New York – November 7, 1997 (Full Issue)

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New Media Summit
An Uproarious Good Time
Champagne for T3Media

November 7, 1997

New Media Summit
China was visiting the US, Iraq was burning our flags, Russia and Japan officially ended disagreements from WWII, and the New Media Summit went on with no “We will crush you!”‘s or shoes slamming on table tops. No one expected this event, put together by Itochu Technology, Sun Microsystems, and MeriselMOCA, to stir up too much controversy held at the elegant Soho Grand Hotel on October 29th. Speakers included top new media thinkers including Owen Davis of TheThinking Media Corp.; G. Craig Murray of@Radical Media; Sean Skilling of BrandDialogue;and Eric Swenson of Hearst New Media. Tim Nadeau of Bowen Consulting offered that it was a good first attempt at a summit and it seemed like after the over used repurposed jargon some real substantive viewpoints came out. It must have been true judging from the length of discussions Kevin Sickles (SunMicrosystems) and David Frackman (Brand Dialogue) had going on after the event.Owen Davis‘s Java banners that track virtually (literally) everything were mulled over with tasty morsels of mushrooms in philo dough. Clay Shirky(sporting a handsome beard) encouraged others nearby to attend (and tell friends) of his Animators Ball in February. This event will not only be a showcase of animator’s wildest dreams, forcing developers to meet the challenge for these applications, but also a chance for them to get to know about others in their field and begin a strong network.

G. Craig educated me on the inevitable convergence of TV and Web. Basically, TV is not interactive enough, the web is too interactive. Studies show that the TV is on for 8 hours but only watched for 2, and when a URL is on a commercial,traffic to that site spikes high. He believes a website has to be a natural extension of TV advertising, and that most people watch TV with laptops. I think a lot of people just happen to have computer and TV in the same (family/den)room. The web audience is one of affinity — they come to sites because theywant something from them, if someone is fed information (via commercial – andthey couldn’t click on the remote fast enough to get away) then the web is anatural extension of getting more information about the product orcompany. Newmedia is offering a dialogue mechanism the beast media(um) (TV) isn’t offering.

An Uproarious Good Time
Speaking of beasts, E-Pub launched their new game Up-Roar at their offices upthe street from the Soho Grand on Oct. 30th. Tarot card readers tamed thewildcurious party-goers desiring to know their future. Nestled between smoothlightoak Ikea (?) desks with an assortment of colored votive candles and Peacock feathers around the office, Myles Weissleder, Lesla Pflager, and Shlomi Ron (all from down the hall at I-Traffic) waited in line, numbers in hand to find outwhat lie ahead for them. If they were lucky, they didn’t get bopped in the nose by one of the Boxing Nun puppets that made their way around the office on the dexterous hands of Robert Lo Cascio (President ofSybarite Interactive) or Michael Simon and Timothy Ewing, Managing Directors of E-Pub. Mike entertained me with visions of Hungary, which is E-Pub’s home base, asParis in the 1920’s. Coming to NYC in the Spring of 1995 he began development of Cosmos Conundrum. “Sebastian” in a peach polyester suit had batman painted face of purple and blue. Bob Ponce and Miles Rose (Two of WWWAC‘s new Board Members)were there with Brand Dialogue’s kewl crew (including Asi Zuriel, formerly of Web Partners, and Samantha Sancho, just back from vacationing in beautiful Trinidad).

Champagne for T3Media
I headed on down further in Tribeca to the Bubble Lounge (same night folks, Oct.30th) and who should I meet but Aliza Sherman at T3 Media‘s party. Michael Diamante looked smashing as the ever cordial host in the downstairs lounge. Champagne was flowing and strawberries were floating as Jennifer Runne, Cliff Ainsworth (Ciiffsworld) and Omar Wasow (New York Online) all looked happy and pleased with the nice intimate setting.