The New York Times has an interesting article explaining how the New York Tech scene has evolved from glamor and glitz launch parties to soldering competitions and PowerPoint Presentations.
Apparently, when the Internet bubble collapsed, New York Techies went back to doing what they do best; geeking out and making stuff.
Now, young Internet entrepreneurs, some holdouts from the old days and a few members of the city’s creative class (and underclass) are engaged in a new type of party, which mashes together Silicon Alley 1.0’s camaraderie and optimism, meetup.com’s spontaneity and informality, Burning Man’s home-brewed creativity, and a technology conference’s devotion to unveiling ideas. These days many of the ideas are about producing and delivering video content.
And like any scene, New York Techies have their scenesters too.
…A few mini-stars have emerged, appearing nearly every night at one or two events. By promoting their video blogs or online games, they seem to be trying to parlay fame on the scene to fame on the Web.
Others attend hoping to meet venture capitalists; some are just attracted to a night life that involves actually talking to creative people doing exciting things, rather than heading out to clubs and bars that beat you into silence with their thundering rhythms.
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
