Web 2.0 - Oh No!

It was my first day at the Web 2.0 Conference here in San Francisco, and things didn't work out as planned. The person who had my badge had to make an emergency trip down to Mountain View, and here I am in a Starbucks across the street from the Palace Hotel like some kind of outsider who wanted to get into the "in" club but got bounced.

The Palace Hotel is literally four steps from the exit I took out of the BART subway station. I opened the tall glass doors with ornate brasswork into an elegant lobby buzzing with the hum of eager entrepeneurs.

I'm recognizing that my jeans and flourescent yellow ApacheCon Hackathon T-Shirt don't quite fit in with this crowd. This is about slacks and dress shirts. This is about making a deal. There were pods of folks standing around with these intense looks on their faces having impassioned discussions. The impression was that they are full of vision, full of drive, looking for the angle, making contacts. They are (or want to be) the movers and shakers of this new wave of business opportunity. I tend to think of Web 2.0 as a set of technologies that enable a new way of building applications. Here, Web 2.0 is about a new business model, a new way to make money, a new way of thinking about markets. It's exciting in its own right, but it's a completely different angle and approach from the one I'm used to taking in my techie white tower.

My brother Antony Van Couvering, who has already built and sold one Internet business (NameEngine, now part of Verisign) and is now in the midst of building a new one (Names@Work) would grok this conference much better than me, I think. He's always got new angles, new ways of thinking about business and business models, and he's passionate about what he does.

It's interesting that this is happening in the Palace Hotel. This is a small, intimate hotel with old-fashioned architecture and interior design. The central restaurant is covered with a beautiful ornate glass ceiling and rich chandeliers.

So much about Web 2.0 is new, and in many ways ever changing and disposable, while the Palace evokes a different, slower-paced time. You see all these fast people and fast-moving ideas happening under chandeliers and dark oak stains and Victorian portraits. It's an odd juxtaposition.

I finally decided to get back on the BART train and head home. I dipped my toes in the water, but due to logistical SNAFUs that's all I'm good for today. We'll try this again tomorrow. I'll definitely make sure to wear my slacks and button-up shirt and bring a stack of business cards. I'll practice shaking hands and making visionary eye contact in front of the mirror tonight.