Tuesday, June 09, 1998

Demo or Die


Die! Die! Die! The coliseum of blood hungry barbarians foamed at the mouth, stamping their feet, and belting out this chant as two cubs scampered around, twisting, and jabbing, exclaiming "oh no! our mouse isn't working!" Yes, this scene, while seemingly of Romanesque times, occurred not in Ancient Rome, but just this past Monday, June 8, in a Bell Technology seminar room, at the Puck Building, under the benevolent (?) watchful eye of Michael Pinto. Demo or Die, the modern day feeding of Christians to the lions, is a regularly occurring opportunity for new media companies to show their wares, and face a curious and critical crowd. The two cubs lost their chance to perform at that moment, and Visitor Tracker.com showed their website and tracking capabilities. Independent film-maker Jonathan Sarno (who's seeing his film on Silicon Alley through production), WWWAC "list mom" (and Board Member) Larry Aronson, Jennifer Runne (a wwwacky list-moderator), Steve Introcaso (super Sun Microsystems salesman) and Steve Warren were all on hand to witness this event. It's a great thing in this day and age when we're on the brink of yet another PC Expo and inundated with marketing kits and press releases. Other brave souls that presented were representatives from Electronic Hollywood, showing their new Red Hot Jazz Archive (www.technoir.net/jazz), Jean Lurie of the American Gateway Project Settlement House, showing the consortium of Settlement House's websites and personal sites of children and elders in the programs, Delta, The Comparison Tool and Firewall Media.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)