Last Thursday I met real life web rockstars

At Web2000 in SF, I met Evan Williams and Paul Bausch at the Pyra Labs booth. Pyra is the fine company that brings you Blogger the tool that makes updating this site a breeze and is now so easy to use that any day I expect to see a Koko the Gorilla weblog (with much more traffic than mine). Pyra is putting the final touches on an enterprise version of Blogger that will include spellcheck and all kinds of other goodies. A must in my company budget if I have my way.

Also present at the show was new SF resident, Jason Kottke sporting this shirt from 37signals. Sorry ladies it does look like he is off the market after all. He was flanked by Pyra employee Megnut. She didn't flank him in public though which I appreciated.

Overall, Web2000 kinda blew. Very small, the scent of dead dotcoms in the air. A very heavy software vibe, it might as well been a side room at Seybold (cue chuckles from all desktop publishers and graphic designers). Seriously, I don't know how they will get butts in the seats next year if it continues at such a miserable pace. How many people will pay money to hear that Photoshop is a great tool for the upmteenth year in a row?

The one bright spot of the show was the heavy promotion of CNET Radio 910 AM. They broadcasted live from the show and are a welcome change in the Bay Area. Hearing relevent tech news on the radio at all hours of the day means a whole lot more productivity during the rush hour drive. If you live outside the Bay Area you can stream it to your computer and soon onto your internet radio (shameless plug for my new project).

---