Dear Reader,

Ok, I promised a wrap up of Web 2.0.3. This one is my personal one, I’ll post a technical one over at DevZone.

One of the “features” of this year’s Web 2.0 Summit (web2summit) was “Shorts“. I’m not sure who picked them but since John Battelle was the point man, we’ll blame him. The very first short played was one that was so infuriating to me that I actually got up and left the session.

There are times when I don’t act it but I never make any bones about the fact that I’m a Christian. So when I pay $3.2k to attend a conference and they play a video on the big screen mocking my Lord, Jesus Christ, it kind of upsets me. I asked the nice girl in charge of registrations if we could expect to see one where Mohamed gets his by a bus as well. (Buddha?) Of course we wouldn’t because it’s only funny if you are making fun of Christians…I guess.

Before I move on from this point, I just want to say something to John personally, on the off chance that he reads this. I’m a Christian and obviously that bothers you. But look at it this way.

If you are right and Christians are a joke then the worst that has happened is I’ve lived a good life, tried to have a stable set of moral values and tried to help people along the way.

But what if I’m right…

Now on with our story.

I eventually went back in and participated in the conference, however, on Wednesday John was at it again. He was so giddy at the results of the election that he again felt it necessary to waste my time and money (by the time my expense report is submitted the conference cost my employer over $5k, time is money here) to poke fun at me as a Conservative. Hey John this country is sill divided 50/50, ever think you might be pissing off 1/2 of the people in the room? At one point he actually stopped a speaker and asked them why they weren’t more visibly giddy about the results, encouraging them to cheer from the stage. Ok John, we get it, you are a Democrat. Seriously though it’s a bit overboard for a conference where I paid you to be there.

Side note here: I did not at all mind the discussion about how the change in power would affect the technical landscape. The general consensus was that Democrats are better for Net Neutrality and that consumers are boned by both parties when it comes to DRM. I agree with both conclusions.

So, my overall feelings about Web 2.0? (Now called Web 2.0 Summit) I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed for professional reasons that I will detail elsewhere. For the first time however, I feel that a conference host went out of his way to make me feel uncomfortable.

John, please, next time, tell us which (non-technical, purely personal) ideas you are going to lampoon and that way those of us who care can decide whether we want to pay money to be insulted or not.

Until next time,
(l)(k)(bunny)

=C=

STANDARD DISCLAIMER: The views expressed on this blog are mine and mine alone. Go get your own.

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