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I've covered what was good about BIL. I've covered what was bad about BIL. Now that BIL has announced that they are indeed planning a conference for 2009 to run parallel with TED down in Long Beach, I think that some things should be addressed to make it successful in the future.              1) There needs to be a leader       While the whole spontaneous organization concept seems great, it's ultimately going to topple as more people get involved. Plus, there just needs to be a go-to person when things come up. By default, the guys who just tossed this whole thing together became that, but they really need to take a firmer hand or all the wannabe Alpha Geeks are going to try to bash and claw their way in to running it.              2) Respect the Speakers       The biggest issue was that during talks, there was a constant stream of people getting up and down, going in and out, and just not sitting still. These talks are 15 god damned minutes. If you can't sit still for that long, then just don't come. As a general rule, people should observe the fact that if they're in there when a talk starts, they need to remain seated.              3) Filter the Speakers       Again, it's a great idea to have an open forum for people to talk about whatever, but some of these talks were just bizarrely out of place like the motivational talk by Lexi Bright and Jonathan Sheffi. Equally out of place was what was basically a sales pitch for this digital pen thing. This could still be decided by the public though as each speaker could "pitch" their talk up on the website, then the public could vote on the ones to go up. But, going back to point one, there would be leaders that could override public opinion if they feel something gets in or out unfairly.              4) Dump the Conceptual "Art" Bits       Sure, they always seem like a good idea when you talk about them, but the reason conceptual art never works is that it can only exist in the realm of the concept. Acting on a conceptual art idea ends up with lame results as Yoko Ono and all her disciples have proved over the years. That damned pictionary game forced a lot of people out of the room because they kept claiming, "participation is mandatory!" and in the end it netted little but some laughs and delaying the schedule nearly a half hour. Keep this kind of thing at Burning Man. Keep the ideas at BIL.              5) Rework the Schedule       Having four talks an hour that are 15 minutes long isn't realistic. I mean, it is in theory, but in reality, the schedule just runs in to itself too much. Having three 15 minute talks per hour with a five minute break in between gives enough fluff time so that if someone is just a few minutes over, they can be and if people need to come in or out of the hall, they can, or lastly, people can have some setup time without having to get in the way of the other person on stage. This may mean cutting down the amount of speakers, but then again, it also could mean a more focused conference which takes in to account points 2 and 3.              6) Get some solid drink and food sponsors       Bottled water is all profit and marketing. You can find any number of makers who would gladly donate a pile of it to the event. Just the same, food can be found as well. I don't know where the food and drink came from, but it was definitely cool that it appeared. I just think that that burden could be taken off of multiple people and put on corporate backs.              7) Charge an Attendance Fee       Yeah, I know, it's not a popular idea as everyone wants it to be free, but as Marla Singer said in Fight Club in regards to why she went to group help meetings, "It's cheaper than a movie and there's free coffee." I think that a fee would get rid of a lot of the people "being" at the conference. It makes it more structured (which again, I know is not a really popular idea) and more professional. Additionally, it adds in to the coffers to help put on the event, even if it's just $20 per person which I'm sure all of us could afford who were there as opposed to the $6,000 for TED.              And that's about it for me. There are all kinds of other things like having wifi ready to chairs to power to bathrooms to anything else, but these are all simple logistical things that are easy to work out. There are some core, structural items for BIL that need to be addressed if it's to be successful and give TED a little shake to show that it's not the only game in town.

Regardless of what people think at times, I'm not a negative guy. Despite the title of this article, I did write about all that was good with BIL yesterday, so have a look at that article before thinking I'm Mister Grump Pants, because I am going to get down on things here.       I suppose that my biggest issue with BIL is that it's finding its footing, but that's to be expected with a brand new event. Overall, the fact of the matter is that if BIL is the commoner's answer to TED, then it has a long way to go in order to get there. Yes, it's good to have open talks, but at the same time, these need to be vetted somehow. Allowing anyone to get up and jabber can quickly degenerate in to a Speakers' Corner. I'd have to say that BIL needs to worship Chris Phoenix who singlehandedly gave some of the best talks at the conference. Also good was of course Aubrey de Grey (whom packed the hall), and KV Fitzpatrick. Then of course, there were some pretty lame ones such as Jonathan Sheffi and Lexi Bright (who did this somewhat inane self-motivation thing), Brad Templeton (who gave this incredibly classist, capitalist view of a future of AI cars which was dreadful), and a slew of others that were quite uninspiring, yet we sat through them all. Of course, this wasn't the real issue. We were after all warned at the very start to have "low expectations".       The real issue is that the vast majority of people were either interested in either "being" there or "networking" there. The later group who were constantly blathering outside the hall were summed up quite well in Ethan Zuckerman's post. The former group however really drove me nuts. For one, there were all these people zipping around chat forums, playing Scrabulous (which I happen to love, but not when I'm somewhere to listen to people talk), and were generally just sitting around. I'm not sure what these folks were getting out of the conference, but what I was getting out of them was constant annoyance. People got up and down all the time during talks. It was incredibly disrespectful to the speakers, especially since these were just 15 minute talks. Where's the live blogging? Where's the hacking? Where's the use of precious internet bandwidth for the good of the conference and not getting a triple word score with a Q and an X?       Beyond some general passing rudeness, folks seemed to break down in to two major camps. There were the über nerds. This group was doubly funny to think about as KV Fitzpatrick, at one point in her talk said that there were a lot of Alpha Geeks at the conference. It was the only bit that was really off from her. In truth, it's really the floor over at TED where the Alphas are. You don't get in to TED without some cajones. On the other hand, getting in to BIL just required driving there and apparently showing up with your beard fully grown.       Then there was the Burning Man/hipster group. This group poses the biggest threat to the future of the conference. They love taking over stuff like this and making activities and attempts at conceptual art. Things like a massive game of telephone pictionary aren't needed at a conference. If the purpose of BIL is to provide an atmosphere like TED, but for everyone, then this kind of stuff needs to get snuffed out in a hurry. It's fine for Burning Man, but keep it the hell out of a technology and idea talk. In some ways, I think that it's good the conference will move to Long Beach next year as that will cut down a great deal on this element, since coming all the way from San Francisco to Southern California would be like, a total drag.       I don't fit in to either of these groups. I was, along with a few others, this small wedge of people who were there for the talks and not the be-in. I met a couple of interesting folks, but overall found the networking aspect to be ridiculous. In reality, the type of networking you get in talking to this crowd is the same type you can get at just about any Apple store.       But to close, it wasn't that it was a complete failure, just as it wasn't a complete success. While I was just going to write these two articles, I realized that I now need to sum it all up in an article about what I feel, as an attendee to this first run, might be good to take in to account for the next one.

It nearly started out as a complete failure; a stillborn endeavor that would have alienated all those who wish for it to succeed. A last minute update to the site for BIL stated that due to fire marshal restrictions, only 150 people would be allowed in to view the conference and those of us who hadn't signed up (despite there being no requirement to sign up all along) were out of luck. See you next year! Ta ta! Thanks for your interest! But no, Number One Fan and I had already rented a car and were going to crash at my grandparents who live a mere hour away from Monterey, so that we could attend. So... we went anyways and found that this initial flurry was just to make The Man happy and no one was there with a clipboard checking names.       To back up a bit, what is BIL? Simply put, it is the proletarian answer to TED, which is a very exclusive conference that has been growing exponentially in popularity in recent years. The main thrust behind TED is that it exists to spread good ideas by hosting talks by some of the most interesting people in the world today. They have recently started to post videos online for folks to watch, which has made many of us even more interested in TED.       So, why didn't I go to TED? Two reasons. The first one is that attendance requires paying a $6,000 membership fee. Sure, it's good for a year, but until last year, TED has only had one conference a year (TED Africa started in 2007). The second issue is that you have to be invited and while a great many things I do are kinda interesting, none of them are [yet] at a level that warrants TED letting me in the doors.       Thusly, TED begot BIL, which is being dubbed, "the unconference". The idea was to follow the format of TED, but essentially do it in a free-form, organic way with no true organizers and no fee. Given these guidelines, BIL was an extraordinary success. I would warrant that around 250+ people showed up for this conference. There were constant talks that lasted for 15 minutes, starting at 11 and ending at 6. There was a space provided with seats, PA, and electricity to power all our laptops. Coffee, donuts, pizza, and snacks appeared magically by people interested in making this first conference a success.       Two very surprising things that came out of this were the free BIL t-shirts. They're American Apparel shirts, which are stupendous t-shirts and I'm pretty jazzed to have one. The other amazing thing was the fact that while the space had no internet access, there ended up being wifi before the first speaker even came on stage. This proves a new modern law of nature in that if you put enough geeks in to any space, inevitably wireless internet will spontaneously arise.       Amazingly, for the talk being free and not paying speakers, some really interesting folks showed up like Chris Phoenix, Aubrey de Grey, and KV Fitzpatrick. A fellow named Nikhil Nilakantan showed up breaking down the statistics on how BIL got heard of and came about, which is something that I always love.       Overall, BIL happened and BIL was good. The fact it is planed to continue next year is good news. Naturally though, it wasn't all perfect, which is the next article