I’ve been in Berlin the past two days attending web2.0expo. To be honest I expect the conference to be bad. Lets get rid of any hint of balance or prejudice out the window now. I was biased, I expected it to suck. It did suck. Any conference that used the words “web 2.0″ in its title is going to suck. The dog is dead, please stop trying to flog it (I hope thats also a US American expression).Web2.0 was the changing mindset from customer to partner. It was intrinsically tying the success of your company to the success of your customers. All old ideas, but amongst a sea of new possibilities made possible by the internet. It was never “web2.0″ just “web done right”.

Whats web3.0?
Well personally I think web3.0 is about access. The platforms are built, accessing them is the next step. Web3.0 is the mobile web, finishing and building ubiquity amongst an ever connected grid of technology. When that’s done there will be no “offline” in the conventional sense. At least no mandatory downtime.

Whenever I attend tech conferences I’m reminded of two things:

1. The story of “the emperors new clothes”. The brilliance of that story lies in its ending metaphor everyones had the experience of looking down and realizing they’re naked, exposed,the game is up. Usually unless earlier in the story is a drunken stag do in Amsterdam or something similar its metaphorical nakeness, of the mental or social type. Shit I don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve talked myself into a corner that I can’t get out of, something like that.

Whats Spreadshirts role in this?
Well we’re clothing the emperor. He’ll might still be mentally naked, but at least physically he’ll keep a little mystery

2. Monty Python.
At web2.0 conferences everyone is the messiah. Or telling your their the messiah. Or is looking for the messiah. The guy at the front on the stage? He must be the messiah right? 10mins in to every talk you realize there are no messiahs. Just people who stopped talking, started doing and then got invited to start talking about how they stopped talking and started doing. “Only the messiah would say they’re not the messiah”. Poignant advice.

I did get to see Cory Doctorow yesterday. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been a big fan of his, but actually he was the best thing at the conference. I don’t share so many of his concerns about the future but I was amazed how knowledgeable, well researched and passionate he is about topics of copyright.

I’ll leave Spreadshirt at Christmas and spend the next five months in SE Asia having a break from what has been a brilliant, educational and exhausting year. I’m not sure what will become of HiphipUK, its been dying slowly for six months maybe I can shift it to a simpler and easier format to update while I’m traveling.