As I browsed the Twiistup site, wondering what title to give to this post, it struck me that the event was actually a kind of party. At first I was thinking of "unconference" but that didn't seem to fit. Then I was trying to work "twisted" into a phrase, but that seemed too negative. Just as "party" entered my mind, I saw the link to OKDork's blog post where he called Twiistup "the Tech Party of a Lifetime (for LA people)".
Well, I certainly hope that Twiistup One (which happened on the evening of May 9 -- Wednesday, a great night for a party, right? -- between 7 pm and Midnight) isn't actually the "the Tech Party of a Lifetime," never to be repeated. I'd much prefer future duplications of the Twiistup "party," perhaps in a locale where I could actually attend (like, maybe, Boston? hint-hint!).
Twiistup One was held at Zanzibar in Santa Monica, California. Zanzibar is "one of LA's premiere night spots, known for its cool crowd, exceptional music and comfortable amenities set in a sexy, stylish Indian/African motif." Hmm... And they did technology that night?
The event was put together by Mike Macadaan, Senior Director of Design at AOL. Key sponsors included AOL, Userplane, Microsoft, the Yahoo! Publisher Network, InterFuel, Xdrive, Yelp, snap, and USC's APOC. That's quite a list, and includes several names I've heard about and plan to investigate.
The Twiistup presenting page highlights five companies that were selected to give presentations on May 9, plus three "guest presenters." All of these startups are providing products that look quite relevant for meeting specific needs (or desires for fun and pleasure) of today's online society. For example, there's BuildV1,
an experiment to find out if aspiring entrepreneurs can meet online and create successful businesses... We think more people could start successful businesses if there's an easier way to find the right people.
This reminds me of my visit to TopCoder, and the vision expressed by founder Jack Hughes about the revolution in the means by which software will be developed in the future, where every software engineer is in essence a business entity, an entrepreneur who contracts to provide components at a finely-grained level. (See my post "TopCoder: Taking Notes on the 21st Century".) TopCoder was not at Twiistup, since the event was limited to companies in the Los Angeles area. One more reason for the Twiistup folks to bring their tech party to the East Coast!
Another Twiistup presenter was Verse Studios, which:
came together with the shared vision of developing exciting next generation online video games with unique science fiction themes, community driven game play, and novel economic models.
Economics in gaming -- that's a topic I find very interesting. When you think about it, our entire economy is already organized in a manner that applies "virtual reality" in the exchange of goods and labor between people. Money is a virtual entity, right? Paper money has no intrinsic worth other than what a society agrees it will have. It's implied worth is backed by a community (the nation's government). Is "currency" in gaming any less "virtual" than a society's paper money?
The key, though, is: who's backing the currency within the game environment? How do you "invest" a virtual entity with trusted significance, such that people will be want to "earn" it and use it for purchasing goods and services (within the game or in the physical world)? Here, you really do need a benevolent dictator. A lot of the laws of economics in the world of nations apply within virtual communities as well. If people aren't comfortable with the stability of the currency, if they don't trust what it will be worth in the future, they won't want to use it.
Conclusion
I think Twiistup One must have been a very interesting event, and I really look forward to attending Twiistup N in Boston X months from now!
-- Kevin Farnham
O'Reilly Media