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Attending Lunch 2.0 in Palo Alto yesterday, I was surprised at how this four-guys-blag-a-free-lunch idea had grown into a sizeable social network and even more amazed at the amount of coverage the event was attracting.

In traditional media terms, this was not much of an entry on the coverage diary:

12pm Lunch 2.0 at the offices of Ning in Palo Alto. Anyone and everyone converges on Ning for free sandwiches and salad. Ning CEO gives short powerpoint presentation on how Ning is doing. Everyone stands around and chats till 1.30pm.

It doesn’t sound like a great story or great television, but I was there to write a piece on Lunch 2.0, Justin of  Justin.TV turned up so the whole event was broadcast live over the internet and bub.blicio.us was also filming it for the net.

In addition, there were bloggers and photographers posting about the event on their sites and on Flickr and doubtless many of the attendees were Twittering and commenting afterwards as well.

With other services such as Veodia, which allows bloggers to broadcast live in professional quality, and PodTech, the net has wall-to-wall video coverage of anything happening in the Valley.

Bub.blico.us told me they get calls all the time from companies asking them to cover their parties. They naturally accommodate them trying to pick up on any buzz.

But while this is great for party-throwers, party goers and video sites desperate for material, what is the attraction for traditional viewers? Are they the last consideration in this democratisation of the media, or not a consideration at all?

June 15th, 2007 in Internet | Permalink