As we in Toronto wait with much anticipation for the second coming of MESH, our fellow geeks in California are engaged in a conference of their own: Web 2.0 Expo. Gagglescape's good friends David Crow and Jay Goldman were there presenting on opening day. Generally, the buzz from the event is positive.

That said, some reviewers are talking about having Web 2.0 conference burn-out. Turns out that big sponsors are taking over some panels and the vitality of social-networking's early days is being lost to a creeping commercialization. Here is what Venture Chronicles' blogger Jeff Nolan has to say:

In short, I’ll leave this thought with you conference organizers: panels and sessions have a default mode of boring so go through the extra effort to select a panel, and more importantly, a moderator that will shake the bag a little and give it some edge. Panels don’t just inform, they should question everything, challenge the panelists, and create controversy and conflict where there should be none. And don’t give moderator slots to your sponsors just because they are your sponsors. If a panel doesn’t end without a little name calling, then what’s the point?

Ah, the early days of any new phenomenon pumps up the early-adopter hero quotient making saints of some and pillories others. I've been through a few of those cycles and can understand the excitement. Commecialization of a good idea is important though. The development of ubiquitous social-networking methodologies could well be the greatest facilitator of societal change that the world has ever seen. That requires that we use the tools of development and distribution that the free market has perfected. For that I can live with a few predictable panels.

Here are a few links about the conference:

• David Crow


• Web 2.0 Expo Power


• Putting Webware on the Map


• Connect Seeks Developers


• Bungee Labs Sneaking Out of Stealth


• 9 Companies to Watch


• Amazon’s Web Scale Computing Platform


• To Sync or Not to Sync


• I Stream, U Stream, We All Stream