Monday, April 16, 2007
Ignite Expo: Poetry Slam for Geeks
I asked Scooter if she wanted to join me at the open-to-the-public Ignite Expo at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. She listened to my description of the event, which consisted of 16 presentations in two hours, each presentation made up of 20 slides moved forward automatically every 15 seconds.
"It sounds like a poetry slam for geeks," she replied. "Count me out."
Good description, actually.
Yet there were some differences between Ignite Expo and a poetry slam. For instance, instead of three minutes, as is the poetry slam standard (see the PoetrySlam.com FAQ for more information), Ignite participants received five full minutes. And instead of the poetry slam custom of selecting five audience members to act as judges, Ignite asked the entire audience to vote via text message on which presenter of each round of eight would be asked to give the afternoon keynote in front of 3,000 people.
The audience also used anonymous text messaging to heckle, with the messages displayed as the participants spoke. This took an ugly turn during one presentation about diversity and inclusion programs. One text message made fun of the speaker's weight and another about his clothes, thus proving the speaker's point about the need for greater diversity and inclusion in the technology world. Nobody voted for him.
The organizers made the curious decision to display the running percentages of the votes given to each contestant during each round of voting. There's a reason that the television networks are asked to refrain from showing predictions before the close of the polls. Early voters have undue influence on later voters, which can knock out an otherwise viable candidate from consideration. Perhaps they were following the "hive mind" concept of Jordan Schwartz from Microsoft, in which one bee doing the "waggle dance" influences others to check out a potential spot for a hive. Subsequently, other bees can then waggle if they like what they see. So, instead of each bee making an independent decision, the decisions are made sequentially with full knowledge of the choices that have been made before.
You can read about the presenters listed on the web2expo blog.
And here's a link to the PoetrySlam.com poet gallery, complete with MP3.
There's a hybrid opportunity to bring together two diverse audiences under one roof with one set of rules. I'd go again if I could see an eager, fast-talking entrepreneur paired with a passionate counterculture performer. Bring it on!
"It sounds like a poetry slam for geeks," she replied. "Count me out."
Good description, actually.
Yet there were some differences between Ignite Expo and a poetry slam. For instance, instead of three minutes, as is the poetry slam standard (see the PoetrySlam.com FAQ for more information), Ignite participants received five full minutes. And instead of the poetry slam custom of selecting five audience members to act as judges, Ignite asked the entire audience to vote via text message on which presenter of each round of eight would be asked to give the afternoon keynote in front of 3,000 people.
The audience also used anonymous text messaging to heckle, with the messages displayed as the participants spoke. This took an ugly turn during one presentation about diversity and inclusion programs. One text message made fun of the speaker's weight and another about his clothes, thus proving the speaker's point about the need for greater diversity and inclusion in the technology world. Nobody voted for him.
The organizers made the curious decision to display the running percentages of the votes given to each contestant during each round of voting. There's a reason that the television networks are asked to refrain from showing predictions before the close of the polls. Early voters have undue influence on later voters, which can knock out an otherwise viable candidate from consideration. Perhaps they were following the "hive mind" concept of Jordan Schwartz from Microsoft, in which one bee doing the "waggle dance" influences others to check out a potential spot for a hive. Subsequently, other bees can then waggle if they like what they see. So, instead of each bee making an independent decision, the decisions are made sequentially with full knowledge of the choices that have been made before.
You can read about the presenters listed on the web2expo blog.
And here's a link to the PoetrySlam.com poet gallery, complete with MP3.
There's a hybrid opportunity to bring together two diverse audiences under one roof with one set of rules. I'd go again if I could see an eager, fast-talking entrepreneur paired with a passionate counterculture performer. Bring it on!
Labels: poetry, Web 2.0, web2expo
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