Marie goes to Web 2.0 expo

Wow! I got to attend the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco this year. A gathering for more than 5,000 geeks. And me. I looked long and hard for women of a certain age like me, but didn’t find many. It was interesting, provocative, and exciting and I took in so much information that my brain hurt for days.

Here are some highlights:

Favorite talk: Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody. You can read or watch his speech here:

Print version

Video version

Favorite profound quotes about Web 2.0: “The network is the computer. Data is the currency.” “Friction free conversation is the new norm.”

Favorite new vocabulary words/phrases: crowdsource, groundswell, ambient computing, cognitive surplus, and …..drumroll please………………….mullet strategy
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Notes from a few hours (as told through my tweets):

web 2 dot O not web 2 point O? Am I the only one who did not know this?? 10:15 AM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

groundswell session very good, already have way too many ideas, r u ready team?! 10:58 AM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

Already lining up for today’s keynotes, should be good, rap music and roving lights setting the stage 03:36 PM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

geek rap??? I am not kidding 03:37 PM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

now playing “I hate your blog” –wait til I tell ric about this music genre 03:42 PM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

now playing rap song called “you’ve got aspergers”– what a country?!?!?! 03:53 PM April 23, 2008 from mobile web

officially appointing myself trivia tweeter of web 2.0 03:54 PM April 23, 2008 from mobile web
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Sign of the times: Tim O’Reilly is interviewing Jonathan Schwartz (CEO of Sun) on stage. There are no mics set up for audience questions, so Tim invites the audience to twitter questions to him and he will read aloud. Doesn’t give his twitter name cuz it’s not even necessary.

Surprising fact learned: Cost of electricity is second only to cost of people for web companies. One-fifth of energy is used to just move air around. (We need to harness the waste energy, like the place in Switzerland where heat from a server farm is used to heat a swimming pool.)

Most unexpected sighting: woman wearing real snakeskin stiletto boots

My Web 2.0 expo haiku entry:
LCDs glow in dark room.
No suntans on display.
iPhones abound.

My blog is a noun, not a verb

OMG, I have been seriously slacking… I think if you have a blog (noun), you are supposed to actually blog (verb). Way more noun than verb around here lately. So I’m posting not one, not two, not three, but four posts at once!

I blame the weather and season, to some extent. Gardening tasks have been calling my name. Ric and I actually did our seasonal fill-the-yard-debris dumpster a few weekends ago, which revealed the glaring holes in the landscape where plants didn’t survive the winter. So those needed to be filled, which meant I got to go plant shopping!! I began with Portland Nursery, where I got some of the usual suspects.

For some reason, many of the plants I bought had blue blooms…

This past Sunday was Cistus, where I found some suitably odd and curious specimens.

And I’m not done yet! Joyce and I are going to the Rare Plant Nursery annual sale this weekend, so Iook for more rarities to show up soon.

The sweet pea starts have been set out along the east facing wall where they get maximum morning sun but not so much afternoon blaze. They look okay after the transplant shock, but I’m waiting for them to kick it up to the next gear and start clinging to the trellis.

Speaking off clinging to the trellis, we finally got most of the out of control akebia cut away. It did a great job of hiding the neighbor’s horrifyingly ugly wall (which he refuses to repaint, but then he can’t see it, can he?) but at the cost of smothering every shrub and tree in its vicinity in a kudzu-like fashion. I do hope the dove tree survives. Wonder if it will ever bloom? At least it can breathe now.

The window boxes outside the upstairs bedroom are planted, thanks to Ric climbing up onto the roof and emptying out last year’s debris. Hope they’ll be bursting forth soon.

The wisteria is in its full glory right now, I swear walking through the back yard is seriously intoxicating, literally overcomes you as you walk through the gate.

The lilacs are also at their peak… what lovely fragrance coming from that corner as well. And the California lilac is mustering up a glorious display again this year!

And though without any merit in the fragrance department, check out the amazing tree peony blooms this year!! Best ever, and I’ve had this plant 10 years now!!

The viburnum and daphne were spectacular this year as well. Can you tell I really love my fragrant plants? If you want some real estate in our yard, you best be smellin’ good!

WSBG reviews The Assault by Harry Mulisch

In a nutshell, this “novel that probes moral devastation in the wake of the slaughter of an innocent family by the Nazis in retaliation for the association with a Dutch collaborator.”

As World War II was winding down but the Nazis still occupied Holland, Haarlem’s chief inspector of police (a Nazi collaborator described as “the greatest murderer and traitor in Haarlem”) is shot and killed in front of the home of little Anton’s neighbor. The assassination sets off a series of tragic events, in which Anton alone in his family survives. Much of the rest of his life (and the book) is spent unravelling what led to and followed this “episode.”

Apparently, this book is widely read in the Netherlands (required reading in high school?) but it sure took us a long time to discover it. We pretty much loved it. Loved the writing (although we don’t entirely know how to judge that in a translated book), loved the story. Loved how things fit together by the end.

Very highly recommended. Four thumbs way up! (It must be said: four thumbs up in this picky group is pretty frickin rare!)

We had a second book assigned this month, but I forgot to take it with me to Web 2.0 so I didn’t finish it in time. We put off discussing it until our May meeting. I have been reading diligently.