Geeks are us ... at Astoria cafe

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And I checked whether the label 'geek' was OK to use and it is (think 'gay' is OK for those that want to use it) ... but 'nerd' is a no-no (using the previous analogy think 'homo').

Anywho, I went along to Astoria to ostensibly put a face to the name Richard MacManus the writer/blogger behind the extremely valuable and readable Read/Write Web ... and I succeeded. He's a nice fella, asked some pertinent questions and is most definitely at an interesting stage in his Read/Write life as he endeavours to ramp up to the 'next level' - I wish him the best with the "community" and "public speaking" challenges he might put in front of himself :-)

But it wasn't just Richard as his meeting was tacked on the front of a long running (18month+) weekly (?) meet-up of like minded techo's from all around Wellington. I had a fascinating chat with Mauricio of GeekZone and ???? Darryl Burling (huge apologies for forgetting your name - but you are so right with this Darwin Award contender), Software evangelist at Microsoft, around what makes a site have repeat visitors - the consensus was 'community' but I had to disagree and say 'content' - probably both really.

It was interesting to talk around how they saw the future ... very technical, very connected and everyone with the gadgets and wanting to use them. I don't think that's the case but ...

It also highlighted that I am most definitely of an age, some of my views are 'old' and there's a challenge for me to ensure that my thinking is reflected in what's happening not only for my generations (and those that came before me) but those that are scootling up behind me and living/breathing this stuff. Although in my defence no-one I know is doing the 'life online' quite like me and still refers to PCs/mobiles as the be-all-and-end-all and not the content and relationships from collaboration I'm working with.

All in all a great introduction to some very passionate and highly motivated individuals doing some very cool stuff, I look forward to bouncing ideas of them in the future and definitely being challenged in return.

Finally, I also met up with Simon Moore from Puku Golf Ltd that had an interesting challenge. His company has (for undisclosed reasons - well, not for me to tell) registered around 168 domain names - all built around the concept of making a circle on your keyboard. Example - look down at your keyboard for the letter 'g', around that letter are 7 others that circle it (f, v, b, h, y, t and r) - that makes one of the domain names registered - www.fvbhtr.com - and there's many others - get it to work if you can!
I follow that progress with avid interest and look forward to the viral marketing that must surely come.

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