"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." John Quincy Adams

"Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." Thomas A. Edison

"I have learned the novice can often see things that the expert overlooks. All that is necessary is not to be afraid of making mistakes, or of appearing naive." Abraham Maslow


On the day job about one-third of my time is spent presenting papers (including my annual brief), giving talks, facilitating training and the travel related to those engagements. This week I'm heading out for a series of meetings and giving two more talks along the way. So when a smart guy like Dave Winer talks about reinvention of the convention I'm dialed in...

"...I'd work to develop more ways for the back-channel to participate, to come to the front. That's the key to the future of conferences, how to extend them into the net, so the communication path is every way imaginable, not just from the venue out to the world. I want to feel like I'm in a nerve center, whether I'm at the venue or sitting in my living room in Berkeley. I had that feeling, btw, or an inkling of it, watching the AlwaysOn conference eariler this year, which had excellent presence on the net, real-time. The TC40 conference promoters, amazingly, actively thwarted the back channel. I don't know what their thinking was, but I think it was wrong."

This is certainly not the first time Dave has been ahead of the curve nor is it the first time he has suggested a reboot of the conference. Bravos Dave! Read Dave's Time to shake up conferences? here. P.S. Dave's right on every point and his idea about having a dinner in every major city is brilliant! We could have a geek dinner in each city and those attending virtually, or not, would be welcome to continue the conversation. Closed circuit to Dave: If one worked with a chain (e.g., Starwood) you could get the hosting venue and related expenses free in exchange for making a commitment to book the same day dinners at twenty, thirty, whatever of the same chain's restaurants. How cool would it be for thirty F&B managers around the country getting business because of a one or two day meeting hosted at a sister property hundreds or a thousand miles away? 20 cities x 30 people = dinner for 600 on the same night. Not a bad take for a meeting room, soft beverages, some light catering and connectivity. Plus an uber-cool pr angle is baked in (Starwood Hotels, owners of Westin, Sheraton and W Hotels played host to a national conversation today, an important discussion of technology and American life, etc., et al).

Internet ad spend: VS&S is out with their projection on Internet advertising, to wit: the Internet will become the single biggest ad segment, pacing ahead of newspapers and broadcast TV in four years. The details...

Segment - 2006, 2011 (in billions)

National - 16.9, 39.0
Local - 6.4, 19.2
Social Media - 0.4, 3.8
Total - 23.7, 62.0

Congrats & cheers: PBS, John Goberman, Kirk Browning, and Yo-Yo Ma on last night's incredible performance Live From Lincoln Center. Bob Pittman and Tom Rogers on their preview launch of PeopleJam. Pud (aka Philip Kaplan) on being the last ad exchange guy standing; AdBrite, so the buzz goes, will soon fetch a pretty penny for all involved including Sequoia Capital (a nice tuck-in for AOL?). The Mint crew taking top prize at TechCrunch40. Andy Berndt on joining Google to head a new global unit (is this Google's move into the agency biz?).

More later today.