March of the News

This post is two weeks late but I have finally managed to stop and write this up. 

On the the 10th of October I was lucky enough to get down to London to catch the back end of the FOWA event at Excel and see the live recording of my favorite video Podcast "Diggnation". The video clip at the top of this post is not the live recording of Diggnation it is instead a Keynote speech by Kevin Rose on "the future of the News". 

I posted this video because it shows Kevin in a different light to the bloke sat on the coach next to Alex. Diggnation is cool because it offers a weekly escape into the web in an hour long show. However it really offers nothing in the way of substance apart from the odd Mac rumor or web tip and is seen by many as a waste of time. Kevin and Alex come across as very ignorant to many topics and Kevin quite often displays a level of arrogance that is quite off-puting as he sails the sea of Diggs in his over inflated ego. 

At the end of the FOWA after-show party, I actualy got to spend sometime in his company anddiscovered that hes actually very cool and nothing like the person I expected. The impression I had previously formed was totally wrong, and that goes for all the Revison 3 guys I met that night. 

For the best part of the night I actually didnt even bother to try to speak to any of them, the venue was rammed. Instead I got to spend a quality hour in the company of Blanie Cook (Twitter) and other cool people. It actually wasn't until I was outside the FOX club at the end of the night, making my way back to the hotel that I got chatting to a guy who turned out to be Dave Prager (Revison 3). I had never seen Daves face, even though I knew his name and found it nuts that we were chatting totally by accident , however that was nothing compared to how crazy it was  as we walked around the corner to see Kevin waiting for Dave.

When I say waiting he was actually stood with some young girl who I mistook for his girlfriend ( he hasn't got a girlfriend) and it turns out it was a groupie making a pass at him. The problem was, because I thought it was his girlfriend I thought nothing of just walked over and said hi. It was at this point (in retrospect) that I conclude that Kevin Rose is a cool guy because he actually stopped to talk to me and as a concequience the girl walked off into the night (probably in a strop).  If he had been an ego-maniac as previously thought he would ignored me for his prize, but he didnt and we started to chat about skate boarding and stuff- totaly random. 

Now at this stage I did not know what had just happened  and continued chatting and then other people started to arrive Hippy Glen and some other guy who proceeded to invite me to a party.  Problem was I had had a few too many beers by this stage and didnt quite catch the full situation, before I knew it we were wondering around the docklands trying to find this party, me and the Revison 3 guys.  As we walked and I told Glen how small he was , and made chit chat I started to realised several disturbing things:

• These were not my friends! Even thought I recognized them!  
  
• I was drunk!
• Kevin was telling the other Diggnation boys how amazing the girl was and then told them how I had scared her off!
• I HAD scared of the girl, because I think she took kevin speaking to me as a sign that he wasn't interested in her...but by the way he was talking I think he was!
• I had just insulted Glen by telling him he was smaller in real life...I thought I was being cheeky but he looked upset!
• I had been invited to a party by a complete stranger who was no where to be seen!
• Were they still going to the party!
• I had nothing to say to anyone!
• We were walking in circles ...were they trying to loose me... Probably!

It was at this point that a horrible feeling of paranoia came over me and I decided to say good bye. I went back to my hotel and passed out!

And that was that...the night may  have gone on to be so much fun, - Yeah right but in retrospect I needed my own friends for that not an adopted family. The Revison 3 guys were all very cool and I think a little taken back bye our (Brits) enthusiasim towards them. The next day I caught a Twitter post from @dlprager inviting anyone in the area out for beers at some pub in London, so I guess their hospitality was for real. 

I guess then the Revison3 guys are slightly misunderstood, they are an adopted family and like most families slightly dysfunctional. Only today it was announced that certain shows are being axed on the network (Sad times). It may seem that they own the internet because thats the reality we choose to exist within. The truth however is they don, its a house of cards and they are just as vunerable as any of us and as the economy shrinks they will become even more dependent on the support of their community. I notice Kevin is now responding to peoples Tweets even thought he hasn't excepted my apology (but he did let me know that his favorite Skateboarder was Rodney Muller- (Props)). So I think we will start to see a more human side to them, a side that was always been there but has maybe been slightly hidden. If they want to be the future of News ...they need to start listening! 

{ Which they do... but may be a little bit more! - Twitters one thing but I am actually making direct reference to Kevins  smash and grab approach to Seesmic - check the link www.seesmic.com  - one very good post- 15 or so well presented responses but no follow up from Kevin }