Sunday, July 22, 2001
from noise between stations

Attended Webzine yesterday. Imagine going to an industry conference held in the
dark, dank, basement of a bar (CBGB's, in this case), seating is a random
assortment of chairs and couches, the crowd is a rowdy assortment of
alternative mostly-New Yorkers, and is indepedently organized for discussing
independent media on the Internet. Starting at noon, I didn't arrive until
about five and stayed until eleven (it kept going into the wee hours of the
morning). 

A bit of it was cantankerous and silly coffee house culture, with people
laughing hysterically at sophomoric stand up comedy-disguised-as-presentation.
But the majority of presenters I saw were interesting. Highlights: 

*	I didn't realize Michael Moore is so active following the film Roger and
Me, but he's cranking away at other films, a TV show, a book, and various
projects with non-U.S. sponsors (who I guess get a kick out of watching U.S.
companies getting slammed). His talk was incredibly inspiring, showing how a
relatively under-educated person with starting out with no resources can affect
the actions of huge corporations. He's currently being funded by Rupert
Murdoch's publishing company to write a book about the evil's of Rupert
Murdoch's companies, among others, because the publishers are betting people
will buy the book and not take social action after reading it, and Moore is
betting people will. 

*	Jason McCabe Calacanis of Silicon Alley Reporter bravely admitted his
magazine and website can't break a story anymore because people making the
stories essentially break the stories themselves on community-driven sites like
Fucked Company, Netslaves, and Dotcom Scoop. And yet, these sites take on too
much risky content to be 'safe' for advertising. He does believe micropayments
have potential, and also suggested we could see a porn industry-like
subscription model where the fee buys access to a group of content sites, an
idea I like. 

*	Eric Zimmerman, founder of gameLab (and designer of the wonderful
SiSSYFiGHT), was insightful as to how development-heavy works like games differ
from rapid content sites like blogs on the Internet. Games of course work more
like the record and film industry where the publisher is often separate from
the author. Although others feel publishers take too much of the profit,
Zimmerman was comfortable with this arrangement, allowing him to concentrate on
the creative end. He takes an almost sociological approach to game design;
SiSSYFiGHT for instance counters so many common characteristics of games by
avoiding hand-eye coordination, using all female characters, giving the
characters amorphous looking bodies, and letting the gamer control immature and
mean actions of children as a way to call attention to them, similar to the
Simpsons. He's also quoting from pop culture in ways other game developers
haven't, such as using techno music in the game Blix. 

*	A panel on censorship including the publishers of Fucked Company,
Netslaves, and Dotcom Scoop basically illustrated how most of the same rules
apply. If a large company or the government wants to sue you for something you
publish, you could spend US $15,000 just to defend yourself - essentially the
price of free speech in America. 

Sitting on a couch sipping a Sam Adams while soaking in the stimulating topics,
I realized Webzine is an embodiment of what we do online. An independent
venture, they can organize the event in their spare time, keep prices low (US
$7.50), and create a funky, fun atmosphere. We should do this more.