Tom Conrad

It seems that the big news out of Gnomedex last week was the “drama” that played out around Jason Calacanis’ presentation. The basic context is this: Jason took the stage to talk about spam content creeping into search results. This is clearly a topic that Jason is passionate about — so much so that he’s created a company that he hopes will tackle the problem through a new kind of editorially-influenced search engine. As he spoke, it became clear that his talk was going to segue right into a discussion of how his company could solve this problem.

Generally the presentations at Gnomedex aren’t about particular products or companies. There are exceptions to be sure (for example, this year the CEO of JibJab gave one of the more interesting talks, which was almost entirely about his company). I don’t have a strongly held point of view on this subject; for my part I just want the presentations to be interesting. If that means talking about your company so be it.

So, as Jason gets going, he’s talking about spam (”unwanted commercial pitches”) showing up everywhere, especially in search, and it occurs to someone in the back of the room that if he’s going to segue right into Mahalo, then the talk is sort of “conference spam.” That struck some as funny and ironic. There was some mumbling and giggling from the back of the room. Jason noticed, paused, hesitated, something — and Dave Winer said “You’re doing it now! You’re spamming us!”

This is what I thought at the time: that’s kinda funny. Maybe a tiny bit obnoxious to yell it out, but Jason’s pitch was a tad ironic. I think I chuckled a bit. Then I went right back to listening — with some interest frankly — to what Jason had to say. We use subject matter experts at Pandora to classify music, so there are some parallels with Mahalo and I wanted to hear more.

I would never have thought about it again.

And then the blogosphere picked it up. The first accounts I read sounded like “HUGE BLOWUP AT GNOMEDEX!!!” Strange, I thought — my experience of the event was quite different: it was a non-event for me.

Could it be that we wanted to invent a little drama to attach to what was really a pretty sedate little conference? That maybe, just maybe, the entire thing wasn’t about what Dave said at all? Given that very real possiblility, it doesn’t seem right for Dave to be at the epicenter of an invented conroversy, with lots of old stories of ancient feuds and perceived injustices being dredged up. When I saw Dave at BarCampBlock on Saturday, I told him as much. He mentioned it on ScriptingNews today so I thought I’d say a bit more about my perspective on what happened.

Wow. What an event.

Tremendous turnout — not sure they have a perfect count of attendees but easily 600 people. The huge grid quickly filled up with fascinating content from all corners of the tech, community, and art communities. Some giant sessions, some small sessions, but a spirit of sharing that I think embodies the current vibe in silicon valley. This was a gathering of people that are passionate about the work they do who share an eagerness to learn from their peers. Incredibly exciting.

I had the pleasure of leading a small group discussion about Music Rights issues (who gets paid what for various forms of digital music). For me this conversation perfectly embodied the spirit of BarCamp — just a handful of people sitting down to share what they know about a complex topic in the hopes that everyone would walk away better informed, and more prepared to build great things.

Later in the day I lead a much bigger discussion examining the evolution of Pandora in the two years since the first BarCamp. Great fun and lots of interesting questions. Incredible how different things are for Pandora than they were two years ago. I’m really lucky to be involved in something that so many people enjoy.

No discussion of BarCamp would really be complete without a mention of the people that create these events — people like Chris Messina, Tantek Çelik. Ross Mayfield, and Tara Hunt. You all are an inspiration to me. Thanks for all you’ve done for this community.

Two years ago, when Pandora was still in its (oh-so-short) private beta, I decided to head down to a two-day event in Palo Alto called BarCamp. The rules were simple: you show up, you present. It would turn out to be the very first public demo of Pandora. And it was done absolutely on a whim.

Shortly after I arrived, I wrote my name on the whiteboard offering a talk about our new music service (cleverly titled “Introducing Pandora”). I remember listening to Chris Messina’s talk about Flock just before it was my turn to present. Michael Arrington was there and asked for a quick demo because he couldn’t stick around for my presentation. While I’d met Mike before, TechCrunch felt like one of his little side projects to me. I was happy to give him the demo early, but I’ve got to tell you it wasn’t anything like what folks go through today to get on his agenda. What I remember most is he gave me a bunch of crap about not inviting him to the beta (we’d met at Gnomedex and it had competely slipped my mind). Pretty funny in retrospect.

The presentation went well enough (and the demo worked); some folks wrote nice things. It was a fun and very memorable day. I met a lot of people that day that have become good friends.

Tomorrow is BarCampBlock — the two year anniversary of that original BarCamp. It simultaneously feels like a very long time ago, and like it was just yesterday. Certainly my whole world has changed, as has Pandora. I’m excited to head down and throw my hat into the ring again… should be quite an event. They’re expecting 900 people. I’ll be there again this year and Pandora is providing the music for the after party at SocialText.