You’ve Got Ismail!

Great speakers and content, great people, but boy i could use some wifi

This was a lovely little hotel.. great furnishings

So Mary Hodder’s venture has finally taken off the wraps… overall, I really like it – there’s extensive indexing of video content and all the basic social networking functions (sharing, tagging, etc) are there…

While it’s clear they haven’t spent gajillions on the UI, the navigation is very simple and clear (love the sloping shapes).

There are other sites that do this, but with Dabble you can tag any media (v. important in my opinion). Also, leaving the media at the host spares a lot of hassle and Dabble can focus on the federated search and social networking that is missing in many of the larger sites. Smart.

I can see Dabble becoming an important part of my tracking life… some of the tags are yielding some really interesting results and I’m finding myself spending far too much time browsing through the tags. Here’s how the site describes itself…

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Dabble collects video data from 240 + hosting sites that accept video uploads from people, plus tens of thousands of independent sites. Dabble also collects other sorts of media like audio for searching and organizing. And Dabblers bookmark media they find around the web. Dabble does not host media, but instead, makes media from anywhere on the web searchable, collectable through our bookmarking tool, part of a community, able to be tagged and commented upon, made into playlists and played. Dabble is an organizing tool to help people discover the value of media.
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I’m studiously using the Structured Blogging Wordpress plugin to put up content wherever possible (we do drink our own Koolaid).   So this is an event review of a reception for Mary Hodder and Susan Crawford’s One Web Day hosted by David Weinberger at his house.   Mary arrived at the star-studded event wearing designer black trousers, a matching black top and her wifi-locator.    She accessorized with a Canon camera and took lots of photos as usual (I call it an accessory, but it’s really built into her wrist…).

Also present were David, lovely wife Ann, of course, and a slew of interesting people that faded into the great food.  Dan Bricklin showed us WikiCalc, a very cool tool I’m very excited to play with, and Bob Frankston was also there.

I had a great chat with Colin Maclay about India and what’s going on there.   Rebecca Mackinnon of Global Voices fame was also present.  She and Ethan Zuckerman are doing truly amazing work there.   Ethan wasn’t there, thank god (everytime we meet, six new projects get created) – I don’t know what they put in the water in western Mass.

Betsy (thanks for the ride) Devine is apparently doing a new stealth project with Scott Johnson called Ookles.

Quote of the evening… David Weinberger on whether he’s pessimistic or optimistic about keeping the internet open…    “I’m an optimist who wakes up every morning feeling worried” (or words to that effect).

Great evening!!

The best Buffalo chicken wings in the city… fantastic atmosphere, v. friendly, and the wings are soooo good. This means a lot because I used to live near Buffalo, so I really ‘know’ chicken wings….!

Fabulous food. Ian’s is exquisite dining and seems a little lost on the Upper East Side. They say restaurants are either footfall or destination restaurants… Ian’s is definitely a destination.

However, that destination might have been better served in mid-town for the business diners.

It’s convenient for me, so destination is not a problem, but it is a little pricey.

Had a great meal… the salmon was exquisite and my angel hair pasta had a delicious sauce.

The chocolate souffle was very tasty, but not really a souffle… overall, highly recommend!