Urban Tribes
Urban Tribes, the book provided an intriguing title to the workshop, perhaps the only workshop I was really looking forward to, but I also suspected, with a complete title like: “Urban Tribes the social dark matter that binds us together,” I might be set up for disappointment. The author walks in, sits down, fusses with the computer for moment, then announces that he’s the panel. Looked a little lonely up there, all by himself.
Ethan Watters is an unlikely spokesperson for a generation, and yet, he’s somehow got himself shoveled into that slot. Plus, as he pointed out, he was a non-techie at a techie conference. He didn’t understand that, and he seemed a little surprised about being there.
I’d never even heard of the book before, much less the author, and I was pleasantly surprised by his attitude, his gentle manner, and the way he presented his material. From his talk, I was doing the math in my head, trying to work backwards, married for so long, has a child now, daughter’s so old, think and coming up with a year of birth for him at 1965. Just a guess. Plus, he was talking about all the markings that I find in that particular generation, my point of view, though, is as an astrologer.
The ones I’m always most curious about are the 1965-66, Pluto conjunct Uranus in Virgo, grouping. I’ve looked at this before, and I can stretch that to encompass 1964 to 1967, and there’s a fudge factor, too, available, as long as the parts in the charts add up.
After the presentation, and there were a couple of questions from folks who’d actually read the book, I stopped to talk. He was addressing a matter I’ve looked at for years now, only, doing so from an entirely different point of reference. The only question I had for the guy was, “What’s your birthday?” Cancer. 1964. I was off by a year, maybe six months.
After another workshop, I wandered off to the trade show to buy the book and get it signed. Two cute tricks: one, he was using a rubber stamp to add a little extra decoration to his author’s signature, and two, he pointedly included his birthday and a question, “what’s it mean?”
I know and understand next to nothing about demographics, audience, metrics, or, for that matter, any scientific (sociological, anthropological) methods of study. I can’t rate his methods of quantifying or qualifying his information.
But I did sit down, outside a favorite coffee stop, with a steaming double espresso, and I proceeded through the introduction, and headed on into the first chapter. The sun came out, I shed my shirt, pulled the bill of the hat down lower, my convention badge in my pocket and safely out of sight, and I read for a bit, waiting on the next workshop.
The book is on my “currently reading” list. I’ll leave a plug for it on the first page for a while. Might have been the espresso, but I found the style of writing to be engaging, self-deprecating, and wryly amusing. Bonus. He’s a good stylist. The topic? I can’t answer for sure, but I was so pleased to stumble into a text that dealt with the same issues, although, it’s not in the same framework I’m accustomed to.
Just a higher casualty rate
It was a late quote. The first workshop’s panel was one author, more about that later . There’s a new book on the recommended list: Urban Tribes.
The other workshops I attended? Yes, well, I laughed, enjoyed, and as usual, was greatly amused. A thoughtful comment, to answer the question, “Where is personal publishing going to be in ten years?” was answered, in part, while a girl held up a phone-camera, took a picture, and seconds later, it was on the screen, having gone from her phone to email to a web server, and then being automatically posted. Whizz-bang techno.
At another panel, there were three guys with phone/cameras and three different sets of tools for doing that exact same thing. “Who’d a-thunk it?”
One woman’s site flashed on the screen, then another, and at one time or another, I’ve linked to both their sites. Rogue librarians, thrill seekers, maybe a note about a sun sign, other clues. Whatever. But what scared me was realizing that this was starting to turn into a a slightly incestuous group.
Funniest off-the-cuff comment, heard outside the rooms? “It sometimes cheaper to just mail the client some more RAM instead of spending the production time to re-work a site so it’s compatible with their old browser.”
I didn’t actually get a lot out of those the last couple of workshops. How about a long list of links? With a comment at the end. Geeks will be geeks. Pud moderated one rousing panel, and I kept thinking there was something up.
Danah Boyd
Games Forecast
Blogger
Hot or Not
Server Beach
Rackspace
Razorfish
Fucked Company
Our Type
2 advanced
Naezke
Perfect Fools
Flash forward
Yugop
U Texas
Intentionallies
We Fail
Bob Schneider (award winner)
Enthrallogy
Donny Darko
Hi-res
Troll back
Joshua Davis
A closing comment, to one of the more entertaining, if not enlightening workshops, “Didn’t we do group therapy for everyone with a personal home page – five years ago?”