My father was one of the organizers of the meatpacker’s union back in the 40’s.

I was raised on south side of Chicago BBQ and as long as I remember - it has been the place in my mind where community has formed.  The central hearth of the neighborhood - where all come to eat, meet and go over the day’s happenings and activities.

So we’re here in Austin, TX and we went to a place called ‘Sam’s’ (where one of the doormen told us Stevie Ray Vaughn used to get all his BBQ from.)

 

So the Lakers game is on the TV and Kobe Bryant is running circles around the Spurs.  The BBQ is sloppy, soulful and fatty - but we lick it up - as we’re hungry, The Buzznet party was not happening and we got a neice of ours baby sitting back at the hotel.

As my eyes scanned the photos on the wall, I had one of those epiphany moments - where I remembered other photos on other local restaurant walls - whether it be the Walnut Creek Yacht Club (SF), Sammie’s Roumainian Steak House (NYC), Tojo’s sushi place (Vancouver) or the local Taco stand (anywhere).

Food is people.

People are community.

Photos on the wall proudly display one’s community.

So it was apropos that instead of being at the geek party, where the loyal Buzznetters were drinking, we were at the local Austin BBQ joint - where the locals were watching Kobe, talking ’bout the upcoming March madness and enjoying their BBQ.

So danah boyd and Tantek will be giving the same pitches they just gave at Etech today, but me, Peter Rojas and Jon Lebkowsky will be rapping out what we see as the ‘convergent’ future today at SXSW - at the same time.

Hopefully all you hipster bloggers (and there are something like 4,000 of them here in Austin) will find you way to OUR panel today.  And for the rest of you - here’s the chart I’ll be using:

So as I travel around the world, whether it me Moti Mahals in Delhi, some funky fish and chip place in London or the world’s best steak joint or French Bistro - its all about the photos on the wall that define the local community.

As much as GYM wants that local business - they’ll always be loyal to the people they know, they’ll always defer to their friend’s opinions and no matter how we try - they’ll always stay loyal to their community.  This is the secret of convergence - the word of mouth trail - which we sometimes call the ‘viral effect’.  

These local folks may not think of themselves as the blogoshere and they’re not on MySpace or Yahoo - but they’re the folks we need to be focusing on - the convergence of cyberspace and meatspace.  They DO have cell phones, they DO watch TV and they DO notice that their gas prices are up - and that their boys are coming home in body bags.

The smart ones:

- don’t buy the first version of anything (they wait til the technology matures and gets cheaper)

- don’t believe TV commercials

- use technology for purposes not necessarily intended

- have been waiting for true digital convergence - since ‘before the Internet’

So as I sit on stage today - it’s the Community of BBQ that I’m thinking about, as much as the geeks (who aren’t listening to tantek or danah.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 5:59 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.