Marc's Voice

Pre-Supernova dinner

So why do I still live in the Bay Area?

Well besides being near my son’s (got 4 more years till they graduate high school and then it’s “Vedo ala Italia”) - it’s all these geek scenes that I love to go to and schmooze at.

So here are some shots (courtesy Dan Farber) from last night’s pre-Supernova dinner.  Kevin was a little chagrined at Dave and I attacking the notion of “selling slots at conferences” - but he wanted to say that it’s a business - and that sponsorships are a key way of making money.

I told him that it’s crucial that folks like him differentiate the paid speakers, from real speakers - so we can all get up and leave the room - when the paid speakers go up on stage.  That’s why I don’t do DEMO or BlogOn  - the entire thing is paid for!

Anyway I actually really like Kevin and though Dave has not spoken at Supernova - ever - I hold out my hopes that perhps this year will be different.  Me - I can tell yah - there ain’t no way in hell anyone can hold me back from my mission - so woe be it to the conference organizer who tries to stop me from asking questions, making my points and getting our message across.

In fact (little aside here) that reminds me of last year’s Supernova when the head of AT&Ts network (the world’s largest network) was on stage rapping out his world view.  I tried to ask him a question - but he literally ran off the stage.  So I tracked him down and asked it in private.

The qustion I tried to ask was (after the guy was bragging about how coolio his network was): “Dude - how come you guys have so much dark fiber turned off?  Why don’t you turn a bunch of it on, thereby lowering the cost of bandwidth for everyone?  You’ll still make the same amount of money, but we’ll get twice as much capacity and bandwidth?”

I’ll be asking that question of ANY telco schmuck I see - until the dark fiber is turned on.

Anway - aside over - here’s some shots from last night:

This is me in one of my beautiful New Delhi shirts and Steve Gillmor. I got 10 of them.

Peter Hirshberg (yes he still has a job at Technorati) joins me and Steve.

Kevin (who now teaches at the Wharton school - after working with Esther Dyson and being the FCC’s expert on technology) - rapping it out.  He was the host and puts on a conference called Supernova.