I’m a fan of conferences. They provide the right amount of networking and learning to usually warrant the price of admission. Problem is when they don’t, and more and more frequently, we find conferences that do not - we need crafted conferences. Allow me to explain what I mean by “crafted conferences”:

By crafted conferences I mean conferences that exist to educate and facilitate networking. Conferences where there are no sponsored sessions, no product sales and no “featured interviews” (because those are usually sponsored sessions anyway). Conferences where the venue allows people to converse and discuss, because usually, 90% of the knowledge is in the audience and not the stage. Conferences where the curator (or program director) exists for the sole purpose of providing for the audience’s experience, and not (only) that of the speakers and organization.

We need conferences by people who deeply care about other people, and not necessarily about the monetary outcome of the event (although I certainly understand conference organizers need to at the least, cover expenses). Finally, we need crafted conferences to overtake the crappy ones we have now.

Web 2.0 in Berlin earlier this month was a good example of a conference that was subpar (and I say this despite having been a speaker, and being friends with people behind it). The venue was poor, people couldn’t network properly, and there was at least one very blatant product pitch in the main room. Great people behind it, yet a terrible experience. Why?

Got names of conferences where your experience was great? Do talk about them in the comments!

This one is going to be quick - your blog ads piss me off. I know we all read feeds every day, but every once in a while (like everyone on Techmeme, I’ll assume), we end up reading blogs in our browsers (you know, like in the old days) - and you know when that happens, because your head explodes. Why does it explode, I hear you ask? Because you are spoon-fed ads all the time. Let’s look at a couple of examples of what I call “blog as chrismas tree” (I’m so ticked by this, I’m actually coining terms).

Engadget: In green, white space or elements that although can’t be necessarily called content, are okay (or useful) to have. In orange, pieces of layout that are mildly distracting. In red, elements that are just there to cause retinal pain or to make the user go away and never come back. Engadget, above, isn’t so bad - it actually comes out with about 50% content over the fold. Let’s look at someone else:

Born Rich: Don’t be fooled by the green, ladies and gents, you’re looking at 9% content, 91% advertising or white space. I don’t know if these people were actually “born rich” as the blog name implies, but they’re sure trying with all those ads. Seriously, if 10% of useful screen real estate above the fold is all I’m going to get, I’m getting the hell out.

The blog as christmas tree plague

Monetize, monetize, monetize. We all want it, we all need it. But people, we’re getting ridiculous here. We’re shoving ads in front of our users, when all they care about is the stuff we actually write about. If you really want to get people to visit your site, do think about how much of your page is useful.

Eh, I’m just having a bad monday here. Don’t mind the grumpiness.. And I usually don’t do this, but I’d appreciate the eyeballs on this matter, so if you’re keen, digg this.

Today is a good day for technology. Google just released the Software Development Kit for Android, the open (Oh snap, iPhone) operating system for mobile phones they’ve been working on. I’ll just say it: I’ve had a quick look and it rocks. Not only does it rock from a developer perspective - because it is a pretty comprehensive SDK -, but the platform’s user experience is surprisingly good for something that’s not considered ready to go yet.

The fact that Android is open and extensible is the most exciting bit - in fact, I’ve written about the need for an open connected device quite like this back in 2006, and now it’s finally here. Being completely open means one very important thing: you get to control the experience. I’m betting we’re going to see people (finally) put their time into producing a compelling mobile experience (both apps as well as the device’s own UI) without the feeling that they’re losing their time (and mind). Actually, I’m definitely going to be working on it.

Another part of the announcement - and no less important for quite a few people - is that Google has a grant of $10 million dollars to reward the best applications built on top of Android. So if you have development chops, get cranking on some of those mobile ideas!

To grab the SDK and start working on Android-based applications, visit the Android page at Google Code.