Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Steve Steele" <Steve AT mindbenderstudios.com>]

I enjoyed the Tech Circus quite a bit. My experience may have been
skewed by two things, one I received my entrance ticket and the
events super pass for free. But I didn't even use the super pass
and was able to see everything I wanted to and know one ever asked
me for peanuts or the pass. The second was there was a pretty good
Multimedia and armature robotics presence. I found the amateurish feel
to be an added value. It added a bit of a technology under culture
feel to the air. For me it was a joy and a bit inspiring to see what
others are doing and that there is still a technology under-culture.
There were a number of corporate booths such as Lego and Micro-soft.
Both I thought were lame. All the workers I spoke with seemed very
knowledgeable about the layout and the presentations. I was able to
strike up a number of substantive conversations on various subjects.

I even had a good chat with the Chrome clad, silver body painted Expo
model. I forget her name.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. What I took away from the circus was;
1. inspiration to in where the mix of art and technology is going,
2. met a number of local developers for collaborative projects
3. I discovered some shows on the west coast that I'd like to attend,
4. became curios about if there is or how can I help create the
        the west coast creative energy here in this area,
5. I learned about an application that I am interested in purchasing
6. Realized that I need to do better at avoiding Wade Ave. during
        state games.

So it's all good for me!

Steve S.


Still no clever sayings here. Sorry.
Mindbender Studios


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Today's Topics:

   1. tech circus -- reviews? (Linda Watson)
   2. RE: forgotten website service (Scott Lundgren)
   3. Re: tech circus -- reviews? (Michael Winslow Czeiszperger)

--__--__--

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 18:39:30 -0400
To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: Linda Watson <linda AT lindawatson.com>
Subject: [internetworkers] tech circus -- reviews?
Reply-To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Did anybody go? Could it possibly be worth $20 for just the last day?

Is it anywhere near as fabulous at the Digital Circus, described years ago
in the fabulous radio drama "Ruby, the Galactic Gumshoe"?

http://www.zbs.org/Ruby/

If you haven't heard Ruby and you wish Douglas Adams had done yet another
H2G2 (I certainly do) then you owe it to yourself to listen to Ruby. Amaze
your friends by quoting the Android Sisters: "Do you smell like plastic?"

On the other hand, I've been listening to Douglas's "The Salmon of Doubt"
this weekend. Don't miss that either. I'm delighted to have heard it first.
Now I plan to buy the book.

Cheers, Linda


--__--__--

Message: 2
From: "Scott Lundgren" <s_l AT mindspring.com>
To: <Steve AT mindbenderstudios.com>
Cc: <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 21:21:27 -0400
Subject: [internetworkers] RE: forgotten website service
Reply-To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org


>load a different web site as your home page everytime you opened your
browser.
>You could even set the service to randomly move through various web
sites among specified categories.

Sounds like eTour.com, a now defunct company. However it is in
archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.etour.com

- SL


--__--__--

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 22:28:28 -0400
Subject: Re: [internetworkers] tech circus -- reviews?
From: Michael Winslow Czeiszperger <michael AT czeiszperger.org>
To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
Reply-To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org


On Saturday, September 28, 2002, at 06:39 PM, Linda Watson wrote:

> Did anybody go? Could it possibly be worth $20 for just the last day?

Its impossible to say how much you value $20 :-) I was able to walk
through and see everything in about 40 minutes on Friday afternoon, and
ended up getting my money back for the unused bag of peanuts. The heat
on Friday was terrible, since the event isn't air conditioned but the
weather was better on Saturday, so you never know. There were some
mildly interesting things on the schedule, but not compelling enough
for me personally to either pay for or attend. Do you really want to
pay an extra $16 to hear a single lecture on PDAs, or see a vendor
presentation?


The event had some bright spots like the local robotics group
demonstrations and the LAN gaming, but overall it was pretty amateurish.

On the other hand, the descriptions of the "experiences" on the web
site looked interesting-- its just there didn't seem to be anything
happening when I was there on Friday. If you really want to go, see if
you can find out if there's a talk you'd be interested in seeing before
going, and bring your own food if you're going to be there at lunchtime.

Here's a glossary of terms that might help:

Experience - Circus speak for presentation that costs money. A typical
vendor presentation is an extra $12-$16
Attractions - Events that don't cost money.
Peanuts - Tickets, $4 a pop. Theatre - Group of chairs

Here's some humble suggestions for the next time:

1. Train the workers. I went to the Maya "theatre" and the workers
there couldn't tell me what Maya was. The response was "I think its
software".  I had to boot up my laptop and use the wireless network to
find out.  It was hard to pick up my tickets since I purchased them
online.

2. Give out a schedule and map at the door so the customers can find
their way around. The schedule should include not only times, but a
couple of paragraph descriptions of the events, short speaker bios, and
the cost.

3. Put up signs on each venue so that the customers can tell where they
are. The signs should be large enough to see across the room, and
mounted higher than 6 feet high so they can be seen even if there's a
crowd around it.

4. CLIMATE CONTROL

5. Provide food

------------------------------
michael at czeiszperger dot org
Chapel Hill, NC



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