Answers flow with the Chardonnay
Any good reporter knows the best information flows after hours, when the music swells and the drinks are poured. With this in mind, NEWS.COM heads to the Seybold Conference's Innovators Party.
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Alex jams with Sage the drummer |
Suddenly, there he was, just beyond the tasteful silk flower arrangement: Jonathan Seybold in the flesh. Alas, the ring of admirers and sycophants was impenetrable. My thoughts grew dark.
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NetObjects' Tom Melcher tells Alex a scary story |
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Kobixx CTO Stephen Pendergrast wins Dubious Theory award |
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Jonathan Seybold deflects a personal question and wins style points |
Ah, the Seybold wit I had heard so much about. When the laughter subsided, I moved on to a matter of far greater import. I was digging for dirt that CNET rumormonger Skinny DuBaud himself would be proud to have under his fingernails: the Debate Debacle, or why Andreessen's middle name is "chicken."
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Jonathan tells Alex the truth about Netscape and poultry |
Oh, Jonathan. Discreet as ever. A perfect gentleman, much nicer than one fellow technohack who lambasted Andreessen for ducking the debate and allowing the slick Redmondians to steal the show. (The day after the keynote, the Seybold Show Daily headline cooed "Microsoft wows 'em in keynote").
Mumbling Marc should take a tip from Sheldon Laube, a cofounder of USWeb, a Web-hosting franchiser based in Le Val du Silicon. Laube had a beard to make King Lear proud and waved his arms more than the lead in a high school drama club production. After telling us about his 68-year-old mother whose life has forever changed by masquerading as a twenty-something in AOL chat rooms, Sheldon let us in on a secret: the Next Big Thing.
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USWeb's Sheldon Laube lets Alex in on The
Next Big Thing |
By the time Sheldon was done, the band had packed up, wallets had been emptied of business cards, and the Web publishing software vendors had wiped the cat hair off their faces. My work, for the night, was done.