Dave Winer is a neighbor now....he moved down the street between the Gourmet Ghetto section of Berkeley and the UC Berkeley campus. He can see the Campanile from his porch and smell the Illy coffee brewing across the street, so all his senses are Berkeley-attuned.
I love having Dave (scripting.com) as a neighbor because I get a whiff of his irreverently creative mind droppings more often. This morning, at our Breakfast Cabal, a weekly event at Saul's Deli on Shattuck near (but totally unlike) Chez Panisse, Dave was sitting downwind of a whirlwind marketing dynamo, Mable Yee, who was talking about "capturing customers using cameras" -- a presentation she just made at DEMO. Dave looked her in the eye and said, "I'm not anyone's target market." However, he did say he loves plastic. In fact, he said, "I can't get enough plastic." Then he spilled out his cards for hotel chains, clothing and food chains, and more. "If I'm checking into a hotel, " he said, "I want to be in the best room," and he uses his plastic to get the best room for a lower price.
Mable -- a staunch feminist (www.leadceo.com) -- said she was only one of two female CEOs presenting at DEMO, where there were 60 CEOs presenting in all. Mable wants to organize a Berkeley version of DEMO at the venerable century-old Hillside Club, so that Berkeley developers can get a chance to strut their stuff before Silicon Valley VCs. It sort of feels to me like placing mice in front of the cat.
Dave and Mable got into a cat and mouse scamp about men versus women, and Dave proclaimed he was a male chauvinist because he identifies with men. "But are you a male chauvinist pig?" another woman at the table asked. No, he said. Just a male chauvinist. My dictionary says a male chauvinist is a man showing excessive loyalty to men and prejudice against women, but maybe Dave is redefining the word. He did redefine (and still is) the word journalist, so maybe the dictionaries are just slow to catch up.
I don't mean the prejudice against women part, thanks for saying that the dictionary is wrong. Of course. Hey looking forward to meeting Stallman tonight. ;->
Posted by: Dave Winer | September 22, 2005 at 01:34 PM