JRE at Gnomedex

Last night, I was one of the first OAC supporters to notice that JRE had agreed to be a keynote speaker at Gnomedex, blogger's conference of the West, so to speak. Here's more on the skinny from Chris Pirillo, on why JRE was a natural to be the keynote on June 30th:

"You might read that subject line and think: since when did Lockergnome have anything to do with politics? I’d answer: we’ve been talking about geek politics for a while now (where have you been?). In all seriousness, you probably know who Senator John Edwards is. I’m thrilled to report that he’s keynoting this year’s Gnomedex conference - which many of you, unfortunately, will not be attending. Democrat, Republican, or Independent - this is absolutely tremendous news for us. The senator may very well be the next President of the United States of America, yet he’s taking the time to talk to true technologists. Gnomedex started with humble beginnings in Iowa; six years later, we’ve become one of the most talked about tech conferences in the industry. I really wish more Lockergnome subscribers could’ve been there with us through the years. Then again, we found our strongest audience in the blogosphere - which is one of the reasons you haven’t heard me push attendence through Lockergnome over the past couple of years (not like I used to do). Still, Senator John Edwards will be there with us - and there’s still time for you to pick up a Cove pass.

The government of America faces tremendous tech issues - the most recent of which being Net Neutrality. And whatever happened to the digital divide? These aren't just buzzwords; they're issues that face every citizen of this country. Even if you don't live in the United States, you're probably impacted (one way or another) by the choices our government makes. We invited Senator John Edwards not because we wanted to play partisan politics with the crowd. I'm sure we'll get more than one geek questioning our motives, but for us it was simple: find a tech-savvy leader to come and lead a discussion with our audience. Senator John Edwards has been blogging, producing podcasts, and preparing himself for 2008 (or so it's been speculated). It doesn't matter which way you vote - this guy is important, and he's going to be spending time at the conference we put on for you. They say you should never discuss politics over dinner, so I hope you weren't eating anything when you read this report. If you can't make it to Seattle for Gnomedex, we'll have the live audio stream going (as always)."

This has been announced at least 10 times in past 24 hours, including Ed Cone's Word Up.

Yep, we are the 5th Estate, as I've said before.

Speaking of.. Update, June 18

From the Scobleizer blog:

Chris Pirillo locks journalists out of Gnomedex

"Chris Pirillo and Ponzi told me last night that journalists are begging to be let into Gnomedex now that Senator John Edwards is doing the keynote. They told us that every ticket is a press pass and that they don't give away free tickets and that journalists are welcome to buy a ticket, but one problem, Gnomedex is sold out. So any other journalists who want to come are gonna be forced to sit in the cove. "What about if Steve Ballmer dropped by?" I asked. He said he wouldn't get in either unless he found a ticket on eBay somewhere. He did say that some journalists, like Todd Bishop of the Seattle PI, had the good forsight to buy a ticket before they were sold out."

There is an interesting discussion go on about this topic. I posted there too. Just click here. I must say I'm impressed that Robert Scoble has his own blog for anyone to comment. I just picked up his book, Naked Conversations, from my library. Just hadn't had time to read it yet, but I guess I need to since it pertains to my research.