Brightkite Users Stole Ignite Boulder 4

I've written about Ignite Boulder before. Tonight there was no beer or control. The host tried to keep the 400+ people in the crowd engaged with presenters directly, but Brightkite users, pseudonymity, mockery, and hostility took over. Halfway through the presentations, the audience stopped listening to the speakers. Everybody was writing to and reading the Ignite Boudler 4 Brightkite wall, chock-full of heckles and mocks of speaker topics and styles. While I didn't contribute attacks, I did read them. It was funny in and of itself, but then reached a point of comic absurdity when some speakers were completely oblivious to it happening above their heads. It got so out of control that the host decided to remove the wall for the last five presenters, and for this he got pummeled by the audience. Tonight the crowd stole Ignite Boulder 4 and Brightkite enabled them to do it. That's powerful.

"I'm not sure about this larger venue, if we should keep it this size, or make it small again" were the hosts closing remarks. How ironic that the location-based tools used to empower social interactions, community, and individuality advocated by Ignite organizers (and supported by Techstars I might add) became unwanted distractions once control was lost. It was hilarious, and a self-evident testimony to the power of communities beyond the obvious.

Comments

[@jennyjenjen]

I'm not sure how mine went, since I was concentrating on giving it and I was one of the ones for which the wall was not enabled, but I agree and disagree.

A lot of the people making trouble on the wall knew it and had no shame. But it did detract, and I'm glad that Andrew pulled it down. I don't think he had to ask the crowd about the wall, however, but knowing about the venue was something less certain than how bad the wall idea was.

Hope you had a good time anyways! I know I did!

/Jen

[Jon]

yours was awesome. can't believe you were offered cocaine as a tip.

[@ryanwanger]

I definitely agree with the decision to take down the wall. Of course "the wall" will still exist, it just won't be broadcast so publicly (people can look at it on their phones), which I think would make people less likely to use it for attention.

That said, the whole incident just made it clear that Boulder Ignite has become a comedy hour. If you try to actually educate the audience, people get bored. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that, it's just something to recognize before you get up there...

[Jon]

not sure i agree. i think ignite assumed a new interactive life with the wall up. if the intention was comedy and community, we all got what we came for, just this time more weighted from the audience rather than the speakers. if i was asked to rank the best talks of the night, brightkite users won, with you as the runner-up.

[Jon]

just so it's clear, this post was inspired by an interest to describe the ability for a community to adapt in real time to produce a complexity result unexpected, and i was glad location-based services had an instrumental role in making that happen. my post is an observation, not a postmortem attack on Andrew or the Ignite Boulder awesomeness he has helped bring us all.

[@jennyjenjen]

Haha, thanks Jon. It's definitely a true story about the cocaine. I was appalled. Flattered, but appalled.