bit nostalgic.
One of the best signs for a bubble is the list of sponsors for this kind of conference. Just look at the list of Platinum/Gold/Silver/whatever sponsors for this event:
- 1/3 are companies that you would actually expect to sponsor such a conference, because they are really important players in this market. Like Yahoo, Microsoft, or Google. In non-bubble times, this type of company would be 100% of the sponsor list. But not now.
- 1/3 are conservative companies that would love to be part of the new revolution. Like IBM, Accenture, Nokia, and the New York Times (in the form of their About subsidiary). It's good to remind people that you're still there.
- And 1/3 are companies that you've never heard of. Obviously they're burning their venture capital here (At least that's a more reasonable way to do that than the huge launch parties back in the old days). Some of their logos look like they came out of some generic Web 2.0 logo generator with settings on "default".
Well, visibility is everything in a bubble. Especially when your company is really only a feature that Yahoo already has.
Even poor people like me (too broke to goto a summit) are creating Web20 applications to better the world (free apps), I made http://www.ImageGenerator.org for image designing online. Eventually everyone will not have to install or purchase software anymore!
Posted by: Comedy King | November 11, 2006 at 12:07 PM